Budget Help needed!

Hi :0) there are a few things that jump out at me from your original budget:

Flowers- seems an awful lot of money even for fresh; as you are having artificial it can be waaaayyy less than your figure, unless you are having huge amounts of buttonholes, displays etc.

Ushers: how many are you having? 200 is unnecessary if itsjust waistcoats and cravats.

Guestbook needn't cost anywhere near that

Bms dresses can be bought well under that amount

Invites as diy should come in well under budget

Suit hire averages around 85-120 each

Depending on what type of ring you are after, you could save acouple of hundred there

How many people are being catered for, day andnight food wise?

I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to undercut your budget simply by browsing online andnot jumping in too quickly with things :0) xx

Do you have a set date in mind or are you flexible? Our venue offered a much better price for a mid week deal, but I asked if there were any weekend dates that the midweek price could be offered at, as we were pretty flexible. They offered me winter dates for the same price as it's classed as 'off peak'. It meant that we got the venue we wanted on a weekend, at a price to suit our budget ?

We were willing to look at March, April, May or June however all the saturdays are booked from march - next available sat is 7th june (which is the one we were considering) our problem is we can't have a weekday unless it's in half term as a lot of our family and close friends are teachers so couldn't make it. The friday we are looking at is 30th May as all the schools will def be off at the same time cos of that being the may bank holiday weekend. I'm not keen on having it midweek as I feel it'd mean some people would have to book two days off work and I don't really want to ask people to do that

If he has ushers h2b will be having 5 ushers and 2 best men. Have included best men and h2b suit in the suit quote.

That is fab to hear about the flowers - I really didn't have a clue about them. It'd be for 4 bouquets, button holes and then my mum was thinking of wrapping some around the bottom of candelabras for the tables if we go with candelabras.

In terms of catering we have 80 adults & 20 kids in the day with maybe and extra 30 max in the evening. We've asked for the evening buffet/hog roast to be based on 90 people

Think the photography is my biggest worry as have seen some gorgeous companies on here with really nice edited photos from colour and black and white and I worry trying to get this done on our budget even disc only will cost too muh.

Seeing as you welcomed suppliers I wanted to add I'd be about £300 under your photography budget (if it's a 2014 wedding). Feel free to check out whether you like my style, my link is in my siggie.

We have asked our best man to pay for his own suit hire along with my dad, h2bs dad and our ushers the only people we are paying for are the bridesmaids and pageboys.

Careful with the photographer we are paying £1299 and that's after we made a deal with him saving us £500-600, we have gone for a expensive package though.

Thankyou for responding! Your photos are stunning and I love the style of them!

Would definitely be interested in talking. My email address is ***********@*******.***

Things that jump out at me are:

Canapes - are they neccesary? What's your timings likely to be, how long will people be waiting before they eat?

Chair covers - personally, I think they're a waste of money. For the majority of the day, the chairs will have guests sat on them and suit jackets hung over the back of them.

That would be £500 off the venue cost.

Suits - if you really want to cut the budget, have people wear their own suits and buy them all matching ties. This only works if you're not plannig on the frock coat style, as I don't think many people own their own of those! lol

Ushers - just go with ties/cravats only only. If they're wearing 'modern' suits rather than frock coat style, the waistcoats might look a bit odd anyway.

Cars - is everything in one venue? Are you staying a long way away? Could 1 car do 2 trips, or could you use executive taxis instead?

Flowers - as MWAH said, that seems an awful lot. I'm doing my own, we're using all the same flower and getting them from the local greengrocer (where we buy these flowers from all year round, for the house). It will cost around £50 for enough bunches for 1 bouquet, 4 buttonholes, 3 corsages, 8 dinner tables and 2 side tables.

BM dresses - does that include accessories? I'm not having BMs, but I was BM last year and we had dresses, wraps, shoes, handbags and necklaces. Total was probably £150 per BM, all from high street stores (dresses from Coast).

Invitations - we designed ours and had them digitally printed. Total for print and post was around £50 for 60-ish invitations.

I'd concentrate on what's REALLY important to you, and spend the money there. Maybe both of you make a list of your top 3 things - and hope they're the same, so you don't have a top 6 to concentrate on!

Personally I would not spend the £1000 on cars. I would hire executive taxis for probably under £80.

Ooooo and with that huge saving I could then be well within budget if you like my work

I LOVE your work - a girl on here had you as their wedding photographer and she flashed a few photos the other day and they are amazing. Please feel free to email me.

I agree about the cars - we discussed this last night and H2B doesn't want/need one. So it'd just be one to get me from home to venue (about 20 min drive) and perhaps a cheaper one to get bridesmaids x3 and mum there.

We are getting married and having the reception all in one place so no need to travel anywhere else after arriving at the venue

Awww thank you.

Definitely ditch the cars then. People will be in the venue when you arrive anyway so won't see you. Biggest waste of money that I spent anyway.

Rings could potentially be cheaper if you have them made too (depending on what you want). Mine was half the price than the ones in the shops.

Ooh where did you get them made? I'd be very keen to get them made as A) I think it's more special and B) I don't really want anything fancy as my engagement ring is so stunning i'm swaying towards just a plain thin white gold band with maybe one stone in as I don't want anything to take away from my stunning engagement ring!

Jewellery quarter in Birmingham. I had a 5mm white band with 15 diamonds and it was £370. If you want a thinner band then I can't imagine it being more than that!

Also, the signing frames I can get cheaper than that for you ?

Definitely rethink the cars. I don't need a car as I'm staying at the venue the night before but OH has booked an Aston Martin and is costing us £350 - a lot less than you have budgeted but still something a bit special.

What is the £800 for Stag and Hen do? All the hen do's I've been on and stag do's OH has been on, the hen and stag haven't paid a thing - it's always been split up between the rest of the party.

Could you also cut down on the evening food somehow? We spoke to our caterer about having a bbq and she was really honest with us and said that bbq's are great but cheese, crackers, fruit etc actually go down better in her experience and are a lot cheaper - we're now rethinking the bbq!!

Good luck cutting down the budget - this is by far the hardest thing we're finding to do at the moment!!