MONEY!!!!

Hi welcome -

I put down some prices for items that I kind of liked and got an idea for how much we would need to save. We are paying for most of the things ourself too.

The biggest expense is your venue so that should give you an idea on how much and where to start .

Good luck x

Thanks for your reply.....at the moment it all seems immense!!!!! Have got a couple of venues in mind which will give us a basis of cost but have no idea about the rest of it!! Have got people talking about wedding favours, dresses, photographers, cakes, rings, bridesmaids, presents for bridesmaids.....the list is endless......where do u draw a line?????

I used a site like this. It allows you to put in a figure for the goal at the top and then shows you the breakdown of where the money will go so you can see about how much you should expect to spend on each item based on your goal budget. These are in USD but just ignore the $ and think of it in pounds instead.

http://www.projectwedding.com/cost-calculator

http://www.yourweddingcompany.com/templates/planning/budget_calc.php/action/showProject/planId/3/budget_calc.php

Cool, thanks will have a look at them! However, just wondered whether people automatically had a number in their heads??? I do but it means saving loads! and that means the wedding will be further and further away

You have to decide what your priorities are. First of all, do you want your dream perfect wedding even if you have to wait 5 or more years to be able to afford it, do you just want to be married ASAP, or do you want something in between?

Then work out what your priorities within the wedding are, where you are happy to save a bit of money and where you want to spend to make sure you get something really good. Is there, say, a dream venue that costs quite a bit, but you're happy to have a 2nd hand/China-made copy dress? Or is it really important to you to have amazing food but you don't mind saving money on photography? Some things can be done away with completely, or have the cost cut down massively, e.g. by making your own cake or getting one from M&S for <£100 rather than buying a bespoke one for £500. Favours aren't always necessary and/or can be done cheaply. Bridesmaids can wear high street dresses or some may be willing to pay for their dresses themselves. There are loads of ways to save.

Finally, talk it through with your OH, work out how much money you have spare each month, and how long it's going to take to achieve your plans.

Can't believe you got engaged so long ago! Bet you've been waiting to start planning for years!!!

I'd suggest going to a Wedding fair, but also, just phone venues and other things like caterers and get a rough price quote. Beware, they may take your names and numbers and keep phoning you, but it'll give you a rough idea of prices.

I also had a bridal magazine which gave a rough guideline for wedding costs, so might be a good idea looking around there!

My advice would be to separate the need-to-haves from the want-to-haves from the nice-to-haves. Then take it from there. Of course a lot depends on whether you see the day as getting married, or having a wedding...

For example, you need a church or registrar. Cost about £250. That's it.

You probably want to have rings (as cheap as £50 for the pair for 9ct gold from Argos etc) and it may be nice to have 18ct gold or platinum. All a choice, see? You'll probably want guests, but whether you take 10 guests for a restaurant meal afterwards, or host a traditional reception for 150 is up to you.

We planned pretty much along these lines, listing anything and everything we could think of from a traditional planning list, and allocating A B C or D priority to it.

A was no compromise, we have to have it (for us, flights abroad, accommodation, priest, honeymoon)

B was what we really really wanted but life wouldn't stop if not possible. My dress, rings, photography, simple rustic UK reception

C were things which while nice to have, are a matter of "yeah, if we find what we like we'll have it, otherwise no drama". For us, this is my shoes, accessories, videographer, proper invitations, and a wedding cake. Oh, and flowers. With 5 months to go we haven't really tackled this list!

D are things that may be traditional but we're not having either because I don't think it's value for money or really can't be bothered. Examples: transport to reception venue, new jewellery for me, multi-course wedding breakfast, guest books, sweet buffet, photobooths or any similar entertainments, photographer at the UK event and a multitude of other things that the wedding industry probably thinks I need

If you prioritise like this, and cut out a lot of the nice-to-haves, you can spend more on the needs and wants. We are lucky in that we haven't had to budget as such - we both have large savings accounts. However, I refuse to spend money on fripperies that magazines think I should have, or on anything that I don't believe represents value for money! Hope that helps a bit

We're on a REALLY strict budget for the same reason... here's how we cut costs:

No bridesmaids/best men etc - just extra money

No flowers except one bouquet for me and a button hole for OH

Not feeding guests twice nor having a sit down - just having an afternoon tea then they can all go home!

Not paying out for decor (wedding at xmas) or anything

Friends are making cake

Wedding dress is being modernised from my mums old one

Borrowing the transport off a friend

Honeymoon in the UK for now - can always go away later

You might not want to be that drastic, bt the whole thing should come in at less than 3k. At the end of the day, I would rather save the money for a house deposit or an amazing hol, not one day of my life

Good luck! x

Hi

The best thing to do may be to sit down with your OH and look at what you can realistically save each month after paying everything that needs paying. Work out that amount times the number of months till the wedding and that really is the budget at maximum.

Then you can start breaking it down into amounts for different things, and work out what is affordable and what you may have to leave out or DIY.

I think you first need to decide the guests you would wish to attend your wedding before anything else, do you want a big affair? or just you your OH and few close friends and family? and an idea of when you would like to get married and how much you can realistically save by that date.

Once you have an idea of who you would like to be there you can start to think about venues then everything kinda stems from there for example you might find your dream venue but might be a little bit over your budget so you might decide to cut back on guests or have a buffet instead of a dinner for example or decide to get married later to have more time to save to bring your dream venue come in on budget.

Plus some venues can be quite plain so you might feel you would need to spend more on flowers and decorations to make it how you would like it so you should keep that in mind when they quote prices.

First of all congratulations!!

It all depends on what is important to you. It depends on whether you're having a church wedding or civil service (a frined of mine got married at the holiday inn and it cost them an extra £400 to have two registrars for the day) it cost us less than £400 to get married in my local church. Whether you're having a three course meal, buffet or hog roast, how many guests you're having and so on. See how much you can save each month, break you budget down into sections like dress, suits, venue ect and set aside an amount for each section. As you start ticking things off, you may find you can save in one are or splurge in another and see if you can get discounts, remember to haggle with suppliers. It's also cheaper to get married during the week then at the weekend if youwere having a civil ceremony. Weddings are as expensive as you make them and to be honest, the only thing that is important is that you and your future husband have a great day.

This is a brilliant one. We're doing the same thing by having a late wedding. About 2/3pm. Not only do you not have to get up at like 5am to get ready, but your guests can have lunch before they come out and then you just have to provide dinner. That cuts down the costs immensely.

Prioritising is also really helpful. Things that aren't high on our list are chair covers, toastmaster and fresh flowers. We're having fake so the guests can take them home as favours. Just inviting those that are nearest and dearest to you rather than everyone on your Facebook will really cut down the costs. We're only having 50-75 guests and cutting out people that we barely see.

If you two already live together and don't need the traditional wedding presents then you can set up a honeymoon fund, and people can give you money towards your honeymoon as your wedding present. That's a lot of money saved too. Or don't go yet and wait for a really brilliant holiday in a few years.

You can cut costs and still have a beautiful wedding. Places like eBay are your best friend!