Newbie needs reassuring

Hi & welcome to hitched
Me & OH have been engaged for years too and have a almost 4 year old son and our plans were forever being put aside for other things.
We 1st decided October and were doing the exact same as you and then started to panic thinking can we manage it, we wrote everything we wanted and how much it would cost and worked it how much we'd need to save a week and thought we'd barely manage so we moved the date til next June and feel so much better for it.
Is there anyway you can move the date by a few months ahead if you're worried you'll struggle a lot & theres no rush? We wanted a specific venue that was costing us a lot mind you so that was a worry for us. If you make lists of what you need, how much it'll cost and see if you can manage it all. There's loads of ideas to cut your budgets & lot of people go down the handmade route too to save pennies, i'd love to do that but not very creative at all
It doesn't sound cheap and a low budget can be done great if you go about it the right way & plan loads perfectly possible to have your perfect day and not spend loads,
i'm sure guests will appreciate that they can take their own booze too as bars can be unreal! Candles & fairy lights sound lovely, you can also get cheap little lanterns from places like ikea or b&m and they look really cute with candles in it at night time and don't look cheap at all

Can't really move the date just worried its gonna look crap have a 3 year old dd and 6 year old ds I'm in the middle of writing everything now I'm lucky as my best friend is crafty so were hoping to make as much as we can when the kids are at school haha x

Firstly, hello and welcome to the forum

I don't think you sound cheap at all, and I completely agree that the candles and fairly lights sound lovely (they're not too expensive either). Try writing out a list of everything you want at the wedding and how much you can budget towards each thing, a lot of suppliers give a little bit of discount during winter (especially December) so you may be able to save a little bit on this front. eBay is really good for deals, you could also check out Etsy as well as there's some good bargains bumping around on there. I know a lot of brides who have done all their table decor themselves and it has looked stunning - a couple of weekends ago I shot a wedding where the Bride got a load of old books from a charity store, along with vintage tea cups and flowers and used these as her centrepieces. It looked wonderful and she said it cost hardly anything. You can do a lot fairly cheaply but if you put in a fair amount of time and creativity. I love the sound of it being nice and cosy! Good luck with everything and I'm sure all the brides on here will be able to help you out along the way.

It already doesn't sound like a cheap wedding to me, you have ferrero roche! I wouldn't worry at all, check out some of the wedding blogs like whimsical wonderland weddings and rock n roll bride, they have a real wedding section with a budget wedding subsection, you can find inspiration and see what others did on a tight budget, there's tons of beautiful weddings there, and I've shot lots of awesome budget weddings.

Doesn't sound cheap at all.

Don't forget to check out the 'for sale' board on here!

I don't think it sounds cheap but I would suggest getting your budget ready - get a spreadsheet together and estimate what you will spend on all these bits n pieces. I've found they can add up quite quickly so keep an eye on them plus, if you plan them out well, you can ensure they don't look cheap and sometimes it's the little things that really make a difference. I would check with your venue though that people are allowed bring their own drink? As others have suggested, keep an eye out on the for sale forum here to pick up some bargains - ebay & gumtree will also be your best friends! When we were trying to get the cheapest cava for our wedding & the cheapest ferrero rocher chocs, we registered with http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/ and they notified whenever these things dropped in price - we ended up getting our ferrero (box of 24) for £5 and our cava for the same price! The cava was half price... bargain!

Iv sorted the budget, can either have the bar open at £4 odd for a pint and £5 for Malibu and coke? or take own drinks and premises un manned iv just priced up food think I'm going to go for the buffet options avalible from m&s and sainsburys they have fab reviews and just what I need lol going to register on my supermarket and set up some alerts! Thank you x