No idea where to start!

Hi Kirsty,

My advice would be to sit together and do a guest list. This certainly interested my OH as he has a lot of friends, and I think he realised how fun it will be with them all together. After that, you have an idea of how many you need a venue to cater for, so can narrow venues down. Before looking for venues, decide between you, your top priorities, i.e having everyone there possible, this may mean you compromise on other things.

Hope this helps

Sounds like you have got a good plan already. Think about your guest list and how many people you'd want there, a rough budget and your venue.

Once that is in place you will know how much you have left to play with for the other stuff.

A Lady on here posted a brilliant list of rough estimates for suppliers the other day if you want us to copy and paste that in here to give you an idea?

Hey, you sound like your in the same situation as me!
I got engaged last September, and we are planning to get married Oct 2014, and also have a house deposit done and dusted by then too, so lots to save up for!

I started by creating a guest list, I found using Excel made it easier to count them all up. Once id done that I looked for venues that would accomadate the amounts of guests.

I then found one, decided I wanted to marry in a Church and now thats all sorted!

Have fun! ?

Wow! Thank you for your responses so soon, their all really helpful.

DaffodilWaves, that budget list would be really useful if you could find it for me

I've had a quick look through a couple of forums and there are so many! Nice to know I'm not the only one who's a bit lost though! Good new is that my sister is getting married in May and half of her guest list is pretty much the same as mine, which gives me something to start from.

Vintagegirl, good luck with the rest of your planning!

Kirsty

No problem Kirsty. The lovely Kharv put it together.

Dress - if you're not on a very tight budget you'll probably be spending between £1000 and £3000 on this. How much depends on what you're comfortable spending and the dress you fall in love with.

Photographer - Again, this will probably range from £1200 to £2500

Flowers - I reckon you should budget around £1000 if you want flowers for your centrepieces and some flowers in the church.

Cars - Do you need these? If so, about £600

Cake - anything from £400 to £800 if you don't have ridiculously extravagant taste

Suits - normally about £100 or less to hire per suit

Bridesmaids - how many are you having? Bridal shop bridesmaid dresses are normally about £200 each but you can get them cheaper than this from the high street or by getting a seamstress to make them

Stationery - If you want to buy your stationery rather than make it yourself I would budget about £400

Veil - You can get these made for you online for about £30 or you can spend about £150 from a bridal shop

Shoes - how long is a piece of string? What ever you'd like to spend!

Band or DJ - between £300 and £1000 depending on what you're after

Hair and makeup - about £200 for you plus extra for bridesmaids if you're paying for them (maybe budget about £50 per bm?)

Wedding rings - This really could be anything. We spent £500 on two palladium bands.

Wedding insurance - about £100 for your costs

I'm near the lower end of those Photography prices ??

Hi Kirsty

I'd definitely agree with everyone's comments and suggestions. I got engaged at Christmas and have tried to avoid everything except a budget, guest list and venues for now. And so far not feeling too overwhelmed! I have visited loads of venues - and one thing that has occured to me is that they all fall into a few categories - country barn, country house/hotel, and a more modern hotel. If I'd visited one of each first I'd have saved myself a lot of visits! That said, it's fun visiting them all so up to you really!

Enjoy your planning!

KAte

I can't see magician on that list.....surely this is an oversight?

Fantastic, I've got lots to start from!