Starting to plan things

Hi & welcome!

We are in a slightly different position as we didn't get engaged until we had a decent pot of money saved in the bank (we'd spent 2 years paying off the debts which we did at the end of December 2008 so having a pot of money was important to us).

That said, we're not mega flush and there are a number of items we've cut back on or cut out the budget all together - mainly as we don't like them but it all helps with the budget.

The main thing to think about is what is important to you on your big day and prioritise from there. If venue is more important, then a big portion of your budget will go on that.

The things we're cutting back on / cutting out the budget are:

Favours (not having them - waste of money in my opinion).

Decorations - luckily our venue won't take much decoration so that saves us money.

Photographer - our friend is taking the pictures (he's a very keen amaetur who's trying to get into photography more)

Cars - we're using OH's landrover and a best friend's landrover

Hi

We have gone ahead and booked our date and paid deposit for venue and are hoping to save up our budget by the time the wedding comes around I'm confident we can do it, and by having the venue booked we really have the motivation to do it!!!

We are having a mini moon for a few days straight after the wedding then going to have a honeymoon the following summer to give us time to save up for that.

I've found that most weddingy things let you pay in instalments which helps, I am paying for dresses monthly, venue to be paid for on the day, using a friend to do photography, mum paying for cake. Everyone will already be seated in the venue when i arrive and the reception is in the same place so we are not having wedding cars, just taking advantage of a couple of friends cars

This sounds really stingy and I know a lot of ppl wouldnt even contemplate this and we may yet change our minds but to keep costs down, h2b and i have agreed to buy cheap silver rings for the day and buy each other nice ones when we have a bit more money to spend, ie the year after!!!

Not sure if thats helped (tbh i think ive forgotten what the original post was!!! lol)

Happy planning!!!! xx

Hi, This may sound geeky, but when I started planning mine, I set up a spreadsheet on the computer to keep an eye on the costs. I found it best to write down all the things that you felt were most important for you both to have on your big day, for example narrow it down to the things you think would make your day how you would want it. For us, it was for it to be as fun as possible, and not long dull periods of waiting, hence hiring a black jack table to entertain guests etc. We didn't have a large budget, and it was a struggle, but I found that by trying to get the best prices as possible made us able to have things that we wanted and perhaps didn't originally anticipate we could afford.

Be savvy when contacting suppliers re: the venue etc and try and get the best deal possible. There is usually always a little scope for negotiation. We worked out what kind of day we wanted, and it was important to have the things we wanted and for the guests to have a great time, so we limited daytime numbers to achieve this & had a bigger do for the evening. You have to ask yourselves questions, such as... What would make the day special for you? What would you rather have, the people close to you having a more elaborate meal and maybe other things, or to have maybe a more simple meal plan, but to have everyone you know there? Also I thought about the things I liked and disliked about going to other peoples weddings, and found the waiting around to be the most boring part, hence deciding to hire a black jack table (got the idea from Zoe a fellow hitcher) and it was the best idea, cost about 200 and the guests absolutely loved it. I sorted out prizes like bottles of wine and it went down so well.

Its not easy affording weddings, some people save for years, some people borrow and some people like me did a bit of both. Id say give yourself a list of priorities and remember the day is about the two of you, and what you want, so try not to get bogged down with what you think you should do for other people. Maybe sit down, work out how much you can realisticaly save between the two of you , taking account for any misc things that always pop up, and set your budget around that. There are plenty of guides online to give you rough prices for different things, but there are plenty of ways to cut corners, make things yourself, get things cheaper.

HTH's X

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. My fiance wants to get married in the same church where her parents got married and the venue I've looked at is about 3 miles from the church. I'm thinking of a fairly small number of guests for the meal, followed by the reception but having the meal and reception in the same venue.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have set up a spreadsheet to keep track of our savings. We're aiming to save £150 per week, which is alot for us, but we're mega determined.

Does anyone have a budget they could share? I have started using the hitched budget planner, but not sure what is realistic to put down for each thing.

It's my fiance's birthday at the end of January (as well as our anniversary) so I'm hoping to have the church and venue booked by then, which I hope will make her birthday special

Thanks again and PLEASE keep the ideas coming, it's mega helpful

Some great advice on this thread.

We had the savings in place before we decided on our date, but still some things end up taking you by surprise. We were totally unrealistic about how much wedding rings would cost (especially as gold and precious stones/metal is so expensive in the current climate) - so make sure you research when setting your budget, which I know you're doing.

One thing to make sure to track is the deposits you've paid, the date the balance must be paid by and how much it is. It could be easy to lose track of how much you have to spend as you're not often paying for things in full, and have months and months between deposits and balances. My spreadsheet makes a big point of this!

Thanks, yeah I had been thinking about this. How have you done it in your spreadsheet? I'm thinking that something like this would help to better motivate the saving because we'd be able to see how much we need and when we'd need it.

I think, for me at least, the rings are what I'd be less likely to save on. Partly because for me the whole "with this ring" is important, I want to keep the ring hopefully forever. For example, we've compromised on the venue and are having the reception in the church hall rather than a stately home or hotel.

My spreadsheet has columns: deposit paid, balance due, balance remaining. That way I know the total of what I've already paid out and the total of what remains to be paid(eg the rings I have put the full total in deposit paid column and n/a in balance due and balance remaining). The total of these totals should not exceed the budget! Does that make sense? It's a crude spreadsheet with some autosum formulas and that's about it but it works for me.

I hadn't thought about the whole 'with this ring....' bit, but you have a very good point. Thanks for the tips for the spreadsheet, I'll have a go at creating something a bit later.