Budget, anxiety etc m..

Hi Clementine, congrats!
Firstly, (and it's always easy to say, difficult to do) try not to worry too much! I know it's A LOT especially when you look more into the weddings other people are having- it made me feel slightly panicky, and I'm not a panicky person. I have to admit that I have been comparing myself to all these amazing weddings but they didn't feel like ME....I e never wanted a big, white wedding but I began to think that was the expectation.
Anyway, fast forward a whole 2 months (ha!) and we've arranged the core of the wedding, which has been a relief. Firstly, decide what kind of wedding YOU want... decide how many guests you'd actually want around you (we've chosen only 30) and go from there.Then work out what's actually important to you...ours wasn't the 'faff' but rather an intimate ceremony, some amazing food, lots of drinking and space to dance/have a good time. We've booked 2 private rooms in a restaurant that are not charging to rent the space, just a minimum charge for food, so that's helped lots. Perhaps look into independent restaurant chains that you could hire who seem more willing to make your celebration awesome! I'm unsure what kind of wedding you're after for yourselves, but I've recently discovered a magazine called 'Rock and Roll Bride' which has just been a breath of fresh air- lots of ideas for smaller or different approaches to take, with varying budgets...you don't need to go down the 'formal' hotel venue route. Best of luck!

Thank you so much for your answer. You are right, we really want a relax wedding, we want to have fun, see our families and friends, drink, dance and eat lol but my partner have a huge family, relatives in Canada as well, while me I have a small family and they are all coming from France so I'm not even sure everybody will come. I just find it challenging as I am really trying to reduce costs, try something really relax but it is still so much organisation, and I've never organised things like that before. I try to not compare myself to others as I know everybody is different and I just want what makes up happy but I would really like to be more relaxed about it and stop having breakdown when something is too expensive ?.
But thank you so much again for your message and I wish you to have a wonderful wedding ?

Congratulations on your engagement!

If you're trying to keep the cost down, it might be worth thinking outside the box, e.g. look at local pubs and restaurants that do great food but don't advertise themselves as 'wedding venues'. We looked at a number of places that cost ££££s, but weren't really getting a great deal for our money apart from chair sashes and a red carpet!!! But a lovely local pub was happy to have our reception for just the cost of the food.

Another option might be to hire a community hall and get a local caterer. Several supermarkets are now doing wedding cakes which are much cheaper than getting a professionally made/decorated one.

Also, be ruthless in cutting out non essentials and only go for what you want. As long as you have an officiant, 2 witnesses and the paperwork everything else is optional so don't be pushed into buying a load of things you don't need.

Hiya....what about getting married a bit later and serving 'afternoon tea' to your day guests rather than a full sit down meal...we are thinking about doing this. We also want pizza for the evening ?

It might be helpful if you let us know how many guests you are catering for? I am paying £2900 for 80 day guests/120night. This is 2 course sit down meal with tea/coffee after for 80 and evening snack for 120 at night. I had quotes that were more like 4000 from other caterers. We are going with a quite small company. It is totally worth shopping g around.