Weddingbee boards

So, We have exactly 308 days until our wedding.

Im a planner. I loooove to plan. Everything.

So im really enjoying the planning process. Until I look at the budget. By 'budget' i mean the total cost of things.

All in our wedding costs come to a total of £13,902.66. (which according to XE currency converter is $22.225) Thats A LOT of money! Thats almost the same amount that we paid for a deposit on our house!!

Here is our breakdown:

Venue £4945 ($7,905)(£750 ($1198) of that is a refundable damage deposit) Yep thats JUST the reception venue, I know thats a lot of money for a venue, I do, but its amazing. see my bio about it here.

Foodand drink: £3,442($5,501) That includes a 3 course sit down meal for 100 people, a evening buffet for 130 people, the wedding cake (cupcakes and a top tier) a chocolate fountain, entrance drinks, bar hire, wine with meal.

Transport: £800 ($1278) Thats for 2 cars (one for me and one for groom) plus a bus to ferry the guests to the reception. We are plannning on charging per seat after talking to some of our guests that say they will pay £5 a seat for it. so hope to reclaim some of that money!

Stationary: £350 ($559.65). Thats everything paper. Invites (DIY) Table names, seating plan, guest book, programs etc etc.

Photography: £919 ($1469)That includes photography cover from 1hr before our wedding (1pm) to 10pm, a 'photobooth' (a photographer in a mini photo studio) our album, parents album and all photos on disk.

DJ: £300($479.54) Although not found one yet thats just what we will go up to i think :-S

Music of ceremony: £100 ($159.84) I hope. Im not sure what we are doing for this but I hope to rope in some family to help out.

Favours and gifts for wedding party: £195 ($311.70) We have been lucky on this one, my aunty is doing alot of favours for free we just buy the sweets to go in them.

Decor: £718( $1147.71) thats for linen, chair covers, centerpieces, candles, wooden signs everything decor related.Plus the £150 we are paying to have a cleaner come in to clean up...else we have to do it.

Flowers: £297 ($474.74) That price is for my boquet, the 2 bridesmaid boquets, buttonholes for the wedding party, flowers to decorate church.

Fees: £260 ($415.60) Thats our 'donation' to the church and lisence fee.

Groom and groomsmen attire: £588 ($939.90) That included the grooms suit plus 6 other suits, shoe hire and grooms ring.

Bridesmaid dresses: £199 ($318.09) for 2

Brides attire: £809 ($1293.17) Thats for my dress, veil, tiara, make up, tan, nails everything to make be feel (and hopefully look) by best on the big day.

Thats everything. Depressed now.

I managed to get a brill deal on the food only £18.50 ($29.57) a head for a sit down meal instead of the £32-£48 ($51.15-$76.72) per head we have been quoted from other companies!!

I dont have a videographer because, well because thats another £300 .

The venue is already paid for. I am considering not having chair covers, but my FI is pretty set on them.

Its not that we cant afford it, my future in laws have offered to pay up tp £11,000 se we just have to pay the rest, which we can.

We are also in line for inheritance (approx £10,000) we are just waiting for probate etc to end. Please dont take that the wrong way, the lady who left us the money died last year, she was lovely and we have gieved for her, we would have her back in a second rather than the money and are very grateful to her for leaving it to us. Anyway, we hope to pay the in laws back with that money if they will take it.

So ladies the question is where can I cut it down?

Is anyone else spending this much on their wedding? I have seen loads of budget savy posts on here and am amazed at the ways many of you are managing to create fantastic weddings on such small budgets. Very impressed ladies!!

I don't know what the average cost of a wedding is in Devon UK (where we are) Ive searched but couldnt find an answer. UK brides what budget are you working with?

@med700:

Thank you for your ideas!

Im working on the ipod idea. The venue actually has a built in sound system we can use. I had the idea of asking guests to list a few of their fav songs on their RSVP so we could get a good mix of songs. My FI on the other hand used to be a DJ so its quite imprtant to him that we have one. More than that, he is even fussy about the lighting systems they have!!

Like I said though Im working on it. My little sister (also my MOH) is doing a set for 45in where she will sing the song we will have as our first dance and a few others to get the party started.She is a brill singer and has lots of musical theatre friends we could ask to help out. I have considered having her friends (some mutual friends) do a set each, I could even ask my musically talented uncle as well i suppose. That way the ipod could just be used to 'fill in'. Just have to convince my FI and his family. hehe.

The album idea is a fab idea. We has considered this as well and it would save £300 ($481) if we didnt buy the parent albums and our album straight off. I have seen some websites where you can get a brill quality album for £50ish. Another thing to suggest to my FI.

I think part of the problem is that his veiw is that if his parents have offered we may as well use the money, where as mine is that we dont have to go to the limits to have a great day...hence shopping around for food!

@lefeymw:

yeah the venue is a big chunk of the budget. I did look at lots of other places but around here the places we liked insisted that we have their catering which was around £50 ($80) a head, plus their wine etc etc etc. It basically would work out the same at the end of the day. I got the venue I wanted and am trying to shop around for everything else.

I hadnt even considered not having flowers at the church, I guess we dont really NEED them. There is always a display in the church anyway so maybe i could just keep that in there.

I thought the same about the bus. The reception is actually in a different county! we have to take a short ferry ride (7mins) and then drive aboyt 20 mins to get to the venue. We were just going to have guests use their cars as a bus seemed like an expense we didnt have to spend. It was actually some of the guests that suggested the idea of paying per seat. they said they had the same thing at another wedding and would rather pay that than pay for a taxi at the end of the night which would cost more. But like you im not sure about how all the guests will feel about this. hummmmm

@aunt pol:

Haha I know. like I said I like planning, plus to my great surprise when I started my enquires loads of places were already booked up...and we are getting married on a TUESDAY!! I thought no one would have booked so early and certainly not for a weekday.

Anyway...

I thought about asking the groomsmen to pay for their own suits (4of them) but I feel bad. is it the norm? We paid for my FI dad's and my mums bf too (which is odd i guess because we arent paying for her outfit and she is giving me away!!)

On the transport front I will ask around (or rather look at what cars my guests have!) I originally wanted a horse and carriage but that was just too expensive so im not really fussed on the cars. Good point!!

Oh i forgot to say that for that £150 the mantinace men at the fort (venue) will also rearrange the room after the meal to get it ready for the evening while we have drinks in the other room. I suppose I could ask the groomsmen to do that. Ill drop some hints!!!

I think i may be able to just glitz up the flowers that will be in the church anyway with a bit of ribbon like you said. I had considered doing my own boquets but im scared ill mess it up.

Good to hear you spent about the same. I felt like I was going overboard after see all the budget savy brides spending $10,000!

Thanks for all the tips

Quick update for you:

We found beautiful fake flowers today and got all the boquets and buttonholes for £33 and paid £8 for lots of ribbon to decorate them. bargin and lots of money saved