We are getting married in August and so I have my budget. Most of the money has been donated by my parents and grandparents, I've contributed about £1000 that I could spare however as I was keen to keep paying debt off that was all I could squeeze out (and also most of it was raised on ebay!)
I am keen to reduce costs and have run out of ideas!
Entertainment Budget £1200
£220 of that will be on a DJ which is in between the lowest and highest quote. Did have a quote of £150 but I couldn't find any information or previous work if that makes sense.
I was thinking I either spend £450 on a photobooth or maybe buy a DSLR second hand, something simple like an EOS 40D for £200 and then borrow a tripod and tripod flash from my OH uncle. I could either get a photo printer second hand for about £30 or I could just upload them to a Flickr account and if people want to print them then they can. So I am not sure, I know a photobooth would be great fun but can't decide whether to pay that or not.
That leaves £530 and what I would really like to do with this is to find games for people to play. Our venue is sort of like a village hall in the centre of Harrogate but without an outside area so I want to make sure people have fun. I have absolutely no ideas how to do this!!! Someone suggested XBOX Kinect on a big screen and then doing draws for who plays against who.
Ceremony £300
Fees for getting married. £300
Decorations £500.00
£346.84 has been spent on 7 chandeliers, vases and candles, vintage typewriter, lots of paper for origami flowers, lanterns, fabric for bunting (have a lot of scraps but needed some in a specific colour) tissue paper for pom poms and 100m of fairy lights. Also 3 Olympus Trip 35mm cameras to give to a couple of friends that I know enjoy taking photos. I picked up some stuff from another couple who had got married which includes 'milk bottles' bird cages, vases, mr and mrs signs etc. 1200 luggage tags from amazon also!
I have £153.16 left of my decorating budget (this does not include flowers) but at the moment I can't see what I would spend this on. I intend to grow ranunculus in my back garden for wedding flowers and then possibly buy baby's breath/gypsophilia from a flower wholesaler but that will come out of flower budget. The only thing I can think of wanting are paper lanterns and more tissue paper. Oh also do need bias tape for the bunting but that will be about £10. I may need to buy more candles, I don't have that many but will see where the cheapest place, Ikea was where I got a lot of the vases. I do need to make a table plan but I am going to get a mirror/picture frame from the local auction and use the luggage tags I bought from amazon. The walls will be pretty blank and white but hopefully looking at the beams above and seeing the pom poms and fairy lights should be enough!
I've just remembered I am getting log slices from a local tree surgeon but don't know the cost yet.
Flowers £300.00
I have priced up wholesale ranunculus for my bouquet and baby's breath for the 3 bridesmaids. My plan is to grow ranunculus and if I am successful then my flower budget will probably be reduced to about £50 which would include bulbs and ribbons etc. If it fails then I have the remaining £250 to go to a flower market etc. I had considered silk ranunculus but at the moment I can't work out whether I want real or silk ones.I might buy a tester bunch off ebay and have a look.
Stationery £100.00
Spent £57.19 which is £35 on invitation designs of Etsy as I honestly tried so hard to do it myself in publisher and failed. The rest is the cost of cardstock and bits and bobs
£42.81 left for stamps which shouldn't be more than £20 as we have 80 guests but a lot of those are couples
Transport £300.00
£300 on a beautiful vintage campervan. Guests will have to pay their own way from registry office to reception venue which is about a mile, 30 mins walk.
The Reception
Catering £1,500.00
Catering is one thing I've struggled with, to get a proper wedding breakfast in was £25 a head which was £2000 and I couldn't afford that. So we've gone for fish and chips!!! £560.00 for 80 people.
That leaves £940.00 to pay for puddings and evening buffet. Now, I am happy to have sandwiches in the evening. So we either do it ourselves the night before but then if I do I don't have a fridge big enough. Or we get takeaway pizza in, but we'd have had fish and chips so double helping of grease? Or we get subways in!! I really don't know. Both myself and OH love baking so we have spent £40 at Lakeland to get two more cake tins (big and medium no idea actual size) and are going to practice making a 3 tier rainbow cake! That is what we are doing this week actually. Then we are going to make jam tarts etc and cupcakes and then the day before the wedding we plan to visit the local pick your own strawberries and pick up a bucket load of cream for pudding after fish and chips. (No idea as to the cost though)
Chairs and Table Cloths £500.00
£240.00 will be spent on chair hire, venue has banquet chairs which I don't like, I hate chair covers. The chairs I originally wanted would have set us back £500 so I have compromised with folding wooden chairs. They aren't a necessity however the venue doesn't have enough chairs anyway so didn't want to mix banquet (horrible green things) with wooden chairs. They have table cloths but I have £260.00 in reserve as I haven't asked if I can use them. They have trestle tables so will be using those, table cloths hide the uglieness!
Hire of Venue £300.00
Local church hall £300 to hire it for Saturday. She will let us in Friday morning to decorate and Sunday to clean up.
Wedding Cake £150.00
£40.00 spent on cake tins, will need to spend more on gel colour paste for the rainbow cake. Won't be iced, will have buttercream filling and dusted with icing sugar. Cake topper will come from decorations budget or might just make a mini bunting cake topper.
So I have £110 left.
Fashion etc
The Rings £100.00
I have my ring from my grandmother, family heirloom. She has paid to have it resized, value is about £600. I hope to go to a jewellery quarter and get my other halfs ring for about £100. I've said when I can afford it I will get him a more expensive ring.
Brides stuff £400.00
I've spent £190.20 so fair. I've bought a dress off ebay for £99, if I don't like it I will resell it. I've also bought two pairs of shoes (£90 so nearly as much as the dress). I have wide feet so its difficult to get shoes that look right. I think I will resell one pair at some point as I don't like them as much. Luckily they have a high resell value as they are Vivienne Westwood. I checked this all out before I bought them. They were second hand but not worn if that makes sense.
So I have £209.80 left for jewellery and accessories. Obviously I don't intend to spend this much! But if the dress and shoes don't work out and I sell them on I might have to use this money for another one. Worst case scenario I use savings from other parts of the budget to buy a new or sample dress.
Groom Suit £200.00
I intend to get him and our son matching suits, this is the max cost. Not purchased yet as he has some weight to lose.
hair Bride £180.00
I am not very good at my own makeup or hair and think this is the cheapest I can get it. Local hair salon and then a lady does makeup for £110 for two people.
I am not buying the bridesmaids dresses or paying for their hair and makeup. Reason is that they offered to buy their own dresses so we have found someone who can make them for £50 each and they can wear them again. Not every bridesmaid wants their hair and makeup done. One just wants her hair, another just wants the makeup! So they are paying for whichever themselves.
So my budget is £6030, I've spent £2554.23 in theory (this includes actual and promised expenditure ie venue and ceremony fees) and have £3475.77 left.
That was quite therapeutic