wedding plans....please help?

Question

i got engaged a few weeks ago on the 20th october. me and my now fiance, have set a date for 2009. but i have no idea where to start and how to start planning. ive brought a couple of magazines, but am now even more confused. plus im stressin already as im sure that the magazine people have no-one in mind but people who have won the lottery as everything is sooooo expensive!!
we dont have that much money, although weve got time to save, which we will do, but we'd like to do it on a bit of a budget and not fork out loads a dosh for the wedding.
Anyone know of any websites that would give me some money saving ideas, or any personal experiences??
All help muchly apreciated, thankyou.

Answer 1

Go to barnes and noble and get one of their wedding planner book/binder thingies. There are many to choose from and not too expensive. They will take you through what you need to do step by step, locations, invitations, regristrations, the works. And RELAX!!! This will be that happiest day of your life and you have a lot of time to plan!

Congratulations and good luck!

Answer 2

First of all congratulations, and yes you do have time to save up for the big day. I would say that everything connected to a wedding does seam to be so expensive when you first start looking into it but if you set a budget and try hard to stick to it then you can and will have the wedding you hope and plan for.
Stick to the plan and don't be upset if this is not what others want(and you will get remarks about what to get and who must be invited) this is your day and don't forget it after all you are paying for it.
As a man who has just spent the last two years saving up for the big day I know what the budget was and have manage to stick to it (well almost) and found that if you ask up front what price to expect for flowers,cake ,venue ect, and say straight away that you are on a tight budget and need to keep costs down most companies will try to help.
Not sure if this is a help but don't get to stressed out and have a wonderful day Because as I said this is a day that belongs to you both.

Answer 3

You've got a while so don't worry.

I guess they key questions you have to talk about with your fiance (congratulations!) are:

(I assume you're in the UK too!)

Registry office, church or other licenced wedding venue
Are you going to have a formal reception
How many guests

These are probably the biggest questions as a lot of venues need early booking and how many guests you have will dictate how big a venue you need.

You could save money by having the reception at someone's home, or do it fairly cheaply at a social club or pub with adequate facilities.

I think the most important thing about the wedding is to make it what YOU as a couple want. It is your day. If your guests can't appreciate that, they shouldn't be on the list :)

We did ours on a budget. The single biggest cost was feeding everybody as we did a sit down reception, but you could always do a party with buffet.

Also, call in any favours from friends. Do you know someone good at baking cakes, making dresses, taking photos, or somebody with links at a particular venue. Fortunately my uncle is a professional photographer so he did ours for us as a present. I also gave one of my friends my camera and about 10 rolls of film and said just go for it, so we have the official and unofficial album which is quite nice!

We made our invitations and orders of service ourselves and a friend made the bridesmaids' dresses.

Loads of people will try to take over for you, you need to decide whether or not you want that to happen!!

Enjoy it :)

Ori

Answer 4

Determine your budget. This is most important. You will need to know what you are working with as far as finances go. Get a budget schedule and time line , you can get that from the knot.com or brides.com. Start with your location if you don't have one in mind already. This will ultimately determine your wedding date. Locations can be booked up to a year in advance and some popular ones even further ahead than that. Be flexible with your dates, sometimes being flexible gets you better pricing. Start a wedding planner binder with ideas for your wedding, organize them by category. (IE. flowers, dress/attire, reception, ceremony, centerpieces etc.). You can start pulling pictures from magazines or from on-line galleries an add them to your book. You don't have to purchase one of those expensive wedding planning books, just make your own with a few office products. All you need it a 3 ring binder, some tab index labels and a few 3-hole punched pocket folders. You'll find plenty of pictures on theknot.com, brides.com or marthastewartweddings.com. You'll be able to take this book with you when you meet with vendors so you can easily translate your ideas to them. That should help you start off the planning of your day.

Congratulations!

Answer 5

Hi....congratulations on the wedding....I got married in June 2007, I started planning in July 2006. I would say the first thing you have to organise is you venue for both the wedding ceremony and reception. You also need a rough number of your wedding guests...so sit down make a mock up of a list and you have more or less started. Once you know your numbers start looking at venue's within your area that can accomdate your numbers and your budget....the magazines do tend to aim at folk with more money, but I done my wedding on a budget and no one was any wiser....to find a venue just google it....I'm from Glasgow, so just searched Glasgow wedding venue's and loads came up.....after the venue come the dress....so I would start making appointments for your dress shopping as you don't know how long it will take you to find the perfect dress.....I have loads more but don't want to go on about on this.....if you email me directly I will tell you loads more and also all the money saving things I done to help with the cost.....

Answer 6

Start with a budget - look at what you & FI earn, and how much you can afford to put away each month. Multiply this by the number of months until your wedding - ta-da, you have a budget. When you tell your family that you're engaged, or update them on plans (surely someone will ask "How's the planning going?") - mention that you're working out the budget to see what you can afford. This will give anyone (parents, grandparents) an opportunity to offer help - though you should NEVER ask or expect anyone other than yourself or FI to fund your wedding. I was lucky enough that, when I mentioned planning & setting a budget, my grandmother offered to put down the deposit on the banquet hall & mom/stepdad offered to buy the cake - BUT I was prepared to pay for those myself.

Once you have a budget, start looking at what's important to you - for me it was getting to wear a white dress and walk down the aisle, and making sure our guests had fun at the reception. I decided that we didn't need a videographer, favors, "served" meal, or other things - but we did need a dj, photographer, cake, and a good dinner (buffet).

You may have to make compromises. Also, look around to see what you can do yourself or buy at a bargain - I did my veil, bouquets, and (will do) invitations myself. I found my gloves on eBay for $8.50, whereas every other store had them at $25+.

The most important thing to remember is that, at the end of the day, you will be married to the man you love -- try to ALWAYS keep this in sight.

Congratulations!

Answer 7

Keep it simple, it is your day. Chat together about your likes hopes and expectations and who you wouldl want to be there to celebate your union. From the numbers, you can then think about a venue. Many places are now licensed for weddings and you can find this out via a google search of your local area.

When you look at the prices, eloping is much cheaper with a party on return!!

If you are religious, find a lovely old church and then hire a local hall and you can save by decorating it yoursleves and getting food from Costco for a buffet, much cheaper and tasty food. You can bring your own booze over rom France, saves a fortune. A good local dressmaker can also save on a dress. If you are a standard size, shops like designers at Debenhams do good avlue dresses.Try not to stress, don't feel you have to compete and remember it is a celebtration of the love you have for each other.

Start with a big list;

numbers, venue, type of ceremony, time of day, food, drink, dress, flowers, photos, bridesmaids, speeches, rings and just plod through it nice and steadily. maybe have a theme, so it all hangs together in style terms. Good luck! :)

Answer 8

Hi there, dont stress!! easy to say i know but things do fall together,
You have well over a year to plan and pay for things.
I got married last may and like you i we wasnt lottery winners but had a beautiful wedding and you wouldnt of known.
Thye say the average wedding costs between £20-£30k thats just insane and out most peoples reach.
We paid for our wedding ourselves, and started with the basics, booking the church , booking the cars and looking for a venue, and i started looking for a dress, and thinking of a colour scheme.
Most places you can put a deposit down to secure your booking and then you can pay as little or as much as you want in the months leading up to the big day , we paid little but often to pay for these big things without paying out a huge lump sum out and didnt miss the money this way.
Decide how much you can set aside each month to pay for the wedding thats a good start , our wedding cost just over £5k and we didnt miss out on anything.
Your special day will be with you before you know it the most inportant thing is that you get to marry the man you love no matter how big or small you day is,
Best wishes and congratulations xx

Answer 9

A few things that have helped me:

1) Go to local wedding fairs ( I have found the big ones are quite useless but the local ones can be really helpful as the put you in touch with people in your area) there are various companies that organise them and the can often be found in magazine or on organisers websites if your in the London area try http://www.everythingbutthegroom.co.uk/

2) Register on the Confetti website - www.confetti.co.uk they have online planners - including personal to do lists, guest lists and table planners which are easier to edit than a book and free to use.

3)Talk to your friends and family my cousin is helping me to make wedding favours and other relatives are helping with the catering at our reception to save money.

4) Compare prices before you book or buy anything but also compare what you get for your money sometimes the cheepest option isn't always the best value. Use websites to compare prices I spend ages on the net before commiting to anything.

Answer 10

Gosh, you have plenty of time,

We booked the date on 11.06.07 at the reg. office and we have set the date for 07.06.08...

Already I have the dress, the groom's outfit, booked the cars,got the caterers booked, the venue is booked for the reception, the 1st night hotel is booked, got my jewellery, got my shoes, i have designed my own invitations and will print them in January, the DJs are booked and I have got the hen night outfit etc

All I have to worry about now is the cake, how the invitations will actually print on the layout I have designed and growing my hair!

I am a very organised person as you can see!

If you start with little things now, you will be suprised with what you will have organised in time! Make sure you have mates that can contribute with catering, music, etc!

I know I will get stressed a week before for some reason! LOL

Answer 11

hi, we got married on less than £3500, we went to gretna to get wed, and only invited our closest family. My dress was beautiful but only £350, i got a lot of my decorations from ebay. If u are having a biggest wedding get married late in the afternoon and have a buffett followed by a disco, weddings can be so expensive and i know exactly what u mean as these magazines show weddings that costs a bloody fortune. Start by visiting venues, and then go dress shopping, this to me was the best part, and then u can decide on clour schemes. Good luck