Wedding on budget

tidzy · 24-06-2014 4:22pm #1

Hi all I am getting married in august 2016 . And on a small budget . Hoping for ballykisteen hotel . We are young couple and will be 23 wen getting married we will have Around €6500 I have quiet a small family but all will be traveling from England and my partner has a large family . We can't afford to have everyone at meal so we decided to have 80 for meal and everyone else for evening entertainment we have narrowed it down to 80 family members for meal and for evening we will have around another 80 close friends and rest of family coming is this possible ? ðŸ˜ also I'd love a band but they so expensive can anyone recommend good band cheap also be greatful for any ideas atal to make help make our day special and things can do to keep budget down

)) ðŸŽ‰

Faith · 24-06-2014 4:30pm

If your budget is €6,500, I'd say 80 is way too high a number. Even if you got a dirt cheap per-head of €40, that's €3,200 on the meal. A band will set you back at least €1,000 for a halfway decent one then, for instance. The same for a photographer or videographer, if you choose to have either.

I'd suggest scaling down the number if you have such a limited budget, or else you'll have to sacrifice an awful lot of other things.

kkcatlou · 24-06-2014 4:40pm

Good luck with the planning. I don't mean to be judgmental at all, but you are both very young and should be enjoying life in your early 20s. These are the best years of your lives, so you should be making the most of them, and not saving for a wedding. You have the rest of your lives to do serious stuff like get married, play house and make babies. Now is the time to be going to college, travelling the world, working in crap jobs, going to festivals, going out at weekends...

But if you have your heart set on it, is the big traditional set up in a hotel really what you want to do? Given your age, would you not consider something a bit more fun and easygoing, like a big BBQ or a barn dance or festival type party with a pig on a spit? You could rent out a pub and beer garden or your parents back yard?

I've been at one or two "young people" weddings in hotels, and they always felt like the couple were trying to be something they weren't (i.e. grown up!!), when it should have been more about fun and themselves.

Other ideas to save money:
- buy your dress in a charity shop or sample sale, second hand or borrow one
- get a DJ only instead of a band
- make your own decorations and flowers
- use your own cars
- have a small bridal party (one best man and bridesmaids)
- don't have a videographer
- get an online package only with photographer and pay for album when you can afford it
- don't pay for accommodation for anyone
- no day 2
- bake your own cake or get a friend to do it as the wedding present (we are doing a dessert table where we are getting lots of family to add something)

tidzy · 24-06-2014 4:43pm

Thanks faith I'm not to push on band I would like one but other things come first what kind of budget would u suggest I d need

tidzy · 24-06-2014 5:02pm

Thanks for your reply I get everything u are coming from . But we ready w have been together for 8 years now . . I am considering different ideas trying to find the pros and cons o them all thanks so much for ur helpful ideas . Really appreciate it

ShaShaBear · 24-06-2014 5:04pm

tidzy wrote: »

Thanks for your reply I get everything u are coming from . But we ready w have been together for 8 years now . . I am considering different ideas trying to find the pros and cons o them all thanks so much for ur helpful ideas . Really appreciate it

A buffet is a common choice now instead of a sit down meal!

Milly33 · 24-06-2014 5:16pm

Congratulations to ye!! And it can be done you just need to stick to the plan and don't buy into stuff like ye have to have this and that.. Ballykisteen looks loverly...

We are doing the same having a civil in the venue itself, now we are lucky we don't have to pay any extra to the venue to have it there so paying the €200 fee to register and then €225 for the register to come to us.. I looked into a few different options and they were the cheapest out of them..Make sure and check if the venue charges extra for this most do, around the €250 - €400 mark just for setting chairs up.

The bands are fecking mad prices altogether is all I have to say they keep going on about the equipement but sure there in a band anywho,ill say no more..

Explosive DJ Experience was mentioned here before I haven't seen him but his prices are quite good and he does MCing.. That or you could go to a few local gigs see if any of them have bands on and ask them would they do it..Indigo are another group that aren't badly priced.

Invites if you don't have anything planned you should keep an eye on vistaprint sometimes they have great offers A friend got a fridge magnet invite done it was great as you just pop it on the fridge don't have to worry about putting it in a save place, and they were only €10 or something like that. You could keep an eye on the free business cards too and do them out as rsvp.

Flowers if you are anyway handy you can do them yourself...They aren't difficult if you have an arty touch..

Food too keep it simple most of it gets wasted..Thres courses is fine anything more can be too much.. Buffet style is great if you have manageable numbers, yours sounds good.Any more people Id say no it gets too messy

Milly33 · 24-06-2014 5:26pm

Defo don't be afraid to ask any very good friends aswell to help out, they will be more than happy too. Even if it is something you want on the day like decorations for the tables or something like that friends will be more than happy to give their gift like that rather than giving money later...

Faith · 24-06-2014 5:29pm

tidzy wrote: »

Thanks faith I'm not to push on band I would like one but other things come first what kind of budget would u suggest I d need

Decide on your budget first, then work everything into that.

A wedding can cost anywhere from €200 to €50,000+. Once you have a fixed budget, everything else will have to change to accommodate it. A small budget usually means a very small number of guests. I think €50 per head is a reasonable figure to work with, for food and drink, to begin with anyway.

Then decide what's most important to you:

Large guest numbers (I'd consider more than 50 guests large for your budget)
Band
Photographer
DJ
THE dress vs one from a charity shop/second hand etc
Suits
Bridal parties
Type of wedding (civil, church, humanist, etc)
Flowers
Cake
Venue

And so on. Decide what you must have and what you can live without, or can DIY/do very cheaply, and it'll become much clearer then.

tidzy · 24-06-2014 6:48pm

Thanks everyone for all your feed back . I no not great budget that's what we have estimate but hopefully with have bit more for extras . We are having the ceremony in our local church we have come to good arrangement wth out priest as he has none us since babies . The only problem is do do have quite a large quest list that why we keepin main meal to justc close family and then rest for just evening buffet

ABajaninCork · 24-06-2014 10:27pm

How about a pig on a spit? Nice large porker, few salads and rolls, and everyone goes home happy!

As you've got a tight budget, there's a lot of ideas mentioned already which you could work with. If you're having a bridesmaid/s why not ask them to wear their favourite party dresses? They don't have to match, you save money, and the girls will be comfortable.

You could make a button bouquet if you fancy something different.
DJ would be a much cheaper option than a band.
Make your own invitations. If you're a bit of a whizz, you could even create them on a laptop, and e-mail them round.
Have a look at the Weddings Online Buy & Sell forum. Lots of ladies selling off their wedding bits. I just saw a brand new dress for sale on there. You could pick up a bargain or two there.

Hope this helps!

Dolbert · 24-06-2014 10:54pm

OP you can absolutely do a wedding for 80 on your budget, we did it. Look out for what deals the local hotels are doing. We got the meal, wine, reception bubbly & strawberries, afters food and the wedding car for €40 a head. It was in a small country hotel and it was all perfect, a far cry from 'dirt cheap'.

We spent €1400 on the band, bought my dress online, got the bridesmaids dresses in Debenhams and very talented friends provided the church music, cake, photography and flowers as gifts. In total we spent €10k and €3k of that was on the honeymoon. It can absolutely be done, but it requires a lot of planning and budgeting.

Faith · 24-06-2014 11:01pm

Just a point that when I said 'dirt cheap', I didn't mean it in a derogatory sense, just that it was about the best price you'd get per head at a hotel

.

Dolbert · 24-06-2014 11:17pm

Oh I know, I just meant that the OP can actually get a lot of bang for her buck if she finds the right deal

893bet · 25-06-2014 12:10am

I got married there! Great hotel.

Ask for their off peak prices! (I think november, january, febuary). They are very very very competitive i have heard.

jlm29 · 25-06-2014 10:37am

Op, there's a few hotels around that have packages which include basically everything- including band and dj.. If you're not set on ballykisteen, it might be worth looking around. Langtons in Kilkenny springs to mind as somewhere that has one of those packages, but I can't swear to that- it's been a while since I looked!!

clint_silver · 25-06-2014 11:24am

You won't get 80 to afters. If it's local maybe a few will go. If it's far forget about it.
Hire an all night DJ max 500e. If you only have 6500e You don't have a 1500e budget for a half decent band any more than you do a 1500e dress.

Have you factored the honeymoon in as well to that figure?

ShiftStorm · 25-06-2014 12:38pm

byrned17 wrote: »

The Station House Hotel in Kilmessan. http://www.stationhousehotel.ie/weddings/winter-weddings/ (I see their price has gone up but only by 6 euro) It was a beautiful wedding and the food was amazing and you can swap some things around in the deal if you like.

I knew that they had a winter deal and I called them in August 2010 to see if they had any winter dates for that year left. She gave me Friday 17th Dec 2010 and we thankfully managed to get an appointment with the registrar within the right amount of time. I think the hotel bill came to 3,900.

Then with the remaining 2,000 we bought our rings and stuff to wear for the bridal party:

Rings: we went to a jewellers in Powerscourt town house called Corrs to get our wedding bands (750 in total I think and mine had diamonds in it) and we bought my engagement ring in a chain jewellery store. The trick is not to mention it's an engagement ring! I got a sapphire and diamond white gold ring for 270.

Then for the bridal party: I bought my dress in Barnardos bridal. He and his two groomsmen bought their suits in Next for 120 each - much nicer than hiring them and they get to keep them! We got the bridesmaid dresses on sale in debenhams. It was approx 1,000 for all of that.

A friend of ours dj'ed, another friend made our cake, another did my flowers, another designed our invites, another decorated the church, another drove me to the church in their fancy car, another was our photographer and a group of my friends did the music both in the church and before the dj. We also had another friend playing the piano as people arrived! We have talented friends So those were their wedding presents so it saved them money too!

PM if you need any other tips!

Hi Tidzy, I posted this ^ in another thread but maybe you'll find it useful. We spent €6,000 and the hotel gave us a deal for €29.90 a head. You can definitely have a beautiful wedding on your budget

tidzy · 25-06-2014 4:19pm

clint_silver wrote: »

You won't get 80 to afters. If it's local maybe a few will go. If it's far forget about it.
Hire an all night DJ max 500e. If you only have 6500e You don't have a 1500e budget for a half decent band any more than you do a 1500e dress.

Have you factored the honeymoon in as well to that figure?

I don't mind about evening figures but that would be my estimate . . No the honeymoon isn't in that budget

pwurple · 26-06-2014 8:55am

Think the comment about the posters age is unkind. One of my brothers got married that age, lovely wedding, married years now and very happy they are indeed.

Anyway, the suggestion about swapping a band for a dj is a great one. My brother did exactly this, and it was absolutly brilliant. Wish I had done it for my own wedding. Far cheaper, suited the younger dancing guests much better as well. The dj did a fantastic job.

There are other options as well, tend to be seen more in europe and the US, but have you considered a wedding brunch / breakfast or a wedding lunch rather than the evening thing that is usually done here? I was at a wedding breakfast in the netherlands... They had their ceremony at 10am, some bellini's and champagne with lots of delicious pastries, omlettes and pancakes. The couple then did that fun thing with a 'going away' car, with their suitcases. We stuck ribbons and streamers with cans on their car, just married signs etc... And off they went to the airport.

mrsbyrne · 26-06-2014 10:41am

pwurple wrote: »

Think the comment about the posters age is unkind. One of my brothers got married that age, lovely wedding, married years now and very happy they are indeed.

Anyway, the suggestion about swapping a band for a dj is a great one. My brother did exactly this, and it was absolutly brilliant. Wish I had done it for my own wedding. Far cheaper, suited the younger dancing guests much better as well. The dj did a fantastic job.

There are other options as well, tend to be seen more in europe and the US, but have you considered a wedding brunch / breakfast or a wedding lunch rather than the evening thing that is usually done here? I was at a wedding breakfast in the netherlands... They had their ceremony at 10am, some bellini's and champagne with lots of delicious pastries, omlettes and pancakes. The couple then did that fun thing with a 'going away' car, with their suitcases. We stuck

ribbons and streamers with cans on their car, just married signs etc... And off they went to the airport.

This is the ideal solution for this couple. Pre lunch ceremony, buffet style reception in hotel room nicely decorated ,music playing on an iPod or DJ if he'd do it cheap, chat to everyone then away to a cheap weekend/midweek break somewhere. The guests can stay and party away to themselves if they want. Absolutely perfect.

tidzy · 26-06-2014 11:31am

Thanks everyone for ur responses really appreciate it

jelliebellie · 26-06-2014 12:28pm

definitely do your own flowers. my SIL did this and saved a fortune, i will be doing the same.

we are not having wedding cars, whoever has nicest car at the time will get it cleaned up and stick some ribbon on.

Also, i have gotten 2 bridesmaid dresses on sale in for 30each in Pamela Scott, they are beautiful and were exactly what i would have went for regardless of them being on sale. shop around and you should def be able to have a lovely day for that amount.

Sleepy · 26-06-2014 2:05pm

Off-peak is the way to go to get a deal from the hotel, we had ours in February and got it for roughly 30 a head and they allowed free corkage on the wine which you can always get a deal on when buying in bulk.

I'd really re-consider your date: there's a huge premium for summer or Christmas dates and given how variable the weather during Irish summers can be, it's not worth it imo.

See what your friends can do for you or you can do for yourself: my brother's band played the reception for us, his girlfriend did the photography, my wife did the cake, we made our own invites, decorations, candy table, origami chairs for an escort table rather than a printed place setting etc. Can any of your friends sing/play instruments? Get them to do the ceremony music rather than hiring someone.

Get the dress in a charity shop/online or, like my wife, a closing down sale. Keep the bridal party small so you're only paying for one bridesmaids dress and suit hire for the best man (or get the guys to wear suits they already own: a new shirt and tie can help them match the bridesmaids colour).

Fake flowers bought on-line are *MUCH* cheaper than a florist and you get to keep your bouquet forever (I think our entire bill for flowers, including fresh sunflowers bought from the Smithfield market the day before the wedding and doubled for the ceremony and table centre pieces, came to about €200 for a bridal party of 9).

AoifeCork · 26-06-2014 10:26pm

Ballykisteen do some fabulous off-peak deals OP... Not too far away either is the Anner Hotel in Thurles which has recently been completely refurbished and offering a serious Silver package at 32 a head,minimum of 60. I actually couldn't believe the deals they were offering at their wedding fair.

And the food and drinks manager hinted that Thursday/Off peak weddings could be haggled down in price as well so give them a shout. They are recently under new management and we honestly couldn't believe the difference in the hotel in just a couple months. No harm in giving them a shout anyway... hope this helps!

westernlass · 27-06-2014 1:56pm

Mid week weddings are a great way to keep numbers down and save a lot of money

rainbow kirby · 30-06-2014 9:11am

Ballykisteen is great value if your wedding party size suits the room they have - their smaller room upstairs is pretty much 50 max, but their main suite is large (probably well suited to 150-200) and we thought our group of 80-90 would look a bit lost in there.

kkcatlou · 30-06-2014 9:23am

westernlass wrote: »

Mid week weddings are a great way to keep numbers down and save a lot of money

But annoy a lot of your guests in the process...

When thinking about cutting down costs, think about what will have least impact on your guests. Start with stuff that will not impact the overall day too much like videographer, dress, cars, suits, etc. rather than the big stuff that will have your guests peeved or less likely to enjoy the day, like poor food, midweek, no food between ceremony and dinner, etc. Ultimately if your guests are enjoying themselves, you will have an amazing day. if your guests are hungry, thirsty, resentful over having to take multiple days off work, etc. this will trickly down to your enjoyment of the day (and the run up to the day)!

lazygal · 30-06-2014 10:13am

westernlass wrote: »

Mid week weddings are a great way to keep numbers down and save a lot of money

For the couple, but what about those who'll be expected to attend like family and close friends?

OP I think your best best is to change the date to a quieter time of year. I found a lot of the 'quirkier' venues and ideas cost a lot more than a standard package deal from a middle of the road hotel. Cut out all the frills, check out white dresses that aren't wedding dresses and don't lose sight of the fact that its only one day.

I think you might be optimistic expecting 80 people to turn up to the afters of a wedding myself. I rarely go to afters only events myself, its not worth the hassle to attend if its any distance away and you never usually get to speak to the bride and groom.

Sam Kade · 30-06-2014 10:32am

23 is way too young to be getting married, take my advice and

RUN

Toots · 30-06-2014 10:51am

Sam kade the OP is not asking for your opinion on whether she's too young to be getting married. If you've nothing helpful to add, please don't bother posting.

Wedding on budget

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