Wedding planner/budget

homeOwner

Does anyone know an irish or english website that gives a sample wedding budget?

Something like:

Dress 800euro
Cake 300euro
Flowers 1000euro
etc........

but listing all the stuff that you would need.

[I just made those numbers up by the way!]

sapper

I'm getting married in Kildare in a few weeks :eek: So far our budget is shaping up as follows in the attached....(the mother-in-law-to-be is making the cake)

homeOwner

Thanks sapper, thats a good start for me to get an idea, but my god! 2K for the dress (is that normal for a wedding dress). I dont think i'll be spending that much.

You have the dinner as 11,000 - does that include a drinks reception before hand when the guests arrive at the hotel, and does it include some food later on in the evening? Is there a benchmark, like say budget 80 euro per head? Does that include wine also?

Sorry about all the questions, i am just trying to get an idea of budgets before I start looking, incase I end up going overboard.

babaduck

I can give you what we paid - 94 people

Dress - €150 (cost of pressie for friend who lent it to me)
Suits - €500
Cake - €250
Flowers - €350
Church - €300
Priest - €500
Church Music - €600 (incl. drinks reception)
Reception including food, wine & afters food - €5500
Rings - priceless... but €1000
Hair & Makeup - €200
BM Dresses - €500 for 3 incl. alterations
Honeymoon - €3500 excl. spendies
Invites - €220
DJ (no band) - €400
Fireworks - €1000

The actual meal was €38pp & the booze, afters food etc. brought it up to €55p.p.

We spent about €15k in total including our honeymoon

sapper

Well, I'm not the one buying the dress (I'm the groom!) but I'm told it's around the 1600 mark, but with shoes, veil, underwear etc I think its hitting the 2K mark. The bride did balk at the price, but when you're spending 25K whats another few hundred?


As for the hotel we having a 145 people to it

145 dinners @ EUR50 = 7250
100 bottles wine @ EUR10 = 1000
30 bottles sparking wine @ EUR10 (for arrival reception) = 300
EUR 6 corkage per bottle = 780
80 tea/coffee/sandwiches @ EUR9 (arrival recption) = 720
80 tea/coffee/sandwiches @ EUR9 (late night) = 720
Bar extension = 250

Total = 11,020

[not every one takes the tea/coffee/sandwiches, so you can normally allow for about half the total numbers)

Thanks Babaduck for the above too! Looks like I wasn't budgeting enough for the priest!

muletide

sapper wrote:

I'm getting married in Kildare in a few weeks :eek: So far our budget is shaping up as follows in the attached....(the mother-in-law-to-be is making the cake)

Thats freaky sapper that is almost identical to my wedding budget are you sure you are not my fiancé.

And yes OP 2k for a wedding dress is fairly common

SingingCherry

Here were our costs for 62 guests:

Reception venue: €4011.15 (this did not include any alcohol or gratuities)
Dress: €360 (Bought in the US as "no frills" (meaning they don't do the sizing or fittings for me). Originally €1800.)
Alcohol (open bar): A sizable amount (and this is where most of the costs goes at receptions).
Alterations: €100
Underthings: €240
Invites: €380 (bought in the US)
Save-the-dates: €140 (bought in the US)
Postage: Around €150 (Had international postage)
Suits: €600
Bridemaids: All had different dresses but were around €160 each.
Flowers: €660
Cake: €410
Linens: Around €1100
Centre Pieces: €200 total (7 tables, DIY project. Partly bought in the US)
Favours: €150 (bought in the US)
Church: €150
Officiant: €150 + tip
String Quartet: €800
Photographer: €1700
DJ: €700
Accessories (Veil, Jewerly, shoes, etc): €300
Hair & Makeup: €450 (for 5 people)

There are many other things that go into but this is the important things. You then think about what to get your attendants and parents as thank you gifts. We had a rehearsal dinner as well 2 nights before the wedding that added to the cost.

I also bought a lot of things in the US and had them shipped over and they were miles cheaper than buying them in Ireland. My dress was a great example of that. If you find a dress here, go to www.rkbridal.com in the US and see if they have the same dress. They will beat any price you give them by miles, especially if they aren't sizing or doing the fittings. Shipping was $70.

homeOwner

SingingCherry wrote:

I also bought a lot of things in the US and had them shipped over and they were miles cheaper than buying them in Ireland. My dress was a great example of that. If you find a dress here, go to www.rkbridal.com in the US and see if they have the same dress. They will beat any price you give them by miles, especially if they aren't sizing or doing the fittings. Shipping was $70.

We you charged VAT by customs for getting US deliveries? I have been told they hold onto stuff you get delievered from outside the EU until you pay the VAT on them.

SingingCherry

homeOwner wrote:

We you charged VAT by customs for getting US deliveries? I have been told they hold onto stuff you get delievered from outside the EU until you pay the VAT on them.

I didn't have this happen to me but I have heard of it happening in the past, but mostly with big stores like the gap or Abercromie and Fitch. This was actually just a large cardboard box with my address on it. I suppose it said what was inside somewhere (for customs reasons) but not that I bought it - just that it was being sent to me. I really don't know.

What I do know is that it was sent to me from NYC and 10 days later my mother-in-law picked it up with no problems at all.

babaduck

homeOwner wrote:

We you charged VAT by customs for getting US deliveries? I have been told they hold onto stuff you get delievered from outside the EU until you pay the VAT on them.

yes - I had to pay VAT on my bridesmaids dresses which I ordered from www.gownsales.com shipped with DHL - about €90 on an order costing €380 & I had to pay the driver before the goods could be released

I bought a watch recently which was sent by USPS to me costing $30 (was €680 here) & was charged €30 by An Post.

I also bought a handbag costing $70 6 weeks ago and it was delivered by DHL with no demand for VAT/import duty. And then last week they sent me a bill for €30 for duty - they can swing for it, considering an item costing 4 times more attracted the same duty!!!

Miss Judy

Are you all mad or what??. I am totally against a young couple paying thousands for their wedding, it's madness and a sizeable deposit on a first home or a hefty personal loan or even a nice new car!!!.It's peer pressure half the time if you ask me & I think big wedding are going out with the Indians, alot of people are marrying abroad or having a small wedding at home. Word of advice...don't get married too early as it's a long day. We got married at 2.30pm & it was perfect.

Hubbie & I tied the knot in May, it was a fabulous day, the sun shone & it all went perfectly. We had 30 adults & 7 kids at our wedding, which was made up of immediate family and our VERY close friends, to be honest what I did was anyone that was in touch when dd was born last year was invited, anyone that has gone off the radar over the past 3/4 years well...that's life. I come from a tiny family, 2 siblings & parents, hubbies bigger but all the aunts & uncles who even I have never met were not invited and we are not mean. We also had just bought a new house & have 2 children so we were on a tight budget and we were not taking any loans out either and I have to say I want to do it all over again. Here are a list of our costs:

Dress & Clip for my hair: €900 (Lauda Bridal in Navan-fab dress, my proud moment!!)
Shoes for me: €85
Make up: DIY job (wouldn't be too fond on someone at me anyway!):)
Hair: €35 (went to hairdressers that morning and got it styled & clip put in)
BM Dress & shoes: €300
Suits: €500 ( I think...hubbie looked after that for him, BMan & 2 pageboys)
Cake: €280
Flowers: €400 ( incl presentations to mums,button holes for men & bouquets)
Photographer: €1400
Rings: €500
Registry office ceremoney: €108 (it was lovely...highly recommend it)
Car: went in my Dad's merc & we came back in hubbies WITH kids:D
Meal : €60 per head, all in and we had 3 choices on the menu. Fab!!. Big compliments about the meal actually. Kids had kiddies meal & party before us.
Room: We hired a perfectly sized room and had the head table then 3 round tables in front all beauifully decorated and a lovely balcony outside the room to look out at the sea (& have a smoke:D )
Kids entertainer/clown/balloon maker: €180..was great, we had the meal in peace while 7 kids danced their socks off & played games.
DJ: €300 (from 8-1am)
Finger food: €4 per head, got enough for 40 as more people came at 8pm for the afters and it was all in all a smashing day & night.
Honeymoon: €2133 and the kids came!!!.:)

So, all in all it cost us €8k for the whole lot and we paid for it all on the day and have fab memories. You can do it on a budget and have the very best and it's your day, so special!!!.

Enjoy the planning....I did all mine in 2 weeks...long story & it still went perfect. thinking of starting up my own emergancy wedding co-ordinatior business:D

caren

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Sage'sMama

Hi i have a thread going at the minute about my wedding planner ripping me off. I'm getting married Sept 09 and can't wait but i have to agree with Miss Judy. We were budgeting €10k originally and then we moved it to €12k and now i reckon it'll be more like €15k if the wedding planner gets her way.

This is the budget as it stands at the minute:

Wedding Clothes - €1,500.00
Flowers - €150.00 (My mams a florist she's doing the flowers
Transport - €400.00
Entertainment(DJ) - €950.00
Wedding meal (for 60) - €3,450.00
Rental of Cutlery,Dishes,Tablecloths etc - €2,650.00
Drinks - €1,320.00
Reception Rental - €1,120.00
Rings - €500.00
Flights and Accomodation - €3,000.00
Vanity (hair,makeup) - €200.00
Planner - €1,500.00
Priest - €300.00
Registrar - €150.00
Venue Decoration - €900.00

Total: €18,090.00

My problem being the rental of cutlery etc costing me more than the meal. I have my dress i paid €950 for it and i'm making the invitations with my sister. Hopefully i can negotiate the budget back down or i'm back to square one and looking all over again.:( Oh and i was quoted €950 for the DJ which is apparently quite high i wouldn't know the prices of dj's.

galwayfotogrfr

Hello
After photographing a few weddings where budget is an issue I find that asking friends and family to step in as assistants is a great method of getting things done.

Friends and family may be able to help out with
Making the cake
Ammending and fitting a low cost wedding dress
Flowers
Photography & Video ensure your friend in charge of this knows what they are up to.
Even church music and singing
The DJ - you may know one who can give you a big discount as a gift.

Make a list of friends who could possibly help out and ask them for their help. Since it is your wedding in question day you may get the help you need. People are willing to help out instead of having to fork out for a gift or money.
All the best for you wedding and I hope it doesnt break the bank.