Brides of Franc

homeOwner

Did anyone see this last night? I cant believe they spent 35K on their wedding. Present of 20K from parents, 15K put on their mortgage! Its crazy. To be fair the wedding looked amazing (and completely OTT), I loved the flowers but spending that sort of money is mad IMO.

Its just one day, albetit a very special one but still 35K is a huge chunk off your mortgage, or it could help you stay at home for a year with your kids.

In all fairness it is easy to spend 35K when 20k is someone elses money.
I think it is disgusting for grown adults to sponge off their parents like that!!

GAA widow

I'm trying to plan my wedding at the moment and TBH weddings are expensive!

It's all fine to say spending thousands is madness but i can tell you it's not long adding up - have you seen how much the wedding reception alone can set you back?!

If you want the "traditional" hotel reception (no frills like seat covers or anything) after the wedding, in most hotels you are changed extra (per person) for a choice of starter, for the main course you are charged for the most expensive dish chosen (x total no. of guests) AND extra for having a choice, you are charged extra for a dessert choice and most places won't let you have wedding cake as the dessert. Don't get me started on corkage charges!
There is also the drinks reception and the evening reception to consider as well as entertainment and paying extra for a bar extension.

That's without mentioning any of the other trappings of the big day!

homeOwner

GAA widow wrote:

It's all fine to say spending thousands is madness but i can tell you it's not long adding up - have you seen how much the wedding reception alone can set you back?!

I totally agree, they are expensive. But i just cant get my head around people who dont have the money spare, planning these elaborate, fairytale weddings and paying for it by spending their parents money or adding to their mortgage. It just seems like indulgence of the worst sort. But each to their own I suppose.

GAA widow

GAA widow wrote:

I'm trying to plan my wedding at the moment and TBH weddings are expensive!

It's all fine to say spending thousands is madness but i can tell you it's not long adding up - have you seen how much the wedding reception alone can set you back?!

If you want the "traditional" hotel reception (no frills like seat covers or anything) after the wedding, in most hotels you are changed extra (per person) for a choice of starter, for the main course you are charged for the most expensive dish chosen (x total no. of guests) AND extra for having a choice, you are charged extra for a dessert choice and most places won't let you have wedding cake as the dessert. Don't get me started on corkage charges!
There is also the drinks reception and the evening reception to consider as well as entertainment and paying extra for a bar extension.

That's without mentioning any of the other trappings of the big day!

That's stupid... well, if I ever get married, screw the hotel reception then...
I saw a thread on corkage a while back, that was completely unbelievable, the ways they try and screw you out of money!!

GAA widow

homeOwner wrote:

I totally agree, they are expensive. But i just cant get my head around people who dont have the money spare, planning these elaborate, fairytale weddings and paying for it by spending their parents money or adding to their mortgage. It just seems like indulgence of the worst sort. But each to their own I suppose.

I agree with you - each to their own, plenty of people take out loans for v. expensive cars or to take a year out and travel - everyone has their own priorities and indulgences, and if someone feels that they want to have the Big Day, who are we to judge?

meowCat

Unfortunately,I didn't see the program. My flat mates said it was great craic. But I read an article in the weekend's indo about it. And in that article it says that he arranges weddings from €2.500,- to €60.000,- (plus his standard fee of €15.000,-).
So, I was actually wondering how on Earth you can put together a wedding for only 2.500. Maybe they forgot a 0 there?!

Anyone seen this article?

Thallor

hi guys,
just wondering what ye though of last weeks brides of franc? the one in the philippines.?
Thallor

CathyMoran

Ours will cost about 8K including a mini-honeymoon in January and a 3 week trip to Italy in June. We are spending very little on the reception, just having 14 people for lunch in Rollys, the dress was not expensive, we are having minimal flowers and the photographer is a relative of Shanes. I know how easy it is for a wedding to spiral out of control, when we were originally getting married in June the cost was 35K.

I loved the philipino wedding, it made me cry but the one last night was too ostentacious and focused on the day, not about them and the rest of their lives together which is what I think a wedding should be about. It is a good series to watch though.

dame

Hi all,

I've only seen a couple of episodes but it seems to me that they spend so much time with Franc picking stuff that they'd be quicker just going and choosing stuff themselves to start with. Surely the point of having a wedding planner is to save you time if you're too busy to do it all yourself?

Also 15k is an astronomical amount to spend for the services of someone else to help you choose stuff and reassure you that your day will run smoothly. Why not have a fun time with an imaginative sister or friend or two and use that money you save on the wedding planner for an extra good honeymoon or something (and a little pressie for the friends who helped)?

It is a fun series to watch though and he does do amazing things with those venues! Great to watch for ideas!

simu

When's it on? I may enjoy sneering at this show!

stipey

I've never seen the point in spending thousands of euro on a wedding. Apart from a surname here and there and some tax credits nothing really changes. I know I'm crazy about my G/F and that i want to spend the rest of my life with her. I don't need her to stand up in front of 200 of our friends and family, say she loves me and give me a bit of an auld kiss to reassure me she feels the same.

(In any case, marriage isn't a guarantee that the rest of your life together will be a bed of roses)

If we were to make it "all official like" - it would be the two of us and our parents in Prague or somewhere like that. Nice and small.

I reckon we'd tell friends "we're getting married in Prague on this date. It will be a quick service and then off to a pub for a few drinks, a bite to eat and a chat. If you happen to be in Prague on that date and would like to join us we'd love to have you."

There would be nothing big and certainly no paying to book a room and feed and water everybody. If people wanted to fly over to join us then its up to them - no pressure either way.

TwoShedsJackson

CathyMoran wrote:

it made me cry but the one last night was too ostentacious and focused on the day, not about them and the rest of their lives together which is what I think a wedding should be about. It is a good series to watch though.

I nearly cried at the one on Sunday there. 15 thousand on hiring tables and chairs and 23 thousand on flowers!!?!?!?!? ****ing idiots.

Owen

CathyMoran wrote:

Ours will cost about 8K including a mini-honeymoon in January and a 3 week trip to Italy in June. We are spending very little on the reception, just having 14 people for lunch in Rollys, the dress was not expensive, we are having minimal flowers and the photographer is a relative of Shanes. I know how easy it is for a wedding to spiral out of control, when we were originally getting married in June the cost was 35K

Good for you Cathy! I play in a band at weekends for Weddings, and it's obscene how much money people spend. I watched one couple 'suprise' each other with gifts at the reception in front of their guests - he got her a car, she got him a motorbike, he got her fireworks, she got him a barbershop quartet singing her love to him, etc, and all in front of their guests - what a superb case of showing off.

It takes all the romance out of the equation, and sometimes a more refined, discreet wedding is exponentially romantic.

The very best of luck for your special day!

LookingFor

I know a couple who are getting married in a couple of months and they're very well-to-do - he's a well-made business man (we're talking millionaire territory), and she's in a well-paying job. But they're being almost miserly with regard to their wedding. They're keeping it very small - just immediate family and a couple of friends, and I won't be surprised if we're splitting the bill on the meal afterwards (yeah, it's just a meal - not a reception as such). In fact, that's exactly what we were doing for a get-together of the wedding party a month or so ago - at the end, they asked everyone to take out their wallets, which came as a surprise to most.

So if you're not rich and feeling stingy..don't feel bad, because some of the richest I know are being most spartan with their wedding!

00112984

I'm getting married in 2008 and, while we are lucky enough to be able to stretch to quite a nice day budget-wise, the costs were really getting out of hand. We quickly realised that we were wracking our brains to try and find extra people to invite because a lot of the hotels we wanted would only cater to a minimum of 160 guests and we wanted about 120. We finally decided to be brutal and cut the guest list down to the extent where we'd have about 80 guests made up of close friends and family. So, that's what we've done and we opted for a lovely 5* hotel. At the end of the day, we get as much control as we want over the day and end up paying the same for 80 guests at a 5* hotel as we would for 120 guests in a 4* job.

A wedding day is just one day. It's amazing the pressure some people put themselves and their families under just to keep up with the Joneses.

Vyse

GAA widow wrote:

There is also the drinks reception and the evening reception to consider as well as entertainment and paying extra for a bar extension.

A good idea is not to have a round of drinks with the dinner, the hotel will just rob you here. If you order a coke they will charge you for a short and a coke. If you order a glass of wine they will pour it from your own supply. It sickens me.

Also, if they charge you for a bar extension ask them to see the license for it (they need to apply). More often then not they don't apply for it but charge you all the same.

dame

Good info there Vyse, I think most people would be too trusting and not even think of those things!

Anyone, see Brides of Franc last night? Weren't they a lovely natural couple? Franc really gets on my nerves though the way he is so self-promoting. For example, last night he was saying how within an hour of leaving his hotel in Vegas he had the whole menu organised for the reception. Big deal! All he had to was talk to the catering manager of the place and that was that!

tinkerbell

Is it repeated any night?

AK47

what amazes me most is the fact that he will charge one family one price and another 10 times the price depending on their budget.
also the prices of the flowers are wild.

I recently got married and we sourced our flowers from www.weddingdayflowers.ie and they were very reasonable and better quality than anything i saw on the show

Zambia

Vyse wrote:

A good idea is not to have a round of drinks with the dinner, the hotel will just rob you here.

Good idea We kicked that

greenkittie

LookingFor wrote:

So if you're not rich and feeling stingy..don't feel bad, because some of the richest I know are being most spartan with their wedding!

And thats why they are rich, not wasting money on other people.

greenkittie

00112984 wrote:

We finally decided to be brutal and cut the guest list down to the extent where we'd have about 80 guests made up of close friends and family.

You have 80 close friends/family? wow you are doing well.