Where do i start

Redpunto

My nan has givne us €5000 to get married asap - is it possible to do it for €5k?

Was thinking maybe the bailey court in howth - hiring a room and DJ and just having a buffet - any other venue suggestions?

Would we have trouble booking somewhere at short notice as in the summer? Not looking for the "normal" type wedding with meal and speeches and stuff, just want a nice day with our loved ones and a big party after :-)

Redpunto

:)Have just been reading some posts

Do i need to do a premarraige course?? is there a certain time period before i can get married, awh gawd i have no clue, help

taram

You need to do a pre-marriage course to get married in a Catholic church, and regardless of where your wedding is you must register your intent to get married 3 months in advance so it'll be mid-July onwards you'll be able to get married from. See here for more details about the legal side of it: http://www.groireland.ie/getting_married.htm

It's possible to do it for 5k, if you cut out the unneccessary extras (chair covers, favours, fancy candles etc), and don't invite your second cousins etc, but be prepared to haggle, and enlist people to help! there's a sticky at the top of this forum that'll help save money http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055268477

Good luck!

smelltheglove

It is possible, my firned had 4k and ended up saving a little extra and doing it for 5.5 as she got an expensive wedding dress and an expensive photog, her mother was insistant on a certain photog pal which was disappointing as she would have saved over a grand by letting me do it as a gift:rolleyes:

Ok so, have 1 bridesmaid and one groomsman, men dont have to rent suits but if they do you should get this for 220 for 2. If fathers want to get suits ask them would they mind paying. Make your own flowers, I did this and it was not near as hard as I thought it might be. You can buy second hand dresses but you can also buy new for less than 800. If you look on the likes of gumtree and weddingsonline there are a fair few selling wedding dresses and bm dresses together, some gorgeous.

You then have 3 k, decide on how may people at the venue, have a 3 course meal with no choice, have a dj not a band or a band and not a dj, decide if you want a photog and video, you can get photogs very very cheap but video tend to average around 1k as there is a lot of work in it. Then whatever you pay for church and premarriage course. You dont need favours and you can make your own invites and mass booklets. If you need any tips on any of the baove just pm.

Emerald Lass

yes it most definitely is possible. Mine is not much more than that. and we are having chair covers, favours, car etc. The main thing is numbers really - we are having 50 to sit down, and another 50 in the evening. Food for evening in the way of sandwiches, wedding cake, and canapes, tea and coffee.

It most definitely is possible, and in a short time frame too. I planned mine in 4 mths (well actually 2.5 mths, have done nothing really for the last mth and the wedding is in 4 weeks, so actual organising time was only about 8-10 weeks all in!) I actually think that in many ways a smaller budget and shorter time frame makes it LESS stressful. There is no chance for getting carried away with the budget, you have to decide what you want quickly, which does away with toing and froing about this or that. If you are practical about it and have a time line its really not stressful. And I have found that by not spending 10's of thousands and taking out a loan, I am not so neurotically worried about every piddling little thing! If I had a year to plan I would spend more time wondering if I got the right thing? should I have got something else? etc. This way I don't have time to obsess! I am thinking that the less time was the best thing we ever did! I think I stressed out over my 21st more than I am about this wedding!

Redpunto

thanks guys - we might go down the civil ceremony route - neither of us are religious and the thoughts of having to do a pre-marriage course just gets up me nose

Redpunto

just rang the civil registration office - they're booked up for notification process until June and up till October for ceremony!! Its turning out to be more difficult to get married then i first thought

Emerald Lass

have you considered a weekday? mine is on a thrursday - keeps costs down in more ways than one - hotels give you a discount for midweek, and keeps the numbers down cos not everyone will be able to take a day off. I got my Thursday with the minimum 3 months notice to the day.

Redpunto

What is the first thing that people book first? Should i find a venue first - book that and then ring the registration office?? If I decide for a church wedding would i go to the church first and then a venue and then the registration office........

soooo confused :D

smelltheglove

Redpunto wrote: »

What is the first thing that people book first? Should i find a venue first - book that and then ring the registration office?? If I decide for a church wedding would i go to the church first and then a venue and then the registration office........

soooo confused :D

I booked the venue and church on the same day, I found out days available with the priest and then went and booked the hotel I wanted for one of those days.

Dont let the pre-marriage course deter you, we did a private course and we had a ball, we didnt have time to do the longer group course as we have 2 young kids and couldnt arrange minders so we sorted out the private and it was worth every cent just for the bonding time alone.

beertons

Book the hotel/church together.

ports best

we booked the hotel and the church on the same day as well, as regards a pre marraige course the priest marrying us told us we dont have to do a pre marraige course as we were liveing together for nearly 5 years and he said if we dont know each other by now a course wont really help us, were getting married in july

bensoneb

Hi Redpunto,

With regards to registering the marraige, when I went to register last year I couldn't get an appointment in Dublin until the month before my wedding so that wasn't an option. I tried Kildare, Wicklow, Carlow and Meath before I got an appointment a week later in Dundalk. If doesn't matter where you register at all so you might get an appointment sooner if you try around.

laneyw

ports best wrote: »

we booked the hotel and the church on the same day as well, as regards a pre marraige course the priest marrying us told us we dont have to do a pre marraige course as we were liveing together for nearly 5 years and he said if we dont know each other by now a course wont really help us, were getting married in july

yip our priest said pretty much the same, it is really worth chatting to your priest they can be so helpful to find people to do music and flowers and stuff aswell

fozzle

ports best wrote: »

we booked the hotel and the church on the same day as well, as regards a pre marraige course the priest marrying us told us we dont have to do a pre marraige course as we were liveing together for nearly 5 years and he said if we dont know each other by now a course wont really help us, were getting married in july

According to our parish priest it's down to the individual bishops - some say couples in their areas have to have the course, and some only advise it. We applied for one but the organisers were exceedingly slap-dash about contacting us (they only answered email, and only sporadically) and we ended up passing the 3 month mark but our priest said that it was fine. So talk to the officiating priest - they aren't all stuck in the dark ages.

Oh, also, when you book a church (if you're booking a church) it doesn't
automatically mean the local priest will marry you, you still have to actually ask him, so don't forget!

Best of luck!

She Devil

Redpunto i have heard of many people having bbq's for their wedding instead of formal sit down meals and friends have said it was the best wedding they ever attended as it was just fun!

So just throwing out a possibility ...

McIDEAS

First, Best of Luck, this is for anyone trying to get Married with limited resources, haggle haggle, haggle, we got our hotel for the midweek price on a Sat, they were offering lots of extras, and we had only mentioned we had two other hotels to visit, PS Hotel was Glenview in Wicklow, Fab Place Fab Staff, and know its good for a wedding, we were at one there in Jan 09. Got our entire Hotel cost down to about €5K. Good Luck!