help 5 months to plan wedding

spiller11

hi there. my fiancee booked our wedding reception in october as a surprise, every year we keep saying were getting married and something keeps cropping up. that was grand but then my daughter was in hospital and christmas cropped up, so now i'm left with 5 months to plan wedding, so far church is booked and bridesmaid dresses ordered thats it. i don't know where to go from here looking at invitations at moment, but i'm looking for cheap and cheerful options on everything. any help appreciated, wedding is in carlow

Toto Wolfcastle

Have you organised anything for after the church? If you had that organised/priced it would be easier for you to budget for everything else as it can be one of the bigger expense depending on what you decide to do.

spiller11

the hotel is booked and a third of that is paid, he paid when booking, the hotel offers a car to the church, drinks for toast, d.j and bar extension and our room of course. so reception is kinda covered. its the stuff like dresses for me, mens suits and everything else.. doing it on budget going to get small loan from credit union but hping to get by without borrowing much. there seems to be a lot of paperwork for church aswell have to get that sorted aswell. Will i get it done in time???????????

SSFG

Register the marriage, this costs €150 and needs to be done at least 3 months before the wedding. Nuptual paperwork also needs to be done, I think about 3 months before.
Wedding dress shops will be having sales right now so you could pick up a dress fairly cheap, or else try the likes of TK Maxx, Monsoon, Littlewoods etc.
Get the band/dj or maybe just one or the other if the budget is tight.
Photographer/videographer if you want them, my photographer is only €800, pm if you want the details, or have a look on boards alot of people are offering photographer services for free as they are just starting up!
Good luck!

bills

SSFG wrote: »

Register the marriage, this costs €150 and needs to be done at least 3 months before the wedding. Nuptual paperwork also needs to be done, I think about 3 months before.
Wedding dress shops will be having sales right now so you could pick up a dress fairly cheap, or else try the likes of TK Maxx, Monsoon, Littlewoods etc.
Get the band/dj or maybe just one or the other if the budget is tight.
Photographer/videographer if you want them, my photographer is only €800, pm if you want the details, or have a look on boards alot of people are offering photographer services for free as they are just starting up!
Good luck!

SSFG i would appreciate if you could send me on details of photographer.

OP I am feeling the pressusre as only have 6 months too!!
I would definetely look at dresses as a lot of the bridal shops could be 5 months or so.

SSFG

bills wrote: »

SSFG i would appreciate if you could send me on details of photographer.

Bills, I have sent you a pm with photographer details

spiller11

there is a d.j provided for up to 4 hours and if i want him to play for another hour its 50 euro so i don't think i'll bother wit band and its the d.j for the hotel so i'm sure he will be good. think my brother is doing photography, i didn't realise i had to sort mass booklets are they expensive?

uberwolf

you don't have to sort out mass booklets. You can do them if you wish. And no, they are not. We did ours in Reads (of Nassau Street)

Another issue to consider is whether your priest requires that you do a pre marriage course. If so, get it booked.

But most of all, 5 months is plenty of time. In fact it's perfect. The more time you have, the more hung up you get on the stupid things IMO.

smelltheglove

Honestly you have plenty of time. Is your wedding in May? Im guessing as its 5 months away. I may have the date free myself as I couldnt take any bookings for May until I found out the date for my daughters communion which was only given to us last month so give me a shout if you need a photographer.

So the most important things are booked i.e. the venues, your car is sorted, do you need a car for the bridesmaids, if so look into that soon. If you are looking for video and photos you will need to try get this sorted soon, having said that I have dealt with people who have spent less time booking a wedding so dont feel under too much pressure.

Band wise, if you are on a budget dont feel like you need to look purely for a wedding band, if there is a local pub band that you like you can approach them after a gig and enquire as to their prices and availability. Wedding bands tend to charge more as they have more experience and a larger set list but other bands are capable too and some may offer a dj service if asked.

Invitations, the likes of daintree do lovely papers and cards and you can print the invites yourself, you can also design your own and go to an onlinne printing store and order a batch of cards to be printed. 4x6 cards can be as little as 80c each maybe even less depending on where you go and envelopes would be supplied also.

Are you going to get your flowers done or do them yourself? Often if you ask the priest they will give you details of the people who usually look after the church and these will often be cheaper than the florsit. If you decide to do the flowers yourself then practise first, it isnt too hard if you have an idea of what to do, I made my own bouqet along with 3 bridesmaids bouqets inside around 2 hours the night before my wedding although I know there are some places that have great prices on flowers too.

Make up and hair, a lot of people want this done at home but often it is cheaper and easier to go to the salons, first of all they arent charging you for a call out and second of all, the salons can do a few hairs at one time rather than having one person doing each one by one which can lead to delays.

Suits, leave it to the groom if you can, he needs to get the men organised and visit somewhere local to get fitted, this isnt too much hassle and often ends up being a fun boys day out for them so they can enjoy the experience.

Are you hoping to have a cake? I hear marks and spencers do lovely iced cakes, I have seen a few simple cakes plainly iced white and the coule would then just place some flowers matching the bouqet on top cut short.

Then you have the smaller details, such as jewlery, accessories, shoes, is you get lucky you can get them all in one day depending on your taste and your style but it shouldnt be too hard. Favours, not everyone gets them but can be as simple as scratch cards in envelopes and then the finnal touches are the likes of flowers for the mothers and gifts for the bridal party if you wish to do that.

I have some links on my own page to other vendors, http://www.rachelfoxphotography.com/index.php?id=links if you need any recommendations please do not hesitate to ask. Enjoy your planning.