Setting a realistic budget

martinak89

Seriously, I need so much help here. I got engaged a few months ago and am trying to set a budget for myself and my fiancé. We don't plan on getting married for a few years simply because money is tight, and I just started a new full time job. I'm hoping to set up a bank account and both of us will transfer regular amounts of money every week into it, but I love if someone could give me a figure to aim to so I'll know what I should be putting in. Fingers crossed it should be no more than 100 guests attending too.

Were planning on getting married in my parish in Galway so if you guys know any good band or venues around Gort I'd appreciate that too :P

Thanks everyone!

pwurple

You can spend as much or as little on a wedding as you like... it's an impossible task for someone else to set a budget for you.

Minimum = 200 euro. That's the legal fee in the registry office. You can head down there, do that and tadaa you are married.

Everything else is trimmings.
If you want a church ceremony, there are church and priest fees.

If you want a new dress and suit, you can spend anything from 200 quid secondhand up to 10,000 euro and beyond imported lace onto silk for a dress. Suits are similar.

Food for people, formal or informal. Hotels will do packages with per person pricing.

Flowers, picking your own or getting a florist, or not having flowers.
Cake?
Music... can spend nearly anything from nothing to a couple of buddies playing for free... up to thousands.


Decide what you want, and then price it up realistically. That's the only way to do it.

solerina

As the above poster mentioned you can spend as little as 200 euro or as much as you want. The 'average' traditional style Irish wedding appears to cost 15-20k which is for about 200 guests...have a look at weddingsonline.ie they have a poll over there where people have ticked how much their wedding cost them !!

clint_silver

yeah, anywhere between 2k and 20k is the norm depending on what demographic you ask.

middle class savers tend to spend lower. they realise its only one night they wont want be still paying for 3 years later.

dont need amazing new dress for a once off wear, every bloke should have a suit in the wardrobe, wear it or hire 1.
get someone you know to make the cake.
get a lend of a nice car. have it in a local venue so noones put out with accomodation. youll find you get much nicer pressies this way too as they spend 150e less on a room that theyll only be sleeping in for 4 hours.
have lots and lots of simple food. Worse thing you can do is not have food on arrival or no finger food later on. You can spend 50k on the hotel and all the guests will remember is being hungry if theyre not fed.
have dj only for music.
no wedding favours.
no fancy invites.
have wine with the meal but no "toast drink".

spend 50% of the budget on your honeymoon. you wont regret that.



do spend

lazygal

I'd start with the guest list and be realistic - will your parents add to it? will you be able to cope if everyone you ask says yes? If you're going for a large group, say over 150, you're going to be limited in the venues you can have. I've been to weddings where the couple said they got a 'brilliant' deal but the food and drink was really skimpy. No one will remember your bridesmaid dresses, everyone will remember scabbiness with food and drink.

A church wedding bumps costs considerably, between donations, premarriage courses, decor. Don't have a large bridal party and don't spend mad money on a dress - you will not wear it again and the second hand sections of adverts/donedeal are full of wedding dresses, some of which were never worn. I wouldn't skimp on photos, food and entertainment - most of our money went on these areas and its what you and your guests will remember.

I would not put off getting married for years to save for what's essentially a big party. Marriage offers many legal benefits such as next of kin rights. If you really want to get married I'd have the quick legal ceremony, get the job done and then have a party later on. Having had both the simple legal approach and the big day, I can safely say I'd never put off getting married because I wanted a party.

January

lazygal wrote: »

I'd start with the guest list and be realistic - will your parents add to it? will you be able to cope if everyone you ask says yes? If you're going for a large group, say over 150, you're going to be limited in the venues you can have. I've been to weddings where the couple said they got a 'brilliant' deal but the food and drink was really skimpy. No one will remember your bridesmaid dresses, everyone will remember scabbiness with food and drink.

A church wedding bumps costs considerably, between donations, premarriage courses, decor. Don't have a large bridal party and don't spend mad money on a dress - you will not wear it again and the second hand sections of adverts/donedeal are full of wedding dresses, some of which were never worn. I wouldn't skimp on photos, food and entertainment - most of our money went on these areas and its what you and your guests will remember.

I would not put off getting married for years to save for what's essentially a big party. Marriage offers many legal benefits such as next of kin rights. If you really want to get married I'd have the quick legal ceremony, get the job done and then have a party later on. Having had both the simple legal approach and the big day, I can safely say I'd never put off getting married because I wanted a party.

Unless your parents are paying for the wedding they shouldn't have any say on who you invite.

lazygal

January wrote: »

Unless your parents are paying for the wedding they shouldn't have any say on who you invite.

They shouldn't, but I know many couples who do battle on the issue. My father in law was extremely put out when we refused to add to our guest list, even offering to pay for them. Luckily it wasn't a matter of expense, but I know I others who caved.

Toots

Sit down and make a list of the things you would like to have first of all, and make up a mock guest list so you'll know roughly what your numbers will be for the reception. Check out hotels you like and price them, then check prices for cars, DJs, flowers, cake etc and then make up a sample budget using those prices. If that looks like something you can reasonably save for in a year to 18 months, then use that as your bench mark. If not, go back over the list of things you'd like and see can you cut stuff or can you reduce your guest list.

Honestly you're better off deciding roughly what you want first, that way you'll have an idea of what you realistically need to save. A lot of hotels do wedding fairs a few times throughout the year so they're a good way to meet suppliers and see how the function room looks laid out for a wedding. Also a lot of suppliers offer discounts if you book with them at the wedding fairs, so if you have your eye on one, see if they'll be at any fairs soon cos you might be able to save a few bob that way.

A couple of other money saving tips I picked up were:

• Don't bother with favours, total waste of money and seem to be mostly left on the table by guests anyway.
• DJ instead of a band. A good DJ could be 500 or so whereas a good band could be a couple of grand. Also a lot of bands finish at 11/midnight so you might need to get a DJ also, which is another expense.
• If you're flexible about what time of year you get married, the 'off peak' months like february, march, october, november are cheaper for receptions.
• Getting married midweek is also cheaper, however can be a lot more inconvenient for guests.
• If you're in any way confident with a computer and printer, or know someone who can help you, then do the invites yourself.
• Don't bother getting your wedding album from your photographer, you can do them yourself for half the price.
• Ask your florist what flowers will be in season when you're getting married and try to choose from them for your bouquets. Using exotic/out of season flowers drives up the cost hugely.

Another piece of advice I'd give is, if you can, try and save a contingency fund too, in case some sort of unexpected expense comes up. That way you can cope with it stress free and not have to cut out something you want from your wedding.

martinak89

Toots* wrote: »

A couple of other money saving tips I picked up were:

• Don't bother with favours, total waste of money and seem to be mostly left on the table by guests anyway.
• DJ instead of a band. A good DJ could be 500 or so whereas a good band could be a couple of grand. Also a lot of bands finish at 11/midnight so you might need to get a DJ also, which is another expense.
• If you're flexible about what time of year you get married, the 'off peak' months like february, march, october, november are cheaper for receptions.
• Getting married midweek is also cheaper, however can be a lot more inconvenient for guests.
• If you're in any way confident with a computer and printer, or know someone who can help you, then do the invites yourself.
• Don't bother getting your wedding album from your photographer, you can do them yourself for half the price.
• Ask your florist what flowers will be in season when you're getting married and try to choose from them for your bouquets. Using exotic/out of season flowers drives up the cost hugely.

This is great Thank you so much, massive help!

Gatica

In terms of budget, you should start with finding out how much you can afford and when you want to get married. If you want to get married in the next 6 months, obviously you won't be able to save as much as if you were getting married in 2 years...

Then make up a regular household budget for yourselves. Your average cost of shopping a week, phone bills, electricity, TV, gas, etc....
Don't forget to include things such as car tax, insurance, etc..., which will also impact your annual budget though might not be a regular expense.

Basically you need a snapshot of your annual income and annual expenses. That will give you a picture of the amount that you're capable of saving in a space of time and then work within that budget.

Splinters

I might be biased as a photographer but I would very much recommend going with the best you can afford for photographers. The band will play, cake will be eaten, the dress put away after the day but you will have those photos for the rest of your life. Its one of the few expenses on that day that you'll get something back which you can keep forever so it really shouldnt be overlooked.

ABajaninCork

Totally agree with Splinters. You shouldn't skimp on:

Photographer/Videographer (if you're having one, then don't do it on the cheap. Inevitably will end in tears...)

Rings -after all you'll be wearing them for many years, so might as well get something you love.

Food/drink for the guests. You're having a wedding; people are paying a lot of money to attend so feed and water them well! . Have wine for the meal, then get a round of drinks for the toast if you want, or leave out the toast drink altogether. Don't have champers/sparkling wine for the toast. It'll be wasted as many people don't like it. Evening catering - cater for 75% of the guests.

Don't spend a lot of money on the invitations either. After a cursory glance, people will either chuck them on the mantlepiece or behind the bread bin to be forgotten about.

Everything else, you can cut back or leave out altogether.