The cost of getting married in recession - help!

B

Bigbird

Registered User
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91
Hiya,

We're hoping to get married in 2014. I'm not working at present and we're stretched in relation to finances. Having said that I would like a memorable day if possible. We are willing to reduce the number of guests from 200 to strictly 100 but I would like a hotel setting for the reception. I would love people's opinions and suggestions on venues and ways to save without compromising. I always imagined a spectacular wedding day and i'm feeling quite annoyed that it may not be possible now due to our current circumstances.

regards

BB
 
I think a lot of hotels will do a deal based on the number of people - I've seen ads for one of the local hotels (Ashdown Lodge, Gorey) which seem to suggest that you can have a wedding scenario (I assume that means the room plus the meal) for 50 people for less than €3,000. So research the hotels in the area you want to host a reception, up to a radius of 25 km, prepare a message requesting the cost of a wedding reception (i.e room, meal - people can pay for their own drinks) for the date you're thinking of. When the replies come pouring in, evaluate them and select those which suit your idea of your dream day, and start negotiations with them. Good luck. (If you're thinking of a summer wedding, maybe a marquee wedding in any available/accessible location would be good and probably a lot less costly).
 
There are huge ways to cut down the cost of a wedding, but to help you as best as possible, you might let us know your location so we can advise of some local deals :)
 
Hi I'm getting married now in June this year, and yes I know exactly what you mean, I want to have a really memorable day surrounded by all my family and friends, and my Guestlist is roughly 350!!!! Mental money, but I have found ways to save major money, and that is to shop online, I know people think this is risky, but it is sooooo worth it! I bought my Wedding dress online, I was petrified that it wouldn't be ok, but I saw and tried on the dress (I seen and wanted online) in a bridal shop, and I loved it, it cost 2995euro in the shop and I got it made and delivered to me for 115euro, so I swear its worth it!I then took my bridesmaids shopping, picked their dresses, then took the name of the designer down and went online googled the name and got the product code from their website, then googled again and have my dresses coming for half the price that they were in the Shop! For my Bouquet I don't like flowers or how much a bridal bouquet costs, so instead I got all my aunties and relations 2 give me brooch and have my mum who worked in a flower shop to make me a brooch bouquet. I'm having pick n mix jars on my tables as the centre pieces and after the dinner everyone has a personalised candy bag(from ebay) which they can fill with all their favs from as favours. I have a three year old daughter who I am getting to be my flowergirl and she is going to have a button bouquet. I bought coloured butterflies to match my bridesmaids dresses for the florist to put on top on their flowers, which I a just having plain Ivory with the blue butterfly!I'm trying to think what other ways of saving I have, oh yeah for your cards, I got my kids 2 draw the picture, then uploaded onto a brilliant card website, and I'm getting all the cards, envelopes etc for round 167euro that's for 250 cards, that's with Optimal print, and they have loads of designs if you don't want to design your own. Hope this all helps! if I think of more I'll let you know!x :)
 
How about making the guests pay for their own meals?

It cost me a grand total of €21.08 when I got married 9 years ago. It can be done.
 
Time said:
How about making the guests pay for their own meals?

It cost me a grand total of €21.08 when I got married 9 years ago. It can be done.
Click to expand...

Well I would not go that far, but you are heading in the right direction! Weddings here in Switzerland run at about 1000chf and you'd be considered an idiot to spend much more than that!

First of all the wedding party will consist of about 40 people tops - close family plus 5 or 6 good friends and next the reception is held in a community hall, or farmer's barn if one of the parties is of farming stock.

I've enjoyed several great weddings over here, none of which were associated with spending loads of money!
 
Irish people have always had difficulty in seeing the woods from the trees when it comes to weddings.

The whole wedding "industry" in Ireland is very proficient in getting people to spend more money than they need to.....

Think quality, Think small numbers and Think carefully before you spend money on anything. Try to evaluate if an item will add more value to your wedding day than it costs.

Most importantly, plan your wedding day to your individual circumstances.
If money is already tight, don't blow a whole years salary on one afternoon.

I too have been at some "budget" weddings in foreign countries and they have been among the best weddings, Ive ever attended.

Invite the "important" people to a good meal. Make sure you have some good music and try to have a bar available for your guests. Everything
else is superfluous.
 
Think carefully about who you invite to your wedding. Are they either close family or close friends. If not why are you inviting them? You may never see them again.
Call in all the favours that are on offer. We've had many weddings in our family over the past couple of years. One brother is pretty handy with his camera and did the photos (his gift). A close friend who is arty did the invitations and stationery (her gift). Auntie did the flowers etc etc.

The whole preparation experience was good fun and I think less stress for the couple
 
Just dug out my own wedding budget from a few years ago to see what I would have cut out!

There was a thread about wedding gifts elsewhere. Some people think it's vulgar to even discuss, but there is a very good chance of getting an average cash gift in excess of €50 per person invited. What that basically means is that you should invite as many people as you reasonably think you would like to invite and not worry about the costs.

You should have no trouble finding a hotel to provide an excellent meal for €40 a head (this is key - a good meal, a good hotel and all the people you want there with you are all that's needed, on top of the church ceremony, to make the day special).

There are any number of 'extras' you should not consider on a tight budget:
Wine at the tables (people know where the bar is)
Buffet food later on (people are usually stuffed anyway!)
Reception / Toast drinks
Chair covers
Bridal Car hire
Favours (chocolates for guests, etc)
Videographer
Paying for hotel accomodation for family or bridal party

Other big ticket items you need to focus real attention on economising on are:
Honeymoon - modest hol
Church / Reception music - keep it basic
Photographer - Friend with a very good camera?
Wedding Dress (see Annie84's post)
Suit hire / bridesmaids dresses - Groomsmen/Bridesmaids organise their own
Flowers and invitations - don't go nuts
Hair / Make-up - Do it yourself

Bottom line is that provided you get a good deal on the meal, the costs per guest will be largely covered by gifts. It's the overheads such as music, wedding attire, accomodation, honeymoon, photographer, etc that need to be controlled.
 
Have a think about what is the most important thing about your wedding. It probably won't be the flock of doves released or the fireworks, but the person you are marrying. As everyone has said, a memorable wedding doesn't have to be expensive! I agree about going to a hotel though, makes life easy for everyone.
 
Hi, I am also planning a wedding this year and trying to stick to a budget would really like to know where annie84 got her dress made from as have also allready saw the perfect dress but not willing to spend the amount of money is needed on it .
 
Someone I know did exactly as annie84 did and used a company called "light in the box" for her wedding dress and as she's tall was able to get it made a custom length. I have absolutley no connection but the bride's dress was beautiful and cost her under €200
 
I got my wedding cake in M&S. They come in different sizes and you can choose to have 1, 2 or 3 tier cake. It was the nicest fruit cake i ever tasted. Then I bought decorations in a cake shop to decorate the cake and added some ribbons and tasteful plastic flowers/leaves from a pound shop. The plastic greenery sounds tacky but really it wasn't!
 
emmt said:
I got my wedding cake in M&S. They come in different sizes and you can choose to have 1, 2 or 3 tier cake. It was the nicest fruit cake i ever tasted. Then I bought decorations in a cake shop to decorate the cake and added some ribbons and tasteful plastic flowers/leaves from a pound shop. The plastic greenery sounds tacky but really it wasn't!
Click to expand...

Ingenuity is always wonderful. Great ideas there emmt.
 
Hello,

While I wish you the very best, I think it is a complete waiste of money having a wedding with a 100 guests, or possibly more ... use the same money to go to the USA, get married in Las Vegas & have Honeymoon in the USA as part of it. :)

There is nothing to stop you from either just going with your partner, or inviting those you really want to be there - with them paying for part or all of their own costs, then incorporating a small holiday of their own perhaps.

Regards

Mr. Earl.
 
A previous poster spoke of inviting as many guests as possible; to maximise variable revenues against variable costs. Has anybody actually done this ?

(I also recall Eddie Hobbs' tv show also advising this for a cash-strapped couple)
 
Update we're eloping to NYC. Had a moment of clarity and decided not to throw our hard earned cash into the wedding industry. The more we looked into it the more we thought how ridiculous it was. Got a basic dress off the rails and upgraded it by buying amazing material in the cloth shop in Dublin. My veil is preloved and everything including shoes should amount to e1,000. We have a lovers itinerary done out,which is gorgeous. It includes a famous bakery to cut cake and another location for a celebratory champagne. Our first dance is still not sorted - still work in progress so if anyone knows anywhere good in NYC that would be suitable then please let me knows. Thanks for advice and opinions.
 
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