wedding budget fear December 2, 2008

Boy and I spent a few mins last night totting up estimates and actual costs so far for The Big Day next year and I immediately felt frightened when I did the “SUM=” thing in excel and saw the total totted up. Scary.

It’s not that we are being frivolous with our wedding, far from it – we are being very budget conscious and seeking out bargains. This extends to dumping favours (I can’t be arsed, and people won’t take notice of them), getting work print unit to print out wedding stationery (bargain price) and using jam jars with ribbon round the lip instead of buying tea light holders.

It’s just that with a party in the day for 200 people plus another 70 for the evening do, there is no way we can do our wedding on the cheap. Feeding that amount of people costs a fair bob, and watering them – well, half of them are Irish and another batch of buddies are rugby club, so it’s gonna be an alcohol soaked fest! Added to this is the pressure that with a recession biting my Dad’s company is looking at “restructuring” – so until this happens and we know what’s going on, I don’t want to ask my family about contributions (I hate talking money anyway!).

It is a tricky one in a way – we both want a big wedding and big weddings cost big bucks – FACT. There’s no real way we can cut down on costs apart from getting rid of people – and we’ve been strict on that already. So, I am resolving to cost-down wherever I can, but to go with it – it’s gonna be a fantastic day and I don’t want to constantly worry about how much it’s costing us. After all, a marriage is priceless, right?

skinto binto October 22, 2008

Gah! It’s a couple of days before pay day and me and The Boy do not have a healthy looking bank balance. I’m not sure why this month has been particularly expensive – we’ve had 2 weddings to go to and had to shell out for new smoke alarms for our rental property (not just your tesco value ones, we’ve had to get mains wired fancy ones to be compliant which were not much short of a grand) – it seems the cash has been trickling away.

Anyhoo, I have a day off on Friday and a fairly free day on Saturday so I’m thinking about what we can do to raise some wonga, and save some beer tokens. Here’s my thoughts so far:

1. Eat from the freezer – we bought half a lamb last month which is in the garage freezer, and I have frozen all of our veg patch glut of goodies, so instead of heading to the supermarche, I’m going to dig into the drawers for delightful dinners (check OUT my alliteration!!)

2. Have a scout through stuff we don’t use and decide whether I can put some on eBay. I actually have lots of good nice books to get rid of, so I might investigate Amazon’s second hand bit as well.

3. Talk to mother about car booty – Mother is a prolific hoarder of crap and will have box loads of stuff to sell. Again, as point 2, see if I can sell some for her and pocket some of the cash.

4. Games nights instead of pub nights – this trend has already started with our gang; instead of heading to the Welly Road in Northampton, we are having nights in round people’s houses with old fashioned games. Good times.

5. Check out whether we can reclaim bank charges – need to get round to using MoneySavingExpert man’s guide to doing this.

6. Mobile phone cashback – I’ve just sent off my latest claim so hoping this will come in soon as well.

Frugality here I come!

A very wedding week October 17, 2008

The past week has been very good in wedding terms.

Thursday last week I got a message on my mobile phone from the Bridal shop where my wedding dress is coming from.  Here’s how it went: “Hi there, it’s Shop for Brides. Just calling about your wedding dress. Can you call us back? Alright Darling? Ok, thanks.”

Seemingly ok, non? NON! The “Alright Darling” section was said in a kindly tone, the sort your Mum might use when telling you your cat has died (or something equally bad).  This instigated immediate paranoia on my part, to the extent that I took 2 deep breaths and left the office to call back, just in case I had to cry cos my dress was no longer available or summat.

In reality, it was good news – my dress was in! Yay! On arriving at the shop on Saturday I mentioned to the lady that I was nervous at her voice mail and fearing the worst…she admitted she never says “Your dress is in” on voice mail as she likes to tell people in person as it were.  Phewzers.  But surely, a lot less stress all round for B2Bs if she just told us on the voice mail that our dress was in.

Anyway! I digress! So, wedding dress, all lush and lovely.  Tried on with my BIG platform wedges that I’m wearing (in an attempt to not look like a stunted pixie next to The Boy in photos).  Earlier that Saturday I also took the Boy to Millers Tailors in Northampton for a suit reccy.  The old boys running the shop were ace (even had tape measures round their neck and knew his size without asking).  Importantly they also realised I was in charge, saying “Now Madam, what do you think, because you’re the important one here”. Sold!! Loved ‘em, loved the suits, got it sorted and booked.

Another job for Saturday was a hair cut at my Mum’s Cousin’s salon in Heart of the Shires shopping place, The Glass Slipper. I *love* going here, not only cos I get to see a fave relly, and get my hair cut at a good rate, but also they have started doing bespoke tiaras and fascinators.  Saturday’s visit was very exciting as I tried on a completely gorgeous tiara which I think is the one I will go for. *LOVED* it lorra lorra.  Can’t wait to go back and try again with a hair-do as well to see how it might look.

With those jobs done on Saturday, I was feeling ultra productive and sorted, so Ma and me treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at new Daventry deli, Saddlers.  I highly recommend it; we had a really nice lunch, plus some cakes (cupcake is tres bon) – the only downside was they’d run out of Prosecco (I was after some bubbly after such a good morning).  I’m thinking though that many of my bridal related activities seem to end with cake, a habit I need to stop if I am going to be looking tippety top for The Big Day.

The week days have been no less productive either. Earlier in the week I popped to IKEA and decided there and then against shelling out for tea light holders for these reasons; 1. they cost money. 2. We don’t need 300 tea light holders in our future life together.  So I had a flash of genius (Mother may disagree) and have asked our mates to collect up their empty jam jars and get them to me.  Anyone supplying 15 or more gets a jar of my home-made chutney to enjoy.  The plan is to put some nice ribbon round the top, put a candle in and hey-presto – a FREE tea light holder, and more money for wine, huzzah!!

Finally last night I met with my buddy who also does floristry to talk flowers. She had pics of other stuff she’s done and it all looked really lovely.  We had a good talk about what I liked and didn’t like and she had the great idea of using ranunculous in the button holes.  This was very exciting, believe me!!!  Unfortunately I hadn’t prepped quite enough as I don’t really have a firm budget idea for flowers. I’m thinking 600? Is that fair? Anyhoo, let’s see what she comes back with…

The 12 million dollar dog… July 3, 2008

When I popped out at lunch I heard a debate on the Jeremy Vine show, sparked by a woman who’d left 12 million dollars to a dog, and then a further few billion to animal charities, in her will.

Some irate listeners were calling this a ‘wicked’ thing to do, as there were so many starving children in the world, and there was this mad woman giving a pup riches beyond its wildest dreams (not sure cash would be a canine dream).

Oof well, it made me cross to hear. I’m not an animal lover, but that wad is that woman’s – to do with what she liked, surely!? You can’t expect people to be forced to give their inheritance to stave off poverty and hunger – that’s the job of governments isn’t it?

Frock Shock and Lush Locks April 13, 2008

Just had 2 wedding related weekends. The first was a trip to a friends in Wiltshire, who are marrying in September this year. Leaving the boys to play golf/tennis/pool, we ladies made our way into town to have a gander at the bridesmaid dress selection (the gang: b2b, bm2b, another mate and me).

The morning was spent with one of the gals gamely trying on every bridesmaid dress possibility we could find, whipping frocks on and off in a flash. Most were totally lush although there were a few shockers in there which looked great on the hanger but clearly weren’t designed with human bodies in mind.  However, the shock to me really was the cost of them all.

They were really good quality and nice designs, but heck we were looking at £150 minimum for most of the dresses!!  With five bridesmaids of my own to think about, I suddenly got panicky about the potential cost this could rack up to. Now, I don’t want my gals in hessian sacks, but I’m loathe to spend nearly 200 bucks on each dress. 
It’s not that they’re not worth it (said with a hair-swishing L’Oreal move), it’s just that the prospect of spending £1k on dresses alone doesn’t fill me with cheer.  So, the bridesmaid dresses are now at the top of my list of Things To Worry About (also included: invites, my dress, my hair, the weather, shoes, the speeches etc etc).

Anyhoo, another weekend, another wedding event, this time the wedding of two friends of ours in Hitchin.  Gorgeous venue and a super evening and momentously fabulous hair from the new Mrs.  Lovely tresses tumbled over her shoulders in loose curls with bits gathered at the back of her head in a kind of Grecian stylee. It looked lovely and the sort of thing I’d like to have I reckon.  Meant to take a picture but inevitably got hammered and bundled onto the dancefloor instead.

Next weekend there’s no wedding related events or incidents planned, yet, but in the meantime, Tuesday brings a Bridal Summit Dinner with another mate who’s a b2b.  Flowers and colour schemes I think are top of our agenda. Plus those blimmin dresses as well, of course…

 

 

 

 

In a tizz, over the tent April 2, 2008

Feeling a bit scaredy this morning, we just got through the marquee final costs and, well, it’s lots.  I wouldn’t get much change from £7,500 – put it that way.  Yowzers!!  So, I’m now going to rationalise it in the form of a list, to get rid of my panic:

1. This is how much marquees cost. Get over it.

2. Having a marquee means we can bring in our own caterers and booze, which is cheaper than having in-house/hotel people.

3. We can keep partying as long as we like – a marquee doesn’t have a closing time!

4. It means we can have our do overlooking some lush countryside, and people can camp in the field.

5. There are no venues that can accommodate our 200 guests, plus 100 evening guests (apart from those with marquees).

OK. Am feeling a bit better now.  The boy doesn’t have these panicky moments but simply accepts it’s going to cost lots and offsets this against the fact it’s going to be the most fantastico day! 

Right, with all that blah out the way I can now look forward to a weekend of bridezilla heaven.  We’re off to friends’ in Wiltshire along with another set of smug-marrieds-to-be, which means there’s three brides-to-be en masse! Huzzah! Can’t wait to talk hymns, flowers, bridesmaids, shoes, invites and so on. I think the boys will revert to watching sport, playing sport and drinking beer. Each to their own!