Planning a wedding on a budget.

By Rebecca Sowter-Croll

After recently getting married I know too well that weddings can cost a fortune and the budget can soon spiral out of control. You only have to look in some bridal magazines to see they average the cost of a UK wedding to be over £20,000. I know it is one of the most important and memorable days of your life but when you think you could use those funds to put a deposit on a house it puts things in to perspective.

It was a situation I was in, wanting to have a wonderful day but also having enough left for a deposit on a house.

Even though I was very grateful to my in-laws for allowing me and my fiancé to live with them so we could save for a deposit on our house, it was time to move out. We were lucky in that our family helped to pay for the majority of our wedding but we had to choose, this money could either go to our wedding or our house. As we wanted both we had to be aware of what we were spending on our wedding.

I found ways to cut costs that, hopefully, can help other brides-to-be:

Make your own stationery- I bought favour boxes, card and ribbon off eBay.I went to the local bargain store and bulk bought sweets.I started buying bits and bobs over the year to spread the cost.I did research in to chair covers to find the best prices. In the end I had enough covers and bows for the wedding ceremony. Then for the reception we placed the chairs alternatively with and without covers.It always good to know someone who can bake! In my case my mum made 170 cupcakes for the wedding.In terms of wedding transport try and find a friend who is willing to lend you their car for the day. For my wedding I was lucky and my parents and in-laws had blue and cream cars that matched.Have a wedding on a Friday instead of a weekend, it is cheaper and you have a long weekend to celebrate. This is what we did.My brother in-law filmed the wedding to save the cost of an expensive videographer.We did a lot of research to find the best wedding photography deal. In the end we opted for an all-day photographer and a CD of photographs we could print ourselves. Our photographer was asking for an extra £1,000 for a 30-page wedding album.I had five bridesmaids but bought dresses from a well-known department store that could be worn again.With table decorations I shopped around which paid off –I had chosen a butterfly decoration which were selling for 59p each in a local bargain shop. I saw the same decoration in a well-known high street store for £3.99 a butterfly!Tiara and shoes- I borrowed these from a family member.

In total my wedding cost just under £13,000.00 and eight months later, after viewing 25 houses, we have also bought our first home!

Written by Gemma on June 8th, 2012

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Posted in: budget,Planning,wedding

Debt Advice: Wedding Budgets for This Summer

Getting married is meant to be a happy occasion, but worries about the cost of a wedding can sometimes start to overshadow everything else.

No one wants to begin married life needing debt advice.  Fortunately, there are many steps that can be taken to reduce the cost of a wedding and avoid needing debt consolidation programmes without compromising too much on the celebrations.

One of the most important things that can be done when planning a wedding is to set an affordable budget and then stick to it.  There may be other people willing to contribute to the cost of a wedding, such as the bride or groom’s parents, but care must be taken not to overestimate the limits of their generosity and then end up with outstanding bills to pay.

Once a realistic budget has been established, make a list of everything that will need to be paid for, taking care to include every detail.  One of the common reasons for a bride and groom needing debt advice after their wedding is all of the added extras that no one ever thought to include.  Add up the likely cost of each item on the list and then see if the total falls within the overall budget.

Many couples will come to realise that the total cost of their ideal wedding adds up to more than they expected.  On reflection, there may be items that they can let go from the list without too much difficulty.  However, there are other ways of cutting costs that could bring the total cost of the wedding down and within budget.

One alternative is to get married on a weekday, rather than a weekend.  Couples will be able to book the same venue and service at a lower price simply by moving the wedding to a weekday when there is less competition.  For a summer wedding, perhaps an outside venue could be used to reduce overheads.

Another tip is not to mention that the order is connected to a wedding when dealing with suppliers.  Referring to a ‘family party’ instead will often avoid a premium rate being charged simply because the supplier knows it will probably be paid – this can sometimes be as much as 25 per cent more than the actual price.

Deciding on the guest list can often be one of the major areas of controversy when planning a wedding.  However, if a sit-down meal is involved, costs can be greatly reduced by limiting the number of guests invited.  Many couples decide to keep the number of guests invited during the day to a minimum and ask extended family members and their wider circles of friends along in the evening when the cost per head is much lower.

Although it might seem important to have the perfect wedding day that involves everything the couple desires, the reality is that the wedding day is only the start of their lives together.  Beginning married life searching for ways to consolidate debts following a lavish wedding might leave the bride and groom wishing they had kept their special day a little more low-key.

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Posted in: advice,Budgets,Summer,wedding

Insolvency Service Warns consumers about wedding costs

by Nazma Noor on February 23rd, 2011

The Insolvency Service has recently issued a warning to couples planning their weddings this year – ensure that wedding suppliers are financially stable.

Weddings can be costly and if you’re on a tight budget the last thing you need is one of your wedding suppliers disappearing with your deposit.

A recent example of this happening is Anouska Antonia Semp, the 35 year-old former director of Avorio, a Sheffield-based bridalwear retail company. On 25 January 2011, she was declared bankrupt at Barnsley County Court.

Similarly, another bridal wear shop in Peterborough, Perfections, had one of their business partners file for bankruptcy this year. The landlord of the premises they rented sealed the doors and withheld stock in lieu of outstanding rent payments. As part of the initial investigation by the local Official Receiver(the government officer responsible for investigating financial failure) it was found that the shop had taken more than 80 deposits of around £300 each on wedding dresses. The brides, being unsecured creditors, are now unlikely to receive the wedding dresses they ordered.

It’s not just bridalwear shops you need to be wary of, in August 2010 Peter Gelardi and Pepita Diamand, directors of Wrapit PLC, a failed wedding gift company, were disqualified from acting as company directors for a total of 15 years when an Insolvency Service investigation found they had continued to take payments from customers of at least £872,000 when they knew the company was insolvent. Wrapit’s accounts showed the company had never made a profit and when it collapsed in 2008 there were 72,000 undelivered wedding gifts for which the company owed over £4 million.

The Insolvency Service has advised anybody planning their wedding this year to make a few simple checks before paying deposits or entering into a contract with a wedding supplier or venue. Below are the checks and how you can make them:

You can check if a director is subject to a bankruptcy order or has been disqualified from the world of business, on the Insolvency Servuce website database here: Disqualified Directors Search.

Again, this can be checked online for free and more detailed information can be accessed at a charge of £1. You can check for this information on the Companies House website.

If you’re looking for some tips for planning a budget wedding, see the blog we wrote about this last year: Weddings and debt, two things that always go hand in hand? and if you’re in an IVA and want to find out how getting married will affect your arrangement, read our blog about this here: Marriage, Divorce and Debts.

Do you have any tips for planning a wedding, whether they be about how to save or how to protect yourself from financially unstable suppliers? Leave a comment below and share your views now!

By Nazma Noor and is filed under Managing Your Money.
Tagged with: debt, insolvency, shopping, weddings.
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