:) I'm working in Worthing next weekend or at least that sort of area. I love your dress too

Definately bookmarked!

Our budget is £1,000 too, we're under at the moment but still got to sort out the food!
Most other stuff is done now, we've even managed to book and pay for the church in the budget!

Best of luck with the rest of your planning and as for your so-called friend, she's only jealous that you know what you want and will have the day of your dreams before her. xx

hmm.....it's probably a bit early to be having a retihnk but I am :(
Today me and h2b have had another conversation about our guest list and who's coming to what part of the day etc..h2b has been under the impression it was just parents and witnesses going to the registry office and then everyone else to the unity ceremony after whereas I had down ALL immediate family which includes siblings and grandparents, mainly because our registry office allows up to 30 people which fits perfectly.
Soo..I ended up sitting down with him and for the first time PROPERLY doing a guests list for every part of our day, which got to about 90 for the unity ceremony and reception. we then took out the ones we only added cos we felt we should - people we hardly speak to etc, which got us down to about 50/60. Then we took out the ones who would be invited but VERY unlikely to rsvp or turn up, which now gets us down to 40ish.
The problem I now have is that I don't think it seems 'worth it' to have basically 2 full ceremonies for the sake of an extra 10 or so people more than our registry office allows. I am noe debating whether it would be better to just go to the registry office with our witnesses for the legal bit then have the unity ceremony AND wedding ceremony together...
I don't mind this idea but my doubt is how 'proper' (cos I can't think of a better word lol) will it look to my guests if my best friend runs the wedding and unity ceremony as originally planned??? OR do we swallow the extra cost and hire an officant/celbrant??? the one I've seen charges £400 which seems good for what we would want but thats still £400 over our budget :(
What do you all think.....?

What a pain that you have more people than will fit in the room but not enough people to warrant two ceremonies! Maybe you could do the legal bit with just witnesses and then have the unity with everyone? Or could you get a bigger reg office room and include the unity bit?

I did find out today though that Eastbourne council charge £25 for outdoor events, which includes mock/humanist style weddings so thats another cost to factor in although it's a small one so might use the money my fil gave us for xmas for this,

OMG!!! I think our budget is going to be reduced even more but for a good reason....I have been feeling off colour for a few days and h2b asked if I could be pregnant. well I have decided to do 2 tests (as I always have them around somewhere) and they are BOTH positive EEK!! H2B isn't home atm more a friend of his has treated him to a meal out but I had to tell someone :) I estimate the new baby will be due around July next year so we will still have another year to get a wedding sorted and for me to fit back into my dress. Of course I think I better gjust get the doctor to do a test too as I haven't used these tests before so don't know how good they are. I will let you all know when it is confirmed :)

congratulations! hope everything goes ok!

ooo how exciting!! Sooooo do tell? Have you had it confirmed yet?????

We was planning a £1000 Wedding, but since bringing it forward a year we have now more than halved it. Me and the WTB believe its not about the money you spend but who you spend it with! =)

Phew finally made it back online. I can confirm I am pregnant again and this one is due at the end of July so almost a year exactly before our wedding date :) I have really been suffering with morning sickness though as predicted so xmas wasn't as fun as I would like but theres always next year. To cheer my self up I have brought me a new wedding item today which I have been eyeing up for months but didn't have the money. It was reduced to just £25, bargin :D
Hope everyone else had a great xmas and the wedding planning is coming along well
.

Congrats on the baby news Linzmum. That hair peice is lovely, a total bargain well done you!

Lovely hair piece. Congratulations on your news too

That head piece is GORGEOUS! Where did you get it from?

Thanks everyone. I can post the details of where I got the head piece on peoples wall if they want as theres other lovely sale items or he lady does made to order items. the one I got was originally only £45 anyway so still a bargin.
I'm hoping I win the Jan power user prize lol. It would really help us out for the rest of our plans.

yea I'm dispointed we couldn't afford eastbourne pier. WAY out of any budget we could have lol. plus theres no disabled access which we would need. I'll post the details now for you. there are quite a few venues along eastbourne seafront though which oly charge for food. I recently booked a hotel opposite the pier for a charity event in april and its even cheaper than our otel but has a time limit on hall hire whereas our venue has given us the hall for the whole day.

our budget is 1000 pounds as well, but we feel like we're missing out on so much we wanted and settling for second or third best in everything. it's been so disheartening to me, we cant afford cars, flowers, a meal (having a cheap working mens club hall, with a buffet a friends doing) no cars, no photographer, cheap dresses (13.99 for mine tho i like it, my first choice was £99) cheap second hand shoes, cant begin to tell you what we have had to cut back on, trying to stay positive and remember the ceremony is important not what it costs. Love your ideas though

Janie i can understand where ur coming from, i feel like we r cutting back on so much and dont know how we r going to manage it, im just trying to stay positive! although our budget is about 3 grand but its constantly shrinking! just try and grab as many bargains as u can and maybe look at ways of raising some money towards it? such as car boot sales etc x

Jem how r u managing that?! my registrar is nearly 400! it is hard but shop around, although im not doing very well atm so i would like any tips ppl have to share aswell! x

Janie have you phoned round the taxi firms? most now have posh cars they use for weddings. we got a quote for under £40 for the day but we don't really need a car tbh luckily. It's a shame you live so far from me though as I would have offered to do your photos :(( £350 is probably the best you will get unless you prehaps ask for a discount if you let the photographer put your images on their website. you could also try asking on various sites for a student photographer, some are really good and will often work for nothing or very little as long as they can use the images in their college work etc.
can I ask how much your ceremony is costing? hope you don't mind. If I can help in anyway with idea, advice or to help you source items at a good price then I would be happy to do so. I have found lots of great companies offering great prices since starting this thread :)
(same goes for anyone else wanting some help/ideas)

we r not having a photographer as we cant afford one but we r going to ask all our guests to bring along their cameras and play photographer for us, should get some lovely shots but also it means not one family member is stuck doing it all in the day, everyone will have their slot lol ur doing really well so far though Janie and linz, look forward to more bargainous ideas! lol x

how much r ur rings costing? yes the registrar fee is quite a bit isnt it! not only that but we have to pay 150 to the venue for costs of their ceremony liscense but then they dont charge for use of the venue, just food and drink so not too bad, i would have got married in a registry office quite happily as there r some lovely ones but the one in our town is disgusting! i didnt want the nasty grey building in the back of my photos, plus with the venue we have its all done in one place so no need to travel to another venue for reception. my mil is doing our flowers and decor and cake as our presents and she used to do flowers so thats a bonus! its just the bridal party and groomsmen and rings that r looking quite costly! dont need wedding cars and not having a honeymoon, them things r just not that important and dont have the budget for them. we have a dj booked for 210 which i thought was good, any other tips ladies? x

wow bargain! i have white gold rings so would ideally like white gold to match them, which makes it more expensive! lol will have a nosey at ur pics lol

We saw them just out of chance and fell inlove then partner saw the price and her heart dropped. Just by getting them shipped from america we saved £30 on each ring. I am happy to wait for them to be posted lol. We really wanted something no-one else has had so they are perfect.

Total budget is sat at £295 :) who said weddings had to be extravagant lol

we cant get ours below £899 (£699 if you take off the buffet fee that MIL and FIL have offered to pay for).
But having said that we do seem to be getting a lot of things cheaper than we budgeted for so the overall cost may come down.

If worded properly no-one should be able to tell the difference, as you'll already be married at that point it is more of a announcement of love to each other rather than an official ceremony, isn't it? x