Wedding Forum - WE DID IT! RECAP with Student Photographer...

Hey, what ingredients are needed for your son to be able to eat the cake?

Im thinking its allergy?
The suggestion I have is maybe the top tier is made specifically for son in mind (by someone) then you get a 2 tier from M&S/waitr0se/tesc0
Below is a pic of our cake from waitr0se
2 tier, sponge with buttercream and jam, florist added the flowers
Cake was £99, flowers were £35

Just an idea?
Or cupcakes if you were not precious about a tier cake?

Or finding someone to make it for you? I bake for friends bday's/events/kids parties etc and if you have any friends with a telent, they may make it and charge ingredients only

However, I know you have mentioned your grandparents are paying so this entire post may be useless about how you can cut back your own costs xx

he is milk PROTEIN intolerant. as opposed to lactose intolerant. Basically he cant have:
animal milk of any kind ie no cows, goats milk etc.
no butter
no cheese
theres a huge list of ingreidients he cant have...
lactose, whey, butter, yoghurt, cheese, and a load of technical sounding stuff that at this time of night i cant really remember off the top of my head. i have to take a list with me everywhere we go. he cant have certain sausages as believe it or not some of them contain milk! its the same with coated chicken. we have to be so careful!

hopefully my grandparents will still be paying for the cake.... they have a few problems atm....

I could get a smaller cake in the same style for cheaper, but im not providing dessert or evening food so was hoping to use wedding cake as a dessert

Could your H2B's name change be delayed a bit? Legally it shouldn't cause any problems. As for the cake, we're having four friends each bake a tier, and then if necessary we can decorate it ourselves. You can get things for cake decoration from the high street.

You could save on the honeymoon and cake x

how would i save on the cake if its going to be the wedding dessert and as exlained i have no one that is able to make it. I dont want to have to worry about my son eating something he shouldnt on the day and getting sick afterwards. who's to say he wouldnt sneak a peice of cake, or someone says he can have a peice? The problem we have is that my inlaws have a tendancy of saying yes you can have cake, letting him have a bite, then thinking "oh actually we need to ask mum" so i then say no and they go "oh well we cant take it off him now" then obviously we have to take him home and deal with him having toileting accidents and throwing up for the next week or two. i dont want to have to worry, so all food on the day will be made with ingredients he can have. everytime i have done trial runs to try to make it myself so that he can eat it, it sinks, just like everyone i know who has also tried to bake a cake he can eat, they always sink.

Regarding the honeymoon, this will be £585 to hire a campervan for a week which comes with... (this is taken from the companies website and we like this particular camper, there is no price difference between campervans available)...

Ringo will sleep up to four, two up (best suited to children or small adults) and two down, but you may choose to use the awning for the extra two sleeping berths. Ringo is a Westfalia conversion, so you will get a bit of luxury with the German eye for detail. Fixtures include an electric coolbox (for increased flexibility so that you can take it to the beach if desired), two ring gas cooker, heater and a small sink. There is an electric hook-up facility.

A free standing, framed awning is provided so if you want to stay for a night or two you can unload the van and travel light. A bicycle rack is available on request, we do not fit these as standard as they can be cumbersome and a nuisance if not needed.

There is a complementary welcome pack of locally produced products, which we hope will introduce you to the tastes of Cornwall.

Please note that bedding is not provided as standard as most of our customers tend to prefer to bring their own. We can, however, provide bedding at an extra charge of £25 per person for a full set to include duvet, pillow, duvet cover, sheet, pillow case and towel, or any combination at an agreed cost. There are no hidden costs and the following inventory comes as standard on all our vans:-

Outside table and four chairs
Two campbeds for the awning if required, [please note for hygiene reasons we do not supply sleeping bags].
Outdoor camping light, one disposable BBQ
Outdoor gas ring and gas bottle, fire extinguisher
Cooking pot, frying pan, two saucepans and a kettle
Tea pot, cafetiere and two coffee cups [for a bit of class] Salad bowl and servers 4 place settings + cutlery
Corkscrew, bottle opener and tin opener
Wine glasses and tumblers Veg knife, cheese grater, whisk, wooden spoon
Chopping board, measuring jug
Other “things of purpose” which we thought would come in handy.

Insurance for multiple drivers (subject to terms and conditions).
Free covered garaging for your car, or collection from Newquay airport or Truro railway station
A welcome pack of local Cornish farm produce.
A van of the highest specification which is all fired up and ready to go!! (Please note that the Westfalia conversions are left hand drive, - it’s a bit like driving on the continent without the language problems and anyway most type 2's get overtaken rather than do the overtaking)
Unlimited mileage in Devon and Cornwall, other areas by agreement
Free standing awning with inner sleeping area (sleeps 2) if required.
Cycle rack if required
A suggested itinerary of local attractions eg walks, events where to eat and drink can be provided, we seek to provide you with the latest information of what‘s on in Cornwall so please tell us which of the following is your particular interest area:-
Food and drink
The arts, including galleries and theatres
Walking and other Leisure activities
Gardens
Children’s activities.

Then there is £200 for the round trip to get there and back. then we have £215 left which we can spend on fuel costs during the week, food, meals out, swimming, whatever we choose to do.

We had this same holiday 6yrs ago (just over). We had this holiday in a car tho, and it was cramped to say the least. This was the only holiday we have ever had and likely to be the only one which we will be able to have for a good few years at least. This is why i say that the honeymoon is non negociable. we only want to stay in the couuntry, its not like we will be whisking off to the bahamas when we could be having a honeymoon here in the uk to save money. the uk honeymoon is what we want.

sounds good to me... will keep looking at suits, regarding doing the buffet myself, im not sure i will have time, i have my boys in school, then getting reception ready, then h2b's collecting the boys whilst me & BM's get ready. the day before... the kids will be in school & i we will be collecting one of our BM's as she has no way of getting here, & her son, we will just want to relax as the day itself wont be relaxing at all due to rushing around sorting the venue lol

yeh i completely see what your saying however, like i say, he would still get some of the other cake somehow. my son hes 5, and he worked out that if he gets the hoover, a box, or anything he can stand on, or even a roll of wrapping paper to extend his arm reach, he can undo the bolt at the top of the kitchen door, get into the kitchen, drag a chair, stand on it, stand on the work top, and reach the chocolate which is kept on top of the kitchen cupboards in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping. our dog is useless and doesnt warn us when someone is sneaking around, so we only find out when we go to wake him up and hes fallen asleep and melted the chocolate over his face! hes a smart kid! he will find someway of sneaking a piece somehow lol hence all food is being made so he can have it without us worrying about his health afterwards. our guests will just have to deal with the fact that somethings may taste or be textured slightly differently than they are used to. lol everyone that eats here is used to pizza tasting funny, they are used to having cheeseless pizza when they eat here and used to the bread tasting different as we feel there is no point in buying double when we could just eat what he has to. obviously there are days when we will feed the kids then decide we want something that he cant have.

i know it may seem that i am making excuses, however, im not trying to be awkward, just trying to get my wedding in order whilst making completely sure my son doesnt get sick because of it.

No, I get you completely, last thing you need is for him to be crafty and eat something he's not meant to, just wondered if it was an option, but having a young one myself I know then can be sods when it comes to having things they are not supposed to!

Good luck with your lemon cake option, if that works it will be fab!

Im also contemplating selling my soul in return for wedding funding.... who knows a cross roads demon?

You've done a great job already with what you've made/done.

I'm sure you could definately get the suit cheaper.

Is there any way you could bring in extra cash, eg selling some of the kids old toys or clothes on the bay? Or a car boot?

When I moved in with h2b, we did a car boot and raised £350...and most of what we sold was tat I thought no one would buy in a million years...

If there's a bar at the venue, I'd scrap the toast drink.

Could you maybe do it as a pot luck supper? Every guest bring a dish, kinda thing - maybe instead of a wedding gift? We've been to a few pastes like that, and the food is often better than a basic buffet and it acts as a good ice breaker too. That would get rid of the catering costs and I certainly wouldn't begrudge making a dish.

Xx

I have to admit if it were me, even though I've personally not had a holiday in years either I'd delay the honeymoon and do it for our 1yr anniversary instead, means an extra year to save that money and it DOES seem to make up quite a lot of the money that you need to save.

But it would stretch out the saving more, cause unless you stumble onto the cash whats the other option? delay and save for that long anyway?

I think it's definitely worth thinking about x

yes putting it back is always an option, we were going to get married before i even knew this site existed, however i fell pregnant and we put the wedding back using the money for our newborn. We then were going to get married a year or so later, however we were evicted as the landlord "couldnt renew our tenancy" (turns out he wanted to up the rent by £20 a month but wasnt willing to ask us to pay it so evicted us instead) which meant our savings went on rent & deposit for this place) then we were going to get married march this year but due to redundancy & personal family situations it all became too stressful & he broke the engagement off about a year before we were due to get married. Then he agreed to marry me in feb this year.

We have a deal, this deal is that we will save for the wedding but not pay out on things that mean it has to be done by a certain time ie save the catering money, the venue money etc then once we have all the savings for everything we would then pay for it all in one go and set the year to get married. I was just hoping to do it by 2015. I also stated 6days ago (my birthday) that i want to be married before my 30th (2017). Our deal is that if we need to use the savings, we would, hence no paying anything that requires a date.

Am just bummed that Im not sure I will make 2015.

Foound a good website... looking for my shoes still so lets hope they can get them... they will only be £5 if they can!

yeh the £5 site it is.... its like £land, but £4 more expensive! haha.... unfortunetly, all the ones I like, they dont have in my huge foot size, so i have to wait in the hope they will get them in the colour/style/size i need. They even get ones extremely similar to the ones my son chose for me (the forum favourite too)

OK so today I did a trial of a single tier cake...

This is the first "Proper" cake trial using packet mix my eldest can have! This is ONE packet mix for an 8inch round cake. Think I need 2 packet mixes to get the height yes? This also uses vodka to stick heart shaped icing on & to clean the icing sugar off of them once they have been placed in correct places. The Heart in the middle will not be there and the hearts will only be round the edge but due to the lack of height.... it had to be done this way. It is lemon sponge with butter icing in the middle (using spread my son can have rather than actual butter due to his allergies), plus royal ready to roll covering it.



This is the design I based it around...

hmmm... it was supposed to be lemon sponge.... it tastes like plain sponge! then it was also a tad dry... so plan for next week is to have the same mix but just add some lemon juice to it, this should (hopefully) make it more moist & taste how a lemon sponge should... LIKE LEMON! lol but thankyou. I also think that, I will need 1 mix for a 6inch cake (this one is 8inch), 2 for an 8inch, & 3 for a 10 inch. So 6 cake mixes, 1.5kg white icing, 1kg black icing & 1kg red icing (i think 500g wouldn't be enough, rather have too much than not enough).

I have just figured out that for the cake & icing I would be looking at £35 (this also includes eggs & sons spread), then I would need a 6inch tin & a 10inch tin.

To save you having to clean the hearts with vodka after sticking them on you can use white fat such as trex to roll out your icing, it will save you getting that shiny effect. So white fat on the work top and the lightest dusting of icing sugar on the rolling pin. Once rolled out to the desired thickness smooth over with the flat of your hand to clear any white marks

EDIT - SORRY THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO NON ADVERTISING RULES OF THE FORUM

Need to put this somewhere I won't lose it... so here it is....

A penny, so your never broke
A piece of string, so you can always hold things together
A marble, incase you loose yours,
A gob stopper, to stop you saying something regretful,
A elastic band , to stretch beyond your means,
Some sweeties for your sweet tooth
And a chocolate, just because we all need a bit of smooth pleasure in our lives,

well this has been an interesting few days... made the cake, turned out "not bad" (h2b's words), & also showed a woman on fb that she can make a post box for about £5... well that was it... she now wants me to make her one (i showed her a picture of mine) & shes giving me £15! not too bad if i do say so myself!

yeh the time before this I used loads of pancake lemon juice... when baking lemon smelt over powering but when done it was just right. so will use pancake lemon juice again as before!

figured out how to make tasting drinks cheaper!

our Christmas budget this year is rather small so instead of buying Christmas presents for adults we are buying "brew your own" kits! so I have worked out each bottle of wine works out to be 73p! Which means that instead of buying 11 bottles of wine at £5 per bottle costing £55.... I can make 30 bottles of wine for £22! (the refill kits come in 6 bottles or 30 bottles). which knocks £33 off of our wedding budget!

I have just got the 2nd trial cake out of the oven, so am now just waiting for it to cool before I take it out the tin. I bought a cake leveler as someone suggested, so will see how this works out, then with the butter icing (using the stuff my son can have), then the the thick white icing, along with black iced hearts.... the vodka worked brilliantly last time! This time however I have put alot more lemon flavouring into the mix, slightly more oil so that it is both more lemony & more moist.

I feel kinda lonely today.... my kids took themselves to bed this afternoon for a nap, h2b got sent home from work ill & took himself to bed, I cooked stew, but h2b barely ate anything, I now have lunch for 6 days! Once the 3 of them had eaten they all went back to bed. I woke up feeling as though i had been kicked in the kidney & now I'm sat here all alone, except the dog!

I completed brewing my first batch of 6 bottles lastnight.... it tastes pretty good! I'm really impressed and so this is what my toasting drinks will be!

which means that instead of 11 bottles for £55, it means that i will have 11 bottles for £8.03! saving £46.97!

That's a great saving! Well done!