Next to each item it had the Paypal button “Donate” and people felt secure using a trusted company. I have now been roped in to creating this page for a few engaged friends – it works! We had a range of items from £12 to £750 so no one felt pressure to contribute large amounts.

Couples should not be ashamed of asking for cash!

xxx

We’re tying the knot on a Thursday. So guests need time off. We’re getting married in the middle of no where. So guests need more time off to travel. And they need to spend to travel with the nearest airport 2 hrs. Oh and there is no public transport to the venue.

On the other hand we’ve got a venue where every guest will stay on site for 3 nights, making it more a mini break not just the wedding, we’ve got an ‘all inclusive’ price for accom/food/all alcohol which can be paid in instalments before the wedding or on the day. As everyone is in site no hanging around or paying for taxis.

We looked at all the weddings we have been too, and for most of them we have built either a mini break or holiday around it. Majority of our friends have told us they are making a holiday out of it. Where we haven’t been able to afford anything of th guest list we have given a token present – or I’ve made their wedding cake – and then we send a fantastic first anniversary present instead which in a way I think is nicer as not everyone remembers.

Our save the dates are out there & so far no declines just promises of attendance which is great! I think the bouncy castle at the venue is what swung it.

Over and out!

Of course, I don’t want to cause my guests great expense, but being on a tight budget, we’re limited as to what we can do. For this reason, our venue isn’t very central (we did our best to keep it central, but it was nigh on impossible to find a venue that ticked all the boxes), but it’s near a train station that has a good connection back into central London. I’ve also done my research on local hotels (with the help of our lovely florists, random I know!) and put together the list on our wedding website, along with a rough estimate of price. Next on my list is to ring some local taxi companies for quotes so no-one gets any nasty surprises on the day. We’re not getting married till 3pm, so I imagine that people who live just outside of London will travel down on the day and therefore only need to pay for one night in a hotel – we hadn’t planned it like this, but it has worked out rather nicely.

In terms of food and drink, we’re having a hot and cold fork buffet and providing welcome drinks and drinks during the meal. I wouldn’t even dream of not doing that! And we’re also doing an evening buffet for the evening guests. After that, it’s a paid bar, although we might put a couple of hundred behind the bar to start everyone off, but that’s something we’re yet to finalise.

Gift list – we’re not having a traditional one. Like a lot of people have said, having guests attend our wedding is the best present And if people feel the urge to buy us something, we’re asking for IKEA vouchers or a donation to charity so people can give as little or as much as they like.

The only big cause for concern is the travel between the registry office and reception venue… It’s only a 20min journey, but we’re worried about the logistics of it. The majority of our guests are family who we expect will drive. There are a couple of guests who will be using public transport to get around and these are obviously our main concern. We don’t really want them hanging around for taxis and paying a fortune. We did look into hiring a coach to transport everyone, but coaches only seem to carry 60 people and we’ve got 80… Our alternative is to ask those people driving to offer up their spare seats and we can match people without cars to those with, but I don’t know if that will work.

All in all, we want to do as much as we can for our guests, but I think budget constraints can come into it for the bride and groom as much as it can for the guests. But if you can do your best, no-one can ask more than that on both ends

xx

I had my fair share of weddings to attend whilst I was single and, whilst I enjoyed attending and was excited to be a part of the day, the cost always stung a little bit -time off work, travel, hotels, new frocks, you know the score! So I’ve been really conscious during our wedding planning of not doing anything that will set anyone back too much – we’re getting married in a city centre so most of our friends and family are within a short drive/train journey/taxi ride away and there’s plenty of choice of hotels near our venue (Travelodge all the way up to MalMaison!). In the spirit of things the lorry driver enquired at our venue about how much an open bar for the evening would cost – our wedding lady visibly flinched before asking us to think very hard about it, as the few ‘open bar’ weddings she’d done inevitably ended in some guests taking complete advantage and getting beyond wasted. So I don’t feel too bad about not having an open bar (although we are planning a welcome drink for the evening guests).

I was kind of ‘anti’ guest lists and we were planning to discreetly spread the word that if people wishes to get us something, cash or vouchers would be very welcome – until we attended a wedding the other week where the couple had asked for either cash or vouchers, and I noticed quite a few people still turned up with wrapped presents. We’re now thinking of having a small John Lewis list, prices from around £10-£50, as it clicked that there are people who just prefer to give a ‘presenty’ present and may find a list useful.

My final piece of brilliance (actually suggested by my cousin who got married a few years back) is to have our date on 02/02 – that way we get the cheaper rates of a winter wedding and can spend more on the pretty loveliness, plus we’ve all had at least one pay day since Jesus’s birthday and won’t be feeling quite so skint compared to a wedding before or over Christmas. That’s the theory anyway, I’ll let you know how it pans out!

And after that weddingy dissertation I’m off to work on my actual dissertation…x

xxx