The wedding fund

Ideally, our wedding fund would be limitless. But it is most definitely not.

So here we are with one year, eight months and four days to go; Mr M and I are saving away like crazy squirrels saving nuts over winter. We’ve cut down on doing ‘fun stuff’ (we haven’t totally cut it out as its important to relax every so often), and we’re saving as much as possible from our wages to put together a deposit for our house (Mr M’s job) and for our wedding (my job).

Although our families have said they’ll contribute where they can, they themselves have not got endless amounts of money, nor do we want them to fork out all their own savings on one day. So it’s another case of wedding DIY!

This is totally fine with us. We can have what we want without interference or conditions as to what the money is used for, and we can set and (hopefully) stick to a budget that works for us.

I don’t want to pretend or make out that we’re only spending a couple of thousand on our wedding, because we’re not. We have (I re-phrase, Mr M has) an extremely large family and friend network, which brings out total guest list to around 150 people, which realistically could not be financed by a total budget of £2000. However our budget is less than half the ‘average’ a couple spend on their wedding these days, and is only do-able because of the amount of DIY we are doing, and the amount of corners we’re cutting to enable us to have everything we want.

For example, we’re getting married in the ‘low-season’ for weddings, having two buffets instead of full sit down meals, not having a free bar, sourcing products from new companies with cheap rates, or using companies we can get discounts from and making as much as possible ourselves.

I am even saving pennies in a jar. Well, in fact I have two jars; one jar for ‘big money’ i.e. £1 and £2 coins, and another jar for coppers and silver coins. What is quite handy, is that the jars I’m putting the coins in can only be opened by smashing them – so I can’t cheat and take money from them early!

But saving money is hard. There are so many beautiful things that I see on blogs and websites, and where I can make some things DIY style, that isn’t possible for everything. For example, we’d love a live band. But the budget says that can’t happen. I’d also love a fireworks display to end the evening. But the budget says that definitely can’t happen.

However, at the end of the day, the thing I am most concerned about is marrying Mr M. It sounds corny, but I honestly cannot wait to be his wife, and have him as my husband. He is a wonderful man and I know we’d have a fab day even if we got married without all the frills and fancy stuff!

So… I’m getting REALLY EXCITED! Only 614 days to go..and counting!!!!