I am currently right in the thick of it with less than 6 months until the big day. DIY weddings are a very romantic thought and you really appreciate every ounce of effort you and your other half are putting in. Having worked in hotels for the last 10 years, I really didn’t want to get married in a hotel as its just too familiar and I worried it wouldn’t feel as special to me as it does for the brides I have looked after in my time.
At the start when I thought about doing a DIY wedding, I underestimated the work involved but still would not have change it now. I had many contacts from working in hotels…..so i knew who I was going to work with and not based on price, 100% based on reliability and quality of work. We are lucky enough to be able to use my fiancés grannies old dance hall. This dance hall was famous back in the day and was one of the best places to host a dance. In the last 30 years it has been pretty much vacant.
The hall is perfect and very little work is needed there but all of the yard and garden had to be completely updated. I never imagined that I would be budgeting for a mini digger and gravel when I started on this quest!
The three big costs that we have come up against include;
Catering
We were so lucky to meet a really good guy who has genuine interest in working with us and who is passionate about what he produces. He worked with us to create a unique menu and has also been a fountain of knowledge for us. Conor from North Dublin Caterers.
Draping
I had a contact from work and when I got married there was no other company I would even dream of talking to than Gorilla Design. They have been great with understanding the idea i have in my head! They are also providing all of the lighting – John from Gorilla Design
Fit Out
In this category this includes your tables, chairs, knives, forks, crockery, linen – basically everything that you need to deck the place out. I found this one of the most difficult parts. I shopped very hard for this one and there were companies that were offering really cheap rates but were really poor at getting back to me and also had excuses every time I phoned to make an appointment to come up and look at the quality of what they had.
I ended up working with the supplier that I felt had the best quality and his stock is all in really good condition. Everyone I spoke to recommended him and said how reliable he was. This was a real budget sucker but Donal worked with me to get to where I needed to be – Donal Select Hire
There were a lot of items that are cheaper to buy in Ikea than rent. I filled up 4 trolley loads in IKEA recently! Outside of these big purchase items there are a couple of things on the legal side that you will have to bear in mind.
1. Insurance – this has been incredibly stressful as we needed to cover ourselves if someone gets hurt as a result of our negligence. We managed to get cover but make sure to ring a broker if you are going down this route.
2. Bar Licence and Bar Extension – If you are providing a non cash bar then don’t worry about this part. If you have a company coming in to do a bar make sure they have the correct licence and make sure they apply for a bar extension. If there was an incident at your wedding and someone gets hurt – the first thing the insurance companies will do is look at what precautions and licences were in place. I can also confirm that this way of doing things is not cheaper than booking a hotel as there is so much incorporated in the costs of hotel packages……..you wouldn’t believe the price of renting spoons!
Apart from those few items, it is such a great experience and I can’t wait for people to see what we have managed to put together!
I will make sure to do another blog after the wedding so you can see how it turned out.
Sara xx
Image via beautiful-dissaster
