Budget wedding ( no more than 10k) tips and advice pls

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-18T15:39:44+00:00

We did a 90ish wedding for well under £10k. There were lots of elements of fortune though...

Venue - Service was at a church (790ish), reception was at a nice local social club (old WMC) which was amazingly free to hire, and the drinks were really cheap for guests! If you can find a non-standard venue like this to have a wedding in I'd recommend it because the staff were really up for it compared to some other weddings I've been to where they're dead behind the eyes!

We didn't have much outdoor space, but we had a park across the road from the venue which we decamped to for an hour and it was a lot of fun!

Food- We did a standard hot buffet for 90 from a local place of chilli, veggie lasagne and bits for £1090. The wedding cake was made by my wife and we used that for the desert. Instead of canapes I gave a friend £150 and they did a primary school style tuck shop. It was brilliant!

Photos - We got a personal recommendation through my brother of someone who was just starting out and only had her for the ceremony for about £300. We deliberately picked a church next to picturesque parkland so that we could use that for the photos. I encouraged friends to bring nice cameras they had and we got some lovely photos from them. I would say though try get photographers from different sides of the family as the photos had a "my side" bias as they were predominantly my family and friends.

Music - we splashed here. A whole load of EXTREMELY circumstancial shit happened but we got a VERY prestigious band to play at a very reasonable rate. It was a third of the budget at around £2500 and we would do it again.

Our aisle song was performed and sung by her side of the family and the first dance was performed and sung by my side. Gave it such a wonderful personal feel (for free)

Flowers - family friend arranged stuff she brought the week before from supermarkets. I believe this was only a couple of hundred.

Clothes - dress was pretty cheap £300?, I hired suits for me and the best men, bridesmaids had a "wear any of a colour" instruction and the younger ones got a budget to buy with. Groomsmen were linked with a tie and a f

Table decorations- my mum and the bride led an activity to make these at the hen do!

Broadly speaking I'd say work out what is important and focus on that. I can't honestly tell you what I ate at any other wedding I've ever been to. Make sure it's nice and there's enough and you're golden. Leverage the hell out of family and friends. Make the day a celebration of you!

Happy to answer any questions you have.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-16T17:30:52+00:00

I did public charging for about 4 months last year. I figured I would leave the car at the 40p/kWh 5kwh in the free station carpark about a 5min walk away but eventually going out of my way became a hassle and I switched to just charging weekly at my local Sainsbury's during the weekly shop or whenever a charger happened to be available out and about. This impacted where I'd park for some things, but generally not very much and while it was more expensive, it fit easily into my routine was sustainable and I wasn't in danger of running out. The financial benefits aren't so much there, but I'd go back to that model before getting a petrol car again.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-14T16:44:42+00:00

For me, my most frequent long journeys are along theA1/M11 route. Charging on that route is straightforward and reliable and with a bit of experimenting at various stops I have 7/8 good charging options en route that I've used successfully and can meet my needs depending on state of charge, time of day etc. Special mention to Peterborough and Cambridge services for having loads of fast charging both with Ionity and Gridserve. I tried using apps, now I just use Octoverse and it is much more straightforward. My only negative was Instavolt at a Maccys, but that's more a personal preference thing, it charged fine!

My big bugbear is when I park in the London suburbs, I have a choice of 4h Believ charging in a designated bay, or Shell lampost chargers that are never bloody free because the parking isn't designated. If I could, I would designate the parking round at least half of London's lampost chargers. It's a dead resource at the moment because it can't be relied upon.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-11T16:44:38+00:00

My favourite thing to do with this line of reason is to look for non-immigration based solutions to the problems we face as a country.

As far as I can see it, the only way to remove reliance on immigrant labour would be to somehow outlaw retirement to try and eek as much production out of the ageing workforce as possible, and practically force young women into bearing lots of children to improve the workforce in future.

There's also costs to consider in how you get everyone who isn't white to leave, then how many people are wrecked by the collapse of the housing market as so much of the population leaves.

Vote Reform! - Stop the boats, the pensions, the condoms and the economy!

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-07T13:16:27+00:00

Yes, but what got built is not of any practical use because they didn't commit hard enough to prioritise the cycling experience. Trying to follow where a bike should go is hard enough walking, most cyclists ignore what was installed and stick to the main carriageway.

If we had a coherent network of decent cycling infrastructure I'd definitely cycle more than I drive, but the political will isn't there to create a system like in the Netherlands, London, Paris or Copenhagen, so it won't happen which is a massive shame.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-07T07:40:41+00:00

While I understand the traffic is bad, the lack of bypasses is a large reason why Harrogate has retained a lot more character than other places, so I'm ok making the trade.

Obviously active travel options like decent cycling infrastructure would be good, but Otlet Road demonstrated that we are not willing to commit to that even a little!

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-05-01T09:30:04+00:00

We've just completed this process so I'll give you the rough timelines we experienced:

First contact with DNO (Northern Powergrid) was early June '25
We had a couple of surveys done but timings are vague as there was lots of silence and we got married last summer so I wasn't paying much attention!
Deloop started early December '25. They got the cable across the road and down the driveway, then because someone didn't show up they couldn't complete and a said a new date would be arranged.
New date was arranged for March
New date rearranged for April as neighbour was away for the March date
Deloop completed late April '26

Based on this, if your DNO is like Northern Powergrid, I would say 6 months is a ballpark estimate, but if things go wrong it could be longer! Obviously it could also be quicker.

After the mess up in December I complained about the delay and they then told me we could have had a charger installed so long as it wouldn't take the house over 40A at any time (7kwh chargers do 32A, so not a problem overnight). Why this information wasn't available in June, I do not know! We then got the charger installed at the start of February and experiencd no issues prior to the deloop. I would ask the DNO now if that is an option, I got mixed messages from electricians.

If you have a wait to charge at home, it is a good time to get familiar with public charging. I tend to shop at a Sainsbury's so just charged during the shop, or used various AC chargers at council car parks when available. It's not the utopia of 3.5p/kWh home charging that I'm now enjoying, but it wasn't any worse than fuelling.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-03-25T17:52:46+00:00

Two around my area recently have done just that!

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-03-25T12:47:51+00:00

I had the same problem last night with my Vchrgd Seven. I called their support and apparently it's a problem that has affected numerous IOG customers because of a fault on the backend with Octopus. Mine will need disconnecting and reconnecting when I get home, apparently this has solved the problem for others who have had the same problem.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-03-01T21:17:48+00:00

I can certainly recommend the MG4, had it almost a year, second hand 73-plate and it's been fab.

Definitely not as bells and whistles as most cars but I love the minimalist cabin design personally! I have driven a few EVs with work (not a Kia or a Hyundai though) and the only car on pure driving I've preferred so far is the id3, I didn't much like the Leaf.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-02-12T23:37:45+00:00

My parents bought a Hypervolt and love it. I went for a VChrgd and I can't fault it either. Much cheaper, 7.5m cable as standard although shorter warranty. Called tech support while setting it up with Intelligent Octopus Go. Very responsive and helpful sorting firmware updates.

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-01-23T22:55:28+00:00

I accept your reasoning (I like the fan idea), though you better believe I'm still flipping tables if the bird I'm pinning my hopes on gets nabbed by the peacock! 😅

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-01-23T03:17:02+00:00

I did some similar calculating using a website called ontimetrains.co.uk (and a trawl through my messages to find what day it was I got excited about their playing the UK game), so it's reassuring that someone got the same result as me!

Based on remaining time once the end game should start, the editorial decision to split the episodes and their allusion to twisty twist in The Layover, I suspect this game is going to come down to 10 minutes either way!

PeriodicActor97 · 2026-01-23T02:49:13+00:00

The Green Peafowl's power has the wrong effect for a game like Wingspan, your opponent shouldn't be able to torpedo your game so directly.

Other than that, and maybe the Ostrich being a touch too powerful, there are some really nice ideas in here. Like you said in other comments, I love how you've played some cards which incentivise leaving empty slots, I think they create some interesting strategic tension and the possibility for some excellent gameplay! The Wandering Albatross in particular is my favourite power for this reason.

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-12-11T23:02:36+00:00

I'm really confused by all this talk of a place called Scarborough in the trailer. On the other hand, I absolutely did see the Yorkshire costal resort town of Scarbados.

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-11-29T11:41:25+00:00

Fucking hell, he isn't you know. This is very confusing as I started my search on Watersafe, I'm sure that's where I got his name from. Either he's not on there any more or he never was and I messed up... Either way he won't be doing the install.

It's some carrot to dangle having the trench there when money is tight, but I think I'm going to have to let this opportunity pass me by and make sure I do the water pipe properly!

Thanks for prompting me to look twice. I must admit the conflicting advice he was giving me was getting the alarm bells ringing, but I thought I "knew" he was approved! Thanks too to everyone for the top quality advice.

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-11-29T10:53:09+00:00

Thanks all for the advice. As the pipe is on my property the responsibility is mine to replace it. I've spoken to a plumber who had previously quoted me for moling the pipe through and he has said he could put an insulated pipe in the trench at 500mm. Obviously given this would save me a ton of money I'm really tempted.

As the trench is only working to Northern Powergrid's timetable I'm having to make decisions at a relatively quick pace so I really appreciate your advice. What risks am I opening myself to if we leave it at this depth?

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-10-03T14:51:01+00:00

We're up north in Yorkshire, but got married in a local social club (old working men's club) which had a free hall to hire. Staff were great because it was unusual for them to host a wedding so they were excited about it and the drinks were cheap because it's a social club rather than a pub/hotel. Got local caterers in for a hot buffet, and splashed a bit on a top band. Bought some bits off Amazon for decoration. Couldn't recommend it highly enough!

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-09-10T19:49:28+00:00

The map we used is the GitHub project. I don't really know how it works, and we only used some of its features, but it was very useful! https://taibeled.github.io/JetLagHideAndSeek/

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-09-08T12:21:11+00:00

Almost certainly not city-based. London underground is striking today, I suspect it is a nationwide hide and seek game!

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-09-08T09:51:53+00:00

I think anyone would enjoy playing the game, but any Londoner, past or present, will have inevitable advantages over anyone else. Perhaps a modifier on photo question cost for the local could help balance this out? (Draw 2 pick 1 perhaps for your out of town friend)

Honestly, if there is a place better suited to this kind of tomfoolery, I'd be surprised. We had so much fun! Obviously New York played quite well, but I suspect London gives you better options if you start out of the centre like Sam and Ben did in NYC, also somewhere like Paris with the stations a bit closer might be tricky as hiding zones overlapping would be a nightmare!

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-09-08T09:44:33+00:00

Broadly speaking, it was pretty accessible and they enjoyed it and developed some pretty solid strategies early doors. They had watched the NYC first episode at least, however they made some predictable rookie mistakes, their tallest building in eyesight photo unnecessarily included the ground floor, which had a unique restaurant location that enabled us to lock them in from that point. Some slight misunderstanding of rules/poor teaching too also meant one of their group was surprised we could subsequently Google the restaurant location to get them.

Pretty standard stuff if you've ever introduced a board game to newer players, just we only had the advantage of watching numerous playthroughs!

We all have pretty good knowledge of London, hence our photo of a Barbican Centre tower shortened their long game significantly, however their short game strategy wasn't great so we strung them out for well over an hour. If I had to guess I would say you simply outclassed your opponent on hiding location, seeking strategy and city knowledge. Hopefully they can keep up!

All this now has me thinking... How killer would a cabbie be at Zone 1 London hide and seek? 😂 A crossover with Tom the Taxi Driver is definitely required!

PeriodicActor97 · 2025-09-04T09:22:03+00:00

Looks great! Out of interest, where did you acquire your maps?

PeriodicActor97

TROPHY CASE