weddings & civil partnerships

Celebrating your wedding or civil partnership will probably be one of the biggest parties you will ever host. But as the stars of the show too, you will need all the help you can get. Food Solutions aim to take the mystery out of marriage costs. We have managed these happy events over the past 27 years and have even catered for our own family weddings. We are happy to do as much or as little as you want. But first you need to know roughly how much your wedding or civil partnership is going to set you back, because in an ideal world every celebration should be unique to you, your family and friends not a ‘package’ devised by a caterer.

You may wish to be like a ‘guest’ at your own wedding-conversely you may want complete control. Read on and Food Solutions will help you decide what kind of marriage you want and how much that marriage is likely to be.

The Menu

Probably the first thing to decide is the theme of your celebration and what sort of food you want to offer your friends and family. Take into account what season you are getting married in and even more crucially what your total budget is, most important is that you both like it. Weddings don’t have to be expensive. Good simple fresh food can be prepared for as little as £6.00 per person (delivery only in central Brighton). A Champagne reception with a choice of 5 canapés could cost a mere £35.00 per head. Three course sit downs tend to come in at £40-£50 per person. Basically it’s best to decide what sort of food you want to offer before you choose the venue. Everything is feasible at a price, but often the type of venue and time of year will determine the style of menu and service. FSP will advise as to the best way to feed you and your families and friends given your budget. For inspiration just look at the sample menus section of this website.

The Cake

The cake is the centrepiece and has to have a wow factor therefore must be chosen carefully. You may have a creative friend who will make you one at cost price or better still, for your wedding present. It can also become part of your dessert menu so perhaps choose an alternative to the traditional fruit cake eg Croquembouche, Passion cake, Chocolate Fudge cake or even Chocolate and Beetroot cake. The shape and design can also be personally thought about eg heart-shaped, tiered or even themed. For us, the most important thing is that everyone enjoys eating it rather than simply admiring it as some hard sculpture. The cake on our website is a 3-tiered Passion Cake with cream cheese and lemon icing decorated with fresh fruit and wild edible flowers. The cake serves 100 people and costs £250. You can also order cakes from specialist website/companies suchas the Home Cakery or stores eg Waitrose; as a guide expect to pay between £250 - £500 for a fully iced 3-tiered cake and do try to find one that is recommended as some cakes are quite simply made to last thus being not very moist.

The Drink

Well, compared to, the cost of the Brides dress for example, drink can be a very small part of the budget to consider - but how much should you allow? Nothing could be worse than running out. So, to be honest, if you are buying the drink yourself find a merchant prepared to sell to you on sale or return (The Winehouse in Shoreham offers this facility); or simply pop over to France and buy a whole load. Make sure that you taste first whatever you end up buying. If feeling flush, buy expensive Champagne -never buy standard Champers it’s generally got all the appeal of battery acid. Most Cremants are a far better option and usually half the price of bog standard Champagne. White Viogniers and Sauvignons have taken over from Chardonnay as most loved generally. Reds should be Merlot or Shiraz (South American wines are good options here). Keep an eye out for Co-op special offers - half price wines can be astoundingly good value again always taste before you buy in bulk. Depending on the length of the celebrations allow 1 bottle of sparkling per person to cover drinks on arrival and all the toasts. Also allow 1/2 bottle of red and ½ bottle of white per person. If it looks like it is going to be really hot add on ½ bottle of rosé per person. Also allow a pint of beer/lager per male guest. Spirits/cocktails are never necessary. Provide sparkling water and iced tap. Children should only be offered good quality apple, orange juice and water. Venues often want you to pay a hefty corkage or to use their own bars/ drinks packages. This is often the biggest downside of most venues. 

The Venue

Establishing the venue will ultimately determine how many guests you are going to have, there are lots of options all with pro’s and con’s.

A field

Hiring a field for a Glastonbury like wedding feast is a great option. Especially if most of the guests are happy ‘campers’. So long as there is drinking water and at least the promise of a reasonably dry spell, a field can be transformed into a thriving temporary village cum resort, benefiting from seclusion but at the same time precluding the very old and disabled. After a hard night’s celebrating the happy couple can safely retire to their snug Tee Pee that has been personally adorned by the bride/partners closest friends. Guest remove to their own canvas palaces freed from the onerous task of taxiing or walking home. A field with water can cost as little as £500 though sanitation and waste removal considerations have to be addressed. Standean Farm has a perfect one just outside Brighton. Posh fields can cost over £3000 plus VAT though these usually also have a barn that is licensed for ceremonies plus toilets and power. A decent loo facility for men and women will cost around £600 whilst a walk- in mobile chiller (vital in hot weather) will set you back £500.

On the Beach

Let’s face it, these days you can actually get married anywhere you like, anywhere in the world. Whilst a beach ceremony abroad certainly has a lot of plusses it still leaves you with a whole host of friends and family who want to be able to celebrate with you. So, whilst your marriage may be exotic your reception will still probably end up back home in the village hall. 

At Home

Or to be more precise, the parent’s home. It’s never a good idea to open a family home (whosever it is) to more people than it was designed to handle - something always gets trashed. But at the same time a home celebration is very personal and very special. If there’s a decent lawn, a marquee holds the answer. The smallest proper marquee out there is about 50ft by 20ft and it seats 80 or 8 x 5ft tables each seating 10 people comfortably. Expect to pay around £2000 for such a tent depending on the quality of finishing, flooring and equipment. Then allow £8-£10 per guest to cover the cost of table and service equipment. We recommend ‘The Great Outdoors’ marquee hire company in the Brighton area and, for simply stunning interiors, ‘Fabricate’.

A’Venue’

The best venues are the most flexible and the most accessible. Ones that don’t try to sell you their own wedding packages which are usually terribly expensive and not what you would have chosen anyway. The best thing about having your celebration at a venue is that at the end you walk away, no mess, no damage, no clearing up (some venues do allow you to clear your self but, hey, it’s your wedding!!). Hove Rugby Football Club in Hove Recreation Ground is the best value venue in town currently. Charging only £200 hall hire. Without marquee extensions it can seat over 100 guests. It also benefits from a fully staffed bar included in the price. Set in a park it’s incredibly child friendly and easily accessible too. We also recommend The Old Market Arts Centre in Hove and Fabrica in Brighton. The spaces are larger and more central but also more expensive at around £1200 - £1800 to hire. All of these (as indeed most others do anyway) benefit incredibly from internal dressing by a company such as ‘Fabricate’. Fabricate can enhance or totally disguise existing features, or create your own theme. Internal dressing can cost from as little as £350 to £6000 plus.

Hotels, Restaurants or Banqueting Suites

These offer probably the least personal options. You’ll pay a fixed amount for a set package but the end result is often anaemic, cold and impersonal but ‘safe’. More a dinner dance than the celebration of your future lives together. It’ll be expensive and there will be very little hassle. Hotels will charge £40- £50 for a three course set meal and will also charge handsomely for drinks packages, room hire, flowers and any other personal touches you want to make. 

Hotels and guest houses will however have an important role to play in your wedding and that is to house those guests that have travelled a long way. A good option here is to select a group of 4 star guest houses in close proximity to each other and suggest your guests use them en masse in return for a block deal. When Auntie Jane from Esher asks where you recommend, you will be able to answer unequivocally. Charlotte Street in Brighton’s Kemptown has a plethora of funky guest houses, like Paskin’s Town House, White House, Greys, The 21 and Brighton Pavilions. If you wish to go ‘boutique’ use the Hotel de Vin, Blanche House or Drake’s. Best mainstream currently are Seattle, My or Thistle.  

The Invitations

It’s good to allow at least 6 months prior to your date to send invitations out, especially if your chosen date coincides with school holidays. Insist they RSVP by a certain time. And to get best value at the printers do the Order of Service and Menus too. We recommend ‘The Print House’ for consistent reliability, price and design. Try and condense as much relevant information as you can onto the invite, even a request for dietary foibles would be important for the caterer. Budget £3-£4 per person to cover invite, order of service and menu.

The Ceremony

Funnily enough a lot stems from what kind of ceremony you want. If you are going for a church or the registry office at the venue or in the middle of nowhere. Priests are notoriously bad at asking for donations although it will be expected; £300 is generous but I think at the end of the day they will accept what you can afford. Registrars and venues all have their own rates. Your florist or a friend/relation can decorate the church or registry office. Bear in mind how long you will actually be in that area for, when deciding how this minor outlay fits into your budget.

The Flowers

Flowers, foliage and other decorations really bring this kind of ceremony alive. But more than any other expense the amount you have will be determined by your budget. Bare minimum is a bouquet for one of the happy couple and a buttonhole for family or close friends. A budget of £300 -£500 would be more than adequate. By using local and seasonal blooms you will get much better value for money. We always use Gunn’s 01273 683038 or Amaryllis in Brighton

Photos

You should agree an hourly rate with your photographer and sole rights to the disc. A lot of companies force you to buy your prints from them at a premium price.

£300 - £400 should cover the photographer’s time and the disc. Expect about 140 photos of which you select 100 to print. We recommend Sam Milford or Daniella Exley.

Official Transport

Whether you choose a tandem or a Lamborghini, just make sure when the ceremony is over, someone is there to give you an ice cold glass of Champagne - you’ll need it. Decent classic cars start at about £300 for a Morris 1000 convertible all the way up to £800 for the latest Bentley. Horse drawn carriages come somewhere in between depending on the distance and time involved.

Entertainment

At the very least it is good to provide a disco and this can cost as little as £250 for the evening. Some venues will require light systems and these can be seriously expensive. Table magicians are a fun way to start proceedings. But personally I feel that at a wedding/ civil partnership, everyone just wants to celebrate the couples’ happiness in the simplest way, complex entertainment just takes the limelight away from where it should be focused. Bands are usually too loud and generally cater to a narrow range in taste. A string quartet or harpist provides gentle background music early on perhaps during the meal or pre dancing but do remember to allow the extra space in the venue. A string quartet will set you back £300 - £400 for approximately 2 hours. Decide on your budget for entertainment and stick to it - you will probably find a disco is all you need.

Clothes

The Dress will be the centre of much conversation for many of the months leading up to the big day. Unless you can make it yourself or buy second hand expect to pay upward of £700 and if a designer name is attached, £1,750 is the starter price. But if you think that is a lot, try adding hair, makeup, brides maids dresses, pageboy’s outfits and then there’s the Groom, his Best Man and the ushers, Hen Nights, Stag Nights, health spas and beauty treatments plus of course, the Honeymoon!! Start saving now.

Useful Links

I hope this answers a few of those questions that have been burning on your lips since he or she popped the question. Most importantly, don’t let anything I’ve said put you off. With weddings and civil partnerships it’s not the amount you spend that’s important it’s how best to celebrate the love of 2 special people for each other. And all in all depending on all these factors the total cost of a nice but not too flashy wedding will mount up to about £100 - £150 per person invited. That’s not the cost of the catering but the cost of everything. 

Use this as a guide and ‘cherry pick’ should you be working to a budget. Food and drink is possibly one of the main concerns around which everything else can be designed. It is often amazing how many talented friends you have who are willing to be involved if asked. Friends’ input can also make the day a special one for them.   

Good luck!

from
Simon, Kate and Karen