We're not afraid to drive a hard bargain for our big day
Bob Quinn and Steph Tao are not getting married for another 16 months, but there was a good reason for setting a distant date.
"As I set up in business recently, I expect some of the initial start-up costs to reduce over the coming months, so our savings and disposable income should increase by the time August 2012 comes round," says Bob, a financial adviser who has set up a new firm called Money Adviser in Naas, Co Kildare.
But the couple reckon they've saved at least €3,500 to date on the total cost of their roughly 170-guest nuptials, which will take place in Cong, Co Mayo.
"We really approached the cost of the wedding from the perspective that it's a buyer's market and we could drive a hard bargain," says Bob.
The couple looked at no less than 12 venues, but to their surprise, some of them had no desire to negotiate whatsoever.
Armed with the knowledge that venues would typically offer a 10pc discount for having a wedding on a weekday, they opted for a Thursday at their chosen venue.
They also opted to source their own wine and pay €10 corkage, as the hotel house wine prices started at €24 a bottle.
"These two measures alone should save us anything in the region of €2,300," says Steph.
They also got rooms for both sets of parents thrown in with the venue package, saving €320.
Having the ceremony on site has virtually cancelled out the costs of hiring wedding cars and transport, as well as flowers for the church, which are being provided on-site by the venue, saving another €1,000.
With the date still quite far off, they haven't considered other ancillary costs yet.
"We'll pick them off one by one. One thing we are in agreement on is that our wed-ding should not put us in debt for the next five years," says Bob.
Irish Independent
