on a budget??

[Helabela]

just thought i would share some tips with you. Me & Hubby got married in May this year and our total amount spent was £4,000 (of which me & hubby spend 2.5 of, with his parents putting in most of the rest) now i have heard of some weddings coming to silly amounts of money, some over £20,000. for 1 day?? My wedding day was perfect and i thought id share some tips for those of you on a budget

Wedding dress

I bought my wedding dress 8 months before the wedding day!! I bought it off ebay, second hand, although it had only been used for modeling photos. It was £250, fully cleaned with proof. As soon as i saw it i knew it was perfect, just what i was after. I found it after searching on ebay everyday for a couple of months. I didnt try it on, but was losing weight for the wedding anyway, so knew nearer the date i could get it fitted, which cost me just £20 and hire of the underskirt loop was also just £20.
https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh155/helenpickard/wedding/529035570_wpNpK-M.jpg

Bridesmaids dresses

i had 3 bridesmaids, two adults and one child. I bough the childs dress from ebay for £25 brand new from China i beleive. I bought the other two (one balck with red ribbons and other vice versa) in the debenhams January sale for £15 each. All dresses were prom dresses rather than bridesmaids dresses but i think they looked fab.

Cake

I bought my 3-teir cake from marks and spencers for £101.00 just plain ivory iced, the small and bigbest cake being fruit, and the medium being sponge. I decorated myself (rubbish job!) and borrowed a cake stand, also got little people made to look like me ^ hubby which were £65, ebay again!
https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh155/helenpickard/wedding/90.jpg

Venue

We got married in church, all paid for my hubbys parents, thank goodness!! After church we had the local social club rented for the day. Smaller room for the reception and bigger room for the evening. Cheap and cheerful because we are members there!

Food

day/reception food - we had a BBQ!! Yep, a BBQ!! hubbys parents again organised this and got a few friends/family to BBQ the food in the small garden area at the back of the club, bought all meat in bulk.

https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh155/helenpickard/wedding/529591991_5kvHE-M.jpg
evening we had a pig roast which was about £250.00 and a small selection of buffet food.

Photography

This was a panic! How expensive are photographers?? VERY! Luckily i have a friend who is fab at photography and as a present took some pics on the day for us. Also had a friend of a friend taking pics too. Lots of people also emailed us pics they had taken off digital cameras, so all our pics were free!

Evening entertainment

I just wanted a disco, and fortunately we are DJ's so have our own equiptment! My hubbys brother and dad shared the DJ'ing, i wanted to do some too but they wouldnt let me!!
https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh155/helenpickard/wedding/00287.jpg

Decorations

I bought my favor boxes from Tesco and bought some love heart shaped chocolates in the sale after valentines day! I also put in some loveheart sweets!

Table flowers i bough the day before from Asda and vases from Ikea for 38p each.

I printed off some pics of me & hubby throughout the 6years wer have been together and put them around the walls!

Gifts

Friends and family all knew we were on a budget and knew they would get any gifts as such but we made it obvious we were very greatful for their help. I did buy the bridesmaids some pretty headband/tiaras which they were able to keep though, i know someone who makes them if anyone is interested.

Other

Hubby hired his suit, i got my shoes in the sale, i wore jewlery i already had and my MIL's friends tiara! Our rings were cheap from argos!

Stuff that i spent a lot on was my hair, the car (means a lot to us) and my underwear!! We cut down more by not having table covers in the evening, not having seat/chair covers, not having champaign to toast (i dont like it anyway!)

hope my tips help

 

[bump_wanted]

thats great...some great tips there and you looked lovely xxx

 

[africaqueen]

aww some great tips an ur day looked lovely me and my fella are gettin wed 12th dec this yr and we have managed to keep within budget of under £2000 cnt wait for our special day an im even mre excited seeing your pics etc now! will have to add my wedding pics an tips after our wedding. we are hoping for snow lol

x

 

[Helabela]

aww some great tips an ur day looked lovely me and my fella are gettin wed 12th dec this yr and we have managed to keep within budget of under £2000 cnt wait for our special day an im even mre excited seeing your pics etc now! will have to add my wedding pics an tips after our wedding. we are hoping for snow lol

x

ooooo snow would be lovely! Wow, im interested to know how you have kept such a low budget.

 

[xCorkettex]

My husband and i got married just over a year ago, we spent under £1,000
We didn't spend alot as we didn't have alot to spend.
We got married in a registry office,my dress was BNWT from Ebay for £33 inc PnP,hired his suit for £75, we didn't have any bridesmaids as we dont have any girls in our family, my son was our page boy (wearing a suit that cost £25 and some plain black kickers boots he already had), we hired a hall for £60,bought all our own buffet from Asda (it went down a treat!),our family took us in their nice cars,my friend made my flowers,another friend lent me my tiara and cake topper (some people are wary of borrowing if the original marriage has broken but we didn't feel like that),i bought 3 iced fruit occasion cakes from Asda costing about £30ish & bought some ribbon to wrap round it,a friend brought my wedding night garments,i made my own favours-bought organza bags from ebay & filled them with chocolates from Thorntons that were on offer & some printed scrolls we got from Ebay at a cheap price.We also used the organza bags filled with glass stones a friend had dontated as balloon weights.I bought a canister of helium and we did our own balloons,the best man hired the DJ for £100,our photographer was a new friend who did it fior us for next to nothing and we had a 2 night honeymoon in Windermere by ourselves.
To be honest we couldn't have done it without our friends and family, but our special day was absolutely 100% perfect!No difficulties,no mistakes,nothing went wrong,everyone enjoyed themselves, and it was exactly what me and my lovely husband wanted.
TBH im shocked when people say they have spent £20,000+ on their wedding -often leaving themselves in debt But i suppose it depends on what you want and what type of people you are.
What did i want?an enjoyable day for us and family (it was the first time my mum and his mum plus our families had met as my family live 300 miles away!), a perfect day for me,my husband and our son.A ring and marriage certificate plus my name changed legally.sorted