Tips for weddings on a budget

[BabyHaines]

Our wedding cost £1,500 and we had 300 people there and provided all the food and drink!!

Here's a rough outline of what we did:

*My dress - was lucky that my nan bought mine, BUT I had a fairly cheap one anyway - always ask wedding shop if they happen to have any ex-display dresses??
*Hubby's suit - again, his mum treated him, BUT he did have the offer of a loan from at least two friends.
*Ceremony - was at a registry office
*Food - we had a lunch afterwards and booked a restaurant, but everyone paid for their meals.
*Party - we hired a local scout site. We just made a donation and used there field. They already had a block of outdoor loo's, (which I painted and spring-cleaned before hand) and we borrowed their party marques.
*Party Food - My stepdad LOVES to BBQ, so we had a massive BBQ that ran for several hours, with salads, pastas, desserts etc.
*Music - I asked around and it turned out that a friend of mine was a keen amateur DJ in his spare time, so he happily did they music (and did a very good job!!) for £100 and a bottle of drink
*Tables & Chairs - Again, all borrowed from Scout Hut.
*Decorations - A friend asked if she could do my table decorations as our wedding gift and I bit her arm off!! Yes Please!! So I learned how to tie balloons and decorate nicely and did the rest of the marques.
*Drink - went to Tesco's a week or so before and bought £500 worth of beer and boxes of wine (and had tonnes left!!)
*Cake - Bought from M&S for about £30-£40. They sell tiers of iced fruit cake and it was decorated with some fresh Gerbera's (to match my £30 bouquet) !!....

Because our wedding was outdoors and *thankfully) we had glorious weather, we even had a seperate play area for kids and later in the evening, we had a bonfire.
Our wedding went on until about 4am and I have never seen so many happy drunk people!!
I was terrified people would think we were tight, and wouldn't enjoy themsellves, but they LOVED it and we got soooooooo many compliments for weeks and weeks after

If we got married now, we could probably be a bit more lavish, but I don't think I'd change anything, apart from maybe paying for all the meals after the R.O. xxxx

 

[Linzi]

I got buttonholes from Sarah's Flowers. Very good quality and the amount I needed would have cost a bomb from a florist.

I didnt ahve a professional photographer for my wedding either, my brother and dad did the 'official' ones, and my friends took hundreds too as wedding presents. See my facebook if you like

Our wedding cake was from asda and I decorated it myself. Wasnt the best looking or anything but it was only looked at for a few minutes. So pleased as it was £350 cheapest for a professional one!! A lot of money for the sake of a few minutes.

Second hand dress (I have one for sale ) or also a sample one (cant remember the word) that they keep in the shop that people try on. Theyll have it dry cleaned for you knock off a couple of hundred and it looks no different.

We didnt have a wedding car, we got a corporate taxi. It was a Chevrolet 300 (I think? baby bently). £35 return, compared to £250 for 2 hours for a BMW. Or even if you have a friend with a flashy car (which I guess you do considering you work for a car company!) get them to take you in that.

Also for favour I had a sweet buffet which went down brilliantly. Still the only thing anyone talks about. Not me, oh no, my pick n mix table! I bought plain party bags, printed stickers at work and stuck them on. DIY!!! Then put them at each place setting.

xxx

 

[hopesanddream]

Here's we i did:
- made all my own center pieces
- made my own favors ( sugar/butter cookies decorated, but i am a cake decorator)
-bought deocorations at dollar stores
-did our own late lunch, bought meat, veggies, fruit and arranged the trays ourselves
-had a friend make my bridesmaid dresses
-used white christmas lights to decorate the hall

mostly kept my eyes open and bought stuff when it was off season or the stores were blowing it out, but i knew what i wanted way ahead of time.

 

[GersPrincess]

For our wedding, we got married at the end of September, so just "out" of season, but we had perfect 22 degrees weather, it was beautiful. We also

* spoke with a local hotel which overlooks the forth bridges who do a 3 course carvery on a sunday for £10 a head.. we bargained with them, and got them to do the same thing for us, but on a saturday for the £10 a head. There was a choice of 3 starters, everyone had a carvery (with a choice of 4 meats) and there were 3 puddings... total bargain! We fed 70 people a 3 course dinner for £700 and the hotel even threw in wine/beer with the meal as a good gesture!! Our guests were all mega happy I can tell you!

* We had the obligatory evening buffet also, but the hotel did us a such a good deal we had a buffet for 150 people (which also fed us and our whole family for about a week afterwards!) for £280 and it was great.

* the hotel owner had a few great contacts where we were able to hire a bouncey castle for the kids (and us!) for all day for £40, we had the DJ for 5 hours for £100, and as the hotel had it's own on site hair/beauty place, I had a full body massage, acrylic nails, make-up and hair done for £60.

* I handmade all the invitations, place cards, menus etc

* I did all the flowers myself.. I bought loads of loads of roses from Tesco and Asda a couple of days before the wedding and used these to make the button holes and bouquets.. so much cheaper than buying the flowers from a florist.

* We asked around till we found someone who knew someone who worked at M&S and we ordered their chocolate roses cake using their staff discount and saved a small fortune!

* I made all the table decorations myself, by purchasing the fishbowl vases from an online floristry supplier, at a fraction of the cost of normal shops and filled them with cala lillies.
I was also able to buy my balloons and my own canisters of helium so I could fill all the balloons myself. It gave me something to do on the morning of our wedding when I couldnt sleep, and a couple of nights afterwards, caused me and my hubby much amusement!
I bought small boxes to use as the weights for the balloons and filled them with love hearts (very popular with the kids!)

* we hired all the kilts for the day and made sure hubby got his for free as we were hiring so many

* we also organised with the hotel that we got my stay the night before the wedding for free, and the night after our wedding for free also, as all my family had to travel up from england and all booked with the hotel.. they also got a 30% discount as all the rooms were booked.

* we hired a bus for the day to pick up all our guests from various locations before the wedding, take them to the wedding, pick them up and take them to the venue and then take them all home again when the evening was over - it didnt cost us a penny as we asked our guests to contribute a £5 per couple which was a fraction of what a taxi would have cost them there and back, and saved them worrying about finding a sober person to drive them home.

* My hubbys parents bought our wedding rings as our present

* we paid a photographer £150 for the day, and got a cd with every photo he'd taken plus 20 printed out ones for that.. we've printed off others in boots as and when we've wanted them.

There's loads actually, but I wont bore you with them all!!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Brilliant thread! OH and I will need to use a lot of these tips!

I work in print, so have some tips about invites etc.
Get the printers designer to design a simple invite for you. Tell them your total budget before starting out. Don't design your own invites unless you really know what you're doing. So many clients design invites to save money, but they often do designs that are really expensive to print!
Give them all the correct info before starting, saves time as well as money.

 

[toseland13]

i made my invitations myself so with all the amterials and ink cost us £47.

my dress my dad has kindly paid for and the bridesmaids dresses. the bridesmaids are buying their own shoes as they can use them again.

we are having our reception in a leisure centre which is council run so they dont make a profit on things, we had a great deal and he recommended an awesome Dj for the night.

i have bought balloons as im not having flowers and so i dont need centrepieces.

for favours i bought organza bags from ebay and some chocolates from ebay also.

the car is a friends and he said he would drive us for free.

our rings, OH's parents paid for.

Oh's parents also paying for evening buffet.

my cake is being made by OH's auntie who does it as a hobby and she doing it as a present.

best thing to do is ask people to lend their car, mines not posh just a bmw but i dont mind or if someone can make a cake or anything really. my wedding is nxt month so hope it goes well

 

[Nic1107]

* I got my dress from a bridal shop for less than $400 USD because it was "last season's" style. It was gorgeous!
* We went with all fake flowers, and my aunt arranged them for us.
* My step-dad asked a friend of his from church to do the photography, but it turned out that the best pics of the day were the ones my DH's dad took!
* My super-sparkly jewelry looked fancy but it was really just $8 clip-on earrings from Claire's and a $10 rhinestone necklace
* We had a late buffet-style heavy hors d'oeuvres dinner instead of a sit-down dinner that would have cost a set (and steep) amount per plate.
* Instead of having the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant, we had a casual dinner/party at my parents' house, which turned out really nice because our families were meeting for the first time and they had a really nice chance to get to know one another

 

[pinkclaire]

Thanks for all your tips! There is some great ideas, got anymore send them to me I would love to hear!

 

[Frankie]

This is what I plan on doing!!!

My own flowers - As I worked 3 years as a florist

Designing my own invitations - sometimes the simpler things are better

With me being on the clubbing circuit all these years I have friends who are djs who knows i might grace the decks myself for a few tunes

Also if you look on clubbing websites dontstayin.com is a good one you can check out some clubbing photographers, check out there photos and contact them for prices!!

 

[QueenMummyToBe]

This is what I plan on doing!!!

My own flowers - As I worked 3 years as a florist

Designing my own invitations - sometimes the simpler things are better

With me being on the clubbing circuit all these years I have friends who are djs who knows i might grace the decks myself for a few tunes

Also if you look on clubbing websites dontstayin.com is a good one you can check out some clubbing photographers, check out there photos and contact them for prices!!

Ooo a florist in lincoln.. My new best friend

Have you looked into venues in Lincoln? I'm finding it impossible to find anywhere that is beautiful but not stupidly priced! Darn lincoln and it's historical features!!

xXx

 

[Frankie]

This is what I plan on doing!!!

My own flowers - As I worked 3 years as a florist

Designing my own invitations - sometimes the simpler things are better

With me being on the clubbing circuit all these years I have friends who are djs who knows i might grace the decks myself for a few tunes

Also if you look on clubbing websites dontstayin.com is a good one you can check out some clubbing photographers, check out there photos and contact them for prices!!

Ooo a florist in lincoln.. My new best friend

Have you looked into venues in Lincoln? I'm finding it impossible to find anywhere that is beautiful but not stupidly priced! Darn lincoln and it's historical features!!

xXx

Im looking at the Lincoln hotel in the bailgate or the golf club or the place on newark road cant remember what its called. Its all full of daft building lol

On the other hand double wedding, half for a shindig at Branston Hall lmfao

If you need any ideas re flowers n stuff let me know - Most florists rip you off like

 

[Stef]

Good thread, we have been planning our wedding on a budget kind of, saving money where ever possible any way.

We are getting married on a Friday, Much cheaper than the Saturday

Have the reception at a hotel if possible, they usually discount the rooms for your guests, they have somewhere to park and no body has to mess around with taxis etc when your evening reception had finished.

I havent but if you are not bothered about gettting married in church have the ceromony at the reception too as its cost us £500 to get married in church as apposed to the £250 they charge to hold the ceromony at the hotel

Chris and I have lived together quite some time and we don't need to set up home so instead we asked some of our close family IE parents if they would make a contribution to the wedding rather than buying a wedding present we will have no room for... By this we have saved £360 on the cake as my parents are paying for it and £450 on our wedding cars as OH parents have paid for it

I made my favors myself but I did cheat partly as I bought 2 trays of foiled heart truffles from Thorntons because they are just goregous

My mother had her ceromony late in the afternoon and had a hot buffet instead of wedding breakfast and then the hotel did a BBQ later on, saved her loads of money

Ask around to see who knows who, friends neighbours etc. Our neighbour is doing our photography and we are only paying £125

I havent invited +1's with single guests, I dont beleive I should pay for guests to have a day/night away with the man/woman of the moment.

Keep the ceromony/wedding breakfast to close friends and family only.

Keep an eye out for sales in Bridal shops, designers tend to change their range towards september/october for the following years so most bridal shops have big sales in autumn.


Hire suits, dont buy.

If youre going for fresh flowers, see whats in season they tend to be cheaper (I made the mistake of going for one of the most expensive options)

For your grooms mens thankyou gifts buy them all a nice set of cufflinks for the day (you could do this for your bridesmaids too, hair accessories jewlerry etc you would like them to wear on the day)

I bought my wedding shoes from Debenhams, the ones I really wante were £200 and I just couldnt justify that so I bought some from debs for £35 just as nice and ill only wear rthem once so the £200 would have been such a waste

Have a DJ on the night rather than a band

I have had a mental block now, if I think of/remember anything else ill add it

xx

 

[polo_princess]

Some great ideas girls

I cant beileve what a little treasure trove it is on there, i was looking at personalised chocolates and id seen 60x for around £55 ... on Ebay you get 100x for like £20

 

[Linzi]

ebays brilliant

our wedding cost us under £3k (including a £900+ dress, £140 suit hire, an evening buffet & DJ for 80 people, minibusses for 40 people)

I spent so much time sourcing things, getting loooooads of idea, looking on hundreds of websites, theres some good wedding forums with for sale bits in that have got either brand new left over stuff, or stuff in excellent condition which is where I got a lot of our stuff from.

Look hard for whatever you want, set a budget for everything and stick to it.

I was so proud of myself for organising my whole wedding myself it was a brilliant day and almost makes me want to become a wedding planner lol

x

 

[JessiHD]

A few tips:
*Many of your friends and family have useful skills that you can put to use! I had my stepdad (an artist) design the invites, my brother take take the main wedding photos, my MIL do the flowers, SIL made the cake (will post pics of that if you want because its a simple but gorgeous design) and my other SIL played the viola. My parents friends do fireworks displays for events and they did fireworks for me as a wedding present.
*Where possible try to avoid telling people it is your wedding. Especially hairdressers as they double the price.
*Look around for venues that don't cost too much. Sometimes a simple church hall can be done up beautifully with flowers, tealights or fairylights.
*Go to a florist wholesalers and pick the flowers yourself. I was very lucky as my MIL does beautiful flower arranging but you can do more simple arrangements yourself. Lillies and roses are good for simple arrangements. Either borrow vases or buy some from Ikea.
*If you want to have a cold buffet why not order from Marks and Spencer party food.
*Get the wine, champagne etc from a booze cruise to France. I think Threshers and other offies do beer kegs. You can get boxes of glasses for free from offies and only pay for the damages.
*Everyone has digital or phone cameras now so instead of getting a photographer which will cost you over a grand, ask friends and family to take photos. Another option is to put disposable cameras on each table.
*Top runway on ebay https://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/TopRunway__W0QQ_armrsZ1 make custom made dresses in China amazingly cheap. I think if you send them a photo of what you want they can pretty much make anything. I haven't actually used them but have heard great things about them. I got my dress from www.whirlingturban.com which does custom made vintage style dresses and it was worth every penny!

Anyway, hope these tips help!

Jess xxx

 

[Suz]

I havent read all the posts, so some of these may be duplicates but here is how we saved money when I got married...

* Went to bridal Shows... got huge discounts on my DJ and photographer
* Ordered my wedding cake from the grocery store rather then a bakery
* Ordered my flowers through the grocery store rather than the florest
* Shopped weekly at the craft store using the 40% off 1 item coupon they put out once a week.
* Bought blank invitation kits and printed my own invitations
* Made my own center peices
* Made my own Arch
* Bought stuff that looked perfect for wedding decorations but werent in the wedding section of the store...
* Looked through alot of bridal magazines to get ideas and made things myself.
* Limit the number of guests
* limit the number in your bridal party

 

[mrsraggle]

-got married on a Friday
-had a very small ceremony and wedding breakfast (24 people)
-really searched for my venues - we had the ceremony at the registry office £45, we had the breakfast somewhere that offered complete flexibility i.e. no room hire, no set drinks packages etc and our party was held in a council owned hall so was ridiculously cheap (anyone looking for venues in Torbay, Devon or Lichfield, Staffs should contact me!)
-had my Nan do the flowers etc
-made our own stationery
-didn't worry about the small things like favours etc
-handmade our gifts
-bought my dress from a store that had a ex-sample sale so a £1100 dress was £650.
-only had one bridesmaid and got that dress from ebay for £25
-really searched around for the blokes suit hire - got them for £40 each

I'll come back if I think of anything else.

 

[mrsraggle]

oh and my Nan made our cake too!

 

[Sooz]

M&S do some lovely wedding cakes, really tasty too. We brought ours from there and they were on 3 for 2 so we got a three tier sponge cake for £63! I paid £25 for some black & white sugar calla lilies to be handcrafted by a lovely lady on eBay (they were gorgeous and so well packaged for delivery) plus about £3 for some black lace with burgundy ribbon running through it to use as our cake ribbon.

The cake looked simple but stunning and got quite a few appreciative comments from our guests.

We also went out on a limb and used a hobbyist photographer who has just started to do weddings. He cost us £290 from 12:30pm until 8:30pm including travel and was fantastic (found him on eBay too). We got all the images on a disc to make our own albums from (my request as I wanted to do my own) and a complimentary slideshow set to music. He is based in Oxford but will travel so if anyone is interested drop me a PM.

 

[firstLO]

Make your own wedding invitations.
Choose a venue where room decoration is included.
Buy your cake from M&S or if you buy a plain one from hampsons (like I have) they will ice your names and date on it as well in your chosen colour and will put the same colour ribbon around. Mine cost £40.
Local florists on the high street tend to be cheaper.
Do your own make up on the day.
If a friend or family member has a nice car then ask if you can use it as your wedding car.
Most men have a black suit so get the groom and ushers to wear their own and then just hire the waistcoat and ties (Debenhams £20 waistcoat & £5 tie).
That's all I can think of for now!