A few wedding questions on how to save on costs!! X

devonsaver83 · 13 September 2015 at 8:56AM

Hi lovelies,
After 13 years with my partner we are finally getting married next year woo

however like most we are on a pretty tight budget. Most our budget we have spent on the venue Plus as we are both female have 2 wedding dresses to buy! So really need to save on other things where possible .
2 things I was thinking that could save us money are-

1. In the evening have food to serve 50 people (evening guests will be 100) this wil save us over a £1000) would this be ok do you think?, our wedding is not untill 3pm so wedding breakfast won't be till 5ish so thinking not everyone will be hungry in evening and only 20 extra evening guests.

2. Silver rings?- we have always worn silver and not a massive fan of gold... Though we do like white gold but thinking of buying silver rings and in the future if we wanted when have more money will buy same design in white gold (as they are expensive). What are your thoughts on silver wedding rings?

Luckily we are both very creative and will be making alot of bits of our wedding but if you have any advice on above and any extra ideas on how to save that would be fab!

Thank you in advance
X

TonyMMM · 13 September 2015 at 9:19AM

Whatever rings you want is up to you.....silver/gold/platinum your choice entirely.

Running out of food when only half the people have eaten is a definite no .... choose a cheaper menu ?

devonsaver83 · 13 September 2015 at 9:38AM

Thank you for your reply

would you cater for the whole hundred? I'm just basing it on my experiences at weddings and talking to friends and they found so much food left over from evening as alot of people didn't eat much. Plus having cake and sweet tablets x

Fluffi · 13 September 2015 at 11:03AM

On the catering side its a tricky one ... partly depends on how substantial your 5pm meal will be - which will determine whether those guests will want to eat again in the evening. Also how far away are people travelling to your wedding - for example people with longish journey's may not get a substantial lunch in before arriving at the venue for say 2:30 so may be very hungry by 5pm and could easily hoover up another evening meal.

Sweet tablets sound lovely though

Other money saving ideas include create your own invites, table placecards (if you are having place ards), table plan, make your own favours and table decorations ... maybe even fake flowers instead of real on the tables / reception venue would save money (or have both - real flowers in obvious high footfall areas and silk everywhere else - you can these reuse or resell the silk flowers), get someone you know to make the cake or make it yourselves.

devonsaver83 · 13 September 2015 at 12:09PM

Thank you for your reply!! Guess I will have to have a proper think about it

as they are traveling from afar and wouldn't want them to be hungry! But then wouldn't to waste lots of money on food that was left over!
I make cakes for a living so that's saving us alot if money and making a big display of lots of different cakes and deserts etc plus a 4 tier cake for day.
Making own place names, signs and invite etc is a good idea!
Favours I was going to do fudge and jams which mil will make
Silk flowers are a good idea also!, was going to look at local wholesale market and see costs as was thinking of buying from there and getting friend to make up as she use to work in florist so will be happy to do that
X

devonsaver83 · 13 September 2015 at 12:12PM

Any ideas on saving money on the dresses? X

sjg666 · 13 September 2015 at 8:03PM

devonsaver83 wrote: »

Any ideas on saving money on the dresses? X

I went to a few shops and found 'the one' and then searched sites such as Preloved, Gumtree and eBay and have managed to find the exact dress, in the my size for half the shop price. It has been worn previously but this doesn't bother me as I went and checked out the dress before agreeing to buy it and it's in perfect condition and the seller has taken it in to be freshly dry cleaned for me. I do have the benefit that MIL is a pretty good (hobby) seamstress so if it needs alterations then she would be able to do them for me. I'm not sure how much a 'proper' seamstress would charge to do this but best to check it wouldn't outweigh any savings buying it this way!

Another option is high street dresses. BHS started doing a range of wedding dresses a couple of years ago that look pretty good. Also Monsoon, Debenhams etc.

arbrighton · 13 September 2015 at 8:52PM

My dress was Phase eight, not technically a wedding dress. Tried on then waited til sales and spend under £300 on it.

jackomdj · 13 September 2015 at 10:21PM

Friends of ours ate quite late, in the evening rather than a full buffet they did bacon sandwiches for everyone (there were also crisps and nuts on the tables)

devonsaver83 · 14 September 2015 at 5:47PM

Thanks for replies x
Think we will defo look into high street dresses and try ebay etc I did seen a monsoon dress I quite liked so looking promising!
Food is something I will more thought in as have awhile

forgot to mention we are having canap!s also after cermony ,and choc fountain in evening.

cashewnut · 17 September 2015 at 9:32AM

devonsaver83 wrote: »

Any ideas on saving money on the dresses? X

My dress is from Monsoon - I had a 20% discount so it ended up being £240. Always Google "Monsoon discount" (or Phase Eight or whoever) as there's often a 10% discount knocking around somewhere

I heard rule of thumb was to cater for 75% of guests with a buffet. I was at my cousin's wedding last Saturday and they did hog roast/sausages/potato salad etc for the evening which was beautiful but there was mountains of food left over - a real shame.

Have you thought about doing a cheese-cake (roundels of cheese fashioned into the shape of a wedding cake!)? You could use this to supplement the buffet (I think we're going to have a look at Costco; pretty sure they do one for about £90 and our venue's letting us have it since they don't offer this kind of things themselves, but it'd be best to check with your own venue).

A few wedding questions on how to save on costs!! X

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