Great 'What I wish I’d known before my wedding' Hunt

shoplady_2 · 29 May 2013 at 10:35AM

Keeping it simple saves money and means guests notice the special touches wich make it personal to you.
Don't look at wedding magazines! You will feel as though you need all these things which bump up the cost when you don't. The magazines are the same every month, same recommended suppliers, same photos etc.
Doing your own table flowers is fairly easy, we collected lovely glass vases from charity shops and filled with supermarket flowers bought with clubcard points and m&s roses. Don't do what i did though and get bridesmaids and family to help make them! It was chaotic with too many people, my mum, my nan and i had to redo them the next day.
Don't spend lots of money on weddng cake- we didnt notice it hadn't been cut for the evening party until it was late so ended up taking it all home the next day! Most was eaten by work colleagues and it seemed such a waste of money. Wouldnt have made much difference to us if there hadn't been a cake.
Find a great venue who will make your day run smoothly, we were so lucky to have a family run place who made organising the day really straighforward and made you feel special. Much better than the hotels we visited who made you feel like your wedding was just another function.

missrlr · 29 May 2013 at 1:11PM

We had a small cake for display and then cake bars (same cake plain icing) much cheaper for cutting up and eating
Sample sale for dress
Haggle - check the buffet items and get rid of the ones you don't like we did and ended up with a nice selection that didn't break the bank
Always ask if you don't you may not get!

swampduck · 29 May 2013 at 1:14PM

SuperSaver123 wrote: »

Hi All,

I am wondering if somebody could point me in the right direction: I need to get a wedding dress: in ivory colour and short (to be more specific ) and not sure where to find one that is on budget.

I also wanted to do get some friends involved into making invitations but the stationery seems expensive as it is. Any ideas for cheap but nice stationery?

My big day is end of August this year!

Congratulations! I got married last August (can't believe how the time has flown!) but I got my dress from BHS and I felt wonderful in it. At the moment they have a couple of short dresses on offer at the moment at around £50-60 each not sure what your styletaste is like - but worth a look.

Can't help with the invites as we had a family friend make them at a very reasonable prices. But it is in her line of business!!

Swampy

hilstep2000 · 29 May 2013 at 1:30PM

We bought everything on ebay for my daughters' wedding. Including the Maggie Sotero dress, brand new, £1500 new, £128 including postage (Bride changed her mind). All the silk flowers, and favours. We bought simple glass vases in our local pound shop, filled them with fish gravel, and added silk flowers and ostrich feathers from the local sewing shop.
We even got boxes in the right colours with all the childrens' names on, and filled them with sweets and stickers to keep them occupied.
Had a friend make 150 cupcakes for a wedding cake.

Invites and order of service I did on the computer and got a local print firm to print them for £30.
Made four bridesmaids dresses from a Prima Pattern (£100 for the material) and bought the flower girls' dress from TK Maxx for £17!

butterfly2001 · 29 May 2013 at 2:37PM

great tips. If anything I would say spend what you feel is best and appropriate (within reason- i agree whole heartedly about not going into debt)

Just because you can't afford a grand "magazine picture perfect" wedding doesn't mean your wedding won't be one and vice versa just because you can do it at a cheaper rate doesn't mean you should go with that cost. Spend within reason and don't go against what you'd like after all it is once!

Kathy535 · 29 May 2013 at 3:15PM

Getting married on a weekday cuts the venue costs
Recognising that it's how the dress looks and fits rather than the designer name or whether it's new etc. as many posters have said, sample dresses are much cheaper and second hand (or even never worn) dresses can be bought via eBay or preloaded and altered to fit. Same goes for the accessories, my shoes were £80 in the shop but £15 new off eBay and my tiara was £5 (rrp £76)
See if your photographer can come for a shorter time - we paid ours for 3 hours which covered the ceremony and the first part of the reception. This made it much cheaper and meant we felt more relaxed for the remainder of the ceremony, I could stuff my face and not have to worry about being caught on film!
Go to the MAC counter or equivalent and ask for a makeover - the women there will often give you advice and tips on how to apply your make up to get the effect you want and then you can practice at home and not spend a fortune on professional make up. You may have to buy a product though. Also, choose your member of staff carefully, on one occasion, the lady applying my make up looked like Ronald McDonald, and by the time she'd finished, so did I!

ThinkingOfLinking · 29 May 2013 at 3:40PM

I regretted paying to get my makeup done. I have had really gorgeeous makeup done for free at department store counters and although this wasn't practical on the day itself due to timings and distance, the salon where I had my makeup done did the worst job EVER on my makeup. I had to run home and fix everything myself as they wouldn't listen to me or help me at the salon.

I also wish I'd had some better photos taken.

laughing_cow · 29 May 2013 at 3:42PM

We eloped - that made it a LOT cheaper!

In the run up to the wedding when buying cosmetics/sun cream/having nails done etc, I got into conversations with shop assistants/beauticians and mentioned that my 'holiday' was actually an elopement (it was secret, I had no one else to gossip with

). This was like catnip - lots of squealing and loads and loads of good quality free samples (Clarins, Space NK etc). Same thing on the plane - got chatting to some other passengers and crew and said we were eloping - cue lots of champagne on the flight and a bottle to take with us. People can be very nice to you when you're getting married - embrace it and enjoy the free gifts! :beer:

This thread has reminded me that I should put my wedding shoes on EBay. Paid £130 for them but I got married barefoot on the beach so only wore the shoes for about 15 mins for some photos - what a waste!

catalunya · 29 May 2013 at 4:05PM

I have had a quick flick through this thread and I cant believe I didnt see anything on..

INSURANCE!!

This is so important, if you are spending a lot of money on your day - please get insurance! Ours only cost £34.99.

Our wedding venue went into administration in March and we contacted our insurers who were great, subsequently, we have got our £1,000 deposit back which has meant we have been able to rebook our wedding with no effect on our funds.

My only other point, (which is synical following my experiences I know) is check who you are booking with, can you get reviews, referrals, examples of previous work etc. Certificates of safety/insurance/qualifications etc

If I had any idea about my wedding venue I wouldnt have booked there AND saved a hell of a lot of stress.

MrCarrot · 29 May 2013 at 4:15PM

I'm getting married this year and it's not working out particularly cheap but it isn't ridiculously expensive either.

We are not hiring suits, and as such not all of the men will match. Me and the best man have bought a suit and we both intend to use them again in the future for work and other occasions. The fact that nobody else will match doesn't bother me too much, the photos we'll have on display will most likely just be of me and my partner, I doubt we'll get the album out and lose sleep over the fact that the other men didn't match.

We aren't having flowers in the church - a complete waste of money in my opinion. Out of the weddings I've been to I cannot remember a thing about the flowers in the church, or if they even had any.

We're getting married late in the afternoon so we are just having a sit down meal in the evening, rather than a sit down meal and a buffet later on. Saves on food costs and it also means the bride doesn't have to get up especially early and rush as she's not really a morning person

We aren't paying over the odds for wedding rings. In my experience they can sometimes get lost years later and you can replace them with a more expensive ring at some point in the future if you're feeling especially flush.

The car is an awkward one - I find it hard to justify several hundred pounds for a car that (for us at least) is going to be making a 2 minute journey.

The bridesmaid's dresses were on sale at a non-wedding shoppe in town.

The biggest costs for us is the reception / food and the bride's wedding dress.

Great 'What I wish I’d known before my wedding' Hunt

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