How can i make £1500.00 go as far as possible for our wedding?

becky81

Hi
We want to get marride next year but only have £1500.00 to spend on everything. (We have just moved and had a baby)

Can anyone please give me any tips or free ways to make our budget go as far as possible and have a pretty wedding at the same time?
Many Thanks

seatzie

if you want the dress, check out the likes of Debenhams end of season sales etc my missus got hers in there for an unbelievably cheap price and if I posted it here she'd kill me.

Registry office - but a nice one for instance a venue that is licensed to do wedding ceremonies etc

Explain to everyone you are paying for it yourself so its a small very close friends only wedding - if you're having a meal somewhere limit the numbers strictly to what you can afford should that be 15, 20. I've seen people posting on here suggesting they ask guests to pay for their own meal as well instead of giving presents. Other option is a party at someones house afterwards. Also if you are going to book a venue, midweek is always cheaper than weekends

Alternatively avoid all the family fights of who is and isn't invited and go away somewhere for a short break and get married there

Most of all - enjoy the day!

miserly_mum

I've no advice but i'll be really interested to hear any replies you get as OH and I are trying to organise a wedding for 2K or under.

onlyroz

The wedding itself needn't cost you more than a few hundred pounds. Most of the money tends to go on the reception, and the cheapest way to do that is to have it at someone's house. Which of your closest relatives has the biggest house? As for food, places like M&S and Sainsburys will organise a buffet for you. My mum went to a school reunion recently, and for £6 a head they got Sainsburys to make enormous platters of sandwiches, dips etc, all presented beautifully.

Regarding the wedding, the absolute cheapest option is to do it in the registry office. Alternatively, if your local office is not in a good location, you can arrange for the registrar to travel to an alternative venue. We hired York House, in Twickenham, and I seem to remember hiring that for about 2 hours cost in the region of £300.

A wedding suit for a man would probably cost £100-£300, and a dress for the bride could cost anything from £20 up to many hundreds of pounds, depending on whether you want a traditional white dress or if you're happy just to wear a nice dress bought in a regular fashion shop.

scruffy96uk

Hi and first of all good luck hope you can keep to your budget.
Try Monsoon or TK maxx for your dress especially in the sale, at least your starting early enough so will catch this seasons sale so you can stash the dress away if you get one. Also keep and eye on ebay sometimes get a bargain there. If you have a freecycle or gumtree in your area check them out, links for both below (just incase you've never used them)
http://www.freecycle.org/ (just search for your city)
http://www.gumtree.com/ (on gumtree the cities that do it are down the right hand side)

As for the man in your life he could hire a suit. Or have a look at this if it is just a suit he wants http://www.moss.co.uk/fcp/content/dresswear_Outfit2/getthelookdetail. £139 I think this is a good deal

If your any good on the comp try doing all your own stationary. If your no good on comp just buy card making kits and do it yourself. Be as creative as you like people always like hand made things.

Just have very close family and friends for the meal thats what we did and it was really nice.

Do you know anyone who is a member of a social club? Does it have a hall? Could they hire it for you?
Then just decorate it!!!

Will keep thinking although I'm sure you'll get heaps of help on here

got-it-spend-it

My tip is to utilise the skills of friends and family. Do you have any crafty friends who could make the invitations as your wedding present? Anyone who can make the cake, do the flowers, take the photos etc... This can save you a fortune, even if you pay for the raw materials. I was really lucky and had step father make a beautiful cake, friend do flowers, I did table decs and place tags etc. Those three things alone saved me about £1500. Don't be scared to ask people- I found that people love to get involved.

If you can't get anyone to make invitations, then but them off the shelf and write them yourself. This again will save you a fortune compared to getting personalised ones made.

Great tips on dresses- Debenhams and BHS have some lovely dresses. Also if you have a Monsoon outlet shop near you they have some amazing bargains.

Hope that helps and enjoy the planning. I had so much fun planning my wedding and now have the amazing memories and photos of the day.

mademoiselle_2

The most expensive things are the dress, the flowers and the catering - all of those costs can be cut.

The dress: if you have a grandmother/auntie/any female friend who can sew, have you thought of making the dress? Prima magazine used to give a wedding dress pattern away for free in their magazine each year... if you can do this, you will get a totally original dress at a fraction of the price. Sari shops might be the place to find your fabric! You will get a lovely choice of shiny, satiny fabrics in pale shades or white - or checkout anyone who sells fabric on a market.

Basically, men don't care what they wear (waits for the outrage!) so you can happily put the best man and groom into formal wear from e-bay.

Flowers: again, shamelessly exploit any friend or relative who loves their garden and grows flowers for cutting! As all MSE-ers know, the magic formula is to ASK... and you shall receive!

Catering: home-made food can be dodgy at an event like a wedding. I think you should use either a supermarket or a catering firm - they have to keep to strict health and safety over food - and just be very competitive over getting the cost down.

Party favours and decorations: see if anyone you know is going to the States this summer - and beg them to get you something from Party America. They have the most fantastic suff, at a fraction of the price it costs here. Like: a kilo of sugared almonds for about £4 - that would do table boxes for about 30, and NOT cost a fortune!

Good luck!

Titch89

Make someof your own food?

pinkshoes

DRESS - from ebay then find a friend who's good at sewing if it needs adjusting slightly. People on ebay will give you exact measurements of the dress if you request them.

RECEPTION - at your house. You can buy a gazzebo (sp??) off ebay really cheaply too!

FOOD - M&S buffet, bottles of bubbly, get someone to bring some wine back from France on a booze cruise.

LilMissEmmylou

wedding dress - try ebay and get it made by one of those companies in china. I hear nothing but good reports about them and you can get them for very little including the postage. I guess with labour and materials being so much cheaper they make a killing selling loads on ebay (they often have buy it now prices so they set the price and thus you dont need to feel bad) they then take your measurements and make it to size.

over in the celebrations forum there is a thing about making chocolate slabs which you can customise with names etc, this would double up as a favour and a table place name time consuming i guess, but they look ever so good and the personal touch is always nice.

a girl i know got married in church but they then turned the church into a reception venue You could always have a mass cooking session the day before, quiche, salad, garlic breads, sausages etc etc for a big cold buffet style dinner.(pr reheat to have it hot)

Where abouts are you located?

ailuro2

Go away and get married in a registrar's office somewhere nearby - you can tie it in with a few days away in a caravan or B&B -it can be very cheap in October.

When you come back, have a get together for friends and family, just an evening do, and you won't have to worry about cost.

Or you could wait another year until you have a bit more money to do things the way you'd like without worrying so much about cost?