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

seatzie

piefacerecords wrote: »

seatzie's got it spot on here - my wedding dress was beautiful and it was from the julien macdonald range at debenhams. we also got married in the local town hall (cost of ceremony - £45 last august!) which was stunning inside, and a lot nicer than many of the independent buildings we went to see.

just for any avoidance of doubt lol! piefacerecords is not my wife lol

tootiefrooties

seatzie wrote: »

just for any avoidance of doubt lol! piefacerecords is not my wife lol

Hahaha sorry, yeah, i phrased that badly! I meant more of "great minds think alike".

The other solution for your budget would be to elope and just have you and your partner there, seeing as guests are 90% of the costs of a wedding. Part of me wishes I did that! That way, you could have a renewal or blessing when you have saved enough money to have the exact ceremony that you want, without having to postpone the actual wedding.

Mappygirl

A friend of mine had her ceromony at teatime, served welcomr drinks and pastries.It was then time for the evening reception to start and the buffet. It was lovely and cut the cost of the meal.

When I got married I chose a small venue so it was just for close family and friends. It was so lovely and informal.

It can be done - ask family friends to get involved I'm sure they would love to be part of your special day!

WestonDave

One of the charity shops in our main shopping area has developed a bit of a niche in selling on wedding dresses even to the extent they often get ex display ones from the posh shops donated to them. It might be worth checking around your area to see if the same happens.

There are often community halls around that can be hired very cheaply which then leaves more of the budget for food and drink. We have had people use our church for the wedding ceremony and then use the downstairs room for the reception, which I know they weren't charged anything for. If you want a church wedding don't forget to check out the non CofE churches e.g. Baptists etc. They probably won't be in quite such pretty grounds, but they probably aren't as quick to charge either.

We made our own invitations - if you talk to your local kallkwik type print shop you can often buy nice card with matching envelopes for a good price and they will do other little jobs that make it easier for you (for a price but still much less than a full price invite) like trimming down the inserts so they don't overlap the cover etc. Ours were done on plain cream textured card, printed on an inkjet printer and stapled/glued together ourselves. We did the orders of service the same way.

You must know someone that has a car you can use - me and my best man walked to the church as we lived just around the corner so saved on a car for that.

fifitrix123

Hi
If you have freeview or sky watch channel 277 and 278 the wedding channels, they have a brill programme called For Richer or Poorer and its about organising a wedding for under $5000 with the help of a few friends and family!!!
Its brill and has some excellent ideas which you could probably use yourself, like making your own invites, doing flowers, cutting food and cake costs etc..:beer:

AnnieM_3

Congratulations on the forthcoming wedding! :j

My advice would be as follows:

1. Do it on a Friday, or another weekday - loads of suppliers do discounted rates for days other than on a weekend.

2. Find a pretty Register Office - assuming you aren't going for a traditional church/synagogue/mosque/temple etc. wedding. A lot of Register Offices have websites so you can check them out online, and you don't have to get married in your home town if there's a RO you prefer elsewhere.

3. Beware of hotel-type wedding packages, as these can be pricey, and may not give you much scope to be clever with your budget.

4. Do the ceremony quite small, and have a big party, instead of a traditional reception.

5. Don't feel pressurised into inviting people you haven't seen for ages/loads of kids/partners you've never met.

6. Don't feel you have to have everything they advertise in 'confetti' catalogues - some of the stuff they insist is essential is really only a marketing ploy to make you feel like you have to spend hundreds of pounds on personalised silver napkin rings for every guest or your wedding will be a disaster!

7. Buffets are often cheaper than a sit-down meal.

8. Make the most of any skills and assistance your friends and relatives etc. can offer.

Above all - shop around, and try to haggle wherever you can.

Good luck!

sparkle03

If you do have the reception somewhere like a hall then cut down on entertainment by making all of your own music cds and get a friend to make sure the music levels are adjusted and cds replaced on time.

Me and OH are getting married next year and although the dj is included in the package were very fussy about our music and have started to put music together that means something to us, the dj gets an easy night anyway, He is under strict instruction from my fiance who is also a dj not to do anything other than play his pre recorded cds! Lol

Making all the crafty items yourself which has already been mentioned. For the button holes dont get fresh flowers try ebay or crafty shoes for silk flowers Usually cheaper and you can bargain hunt for them now.

Also instead of a big expensive hen night you could have a big girly night in with all your friends, cheap wine and you can practice all your beauty treatments which mean you dont have to pay for them on the day, ask a friend who is good with hair to do that and another for make up tips!

Also rather than bridal shops try highstreet stores for your extra bits like shoes, underwear and accessories.

If your having a bridesmaid rather than paying for their outfit suggest something that could be worn again and ask if they mind going halves with you, that way you probably save on shoes and stuff aswell.

If you dont know anyone who is good at making big wedding cakes why dont you splash out on hiring a cake stand and get a friend or family member to make enough fairy cakes to cover it perhaps with both of your initials iced onto the cakes?

Hope thats given you some ideas Hun and good luck with it all x x x

zekepes

I got my dress from the debenhams sale, too!

We were lucky as our actual choices for our wedding day turned out to be the cheap options!

This is what we did (it was my second time round and his first):

Got married at 5 pm in a 'posh' country hotel, followed by a champagne reception and then the meal. We only invited VERY close friends and family (there were 23 people in total) and had a private dining room.

I didn't have a bridemaid, cake, wedding cars. In fact I drove my future husband and myself there (I had just found out I was pg - bad timing as no booze, but I could at least drive myself. We were just going to get a taxi).

We came to this arrangement after being to many wedding as guests. The hanging around can be a bore between the day do and evening do and so are a lot of the rituals associated with weddings - cake cutting etc. It can also be very tiring and expensive. If people are travelling a whole day wedding can mean 2 nights in a hotel rather than one etc.

It all depends on what kind of wedding YOU want really. Ensure that you spend your money on what you really want and don't waste it continuing silly traditions that mean nothing to you.

Marker_2

As for dresses, when looking throuhj the additions catologue the other day I was shocked to see they sold them, and they were actually quite nice, no different other than the price to what you can find in wedding shops.

Before you start planning, pick out the things that are a must and that you cant do without, for instance, dress, venue, suit, cake etc. Shop aroound before making commitments and write all your expenses down (so MSE's can benefit later ).

Get as many family and friends involved as possible. Things like invitations are neither here nor there, same with flowers and where you have the meal - if you personalise the occassion to you you'll find it won't cost that much, rather than going for the typical white wedding.xx

carlislelass

our local Oxfam do dresses from £50. We married in 1982 and cost us £600 , someone made the cake, local taxi firm had a white car,,decorated it with fresh flowers and the owner wore a grey suit as driver. one present was the weekend in a brand new mobile home on the coast, florist did a small posy for me then four buttonholes..the photos were the dearest (£100) I`d been to too many weddings where children ran riot so youngest was 15. Just celebrated 24 yrs .