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

Sazzyukrafc

Buy your dress from the US or China. I am finding the one I want and trying it on here, and then buying from the US or having a replica made in China.

Buy your cake from somewhere like M&S.

Make your own stationary - invites, order of service etc...

Get bridesmaid dresses from US or China, or somewhere like BHS or Debenhams.

Don't invite people you don't consider as close.

Ask people to buy things for the wedding as presents, e.g. food, flowers etc..

Have the wedding on a weekday to save on cheaper rates.

Do your own hair and make up - same with bridesmaids.

starbump

The wedding will be over so quickly but the photographs will be there forever - hire a professional photographer, if at all possible. For everything else you should be able to trim the costs. I found eBay fantastic for dresses, favours, decorations, etc.

domestic_goddess

We went to Gretna Green when we got married, we did invite close family and friends (about 20 people ) and had a lovely little ceremony in the old blacksmiths and then a small reception in the hotel over the road... We got the bouquet and buttonholes locally and took the with us.

The whole wedding / reception / flowers / dress / suit cost £300.
:T
Enough left over for two weeks in cyprus as well :beer:

hm71_2

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/article1468264.ece
definite recommendation for a dress.
friend made all her own favors etc..
food negotiate best deal at the end of the day people are meant to be there to celebrate your day. we just had a buffet etc. spent princely sum of £1000 on my wedding but I have been married for 18 years.
friend of mine wasted £10000 on wedding, had been living with the bloke 10 years and divorced 4 years later. doesn't matter how much you throw at it, its about you and your partner not how much you can spend.

hedgewytch13

I did my wedding for roughly that price and had a wonderful day

My dress was from China, ordered from Ebay. I think it cost £60. It was made to measure and came in a tiny box. I thought great I've ordered a doll dress, but it popped out and was beautiful. I spent £100 on a satin lined hooded cloak though, it was a winter wedding. That was also from ebay. My tiara was about £10 from ebay. I bought two, one for me and my bridesmaid. I found an ebay shop who did a made to measure brides maid dress, I think it was called Castle in the Clouds. It was a halterneck dark red and lovely. Our bouquets were silk and again ordered from ebay, for about £20....which was fantastic as I was quoted £99 a bouquet of fresh due to christmas (I married on the 21st of December). I married in a registry office, which was great for me as a pagan. I also got to choose my own music...which was Loreena McKennit's "The Mystics Dream" I only ordered one car for me and my husband. My photo's were done as a wedding present from my best friend who luckily was an art student. My husband worked at a hotel so we got a discount on room hire. We just paid for an evening buffet. I made my own table arrangements, due to the time of day I had glass plates with gold gravel with candles inside. They were really lovely. My aunty makes fantastic cakes, she made ours for our present. It was a beautiful two tier heart shaped one. The original room allocated was awful, I cried and they changed it to the best (hey, I've always been a moneysaver). We also haggled and got them to allow us to bring our own Cava for welcome drinks. We saved enough for a night over at the hotel, which was lovely and having a baby I didn't want to leave him anyway. I also made cd's of my own for the reception music. It was actually all I dreamed about and a very happy day. Our rings were cheap white gold ones from Argos, but I had them both engraved with "Love of my heart" in Gaelic for free. A friend embroidered us a triskele patterned ring cushion. I did my own button hole flowers as well, I got a bunch of roses from asdas, cut them down and wrapped the stems in ribbon.

I made the invites myself. I bought the thick watercolour paper from The Works in a small size. I printed off the invites on that paper, it had a tear off edge and I just filed it down. I bought some silver star stickers and some crystal stickers to make a simple but pretty invite. I then put them in thick cream envelopes from WHS.

So it's totally possibly to have a wonderful day. I went to another wedding with a very expensive sit down meal which was awful, very hot in summer and inappropriate for children. I hope I've given you some ideas. Have a wonderful day.

bringmeshoes

I have heard of people getting things for their weddings by paying in time, for instance a woman got her wedding dress by spending some saturday afternoons giving out leaflets to advertise the shop and getting the cars by washing them for the company etc..

nikkinoo_3

I got married at Easter this year, in a local licensed venue, wearing a prom dress £285 that could have been a wedding dress (and can easily be worn again to a 'black tie' do).

Our budget was a little more - £3000, and I must admit to splashing out more than I intended on shoes (they are fab though!) and DH's suit.

Our best move was to hold our reception in a local pub-come-restaurant/hotel. It's in a beautiful setting, and while considered relatively expensive for food for a meal out, food for our 38 guests cost around £8 per head. We had a deli-board style buffet for everyone, with extra salads/chips/rustic breads on the side. Some of the more traditional local venues wanted £60 plus per head for a formal meal - there was no contest in my mind. Including our hotel room the total bill came to just under £600 - by far the most expensive aspect of the day.

My best friend's dad very kindly drove us in his polished and ribboned Jag. My Mother in Law did my flowers and an arrangement for the venue. My flower girl's mother bought her outfit from the Ladybird range at Woolies, but she looked absolutely beautiful (aged 7).

I was adamant at the time that I wouldn't pay for an official photographer, and whilst I'm glad we saved the money to spend on the honeymoon, a lot of the group photos are half in shade and half in sun (it snowed on our wedding day, but from the pics you'd think it was the height of summer!). A pro would have noticed this and moved everyone. On the plus side, almost everyone emailed us their photos and there were more than enough that were good enough to be framed. When I think of friends who paid over £1000 for their photographer and another £600 for their beautifully presented photo album which is now in the cupboard under the stairs I think we made the right decision.

With a bit of patience and imagination some amazing invitations can be made with sheets of handmade paper and pressed flower petals or crafty bits you can pick up almost anywhere.

The main thing is that you enjoy it - it's your day! Congratulations and enjoy the planning...!

lostinrates

DH and I got married just over three years ago. It cst under £100. We wore clothes we already had (he wore a vintage velvet jacket I wore an evening dress I used to perform in) and two friends were our witnesses. I carried roses cut from the garden that morning.

We DID pay extra to have a meal with our friends. Then my parents took us out for a meal and we planned a second celebratory meal with DHs close fmaily too.

Not having stress of things potentially not going to plan, and cutting out the fancy guests etc meant that DH and I had the most wonderful day of our lives truley romantic and about the commitment we made to each other and our love. While I sometimes regret not having the huge day I know nothing could have been more beuatiful than the simple way we gave our lives to each other.

And it was VERY money saving!

nickyhutch

We've just started thinking about getting married next year. We're hoping to book Gretna Green basic package (about £300), invite close family (about 20 people), tell them the time and date, and say we hope to see them there. We'll say we're skint, we're doing this to get married, not to host a party, and we're afraid we can't pay for meals, but will be having a meal somewhere nearby, and again hope they'll join us. We'll have a meal somewhere nearby, and maybe go off on a holiday with our clubcard vouchers. I'll find a fabulous dress somewhere, OH already has a suit, we'll take our 3 kids with us....... if it ends up being just us and the kids (it wont!), so be it. It's what we want.

hm71_2

Just as a quick aside, depending on how long you have this is my DD prom outfit. I spent 4 months getting it together in various sles and things and spent the princely sum of £75 in all. other parents spent upwards of £200. so my bargain. But dress is from Marshall ward, shoes from next, bolero from Debenhams & tiara from local store. Handbag daughter already owned. might be worth checking out the websites etc..