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

silverchair

Hi
Thought Id put my 2 pennies worth.
The hardest part of planning a wedding is who to invite & & who not to invite. You have to be really strict with the numbers. Its so easy to go from say 30 to 150. Also be careful of family members taking over & inviting people because they think they ought to as they went to their wedding etc.

The other thing to remember is that it is a day, an important one, but it still has the same number of hours as any other day & they will fly by. Its much better having those thousands of pounds last a year rather than just 1 day. To have a good wedding you dont need to spend loads. We did it for a couple of thousand pounds (I think 3,000).

1) Hire your groom's suit. We did this at debenhams using the free 50 pounds they gave us. Not sure whether they still do it, but if you set up a wedding list with them they will gave us 50 pounds. So check if they are still doing this.

2) Go to bridal shops & try on the wedding dresses there. You still get the pampering & you will know what style suits you & your size in that wedding dress. Then go on the internet or ebay & search for that style of dress. It will be cheaper.

3) Flowers. We got married in the summer so there were loads of flowers to choose from. Keep this in mind when choosing your bouquet, that the flowers out of season will be a lot more expensive. We had a bride's & bridesmaid's bouquet. We didnt have buttonholes as didnt really need it as there were loads of flowers in the garden & that 1 lonely flower would have been drowned out.

4) We had our reception at a really pretty restaurant (so didnt need to decorate it, other than favours & place names). We hired the whole restaurant. Our wedding cake was the desert.

5) We didnt have a DJ as OH & myself cant stand the talking over songs they do. We got the guests to choose their music when they gave us back the invitation. We then put these on the MP3 player. Most restaurants have music anyway. A couple of guests were hovering around the CD player doing the music anyway, with their little stash of CDs they'd sneaked in.

6) Restaurant manager knew someone local that did wedding cakes as a hobby/ side job. Cake was simple, but yummy & a good price.

7) Invitations. Make your own. Means its cheap, creative, personal & you can do them exactly how you want them rather than someone elses interpretation of what you want. For ideas look at the Knot (an American bridal site) or Martha Stewart (shows you how to do cool stuff). Go to places like John Lewis & ask for samples so you can get more ideas.

8) We had our guests take photos with disposable cameras on the table (from picstop). Not the greatest of quality, but some fun photos. We had some fantastic photos from our guests & their digital cameras. We do however regret not hiring a photographer (although at the time we couldnt afford one)

9) Create your own favours. You can buy favour organza bags in the colour of you choice on ebay & fill it with sweets/chocolates. Favours arent necessary but brighten up the table.

silverchair

Forgot about make up.
Bought stuff from benefit online, they had a money off code & free sample bits. Then went into department store for the benefit lady to show me how to do my make up.

Hair. This was very risky had it done the day before. Brought in my tiara & asked the hairdresser to cut it to suit the tiara. I was lucky that I had time in between ceremony & reception, so I went to another hairdressers down the road to me & asked them to just blow dry my hair. So I had a different hair style for reception,so it was very cheap.

Just got a cab to the reception

silverchair

Wedding rings from Goldsmiths using tesco vouchers

ekroys17

We are getting married in Sept 2009, and because we have plenty of time we have managed to cut our original budget of £10k to £5k.
We have done the following:
My wedding dress was off ebay, brand new £1500 gown for £185 included postage. Tiara, veil and shoes from ebay for a total of £30.

Mens wear we have found a gentlemens shop in Halesowen that was selling off the ex-hire suits, we bought 5 dress shirts and 6 waistcoats for £25, Prince edward suits for £30 each, we found that it was cheaper to buy the ourfits than pay nearly £80 each to hire, we can then sell them on ebay after.

We are getting married at 1pm and originally we was going to a hotel for the reception, but we decided to cut the numbers and the hotel said that it was too low. Also we have to cater again or the day guests for the evening buffet, which many would only nibble.
Instead we have opted for a carvery meal at the local pub, guests can have what they want and we will only be charged for what is eaten. This works out for a 3 course meal at £10 a head.

For the evening we have hired a room at the local labour club for £100 and Borther in law is a chef and has offered to cater a buffet for 100 at £6 a head. A friend's dad is a DJ and is doing the disco for £160.

Favours are going to be love hearts from Homebargains, 35p for 4 rolls, so will come under a £10.

We have ordered a Baby bentley limo so that everyone can go to the church together and not being charged for return journeys, this has cost £300 for 3 hours.

Shop around for flowers and bargain with them, the best time is to go in the week, and ask for discounts when the shop is empty.

Bridesmaid dresses for 2 adults came from BHS that was half price and had cashback from Quidco. Total cost £80.

Childs bridesmaids was from Debenhams, one of their red hot offer, from £79 each to £25, opened a store card to get the 10% discount, (paid in full when due) and had a xmas voucher, so came in at £40.

Invites was from Dunelm was £6 for 8, but we bought them for 79p a pack.

Sorry the post is long but I hope it will help.

bj-sailaway

The VERY BEST wedding we went to was held in the huge gardens of a friend of theirs, but any field or campsite would suit this idea.

Anyone could come, they put up a big marquee tent (borrowed from scouts I think) with tables and chairs, the idea was 'bring a posh picnic'. the ceremony was in the marquee, (the did the official bit at a registry office day before) then we all had picnics on the grass, with their friends kids bands playing music, they had speakers and people brought music along too!

If you wanted you could bring a tent and stop over and there was a bonfire at midnight.

Oh, and if you wanted to be a bridesmaid, you just turned up in pink - she had about 30 bridesmaids - it was fab!

It was bloody brilliant! No caterers to pay for, no bridesmaids outfits to pay for - and the dress was £20 off e-bay - and it was gorgeous!

Hope this helps.

Mely

I just have to mention that a church wedding costs from about £180 to £250 for the church fee. We are paying £250 and about £60 for the organist(which we still have to book!) xxx

bj-sailaway

Outrageous! Our church just asks for a donation. If you know someone who plays piano or keyboards, ask them. I hate the organ anyway! If there's a sixth form or uni student around who can play, they'd be glad of a donation!

Mely

I wish we could have just given a donation - much cheaper! Which church is yours? Ours is an Anglican church and perhaps its different were we live with how much to pay. Maybe the Bishop decides on these things for his area?Im not sure.

G*dlovesatryer

I am very supportive of people having a wedding within their budget but my wedding cost me a lot of money and I do not regret spending money on it. I didnt cut corners and got what I wanted (jimmy choos, nice wedding dress, great entertainment and a fantastic meal). My wedding of course (a big white one) is obviously very different to what many people would want.

You only get married once so my tip is DONT COMPROMISE ON THE THINGS YOU WILL REGRET LATER!!!. If its something you are not fussed on, then cut the cost by all means e.g. we didnt do wedding favours or finger food/canapes on arrival we figured if we were providing drinks, people could pay for their own food, we did put on a 5 course meal later so that was enough. But where you may regret any compromises, shop around and make sure that you are very happy before you choose, your memories will be for the rest of your life!!!

G*dlovesatryer

.... I didnt go to that one!!!!

princess wrote: »

Friends got married in church, him in own suit, her in charity shop dress. Reception was in church hall £100 to hire generally, but free to them as church members and all guest were asked to bring a dish and a bottle. Of course all the families competed to bring the nicest dish, so there was absolutely loads to eat! Friends did the flowers, photography and cars. Her mother did the wedding cake. It was all lovely. If it cost £200 I would be surprised!!