wedding on a budget

zoe2008

Please can someone help
My self and partner have a young family and after being together for 10yrs have decided to get married.
As you can imagane the money is tight, so its a reg office do with a meal after for 30 and a evening do at the local village hall. No honeymoon as we havent the money but i need to know how to get hold of a cheap dress.
Im 6ft 1" tall and after wedding dress shopping on sat i am shocked at how much these cost.
Ive been on all the websites advertising second hand but as im so tall im worried i wont get anything.
Any ideas would be greatfully recieved.
Zx

RoxieW

hi hon - ring around the local area for any stores that are closing down. I found my perfect dress in a closing down sale reduced from £1400 to £350
Failing that, debenhams does some lovely great value dresses - my friend wore one for her wedding and looked stunning. I think they start at around £150??

RoxieW

just had a quick look on the debenhams website and there really does seem to be a dress for every shape, size and taste. If you struggle with length, they do some gorgeous shorter 3/4 style dresses which would look fab for a spring/summer do!

Lunar_Eclipse

zoe2008 wrote: »

Please can someone help
My self and partner have a young family and after being together for 10yrs have decided to get married.
As you can imagane the money is tight, so its a reg office do with a meal after for 30 and a evening do at the local village hall. No honeymoon as we havent the money but i need to know how to get hold of a cheap dress.
Im 6ft 1" tall and after wedding dress shopping on sat i am shocked at how much these cost.
Ive been on all the websites advertising second hand but as im so tall im worried i wont get anything.
Any ideas would be greatfully recieved.
Zx

Wedding dresses are ridiculously over priced simply because it pulls on womens emotions surrounding their wedding day. No need to fall for it.

I bought mine from Berketex Brides on Regent Street. It was a prototype that never went into production. But from memory, I think this bargain one-off gown still cost around £750. Although that sounds loads, so maybe it was £350? I haven't a clue, which cements my point about ridiculous unnecessary prices.

If I was getting married now, I would either try on loads of dresses to find my perfect style and colour and get it made, or buy an off the peg dress from Monsoon. Because they have gorgeous dresses for special occasions IMO. If that is still too costly, I'd look at where/how I could make savings to make it happen. And also check out Ebay.

But you should treat yourselves to a honeymoon, even if it's a weekend away to celebrate together. Maybe you could ask guests to contribute (a reasonable suggested fixed amount even?) as their wedding gift to you to fund it. I'd be delighted to do this for a friend.

alfiesmum

I boufght my dress last week for £21, and bridesmaid dress for 5.50, all from ebay. I live close by the seller too, so no postage, which has saved more than I paid (literally!) Ballerina length dresses are very much the style now too, so with your gorgeous height, you could maybe use that to your advantage?
Congratulations, hope it all goes brilliantly,
alfiesmum xx

Alleycat

HI Zoe, I'm 5'11" so have struggled. I went to a wedding dress sale yesterday and tried on this gorgeous dress but unfortunately it was a couple inches too short and so looked a bit silly.

Your best bet for something lovely but affordable might be to try Landybridal or Millybridal on the interweb. Thats certainly what I am going to do, but wanted to actually try on some dresses before I ordered so I knew what style I want.

MYLITTLESISTERLOLA

I can't advise on the height issue with your dress but my dress was new and cost £35 from Ebay would have cost £1200 in a shop. Perfect condition and when I got home from my honeymoon I sold the dress ( without drycleaning) for more than I bought it for !!!

Get the wedding dress shop to take your measurements and have a look for something similar or Ebay - I wouldn't touch the China ones.

If you search for wedding dress size ... chose Uk sellers only, click on lowest price first a watch the items your interested in until they are about 30seconds off ending and bid, I set a timer on my mobile to remind me when items are ending hope this helps.

P.s. we had our wedding this year we did everything on a shoestring cost £5k in total including 2 weeks for us and our little boy in jamacia it can be done !!!

Good Luck

Maysie

hi, i read the community boards on ebay the family, home and garden one and have seen ladies discussing the handmade hong kong/chinese wedding dresses. Go and ask for help and everyone will come and help you find the sellers with the good reputations. Bet you can can one handmade (especially for you they ask for all your measurements) for less than a hundred have heard about one for £25 all in before now! Nothing they like more than helping a bride in distress
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=1003

shelovestobuystuff

Congratulations!
We are getting married too after 18 years together so I know how much harder it is to afford these things once you have the house and kids to upkeep too.
It can be done on a tight budget.We are having our dream wedding,total budget 6k with my outfit taking up 1k of that,and I am making money on ebay and car boot sales to pay for it.Still have to get the cash to pay for 2/3 of the wedding but with almost a year to go I am sure we will manage it.
We are just having a weekend away in this country as a honeymoon,total cost under £300.
Enjoy planning it all.

zoe2008

Hi
Thank you all for your wise words, i really appreacate them.
Just to let you know how tight our budget is we are only have a max of £2500 to spend!!!
Both my partner and i work full time ( he is doing 14hrs ) so we are bringing in all the money we can. We dont have anything that we could sell ( i have ransaked the house ) so thats out the window.
The son has even offered to go with out his pocket money (£3per week ) just so mummy can look like a princess for the day!! Bless i love my family sooo much.

Guess its going to be another uphill struggle for us and if i have to forgo my princess for a day so be it.

If anyone hears or finds anything that could help i would be sooooo gratefull.

Again thank you all



Zx

MsChazzer

Don't know when you're getting married but remember the January sales aren't far off and I've always seen Monsoon wedding dresses in the sales.

Good luck!