My Wedding Freebies/Savings - You Can Do It Too!

KittyKate

Hi Guys

I've seen a few posts asking for whereabouts of wedding freebies, tips on keeping under budget, and the like.

I got engaged March 2008 and am getting married July 2009 (not long to go!) and I have made, with a little planning, some amazing savings on wedding essentials, getting most items at a ridiculous discount and in many cases free!

I can't see any reason why anyone can't make the same savings so I'm going to share my 'secrets' here and list what I saved and how (and for fun, the RRP).

**Wedding Cake**

RRP - £120
Paid - £0

My cake is an M&S 3 tier white one (I'm sure you've all seen it ). I saved lots of M&S vouchers on ipoints.co.uk by signing up to bingo sites for the points and then playing them, you still get your bingo bonus, so I came off with a little profit too (this isn't guaranteed of course). But generally you get a little more back in points than your initial deposit and as long as you win £30 every 3 sites you break even (with free vouchers).

These take 1-2 months to pay up so if you're getting married this year do it first!


**Table Decorations**

I managed a healthy £500 profit over the bingo sites so I went mad and spent £30 on swarovski scatter crystals for the tables, but there are some more 'guaranteed' things you can do - for example hubby to be and I joined DooYoo and did 3 reviews a day for about 3 months (drives you mad after a while) but it paid off, as we got £150 in Amazon vouchers and amongst other bits, we bought 15 Kodak instant cameras for the tables (as I've been to 3 weddings now where the confetti brand cameras haven't worked :mad:) and also 16 star shaped balloon weights (a friend is doing the balloons).

RRP on the cameras was £30 and on the weights £22 so the review writing paid off.

**Video**

We couldn't afford £3,000 for a videographer so I saved up my BView review earnings (I am a local expert for Leeds) and asked for payment by cheque. I waited for a decent deal to come up on an SD camera and got a JVC for £150. I bought a 16GB card, long life battery and tripod with my DooYoo Amazon vouchers. My best man will press 'rec'!:o

RRP £3,000 :eek:
Paid £0

**Mens Suits**

I saved up another £120 mid last year on ipoints and ordered Arcadia vouchers to use at Burtons. (You can also get Arcadia vouchers on Pigsback but I find Pigsback to be a long haul operation!!). It's not the whole amount but it's a really good saving.

RRP £400
Paid £280

**Favours**

I LOVED what I did with the favours - I don't like sugared almonds so I wanted either miniature drinks or mini designer perfumes. The venue didn't want me bringing in free drinks so I settled for perfumes. I found boxes of 5 mens and womens designer perfumes at Boots last September for £18 a box on their annual 3-4-2 offer. I needed 12 boxes so the cost would have been, at full price, £144. I did a few things to chisel this down - I saved £90 in Boots vouchers, some from Pigsback where I had a few points sitting, and the rest on hubby to be's ipoints.
I waited for January when the boxes had been reduced to £8.88 each (no 3-4-2). I purchased 11 boxes of perfume and used my Advantage Card, and then with the points accrued I bought the last box

I got £144 of favours for £8

I purchased small white organza bags to place them in, but rather than pay Confetti or Hobbycraft prices I sourced a warehouse selling the exact same bags at £1.60 for 10 rather than £4.99. (JTF in Leeds if you live nearby, you need a business card to go).

**Invites**

I really wanted hand made invites but the quotes at wedding fairs topped £250 for 65 invites & RSVP!

So, I went for a plain-ish card invite on VistaPrint (using the 25% off URL naturally) and matching RSVP. I then bought strips of pre glued ribbon on sale at Hobbycraft for £1.99 for 10 (which did 20 invites) and stuck on some diamante hearts, also from Hobbycraft. They are gorgeous and everyone thinks I paid the £250

The total cost was around £40 (I got smaller postcard sized evening invites to match).

**Bridesmaids**

I saw my bridesmaids dresses at £80 each in the Debut range at Debenhams. I waited for the sales where they were on sale at £40 each, then used a 20% off code and free delivery. £32 each

I bought my bridesmaids tiaras at Diamonds and Pearls (in Leeds but I think it is a chain) when they were on BOGOF - £14 for two!! (They are still running the offer, Leeds Brides!!) Same with their necklaces, £19 for two, and they are gorgeous.

They are wearing their own silver shoes, so the only extra cost is their hand tied bouquets at £20 each (I went for a small local florist who was half the price of my the poncy place in Leeds who quoted me £250 a bouquet...!!!!!)


**Bride**

I went to a bridal shop which was recommended by a friend and fell in love with the first dress I found. As it was January it was half price - job done! (It's huge and princessy, photos in July!)

My necklace and tiara came from a great site called Bridal Gems, quite understated but gorgeous - as they were running an easter 20% off I got a decent deal, £27 for both (and I'll sell on the tiara I'm sure).

The shoes were diamante Faith, were £90, I paid £32 in the Debenhams sale using a code from HotUKDeals.

**Miscellaneous Savings**

I bought packets of 10 silver cone party poppers for £1.50 at ASDA (still running this offer actually). These are £8 at Confetti!!

Thankyou cards - mine are Simon Elvin, from JTF Warehouse, at £1.50 a packet of 5 (£4.50 in Clintons). (I know, buying the thankyou cards 2 months before the wedding, how organised)

Dad's cufflinks - £10, sterling silver, on Amazon, free with DooYoo vouchers.

Honeymoon wardrobe - bits and bobs from Fashion Union sale, T Shirts £3, ladies tops £5, free delivery with code. Much easier and cheaper than manouvering the high street! (haven't actually booked the Honeymoon yet but surely it will be hot :rotfl:)

Wedding Make-Up - free courtesy of two £50 vouchers for Virgin Vie Cosmetics, after a day each writing reviews for Qype!

...I'm sure there's loads more, I'm a born moneysaver!!! I will have a wonderful but thrifty day :beer:

prettypoppyknickers

wow!!!!!!!!! go you!

what is this ipoints you talk about?!!

*Louise*

Wow - I'm speechless at all that!!

Well done you x

kelda_shelton

speechless too! well done!

Pookie_lou

Very inspiring! Well done!:T

Finch7

Excellent! well done, i hope you have a fabulous wedding :D

mrshaigh2b1987

you go girl! xxx

freebiequennie

Well done you proves can be done we spent £9,500 on our wedding but £3,500 was our honeymoon.

I did do alot of buying things in bulk and selling on what we didnt need so made money there.

we got mini whiskeys, mini perfumes for ladies and some 35gm bars chocolate free for use as favours just by writing and asking companies bear in mind we did right to loads and only these 3 gave us things so does take time and a little bit of cheekiness!!

My wedding dress was the one I loved in magazines and was a size too big but was 70% off and came from a very small bridal shop owned by one lady so she knew my budget was £500 and let me have it for £350 (was priced at £1200, down to £500 in sale) if I took it away that week (was jan and my wedding was oct!!) and she gave me the number of her dressmaker who only charged me £40 for alterations. The dress had only been tried on twice that was inc me!!
and was immaculate.

mens suits we hired we paid for 2 best mens, dads both paid for own and husbands was free as hired 5 for price of 4.

bridesmaid dresses well had one matron of honour and brought material for £40 and friend made it for free and got a lovely dress and bolero (and wrap but she choose to wear bolero) and similar dresses were £180 plus. she wore her own shoes and I had some very tiny flowers used for card making that her hairdresser put on grips and put in her hair.

flowergirl got her dress in next sale for £20 and caridgan from bhs for £18. she had a little bag from ebay that was a job lot of items for £5 and i sold other bits on for more than that so was sort of free!! her hair band was from ebay and cost £2 was brand new and new seller so took a chance. He shoes were bhs sale and were £15 but had to wait til month before wedding as we all know childrens feet!!

we had our photos in the gardens across the way from the hotel (not linked to hotel in anyway just local council gardens) and although we were providing celebration cocktails in hotel with 2 glases wine with meal and champers for toats we wanted everyone to have a drink whilst photos were being taken which would take an hr or so. we brought bottled beer on offer, cartons of juice, some alcopops, enough for 1/2 drinks for everyone and put in cool bags with bottle openers and the best men were repsonsible for these and ensuring bottle went in bin etc and that def was worth doing very popular with guests.

Tigerlilley1980

Well done you, that is very inspiring indeed. Hope you have a lovely day x

s4aRainyDay

you've inspired me, I'm now working towards free spending money for my honeymoon, then I'll feel less guilty about eating out every night!