Struggling to see where I could save money!

cleomolly

I’m starting to panic now! Our original budget was £2500 for everything listed below apart from my dress and bridesmaid dress’s as they will be paid for separate, (don’t know where that bit of money is coming from yet!)

I’m struggling to get everything for the £2500 and wondered what you thought to my list below? Is there anything that stands out as a big overspend?

Church and Reception paid for in full, transport and entertainment sorted.

Photography 500
Rings 500
Cake 100 – made my friend
Stationary 200 – everything needed
Gifts x11 120
Flowers 300
Vases & candles 90
Suits 100
Wishing Tree 50
Reception decoration 100 – to include table confetti, mints, match books and table trivia
Children’s packs x10 100
Favours 50
Hair, make-up, nails ect 200
Bride and groom gifts 100

Totals 2510.00

My dress, shoes, bag ect ?
Bridesmaid dress and access ?

There’s also all the little things that come un-expected like a keepsake box for my Bridesmaid, and we are not even contemplating a honeymoon at the minute!!!

I know it can be done on a budget as you have all taught me from reading your posts but I’m struggling to get everything for the £2500 we have, I feel like a spoilt brat when I see the lovely weddings done for less but I’m just getting so stressed over what I can and can’t vut back on.

moneysaver12

Hi could you not do away with the favors. Also what about doing your own make up. Do you have a college near you where do they do beauty as you could get your nails done there.

SugarSpun

Wedding stationery?

Wishing tree?

Ikea for vases and candles - shouldn't come anywhere close to £90.

Hair and makeup you should also be able to cut down either by doing your own, getting a friend to do it or hiring a student/going to a beauty college. Depending on the time of day you're getting married you could also book in at a make up counter and pretend it's a trial run. Buying the lipstick would help - plus that'll be the only thing you need to re-do during the day.

You could also cut down with children's packs. All you really need in those is a colouring book, package of crayons and maybe a disposable camera (buyable in bulk).

nozzy6

You could possibly cut back on the rings - I'm budgeting £80 for ours from here http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Elma-Jewellery__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Also there was a lovely variation on the wish tree on here a few days ago I think, can't find the link but it was a nice glass jar with lettering on it - could save you a little bit doing it that way

Yellowbug

Photography 500 - what is this for? maybe you could get a friend to do it as your gift? or for very little, and then get the photos printed yourself from a cd/usb stick? That way it should come in much cheaper?
Rings 500 - no idea ....ummm look in the sales, and on ebay....the price for your rings will be different depending on what sort of rings you want so I dont know if you are over budgeting or not (if you see what I mean lol)
Cake 100 – made my friend - how about asking her to do it for free as your wedding present?
Stationary 200 – everything needed - are you buying it from someone? what is included in everything needed? and how many for? give us some more clues and Im sure this could come down a long way. Have you considered doing it yourself...that would really really cut this cost down
Gifts x11 120 - seems good to me, less than a tenner a go
Flowers 300 - have no idea...havent got this far with mine yet lol, however I am planning on doing as much as I can myself, with my mum so thats one way of potentially cutting costs (but flowers are still expensive on their own)
Vases & candles 90 - as above, go to ikea, you should be able to cut this by a far bit (or try ebay and just wait for a bargain to come up)
Suits 100 - very good
Wishing Tree 50 - are you buying this? if so where from? Im sure with a little creativity you could make one
Reception decoration 100 – to include table confetti, mints, match books and table trivia - how many tables? id suggest shopping around a bit more for all the bits you are looking for, mints you should be able to buy in bulk, same with confetti. Table trivia, you could make your own, and do questions about the 2 of you, family, friends etc
Children’s packs x10 100 - seems like quite a lot, you should be able to do a good pack for half this..use poundland, tesco, ebay etc etc
Favours 50 - depending on how many guests you have, you could drop this easily with a simple favour, or just dont have any, no one will mind
Hair, make-up, nails ect 200 - have you considered doing your own make up or hair? or even getting a friend to do it (your bm maybe?) if you really want to get someone to do it...be cheeky and ask for a discount
Bride and groom gifts 100 - seems fine, but you could cut this down by giving something meaningful instead...maybe make a box up for oh, silly things like socks incase he gets cold feet etc



hope that helps a bit

xJayJayx

my wedding stationary has come to £30 for 120 people.
reception decor can be bought on ebay for very cheap i reckon it could be done for 50 quid.
Flowers? if they are real go for artificial they are much cheaper and some look really authentic. There are some ladies on ebay that own shops and sell their wares on ebay.

gettingthereslowly

I bought my vases for £1 each in Ikea loads there at reasonable prices and search for church candles on line. Bought 12 for less than £20.

Also with the flowers, possibly have silk flowers. I had 3 rose bouquets, 6 button holes and 2 corsges all matching for £120 from silkweddingflowers (.co.uk) or there is a site sarahs flowers. I know some people prefer fresh but NOBODY could tell any difference with mine and we were all able to keep them. Mine is in my living room looking beautiful.

Good luck x

francinefishpaw

Tesco now do rings and they are really really cheap

iamana1ias

!!!!!! is a wishing tree?? Why not have a guestbook (£10) instead? Presume you have to buy something to put all the wishes in anyway!

Tigerlilley1980

Hi there, here are my thoughts:

Photography 500 - Get someone with a ahalf decent camera to do this for you = free

Rings 500 - I got mine form Ebay, they are brand new. Mine is 18ct white gold and has a small ddiamond in it, OH's is 4mm plain 9ct white gold band. Try Elma jewellery on Ebay

Cake 100 – Try soemthing alternative. We are having a Doughnut wedding cake which is going to cost £20 for them from Tesco on a pre order! Or how about making cupcakes and decorating them yourself. You can get the stands very cheaply on Ebay, around £20. You can even freeze the undecorated cupcake up to a month beforehand and defrost the day before!

Stationary 200 – It has cost me about £25 for my stationary. I made my invites myself, if you would like the template please pm me You can download free fonts and all I did was find a picture I liked, printed it onto glossy photo paper, stuck it onto a card blank and added a few diamntes. For the inside I printed my template with my wording onto an hammered paper insert and stuck it inside the card with double sided tape. On the back we stuck an address label we had printed from Ebay

Gifts x11 120- Don't give these or make something yourself, scour Ebay for something maybe?

Flowers 300- Sarahs flowers is fantastic. I got my bouquet from Dunelm for £4.99 and added crystal pins, so many people have said it is gorgeous already. Buy silk flowers and then make the bouquets up yourself, or buy fresh but still arrange them yourself


Vases & candles 90 -I second going to Ikea for these, I think mine were about £4

Suits 100- Depending on whether you want morning suits or not, asda and tescos do them for around £20. Ask them to wear a suit theya lready have which is what I have done

Wishing Tree 50 - Buy cheap vase and go out and get some twigs yourself, spray them yourself with whichever colour you like.
Reception decoration 100 – to include table confetti, mints, match books and table trivia - I have crystals and petals from Ebay whic have cost around £20 for the lot. Look on Ebay for your matchooks and make your table trivia yourself
Children’s packs x10 100
Favours 50
Hair, make-up, nails ect 200
Bride and groom gifts 100 - Scrap this completely, you have the rest of your lives together for gifts

I would definitely get on Ebay you can save loads. Good luck and if you need any help pm me

Tiger xx

bubble96

this is tough because each of us will have different things that are important to us. why dont you put these things in an order of importance and then start from the bottom and see if you can cut it out/reduce it. for me stationary would be the thing i would first reduce.

Weve decided to do e-vites for day guests - its free, and you can include more info. it will take some time to collect emails and prepare, but you dont have to do all the writing out. Weve bought evening invites - i got them from whsmiths big clearout (may still be on) 20p a pack. And i bought a pack of day invites in marks and spencer sale for £1 for older guests who may not use email. The way i see it, i keep peoples invites for a bit, but other than my sisters they all end up in the bin eventually, and its not what i remember about a wedding.

Flowers - depends what your trying to get for that, but have a think about whether you and family could do something yourself. e.g, if you go for simple flowers like roses and gerbras you can easily make bouquets yourself. Also dont be picky about what flowers - get something that looks nice but is in season. Also a wedding i photographed 2weeks ago used those wooden roses to make bridesmaid bouquets, and i think on ebay these are really cheap, they looked great.

make up - ive decided that im going to try out as many free makeovers as i can get in the run up then choose which things i like best and buy them - that way i may spend £60 on really nice make up - but it will last me.

Childrens packs - make your own colouring packs - will cost paper and black ink, lots of free colouring pages on sites like cbeebies. buy bumper packs of pencils and just split them up into the packs. Go to the poundshop, there will be lots of bits you could use to bulk it up. also places like hawkins bazar. I certainly wouldnt waste a lot of money - kids will be happy with anything - so long as they have something!! My sisters wedding they had boxes filled with the type of stuff you put in party bags bought in sales, and in bumper packs and split up. add a few sweets and they will be well happy.

rings - depends what you want but you could get it a lot cheaper, but i really think this is a personal thing, we are spending hardly anything on rings - including my engagement ring mainly because im incredibly clumsy, and i work with kids so my hands are always messy! but also becuse i just wanted something pretty that will hopefully lasts, but if anything happens to them it wont be such an issue (would be devestated because of the meaning but wont feel sick because of the money)

Wishing tree - absoloutely lovely idea, but once all is packed away these are going to go into what will effectively be a guestbook, or a scrapbook, so do you want it desperately enough to spend £50.

bride and groom gifts - are they essential? we arent bothering - but we are going on a nice honeymoon. but i have to say if we were going to get gifts we would probably only do £20 each as a token and a nice little surprise for the morning - why not say, no gift now, but we will give each other really nice first anniversary gifts.

Your dress, shoes, bag and bridesmaids - shop around. I bought my dress for £275 from a massive bridal show sale - there were about 10 different shops there, and it wasnt the most pleasant experience but as far as im concerned i walked away with a bargain (was originally £600 - its called Shania by Romantica and is gorgeous) Adult bridesmaid - got dress in sale from monsoon was £75 paid £22, younger girls flower girl/bm dresses in next sale was£70 paid £30 - their cardis in monsoon sale £8 instead of £28. And i will wait until this time next year to do the bm shoes in the next monsoon sale. What im saying here is if you shop around and make full use of sales, and dont specifically stick to weddind dress shops you could find bargains - BHS had a fantastic sale - they may still have bits, but they had some dresses down to £10, shoes reduced, boleros reduced - they even had mens suit jackets for £5.

wow I've written loads - hope i havent bored you, and hope this helps!