Wedding Bells!

Bufger

Hi all. Not sure if this should go here, i couldnt find anywhere else it might be suitable so apologies if its not the right place.

My Fianc! and I have just set a date for our wedding - 6th Aug 2011! I know its still quite far away but as we wont be getting help with the cost we need to start saving now. We also want to know what money saving tips there are out there for weddings but still want to have a great day.

So far we have decided:

Make our own invites - makes it more personal (saves £100+!)
Not have a wedding breakfast - we're not bothered about it and it saves over 1k.
have my mate as the church organ player (he does this as charity to the church anyway) - saves £40
Not have a photographer and have my bro and my mate who both have good cameras take some pics (+ disposables on tables?) - saves £300?

Apart from that we're not sure. We want to spend a reasonable amount on the rings as we will both wear them forever (in theory!). We also want to have a honeymoon in Hawaii so we're trying to cut wedding costs so we can afford that. We're basically trying to offset some of the cost from the day to pay partly towards the honeymood but still have a great time.

Oh and her dress will be about £400 we think, she's seen a lovely one she likes.

So any ideas on how to save money during this very expensive process, other than registry office and a can of strongbow for each guest in the park?

oligeo

I would think very carefully before you decide not to have a photographer, I've got two friends that did that, and both regret it.

If you're not having a wedding breakfast, what are you planning on doing after the ceremony to celebrate?

I think £400 is alot for a dress if you're trying to cut costs, and its only going to be worn once. I appreciate that your wedding dress is an important part of it for the bride, but after the day, what happens with it....mine is just sat in the wardrobe.

Flowers for the church.......are you having these? They can be very costly, does the church have a lady that normally does flowers for the church that you could use?

Cars......how are you and your bride getting to the church, then to the reception? Do you have friends with a nice car that could drive you?

Cake.....Are you having one? Bakers seem to double the cost and then add a 0 to the end when the word wedding is mentioned with the word cake! Is there a family member or friend that could make a basic iced cake, it can then be decorated very simply and cheaply, a simple wide ribbon tied around the side looks very effective.

Thats all i can think of for now, if i think of anything else i'll come back.

Sarah

silverchair

Actually August 2011 isnt that far away in wedding terms as a lot of the venues get quite booked up early on.

Have your wedding cake double up as the desert

Do you collect tesco vouchers. You can use these towards your wedding rings in Goldsmiths Jewellers

Make sure OH tries on as many dresses as poss as it would be horrible & expensive if she saw another dress she liked better after she originally bought the first dress. How about buying a second hand wedding dress. That might save money as they are only worn for a couple of hours & are usually dry cleaned afterwards.

I agree with "oligeo" regarding the photographer. Even if your mate may be a very good photographer they are guests as so will also be enjoying themselves & may miss some opportunities for good photos,

I think you should have a look at the mse wedding board & do a search as theres loads of grat ideas.

Regading flowers, I remeber someone on here metioning that if you get married after a religious event the church will already be dec out in flowers.

Do you know where you are going to have your reception?

Bufger

Not sure where the reception will be yet.

Cars - i work for Jaguar and as a nice little gesture they provide us some very old jags free of charge for our weddings so that ones a big save.

Flowers - not actually sure on this, we do have a flower arranger in the family but she lives permanently in spain now, she would be coming over for a week or 2 for the event but im not sure we could ask her to spend some of her holiday doing the flowers for the church!

I will have a good think about the photographer, i think you're probably right there though.

Another one i wasnt sure about - i have 2 really large pro speakers and 2 good Amps and a laptop with hours and hours of music, would it be worth me just putting a couple of playlists on for the evening or having the whole cheesy disco thing. i think thats another £200 or so, worth the spend?

We decided to make cupcakes and have a mountain of them for our wedding cake! everyone loves cupcakes

cball

Hi I am also in the middle of planning my wedding and it not until august 2012 LOL!

I found a brilliant wedding dress site that is very cheap you can either order in standard uk sizes or input your own measurements to have the perfect fit the website is myweddingdressforless dot co dot uk (im not allowed to post links as new member) I would recommend it. The only downfall is you cant actually try your dress on before you buy it but all the dresses are around £200 so you may be able to have some alterations IF it doesn't fit perfectly

GOOD LUCK and hope you enjoy your big day

birduk

Pop over to the weddings forum. It is at the top of the page. There are LOADS of great people there with some great tips.