Getting Married - Help a guy out!

Bufger

Hey MSE'ers,

My fiance and i have set a day for 6th Aug 2011 and are now starting to sort everything out. Ive actually already posted but in the completely wrong section of the forum!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2297923&highlight=

I'm going to trawl through the threads on here now incase anyone has any ideas for cutting back without making a negative impact on the day.

Also heres a Bufger Tip: If you have an immediate family member that works for Jaguar Cars (Dads/Mums, Grandparents - not aunties/cousins etc) then you can get a free Jaguar wedding car for your big day with a driver. Its part of a benefit they give to employees and i just found out about it!

floss2

Bufger wrote: »

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?

Bufger wrote: »

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

OK, just a few thoughts....

Photographer - as another poster said, you may regret this, as it will be the only record of your celebration. You would not be able to recreate the day to have photos taken again.
Wedding breakfast - Exactly what do you & your fiancee want for the day? Do you have a lot of family who will need feeding? Do you want a big party for all your mates? If you are looking really low-key, why not get married whilst on your Hawaiian holiday or at Gretna with just all the parents present?
DJ - they are not all cheesy!! How about a band?
Dress - lots of options for this!
Suit for you - I guess you won't want to turn up in one you wear for work, or the one you have for funerals & other people's weddings - or will you?
Best Man & Bridesmaid(s) - have you thought about these?
Wedding cake - M&S? Tesco?
Flowers - get a few prices, I can get a basic package (bride, 2 x B/M, 2 x corsages, 2 x buttonholes, 2 x bouquets) around here for £185, but that is without church or reception flowers & may not be enough for your needs
Car - lucky you!!

I had to keep asking my DF to "think what you want or don't want" to be able to work out what we BOTH wanted & hated about weddings.... so we are going to the Town Hall, having a simple, quite small family wedding breakfast & a bigger (but still under 100) party with a live band in the evening, along with a couple of quirks that are special to us along the way.

frannyann

I'd try and get professional photographer, but MSE style check here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1471661&highlight=photographers+for+under+500

For Invites, take a look at Vistaprint. Popular on here because once you sign up as a member you get daily emails offering free stuff: I got day and evening invites plus envelops and save the date magnets for £15, most of which is P&P.

And haggle EVERY price quoted, aim to never to pay the first price quoted.

picklepick

Its definitely possible to have a later in the day wedding and still have a really good do!
(Theres actually a thread on here with the title 'later in the day' i believe)

If you get married at say 4pm, your guests will have had lunch already. Sooo you can have the ceremony, have an hour of milling about and photos etc and then have a fabulous evening party with buffet. No need for a sit down meal. You can still have the formal seating plan if you want, cake cutting, speeches etc.

I agree with what other have said about a photographer. You may regret it later on. Why not try advertising on Gumtee. Some couples on here have used a photography student or an already established photographer who wants to branch out into weddings and used their services for free. Dont bother with disposables. IMO the photos you get from them are utter rubbish and most people have digital cameras these days anyway. Perhaps get some burnable cds, put them in little envelopes and ask your guests to burn their photos on and send them to you after the wedding. Cheaper than disposables and much better piccies.

EBAY---- I love it! Have a look for wedding dresses second hand. Ditto for bridesmaids dresses etc.

I'm making our invites myself aswell. Im using card blanks from pda card and craft. They're really easy to do. I'm also making our order of service, menus etc myself.

If you want to, you can get gift lists that ask guests to make a contribution towards your honeymoon. Then you could maybe budget more money for the wedding itself. Just a thought.

I dont know where abouts you are but we got our wedding rings from the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. Or if you're nearer, Hatton Gardens in London. Definitely worth a trip if you can. And haggle!!! We were quoted over £800 in the first shop, by the 4th we'd got it down to £250 for the exact same rings!

Good Luck!

lindaatno9

Have to agree with everyone else re photos. We did the "guests take them and have the snaps" and it just isn't the same. We basically ended up with a load of similar shots.

M&S or similar cake with a pre bought topper if need be. Or, even cup cakes. These could be served as dessert.
Flowers- quite simple to make a hand tie. There is a thread/sticky about this.
Wedding breakfast? Why not fish, chips and mushy peas?
I think a whole cheesy disco thing sounds perfect. Can you get a projector to add images to?

Bufger

picklepick wrote: »

Its definitely possible to have a later in the day wedding and still have a really good do!
(Theres actually a thread on here with the title 'later in the day' i believe)

If you get married at say 4pm, your guests will have had lunch already. Sooo you can have the ceremony, have an hour of milling about and photos etc and then have a fabulous evening party with buffet. No need for a sit down meal. You can still have the formal seating plan if you want, cake cutting, speeches etc.

I agree with what other have said about a photographer. You may regret it later on. Why not try advertising on Gumtee. Some couples on here have used a photography student or an already established photographer who wants to branch out into weddings and used their services for free. Dont bother with disposables. IMO the photos you get from them are utter rubbish and most people have digital cameras these days anyway. Perhaps get some burnable cds, put them in little envelopes and ask your guests to burn their photos on and send them to you after the wedding. Cheaper than disposables and much better piccies.

EBAY---- I love it! Have a look for wedding dresses second hand. Ditto for bridesmaids dresses etc.

I'm making our invites myself aswell. Im using card blanks from pda card and craft. They're really easy to do. I'm also making our order of service, menus etc myself.

If you want to, you can get gift lists that ask guests to make a contribution towards your honeymoon. Then you could maybe budget more money for the wedding itself. Just a thought.

I dont know where abouts you are but we got our wedding rings from the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. Or if you're nearer, Hatton Gardens in London. Definitely worth a trip if you can. And haggle!!! We were quoted over £800 in the first shop, by the 4th we'd got it down to £250 for the exact same rings!

Good Luck!

The plan is wedding at 3.30pm, an hour of photos and/or the usual stuff standing around etc. This way we're hoping to cut out the wedding breakfast altogether, we know its traditional but to be honest we're really not that bothered about it and its a massive save not having one. We would prefer to have a good evening venue and buffet.

I live in Coventry so the Jewelry quarter in birmingham is perfect! I'll go and have a look round there when i go to brum in a couple of weeks, thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the photographer tip, i'll look into that option! we were trying to cut out that cost so we could afford to have the pics made into a hardback book but if i can get a student with a decent work portfolio then thats perfect!

Thanks all for your tips so far, i'll follow up these leads and see where i get.

lindaatno9

Bufger wrote: »

The plan is wedding at 3.30pm, an hour of photos and/or the usual stuff standing around etc. This way we're hoping to cut out the wedding breakfast altogether, we know its traditional but to be honest we're really not that bothered about it and its a massive save not having one. We would prefer to have a good evening venue and buffet.
.

Could you not have the ceremony as late as poss then go straight into the evening buffet and celebrations then? Or, have the ceremony for a very small few, something to eat back at home and then on to the party?