My wedding plans, any ideas appreciated

Lillibet_2

Personally I'd avoid buying jewellery, especially something as precious as wedding rigns, from ebay, there are just too many fakes on there. Do you shop at Sainsburys? 'cos if so you can use your necter points to get 4x value in Goldsmith vouchers:D Other wise, argos or the like are perfectly good quality & cheap.

For flowers I'd go with just carrying a single stem something, maybe with a ribbon or several attached? Same but smaller for bridesmaids. Don't get the florist to put the ribbon on they'll charge you a fortune for the pleasure of tying a bow. Get ribbon from a market & do it yourself. If you order in advance & get a lot to co-ordinate everything they might even give you a discount;)

Either borrow a friends car & get them to chauffer you or, for my first wedding we hired a bentley from somewhere like easycar (only it wasn't them but somewhere simiarly cheap), my dad was chauffer & LOVED it, cost £75 for a weekend hire. Only problem was we couldn't specify the colour we wanted.

Cake get as many tiers as required from M& S (their white celebration cake is to die for) & buy the decortaions off ebay. It'll be totally unique! A friend of mine did something wonderful where she used one large candle stick holder as the "prop" between the tiers & another smaller one on top with a big church candle, it looked fab & cost next too nothing & she got to keep the candlestick holders:D

Registery office total costs £90 but may (probably will!) rise a bit before 2008. I seem to remember that you can't book more than 3 months in advance but I think you can reserve the date but have to get there exactly 3 months before to confirm it?

Nominate one or 2 people as desiganted photograpehrs, just in case anything gets missed as it can be a bit hit & miss otherwise.

Invites invite as many people as possible by email, design the invite yourself & email to them & print off & hand deliver/post where email isn't possible.

Don't bother with favours, no one misses them if they aren't there & IMHO no one really appreciates them anyway:o

If it's an outside party serve bucks fizz on arrival, much chaperer then champers or even sparkling wine as it's eeked out with OJ:D But do use something nice for the toasts. What would you do if it rained though?

The dress looks fantastic :T



Good luck;)

bobsa1

What about seeing if you can hire an old bus or car (if you look on vintage car enthusiast sites you could probably find someone local who would do it for free)

Then contact the local paper- publicity for enthusiast group and you and a free photographer?

Get in touch with local art college and get them to do some work on outfits as a project.

Food, why not do it as a shared supper type, rather than a gift get people to bring a dish and a bottle.

A firend of mine had favours made of net (black & gold or balck and red might be nice for you) with just sweet almonds in and tied with ribbon, anyone could do that, but rather than almonds you could put chocs or mini bottle wine (99p home bargains) hope that helps.

The best suggestion I'v ever seen was put a disposable camera on each table for guests to take photos- get some lovely natural ones throughout the event.

Spendless

emma_b wrote:

hi

we went to a wedding yesterday, , buffet type meal (was gorgeous; full of meat ,not sandwiches)

We also attended a wedding yesterday and this is what they had. bowls of lettuce, tomatoes, new potatoes, pasta and then like a cold carvery with ham, turkey,beef and salmon then condiments like pickles and mayo etc. Depends on whether you can buy your meat cheaply enough where you are.

ivyleaf

Black-Saturn, what lovely news!:beer: :j

For bridesmaids' dresses you could try BHS - they do lovely ivory ones. Don't think they do white ones though, and they are most likely to be on sale in the Spring/Summer.

black-saturn

Thanks again for the suggestions

Welshlassie

Congratulations.

I love the idea of having a coloured dress - mine was Ivory and Navy and it was my favourite outfit I have ever bought.

We bought my dh ring off ebay about 2 years ago. I was a celtic band especially made for him, it was 18 carat gold. We paid over the phone and it was delivered really promptly (from the US) I think it cost about £120 all in, which when you see the size of it (he has big hands and fingers) was fab. And as it was specially designed for him, you;ll never see another like it.

Photographer - this is one area I really think you should spend a bit more money on, the photos help you remember all the little details you would otherwise forget. If you can't afford to get a professional in (and looking this far in advance you could actually get a really good deal) ask a friend or family member who has a digital camera to do the picture. Give them a list of the shots you want (family groups etc) and then ask some close friends (ushers) to help him organise everyone. You'll find getting them printed at a professional photo shop afterwards isn't that expensive. Putting them in an album afterwards could be part of the fun and make the special day feeling last a little longer.
We ended up spending quite a bit more than we budgeted on our photos but I was so thrilled with them and still regularly get them out.

Asda have started doing a wedding section in many stores so Bridemaids dresses from there as an option.

We weren't able to book a registrar for our day more than a year in advance. Not sure exactly how it works if you have it at the registry office, but get in as soon as they say you can. We went in 51 weeks before and there was only one slot left.

Most of all, enjoy the planning side, its all part of the process.

emujuice

Hi,
Congrats!

You're going to have a ball organising it all, I promise!

My OH and I got engaged about 5 weeks ago and we now have our wedding booked and organised for the 19th of August (then we're off to Singapore for a year or 2, so we did in an hurry so we could get married sooner rather than later - it's not shotgun!)

Tk maxx has been amazing - can't recomend it enough. you might be a bit late this year, the sale on their evening gowns etc.. had just started when I was looking, so I picked up a white wedding dress style thing for me for £20, strapless and a beaded bodice with a plain skirt, probably would have suited your bridesmaids, but if you're not in a hurry, keep and eye out there, they're reeally lovely and only about £30 or 40 full price. some are down to £13.
I got 5 lilac bridesmaid dresses from there for £9 each, very lucky to get them all matching. went round 3 shops and bought all they had in every size then got them all to try them on. I'm about to take the other half a dozen back.

for young bridesmaids it's worth looking at debenhams, got one for £19 very fluffy and cute. or get pretty summer dresses from asda or primark

Shoes - beaded slippers with ribbons sewn on to wrap up my legs.

Reception - small meal for 25 and big party for 120 - but sounds like you've got that sorted.

Cake - we've gone for M and S, 1 fruit, 2 sponge for about £70. went to cake decoratiing shop and got the colomns/batons to hold it in place. i'm going to make icing butteflys to put on it, but loads of ready made things would work. eg fresh flowers or feather butterflies in my case.
Works out as £30 for 3 cakes from asda or tesco, but hoping m and s is nicer.

favours - got sweets from the market £5 and £1 of voile, just cut circles, put sweets in and tie up with ribbon (free as mum used to be a habadasher! - but about £1 for 6 metres from market) - these are for the kids at our wedding. have got bon bons and candy letters so not going to be sticky.

groom and ushers - spashed out and got debenhams hire - £55 each with a 10% new account discount.

flowers - having hydrangena bouquets - free from gardens of friends, got a friend to wire them up, but would be easy to do, do day before and keep in water. then wrap wet tissue round stems, wrap in plastic bag and cover in organza, tule/net or voile. will look great i promise! you could even add some glitter if you're that way inclined!

if you have a dunelm mill look there for nice silk flowers you can keep forever - so not money wasted and for candle rings if you fancy candles, go asap as I got loads reduced to 24p from about £2 or £3. am making them into table decorations too as colours are fab.

Also randomly got marks and sparks invites from dunelm for 50p for 10 instead of £3.50 at m and s. - go lucky with this one, but worth looking as pretty and silvery!

place names for a sit down meal - paint stones in the right colours and draw name on in permanant marker. you could do big ones for the garden if you want to colour co-ordinate - just use emulsion

get some fairy lights for your garden, will really help the party atmosphere when the sun goes down - loads on sale in b and q, woolies etc at the minute. - again stuff you can keep for years, so not really money wasted.

button holes - can be fake for a pound from hobbycraft etc... or use fresh roses wrapped in tin foil at the bottom - works out cheaper actually with a bit of conifer or other greenery.

tiaras - MAKE YOUR OWN! really chuffed with how mine have turned out - will post pic if you like. got cheap plastic beads from hobbey craft which look very similar to swarkoski (?) ones (which i also got) some amysyst chips and some coloured seed beads, just done a random design of putting one at the top, twisting the wire all the way down and fastening it on, then repeat at diff heights, looks fab IMHO! If their hair is up, no need to get a plain headband which was the most expensive bit at £1.65 each on ebay, but instead twist thicker wire with loops at the end, which can then be pinned into a bun etc...

car - we've got a big black limo from the local funeral home! they do it quite often and have all the ribbons and flowers for the back seat to trim it up. comes to £100 for about 3-4 hours use. and you get a very proffessional service. should look great, fingers crossed.

Garden party: get some gazebos - beg borrow or steal, incase the weather doesn't hold.
maybe have a bbq - so not too much preperation in advance?
get some buckets for water and ice to make sure your drinks are cold!

make up - you can get a make over from No7 at boots for £10, which is redemable against products - i use these anyway so going to give it a go, will let you know how i get on.

Photographer - got a recent graduate who wants to build up her portfolio so free/cost price - very proffessional, also got friends with digicams as back up. - found her on a local forum website, so ask around on your local one for advice. I also got a free veil someone offered me on there

hope all this helps

Rachie_B

congrats BS

you cant book with the registrar until 12 months to the day before the wedding ,we were on the phone as soon as they opened that day to get the time we wanted !!

but even though you cant set the date in stone you can get on with researching and buying other things

we had 2 yrs to plan and save and it meant we were able to shop about and get things in sales etc

agree with the plain white cakes you can get in the supermarkets,just decorate with a few simple flowers to match yours

try https://www.jewlz.co.uk for BM dresses

for H2Bs suit ,wait until a sale after xmas / summer ditto for your accessories ,and shoes etc BHS are good

https://www.hitched.co.uk was a godsend when we were planning ,anything you wanna know ,B2Bs on there will have the answer lol

happy planning

photography,contact the local college that offers photography courses,they will have students willing to do it for free or cheap to put in their portfolio

StockportGerbil

black-saturn wrote:

I'm planning a wedding which will hopefully be in August or September 2008.

<snip>

Anyway, I have made a list of the things we want for the wedding which are as follows (please give suggestions, if I've forgotten anything let me know):

Date and Venue - Does anyone know how much a registry office wedding costs to book?

My Dress - Theres no way I could walk down the isle in a normal wedding dress as I think they look awful and I'm an old goth too. So I have decided on this one in the red - http://www.fairygothmother.co.uk/sm-16.htm Does anyone know where I can get it or one just like it cheaper?

Intendeds suit - Any ideas?

Mini reception and food - Hoping parents will sort this out.

Way of getting to wedding and party - Any ideas?

Cake - Any ideas? Please dont suggest making my own because it would be a disaster.

Bridesmaids - 3 bridesmaids. One of 18, one of 14 one of 12 wearing white dresses - ebay?

Flowers - Red to match my dress. Any ideas? There are some nice artificial roses on ebay.

Rings - Ebay?

Video of the wedding - I'll lend someone my camcorder.

Photos of the wedding - Planning on giving a few of the guests a disposable camera to capture it for us.

Have I missed anything?

Any ideas will be thanked :j

Hi!
I got married in May (church, reception, full works as my other half had never been married, flippin' expensive though.) I've got a spreadsheet somewhere with the budget (and actual cost) somewhere - if you PM me with an email address I can send it over and it might contain a few ideas for costs.

A few things come to mind though. The dress was ordered from a local shop, but it could have been bought from America for half the price (allow a couple of months at least for delivery though.) However the shop had a dressmaker who was able to do minor adjustments, so if you do order from abroad now may be a good time to start asking around.

Those shops are online and can be found through google. A mate of ours got hers made up in Hong Kong via ebay. Suit hire for me and 4 others again from a local shop was £75 per person. Bridesmaids dresses were from Debenhams (some of which were in the sale) and were between £20 and £50. Flowers - as table decoration we ordered rose petals from ebay which worked out OK, the flowers were done by an ex-colleague who decided floristry was a better bet than IT - I think she is probably right.

Wedding photos - don't rely on disposable cameras, they do provide a different view of the wedding, but the picture quality is generally pretty grim - so they should be viewed as supplemental. (See http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/3315316 - those pictures with a file name of letter followed by Photo are the ones off disposable cameras.) Ask people with digital cameras to bring them along and let you have copies of those photos. We didn't bother with a video, but videos I've seen before, particularly where the photographer was unfamiliar with the camera, can be hard going.

You haven't mentioned wedding stationary / invites etc - ours were done on the PC. The invites put together using a desktop publishing package then printed out by photobox but you could just as easily go to the supermarket and get them printed there.

Favours consisted of small boxes (off ebay) with a small rose / flower decoration (hobbycraft) with a lottery ticket in. The DJ that night announcing the numbers - I don't know if that would fit into your plans.

The cakes came from Marks and Sparks (everyone said they were very nice to eat) and were decorated by someone who ran a cake decorating stall for £100. (We had four and the decoration was 'different' so it would be cheaper for less cakes and not quite so silly :-) decoration.)

I hope some of this helps

Kevin

Rachie_B

re favours,we had them and if you can afford them they are great

BUT if you cant they wont be missed ,we went to a wedding a few weeks back and the "favours" was just a lovely chocolate by each place setting

went down very well as we were waiting for our meals lol and IMO of weddings ive been to ,little boxes etc just get left behind as they mostly did at our wedding ! (though the fortune cookies had been taken out and consumed of course lol)