Wedding mag 'must haves' you're going without

laura2481

We are not having sit down meal- just a buffet for 'day' and 'evening' which will be served alte afternoon. We are having canapes and drinks while any photos are being taken although there might not be many posed pictures.
We are having chair covers- but only because H2be wants them!
No favours
Probably no car- will just stay at the hotel the night before!
As few 'real' flowers as possible. Table decorations will be silk flowers/candles.
Purple shoes I can wear again instead traditional ivory ones I'll never set foot in again!
No veil- my mum is having a heart attack over this but I don't see the point especially for a civil ceremony in a hotel.

gandy

we have a budget set and going to do as much as we can with that. most of the money will be on feeding the guests.

as much as i would love a small wedding, i also want my family to be there to share my big day, like my sisters had, so we're doing it as small as we can (which is difficult with my dad being 1 of 14 and my mum 1 of 7)

as for all the other stuff i've got a fairly good head on my shoulders and i've got 2 important things i'm willing to spend money on which is my photographs and the band. me and the OH are both photo nuts and we organise gigs as well (which might help with getting a good band for a lot cheaper than normal wedding bands lol)

the rest of the stuff i'll be hunting down as many bargains as i can, finding a way to make them myself or leaving them out completely.

i know there are lots of things that the bridal mags have in "that you must have" but to be honest the only reason i look in them is to get ideas and then go about finding cheaper alternatives or a diy version.

at one stage we thought my OH was going to be made redundant (just as we bought a house and were looking at wedding venues) and we made the decision that the important part was the wedding ceremony and us getting married and not the big party so if that's all we could afford then that's the way we'd do it.

lucky he keep his job and we've been saving away to have a great wedding day which we can enjoy with our family and friends. :beer:

p.s. oops sorry for the long post

nemmernossage

No flowers except bouquets for me and maids, which are artificial. No special cars - OH will drive the two of us in our car - we also aren't spending the night before apart which many people have been horrified at. No save the date cards as we're getting married 8 months ish after we got engaged. None of this having people do my hair or make up - as a previous poster said, I can do it myself!
No wedding presents either - We've lived together for 5 years, we already have everything! No page boys or flower girls, but their isn't really anyone to be them anyway. No videographer, photographer was expensive enough! We are having favours but will use them as place settings

I think that's it...

greenmoneysaver_2

Like this - I really hate those mags, especially as they all look the same no matter how much they spent!

For me and OH

Dress - not yet decided but most expensive £180, and can wear again to black tie stuff (OH gets loads of those through work)

OH - own suit, may buy new shirt, although is colour blind so will be sending helper!

Best Men (x2) - own clothes, no need to match!

BM - none, getting married at 5 months notice and the people I would choose live far away!

Make-up - friend doing

Hair - blow dry at usual salon

No cars, flower children, entertainment, carriages at 8pm so we all get to go home early and relatively sober!

Have spent on flowers (£400 but gorgeous and saving me alot of time) and invites (£400 for invites, menus, thank you cards and invites to after party the next day), but really wanted those!

Venue and all food and drink is £3.5k, but we will cut this down when final numbers/childrens menu choices etc come back.

Oh, and best thing is a friends husband is making us a website for all the wedding info to be on, and photos to be uploaded later!!!!!! Its the best gift!

mellymeep

Oh yay women after my own heart! I am so dismayed at the longggg lists of things that you're supposed to spend money on to make your day "special" I shamefully read a lot of wedding blogs when I really shouldn't because they just make me angry at the complete lack of sensible money saving suggestions!

Queen_B_3

Am I the only person that loves buying the wedding magazines? I just love looking at the pictures and ideas as to what is out there.

The stories are the best bits, I have a good laugh over a lot of them with a glass of wine!

vickyw

I am the same I like to read them for inspiration. For example the table seating plan was proving to be a bit of a nightmare but I saw in a mag that someone had mounted theirs on a mirror and it looked fab! I'm defo doing that.

RainbowDrops

I had one sent to me, and it's about 90% adverts.
There was only one useful article in there.
Glad I didn't pay th £5 for it!

Sammy85_2

I bought a box of used wedding magazines off ebay, im not one for being up to date with the trends anyway, just like to have some ideas to flick though.

Roz_V

I like looking at the mags (I don't buy them, but MIL2b and SIL2b keep buying them for me!) for ideas, then working out how I can do things cheaper!!

We're still deciding on the venue, - it's between two and depending on which one we go for depends on what we miss out as one is a "proper" venue that is beautiful but insits on a wedding breakfast & then an evening buffet, whilst the other is a lesser-known place and you have the reception in a marquee (that we have to hire) but can bring in own caterers (Hi Mum!! You always used to put on a good spread for my birthday parties... :rotfl: )

• We're not doing favours
• My dress budget is £350 and my bridesmaids are £100 each (absolute top end! our theme is black & white so they'll be in black dresses, and if they can't find a black dress for less than that I'll not be happy!)
• Flowers will be silk and from Ebay - already seen the ones I want!
• Shoes for me & BMs will be from the High Street - seen some lovely bridal shoes in BHS for £25 and theirs will probably be a similar price from New Look
• Making my own invitations, Save The Dates & Table Plan
• My friend is doing my hair & make up (she just doesn't know it yet! :rotfl:)
• Cars depend on which venue we go for as one I will get ready upstairs and the other I will need transport. None of my friends/relatives have posh cars, so I'm hoping to make a new friend in the next two years who has a Jag or Rolls Royce :rotfl:

We will be having chair covers as the chairs are hideous at both places! We want the "spandex" ones rather than the "pillowcase ones" and have found somewhere locally that provide & set-up for £2.20 each, and reckon I may be able to do it cheaper.

I think I've got it quite easy actually, as by having "Black & White" as the theme, I can easily do a lot of stuff myself, and buy cheaply from the high street.

I was talking to my sister about the wedding yesterday and said that mum & dad were very kindly giving us X amount towards the day, and also paying for mine & the BM dresses, and she replied so X + 5k then :eek::eek::eek: I'm determined to have the £20k wedding I always wanted for less than half the budget!