minimum wedding spend

Strontium_2

I won't take you through our wedding, but it was beautiful and inexpensive AND not a single item was bought through ebay!

Ideas on nice things that really helped:

I had an incredible dress in gold and cream brocade with multiple layers that was worth a small fortune. We hired it for the weekend from a big opera company and it was glorious. Shakespearean theatre companies might also be worth a try. Obviously don't do the same for the bridegroom. Hose are just so embarrassing for a man in the 21st century.

Simple flowers are often stunning. An enormous bouquet will cost a fortune and detract attention from you, your dress and your bridesmaids.

And don't skimp on photographers. If you don't have much money just be upfront with them and see what they can do. Don't try to be mean-spirited with them, they have to earn a living too, but just tell them what you can afford. Do try to get the best photos you can though. The photos will last forever and you will never again be as young and beautiful as you are on your wedding day; make the most of it!

Rachie_B

whats wrong with ebay ?! a lot of things are brand new on there ya know not just preworn / preused etc

i bought my brand new wedding dress from US ebay :P

MummyKnight

Hello to all brides-to-be!

My husband not only had to work out a wedding (including invites etc) in 16 weeks, but also on a budget of £1500. Did we manage? Yes we did! How? 1) My bridal dress was actually a bridesmaid dress in Ivory! Strapless, embroidered and only £124! It then matched EXACTLY the dress my adult bridesmaid wore and matched the child version that my younger bridesmaid wore. My husband and his best man just hired suits - not cheap options there, I'm afraid. My pageboy wore trousers bought from a shop, a school shirt and a handmade waistcoat! Wedding cake was £9.99 from CostCo! Decorated the church myself using balloons rather than flowers - better for all of us as we get hayfever (also cheaper). Buffet for guests rather than a sitdown meal - less than £250 for 40 people.

OK, some of the things we did were really on the cheap (best man took photos, saving £600+, didn't have a wedding car, saving £250+), but still a glorious day. I married the man I wanted as my husband, everyone enjoyed themselves and THAT'S the main thing.

Good luck!

justjenny

I'll be married a month tommorow. Think my wedding came in at around £4,000.
We borrowed from a friend a marquee linning which was put up in the village hall ceiling.
My dress was aalso a bridesmaid dress in ivory (fover yours) £159 fully laced at the back.
Flower vases from Ikea .97 and the florist let us do the flowers on our own.
My special treat was a full size adult bouncy castle for £100.The bride and groom had the 1st bounce

linzibean

My budget is around £2000, but this includes about £1000 going to our dream venue. Fortunately Im a seamstress so I'm making my own dress, the Groom's outfit, my bridesmaids dress and the best man's suit. I'm also having minimal flowers (hay fever!!), a friend doing photos (he is a pro thankfully!) and no transport to the wedding. We are also having our honeymoon when we can afford it, ie, in 2010 :rotfl:

Noozan

Our wedding came in at a fraction over £1000 last year. My dress was in the Berketex sale reduced from £899 to £99, although I did have to traipse halfway across Scotland to make sure I got the one that I had set my heart on. Shoes - just wore my fave comfy sandals as you couldn't see them under my dress. My flowers were made by someone on ebay, I knew what I wanted and it was about £80 to have them as fesh flowers and about the same again to have them preserved, so I chose to have the bouquet made up with silk flowers for £45. Buttonholes were also from the same ebay florist £16. DH's suit was from Slaters sale £45. SD wanted a trouser suit and need shoes - total £115. Invites - I made these from handmade card and paper roses and printed a slip to stick inside them £14. Photographer was best man £0. Ceremony cost £120. Make up for me and mum £70. Did my own hair. Flowers for hair £8. Wedding jewellery was a gift willed to me by grandmother. Traditional chinese banquet for 16 people £512. It was originally going to be just me, DH, SD and my youngest brother but we thought his mum and my mum would be upset if we didn't invite them :rolleyes: so we invited our immediate families only.

We didn;t have any gift list as I hate them and didn't want anything as we have been living together for a while anyway. I would have been happy to marry the man I love in my jeans and t shirt and gone out a nice meal afterwards by ourselves to celebrate. We actually received about £1300 in cash gifts from everyone so it more than paid for the wedding anyway, I suppose.

Crispy_Ambulance

I am stunned at how much people will spend on weddings. It is ONE DAY and the majority of the stuff that money gets spent on and brides fret about - nobody blooming notices anyway!

We got married 7 years ago - total cost was about £900 - that included church fees, dress (from Pronuptia), groom's suit, wedding reception and buffet at a hotel, rings, flowers, hair and nails, invites and all stationery (designed by a friend, printed at local printers), photographer - we had a minimum of photos - didn't need a whole album of exatly the same photo with different people.

It was a fantastic day and everyone had a great time. I couldn't justify spending a fortune on a wedding - even if I was loaded. The magic and the love between the couple - you can't buy that, no matter how much you spend.

Yomanda

Having read over other people's answers I think most of my good ideas have been mentioned, but my best suggestion for invites is to take advantage of promotional offers on websites - I've just had 100 glossy colour postcards professionally printed for about £10 inc postage by VistaPrint - you design them online and they have wedding-friendly designs that would make great invites. Plenty of room to put all the information you need too!

And I cannot speak highly enough of eBay and looking out for the sales at your local bridal boutiques - it's at this time of year that wedding dress shops are getting the new season's stock in, so they will be selling off sample dresses at very interesting prices :j

Glad

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FutureMrsS

Hi there,

My first post on here, I am planning my wedding for June 2009 on as small a budget as I can. We are getting married at the registry office and then going to a lovely pub after. Instead of wedding presents we are asking our guests to pay for their own meals (pub serves good value meals... not the local wetherspoons though!!) We are having a really small wedding with just 25 guests plus 5 children. This is mums, dads, brothers, sisters and grandparents so we know they'll understand. I have a really huge family so we are also having a party a few weeks after for everyone else booking a hall where its free hire and they make the money by people buying the drinks over the bar.

Wedding invites we have found a set in Staples for £20 for 25 invites that you print yourself. You get the card, envelopes, vellum paper and seals. They are lovely and you can get them in white or cream.

My mum is making my cake and ebay is my bible!!!

Will post again as I find more bargains/money savers

xx :j