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Our Wedding, The Place
maggie111
Posts: 1,130 Forumite
Hi everyone! It’s been a very long time since I was last on here but I thought I would come back and share our wedding details!!
Firstly, I would like to remind/give you a bit of info about my background – we were engaged for 3 years and spent a lot of time on/off planning and getting as much wedding info as possible. In August 2010 we decided we should just go for it and set a date in 3 months’ time that was important to us, so there was a bit of a mad rush on!
For me – this is easily the best thing we ever did – the cost saving for our wedding was phenomenal. To be able to do a last minute, off season wedding meant we could make a very expensive, Saturday wedding for 60 day guests and 100 evening guests easily half the average budget. I haggled hard with all our vendors so I wouldn’t really like to disclose costs but you’d be surprised what you can get when you do your homework! We also economised on a lot of ‘unnecessary’ things and I had to go without some real wants, like adult bridesmaids and wedding cake – but everything worked out for the best.
We got married at The Place Apartment Hotel just off Piccadilly Train Station in Manchester.
I could drone on for pages about how wonderful this venue is but trust me! It’s AWESOME! You’re guaranteed to be the only bride there on the day – and they’re not a venue that hashes out the same wedding week in week out – they’re unique and like your wedding to be individual and tailored to suit. It’s also cheap and convenient for your guests. The downside is it has no “grounds” to take your photos in but the upside is, especially for winter weddings, you have totally unique options like bare brick and the city sky line. The food is hands down the best wedding breakfast ever!
After the venue my favourite vendor was our photographer Phil, from http://www.purpleclouds.co.uk/. He rocks – he got our vision, gave us unique photos and angles and his pricing is even better than his photos!!! He also shot my friend’s wedding which was why we picked him and the photos he took of their Church wedding were just stunning. He really captures beauty. Please take a look, Purple Clouds Photography coveres all the North West.
Girls’ Outfits
The flower girls/bridesmaids wore outfits sourced by their Mummies and believe it or not they came to £35 each!! They got made to measure dresses from China on eBay, and the fur coats were in the sale at Matalan with cheap ballet pumps to complete the look for a fiver. They looked amazing!!
I wore a bridal dress from BHS (£250) and as it was a bit small I got it altered by a local seamstress to include things like straps for £50. The dress was of amazing quality and the seamstress said it compared well to the expensive dresses she worked on. The ‘hat’ was from BHS also for £6 and I did my hair and make-up myself – but it did cost me a fortune getting it coloured and Bobbi Brown make-up!!
We got married in The Place by the fountain
He wore Moss Bros who I do not recommend! We got 3 suits, the ones for the fathers were fine but the Groom’s was ordered all wrong and we had to go back on the eve of the wedding for a better fitting shirt, and it still didn’t fit properly! Make sure you pick up your suits early and try it on in-store!
Our wedding theme was a slight Victorian Circus/Carnival theme.
It worked well with the venue and the colours already there meaning I only had to do a little in the way of decorating. It also meant I could use Carnations as a flower which was nice and cheap but look great en mass! I decided that for a little extra I would get some lights for the walls for cheap and the table decorations were tall illuminated ones with a few sprinkles of confetti on the table. It sounds expensive but I sourced everything as cheap as possible, bought all the bits separate for my florist to work from and because they were tall and thin – it has a bigger wow factor for less flowers etc! The floralytes (lights) in the centrepieces were a great idea and they lasted almost a week, and were hidden by the crushed ice filler. Our florists http://www.sandrasflowershop.co.uk/ added some blue sequins into the vase filler too which was a stroke of genius!
In the Evening we paid a little bit more to really give our wedding a difference and hired Andrew and http://www.originalcrepes.co.uk/ for food.
Totally different and unique (it was either them or candy floss!) and yummy! In the end the crepes won out as they’re my hubby’s favourite food!! I still don’t quite understand how it all works because they just wheel in this little glowing pancake station and that’s it! They have everything they need on it and all sorts of different flavours (Baileys pancakes RULE!) and everyone was very pleased to soak up all the booze. They can literally work in any setting, it’s practically magic!!
Some of my small touches included stripey straws from http://www.papermash.co.uk/
They were in our reception drinks and at the bar so I spent about £15 on straws but it was a great way of tying everything in together and kept the theme running all day. And they look so cute!! I didn’t do favours per se as I couldn’t afford them, but I did do Fortune Fish which are only a few pence each to get the guests talking. I went onto eBay and bought myself and a few of the women in my family personalised handkerchiefs – that said, Bride, Mother of the Bride and so on. Not a lot of money but a beautiful keepsake. I bought my husband some Smiley Face cufflinks as a wedding present as they’re his ‘thing’ IFYKWIM!
For our wedding stationery we used Vistaprint for the Invites and Thank You Cards. We really recommend them. I paid more for thicker invites and for glossy thank yous and their quality was amazing and I got a friend in the print industry to help me with the other bits.
Photobooth
I saved it till right at the end where no one is reading but I got my brother and his creative missus to make a photobooth. I gave them £100 for materials and told them to surprise me. This is my favourite part of the WHOLE day. All guests had their photo taken and if I didn’t know anyone with the know how I would have put up a curtain somewhere with a box of props and let our guests go wild. I asked my uncle if he would spare a couple of hours in the day in lieu of a present to take photos – and he had a lot of fun! Took a bit of organising though.
...
Phew, I’m exhausted typing all that! Any questions just ask!!
Edit - I also wanted to say that wedding cars are very expensive!! All I wanted was a valeted car so I knew it wouldn't get my white dress mucky to drive me 30 minutes. I didn't really care much about the photos of it and I wouldn't be using it as a photo prop after we got married. It was difficult finding a cheap option and in the end I went with http://www.idotaxi.co.uk/ for £150. I was so pleased!!!! They were great to work with, only £150 and it worked well with the venue and loads of space for your dress! You can't tell but he also put out a huge fluffy white rug for my feet to rest on in the journey and it was awesome.
I did find for a similar cost executive cars were a good google - they're not traditional vintage cars but it is something nice to get you from A-Z and this company offered me a good quote. http://www.mannerborne.co.uk/
Always think outside the traditional wedding box for ways to do it cheaper!!!
You can find photos here http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members-photos/Maggieosh
Or send me a PM for a few more photos
Firstly, I would like to remind/give you a bit of info about my background – we were engaged for 3 years and spent a lot of time on/off planning and getting as much wedding info as possible. In August 2010 we decided we should just go for it and set a date in 3 months’ time that was important to us, so there was a bit of a mad rush on!
For me – this is easily the best thing we ever did – the cost saving for our wedding was phenomenal. To be able to do a last minute, off season wedding meant we could make a very expensive, Saturday wedding for 60 day guests and 100 evening guests easily half the average budget. I haggled hard with all our vendors so I wouldn’t really like to disclose costs but you’d be surprised what you can get when you do your homework! We also economised on a lot of ‘unnecessary’ things and I had to go without some real wants, like adult bridesmaids and wedding cake – but everything worked out for the best.
We got married at The Place Apartment Hotel just off Piccadilly Train Station in Manchester.
I could drone on for pages about how wonderful this venue is but trust me! It’s AWESOME! You’re guaranteed to be the only bride there on the day – and they’re not a venue that hashes out the same wedding week in week out – they’re unique and like your wedding to be individual and tailored to suit. It’s also cheap and convenient for your guests. The downside is it has no “grounds” to take your photos in but the upside is, especially for winter weddings, you have totally unique options like bare brick and the city sky line. The food is hands down the best wedding breakfast ever!
After the venue my favourite vendor was our photographer Phil, from http://www.purpleclouds.co.uk/. He rocks – he got our vision, gave us unique photos and angles and his pricing is even better than his photos!!! He also shot my friend’s wedding which was why we picked him and the photos he took of their Church wedding were just stunning. He really captures beauty. Please take a look, Purple Clouds Photography coveres all the North West.
Girls’ Outfits
The flower girls/bridesmaids wore outfits sourced by their Mummies and believe it or not they came to £35 each!! They got made to measure dresses from China on eBay, and the fur coats were in the sale at Matalan with cheap ballet pumps to complete the look for a fiver. They looked amazing!!
I wore a bridal dress from BHS (£250) and as it was a bit small I got it altered by a local seamstress to include things like straps for £50. The dress was of amazing quality and the seamstress said it compared well to the expensive dresses she worked on. The ‘hat’ was from BHS also for £6 and I did my hair and make-up myself – but it did cost me a fortune getting it coloured and Bobbi Brown make-up!!
We got married in The Place by the fountain
He wore Moss Bros who I do not recommend! We got 3 suits, the ones for the fathers were fine but the Groom’s was ordered all wrong and we had to go back on the eve of the wedding for a better fitting shirt, and it still didn’t fit properly! Make sure you pick up your suits early and try it on in-store!
Our wedding theme was a slight Victorian Circus/Carnival theme.
It worked well with the venue and the colours already there meaning I only had to do a little in the way of decorating. It also meant I could use Carnations as a flower which was nice and cheap but look great en mass! I decided that for a little extra I would get some lights for the walls for cheap and the table decorations were tall illuminated ones with a few sprinkles of confetti on the table. It sounds expensive but I sourced everything as cheap as possible, bought all the bits separate for my florist to work from and because they were tall and thin – it has a bigger wow factor for less flowers etc! The floralytes (lights) in the centrepieces were a great idea and they lasted almost a week, and were hidden by the crushed ice filler. Our florists http://www.sandrasflowershop.co.uk/ added some blue sequins into the vase filler too which was a stroke of genius!
In the Evening we paid a little bit more to really give our wedding a difference and hired Andrew and http://www.originalcrepes.co.uk/ for food.
Totally different and unique (it was either them or candy floss!) and yummy! In the end the crepes won out as they’re my hubby’s favourite food!! I still don’t quite understand how it all works because they just wheel in this little glowing pancake station and that’s it! They have everything they need on it and all sorts of different flavours (Baileys pancakes RULE!) and everyone was very pleased to soak up all the booze. They can literally work in any setting, it’s practically magic!!
Some of my small touches included stripey straws from http://www.papermash.co.uk/
They were in our reception drinks and at the bar so I spent about £15 on straws but it was a great way of tying everything in together and kept the theme running all day. And they look so cute!! I didn’t do favours per se as I couldn’t afford them, but I did do Fortune Fish which are only a few pence each to get the guests talking. I went onto eBay and bought myself and a few of the women in my family personalised handkerchiefs – that said, Bride, Mother of the Bride and so on. Not a lot of money but a beautiful keepsake. I bought my husband some Smiley Face cufflinks as a wedding present as they’re his ‘thing’ IFYKWIM!
For our wedding stationery we used Vistaprint for the Invites and Thank You Cards. We really recommend them. I paid more for thicker invites and for glossy thank yous and their quality was amazing and I got a friend in the print industry to help me with the other bits.
Photobooth
I saved it till right at the end where no one is reading but I got my brother and his creative missus to make a photobooth. I gave them £100 for materials and told them to surprise me. This is my favourite part of the WHOLE day. All guests had their photo taken and if I didn’t know anyone with the know how I would have put up a curtain somewhere with a box of props and let our guests go wild. I asked my uncle if he would spare a couple of hours in the day in lieu of a present to take photos – and he had a lot of fun! Took a bit of organising though.
...
Phew, I’m exhausted typing all that! Any questions just ask!!
Edit - I also wanted to say that wedding cars are very expensive!! All I wanted was a valeted car so I knew it wouldn't get my white dress mucky to drive me 30 minutes. I didn't really care much about the photos of it and I wouldn't be using it as a photo prop after we got married. It was difficult finding a cheap option and in the end I went with http://www.idotaxi.co.uk/ for £150. I was so pleased!!!! They were great to work with, only £150 and it worked well with the venue and loads of space for your dress! You can't tell but he also put out a huge fluffy white rug for my feet to rest on in the journey and it was awesome.
I did find for a similar cost executive cars were a good google - they're not traditional vintage cars but it is something nice to get you from A-Z and this company offered me a good quote. http://www.mannerborne.co.uk/
Always think outside the traditional wedding box for ways to do it cheaper!!!
You can find photos here http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members-photos/Maggieosh
Or send me a PM for a few more photos I love surprises!
0
Comments
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Argh! I don't know how to make the photos smaller!!!!
Edit - Fixed it but it needs to update... Scary seeing your face that giant on the computer! :rotfl:I love surprises!0 -
looks fab congrats you look lovely Is a married woman!! 23rd July 2011 Best day of my life!
TTC first baby Jan 20130 -
Cheers Sammy - not long left till yours now!! How are you getting on? It's been AGES since I've posted in here!!I love surprises!0
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Lovely photos
Looks like you all had a really fab day!
And how much do I fancy some crepes right now?!
0 -
yeh good thanks maggie- just waiting!!
cant imagine what it is going to be like- i think i am just going to call my oh 'husband' all the time lolIs a married woman!! 23rd July 2011 Best day of my life!
TTC first baby Jan 20130 -
honey_rose wrote: »Lovely photos Looks like you all had a really fab day!
And how much do I fancy some crepes right now?! Thanks!! We had some yesterday at the Trafford Centre for my husband's birthday!
Sammy - for me, that's definitely the weirdest thing about being married... I'm still not used to it!I love surprises!0 -
hehe love it
your centre pieces are lovely and your flowers- and all of it congrats again Is a married woman!! 23rd July 2011 Best day of my life!
TTC first baby Jan 20130 -
Hey Maggie!
Thanks for coming back and sharing with us!
I walk past The Place everyday as I work not far from there. If we were getting married in Manchester I would have definitely thought about having it there!
So glad you had a great day and you look fabulous!
xx:A 09.06.11:A 07.10.11:A
Gorgeous baby boy born 16.09.12 :happylove
:kisses2:The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe :kisses2:
Patience is a virtue I lack!0 -
hey Maggie...glad to see you back here....stunning photos of what looks to have been a supurb wedding....hope married life is treating you well...frugal October...£41.82 of £40 food shopping spend for the 2 of us!
2017 toiletries challenge 179 out 145 in ...£18.64 spend0 -
Wonderful photos, congratulations!
My mum and dad stayed at The Place once when they came to visit us. I went in, it's amzing! Their apartment was bigger than our house! lolWhat matters most is how well you walk through the fire0
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