Repost...wedding on a budget...please help!

LolitaLove

Reposted this from a different section of the forum. All replies appreciated

Hi everyone

I'm really hoping that one of you lovely people can provide me with some tips/ideas for a wedding. The bride to-be is someone close to me, and she has a brain tumour. Since diagnosis her life has changed a lot, and she can no longer work so her income has been greatly reduced....so the wedding budget is a little on the low side. However, she is really looking forward to this wedding and I'm really hoping to give her the best day possible. So if I give pointers on what she would like, could anyone plleeeeease give me some ideas for venues etc?
We're looking for:
Venue: Castle, old building/church (although bride to-be has no religious affiliation).
Theme: Venetian masks, baroque, 16th century.
Reception: Anything really...just hopefully something spectacular!
Guests won't be many, maybe 20-50. The overall budget is £6000.
I know this is practically impossible to do on such a small budget, but I've been asked to plan/sort the wedding and I really want to give them a special day. So any ideas/suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading

shy-but-need-help

I would aim for a church and local to keep costs down- I married in a castle and a large portion of our budget went on venue hire (had wedding, blessing & reception there) and because it was a long distance from where we lived transport & accomodation also took up a big amount too.

A church you can get some lovely architecture & very affordably, the more local to home you eliminate accomodation costs too.

£6000 is still a very workable wedding budget.

Attend wedding fayres- many have dresses at a fraction of the cost (the London Olympia one used to have a sample tent/marquee that sold them off extremely cheaply)

With a low number of guests I wouldn't go over the top on stationary- to be honest no body ever keeps invites do they? (My sister paid around £8 per invite + design costs for hers thinking how everyone would keep them but errrm well, it was HER special day, not anyone else's so no one was really going to keep them for memory boxes or anything except her and my mother)

Ask florists what flowers are in season- you can save a fortune by chosing the right flower for the time of year.

PoorCharleyBear

and think of a day other than a Saturday- it seems to reduce costs hugely.
Try negotiating with suppliers- they will always say if they cannot reduce costs, but if you don't ask you will never know if they can!

We did our own table decorations, our own invites- printed off on our computer, own order of service etc.
And I bought my dress in a sale for 200 quid...don't think I have ever even looked at it again but it was perfect for the one day I wore it.
My sole bridesmaid just had an evening dress.
Cake from M&S, dressed with separately purchased decorations
Flowers were supplied instead of a gift from a family member.

Good luck with the task!

shy-but-need-help

PoorCharleyBear has a brilliant point there- my littlest SIL had her wedding on a Friday and saved a fortune (She did entire wedding at a nice hotel on £3500)

Next does bridesmaids dresses, as does BHS - again, saves alot as they never get used again but little bridesmaids dresses often do get too trashed to sell on (foot through underskirt, blackcurrant down the front)

Local catering colleges might be able to put you in touch with sugarcraft/cake making students who are nearly qualified and willing to work for low cost or cost of materials only for the cake to get experience & their name out there. My littlest SIL also went the M&S cake route and paid for real flower arrangements to sit on each tier (hired a stand to hold the different tiers)

Jinx

M&S invites
M&S one layer wedding cake
Dress from ebay from China - made to measure - cost about 100 quid!
BHS for little girls dresses and shoes etc

What area do you live in??

I live in Scotland where Humanist weddings are legal, this is what we had and it was a fabulous service - very personal and more about us and why we're together than the church or registry office peeps would do.

MatyMoo

My Niece got her wedding dress from a Barnardo's Wedding Dress Shop. £200 for a brand new, with labels, £7k dress, and it was stunning.

She got married in August and chose mainly wild flowers and her God Mother made all the button holes that morning.

She had a Cake Stall rather than a wedding cake so all the best bakers brought something with them. Or Wedding cakes from M&S can be decorated with flowers - unless you know someone that can dress it up for you.

She had brown card labels (parcel labels?) at each place setting with a quote on. These were then used for people to write comments on that were attached to a branch for them to keep.

She didn't do favours.

May be worth taking to an executive car service rather than wedding car providers. They usually use nice cars and can provide a professional service.

Seems to be almost 2000 Venetian Masks on eBay that could be used for decoration. Currently priced from £500 :rotfl: to £0.99

Just a word of warning, then minute you mention weddings the price seems to go up considerably.

LolitaLove

Jinx wrote: »

M&S invites
M&S one layer wedding cake
Dress from ebay from China - made to measure - cost about 100 quid!
BHS for little girls dresses and shoes etc

What area do you live in??

I live in Scotland where Humanist weddings are legal, this is what we had and it was a fabulous service - very personal and more about us and why we're together than the church or registry office peeps would do.

We're in England, East midlands area. I think castles local to us would include Bolsover and Rockingham....anyone had any experience of weddings in these venues? Also, does anyone know if you have to be a member of the church to have a church wedding? Bit confused about what the procedure would be for a church.
Jinx, I've never heard of humanist weddings before but will definately look into it, a more personal ceremony would be perfect.
Thanks to everyone that's replied, I already have a potential venue lined up, and with all the options the task doesn't seem so daunting now!

tomhann187_2

Easily do-able on your budget for that number of guests!

Where in UK are you?

Church wedding will bring the cost down, or go for a weekday wedding in a castle/stately home. Something like Langley Castle in Northumbria do very reasonable packages for small guest numbers or just day receptions (then hire something else for the evening).

The largest expense will be food and drink. Maybe have a late wedding (say 3 or 4pm) and then skip either the formal sit-down meal (save a fortune doing this) or don't do a buffet in the evening (save quite a bit) and just put cake out. Just give each guest one or two drinks and then offer a pay-bar if they want to buy their own. Some places have reasonable corkage charges so you can take your own alcohol for them to serve, but most places charge so much it's not worth it.

Definitely get a dress in the sale/at a show/charity shop (OXFAM have fab wedding outlets with brand new donated designer dresses for a few hundred rather than thousand/eBay/second hand. The dress I wanted is £1200 in the shops but I've seen it on eBay still with tags (lady changed her mind) for £450.

Don't spend lots on stationary. With a small guest list you can just invite through word of mouth/phone call or do something cheap like Vista Print online.

If you want a church wedding and want to save on flowers (another big expense), get the ceremony near something like Easter or Christmas where the church will be decorated already. At Christmas hotels, castles etc are also decorated so you don't need to spend as much to do it yourself. Doing your own flowers saves lots and is really easy if you're not too particular with the styles. Simple hand-tied rose bouquets and flowers in vases for the table can be done really cheaply.

Good luck xx

tomhann187_2

Sorry, cross-posted with you. No experience of the two castles, but I suspect they'll be expensive!

You don't have to be a member of the church, but the couple need to either live in the parish or have family in the parish. The priest may ask the couple to attend a couple of services prior to the wedding.

x

koalamummy

Sorry this may be too far out of area but Birmingham school of art building or at least some areas in it may be able to hire especially during holidays and it would be a beautiful location I think for a Venetian themed wedding.

Zara77

This may sound a little crazy,but why not have a look on the Youth Hostel website? They actually rent to anyone and there are a few castles available which will not be expensive.