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

Suzanne_Louise

There's a website called that I looked at recently, after seeing it in a magazine. Unfortunately, it's where people have cancelled, but it really has some wonderful locations, at incredibly cheap prices - my brother got married at Clearwell Castle, and I know it cost them a fortune, and it's one of the venues available!

http://www.whirlwindweddings.com/

Miss_Bolan

Hi

Just thought I'd add in quickly here, as you said you were in the East Midlands I couldn't not post a suggestion!

I am currently planning my wedding (engaged 2 weeks ago -yey!) and my budget is probably about a quarter of the budget you have - you can definately do it, just beg, steal and borrow what you can!

I have a few hints and tips, but I'm on my lunch break at work and in a rush so may have to post again later, but as far as venues in the East Midlands are concerned why not consider this:

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/weddings-at-museums/weddings-at-the-guildhall/

The Guildhall in Leicester is a beautiful building. I am getting married there myself. On a Saturday for 80 guests (not inc bride and groom or 2 witnesses) it is £475 for the ceremony, plus £330 for a registrar (but you'll need that anywhere for a civil ceremony!). For an extra £80 you can hire the hall for an hour after for drinks (that you supply yourself). It's not quite a castle, but as an alternative to a hotel it really is beaufitul :-)

Hope this helps!

Violetta_2

Do you know anyone who could do the flower's? I didn't so I contacted the local floral art society (just google for your area) & asked if they knew anyone who could do wedding flower's, their secretary did them for me, they were beautiful & she only charged me what the flower's cost. We had the wedding and reception in the same place so saved on travel, I did'nt want to waste money on a wedding car, but spotted a lovely white london taxi cab, ran over to the taxi rank & asked the driver if he would take me to my wedding, on the day he turned up the taxi was spotless & he had even put ribbons on the taxi for me. We had M&S wedding cake which was lovely.
Good luck with it all.

Miss_Abington

Hello - what a lovely thing to do for your friend.
Not sure where you are but at the Abington Hotel close to Glasgow and Edinburgh ab-hotel.com 01864 502467 you can have a look at their special offer for a wedding for only £1500 for up to 40 guests. Have a look also at the Castle Wedding section for inspiration for wedding photograph locations. The Hotel has 28 bedrooms so lots of room for the wedding guests and it is only 1 hour from Carlisle.

Caroline73_2

If you'd bothered to read the whole thread rather than just the first post, you'd know they are looking in East Midlands. At least try to pretend you aren't promoting your own hotel!

Miss_Abington wrote: »

Hello - what a lovely thing to do for your friend.
Not sure where you are but at the Hotel close to Glasgow and Edinburgh you can have a look at their special offer for a wedding for only £1500 for up to 40 guests. Have a look also at the Castle Wedding section for inspiration for wedding photograph locations. The Hotel has 28 bedrooms so lots of room for the wedding guests and it is only 1 hour from Carlisle.

Kitten_Pie

Hi,

Don't know if the below will help but a few notes when I got married.

Invitations - from friendsinvited.com, although not cheap they came in much cheaper than other 'posh' invite places did.
Flowers - were done by the same person who did the churches flowers and she charged the cost of the flowers only.
Cake - was made my my godmother, cupcakes - they looked amazing
Favours - we went to the british heart foundation and they supplied little heart badges which worked out at 50p per guest and we got to donate to a charity on behalf of our guests, since then friends have done similar things with other charities.
Dress - I got out the yellow pages and called up all the dress shops in the area asking whether they had my size and if they could sell a dress cheaply off the rack, my dress was under £200 and was just as good as if i had ordered the £2000 version.
Table decorations- we got tall large martini glasses filled with retro sweets as they worked out cheaper than flowers as centre pieces. All the guest loved them and throughout the wedding they were bartering with other tables which got people who didn't know each other mingling.
Rings - we bought ours online and cost £25 they are plain titanium bands but we love them.


Ask for a discount on everything they can only say no. Our centre pieces were reduced to less than half the cost originally quoted. Be cheeky if you can.

I was quite honest with all the suppliers and said, this is my budget but I love your product is there anything you can do to help. Most places jumped to help as being honest (I had a printed sheet with the maximum costs of everything on) they new that if they couldn't match my price then I would have to go elsewhere.

Friends are invaluable, if there is anything they can offer grab with both hands. My sister boyfriend studies film, so filmed the wedding and then edited it onto DVD for us.

didodo

Costs at Bolsover are listed at w w w . english-heritage.org.uk/book-and-buy/venue-hire/bolsover-castle/wedding-prices/ Price for 'Ceremony and Drinks' starts at £945

Rockingham starts at £2050
w w w . rockinghamcastle.com/56/Weddings/

It is possible to find much cheaper (and equally lovely) places if you can look further afield. e.g. Castel Coch is only £550 monday to friday
w w w . cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=197

(sorry, newbie so can't post links)

Jinx

Re Humanist ceremonies - unfortunately they are not legal in England which is why I asked where you are. But if your friend is not religious you could have a registrar do the wedding and then have a 'blessing' type service after that formality. Our Humanist person was fabulous, asked me and hubby to email how we met, what we love about each other, etc etc etc. It was fantastic, he amalgamated and even had the jokey bits - I needed tissues which my hubby still teases me about.... My brother also did a reading of a poem called 'what is love' I think... Cue more blubbing! (all credit to the girl who did my makeup!!)

My teenage daughter did our place settings with the white card (that the hotel gave us)and her calligraphy pens then added two coloured glass mosaic tiles to each one in our colour scheme. They were lovely.

Our music at the venue was my ipod on a small stereo they had! Gave bruv the remote... It was a reasonable room with us and 24 guests. Our transport was family but my friend took me in her lovely Mercedes and she even donned a chauffeur outfit with hat! A little imagination does go a long way

Re cake toppers, you can win bespoke brides and grooms on ebay from a company called Cake Mates - they customise them to look like you. I can vouch they are incredible!! My hubby is a petrol head so for extra cash they made me a car that I specified and Im sitting on the bonnet while the groom pushes.... honestly incredible http://www.cakemates.co.uk/

Will stop prattling on now!

Plans_all_plans

To get married in some churches, at least one of the couple getting married must be baptised in that particular faith e.g. the Catholic church (and I think, the C of E, but I'm not 100% sure of that) Some other Churches may also require that one of the couple are baptised in a Christian faith (but not necessarily that denomination), but you will have to check with the ministers. Some Churches will also want to see a commitment to attending services prior to the wedding going ahead, though not all will.

I think the Unitarian church is more flexible with how they do weddings though. We have a quite beautiful Unitarian church near us, so it may be worth looking into some locally near you to find out whether you feel they are nice and will be willing to accommodate you.

MHC_Events

Re wedding on a budget: Hi This budget is achievable for these numbers, you just need to prioritise what your friends wish list is and work from there, try and go for simply elegance. Food wise lots of stores offer food platter service now and it's generally very reasonably priced, or maybe ask at a local restaurant your friend likes, lots will hold the whole event for a set amount all in. Table arrangements can be done by picking up candles, vases etc as you see what you like and after seeing the test on the public to guess the designer dress compared to the value one and most people getting it wrong it does seem that it really isn't necessary to spend a fortune to feel and look beautiful on your wedding day, best of luck.