Wedding on a budget, please help?

LolitaLove

Hi everyone,

Just wondered if anyone could help with any advice or tips. I'm helping to plan a wedding that's happening in May for a very special close relative of mine. Unfortunately, my relative was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2009. Her life has changed considerably since then, and a lot has happened. She is marrying her fiance, who has stuck by her through thick and thin. We've been trying to organise things on a very tight budget. My relative is only in her twenties, and has been helped by a charity called clic sargent, that helps young people that have been diagnosed with cancer. But, even with their support, we haven't been able to raise much. Most businesses etc that we've asked have said times are hard, and unfortunately no-one that we've approached has been able to help.
I appreciate times are indeed hard, so have decided not to approach any more businesses, etc. So, now I'm exploring other avenues. Hoping the lovely people on here may be able to point me in the direction of some money saving tips and ideas. We're mostly looking for just the small things now, the bouquet, corsage/flowers in general, most of the big things have been arranged.
Any advice would be most greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for any replies x

Hovel_lady

Hello, you might want to post this on the Wedding and Anniversaries board - lots of experts there

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

mountainofdebt

Well one idea may be for the guests to chip in and pay for items of the wedding (cake, flowers etc) as a present....whilst I would baulk at paying for someone's honeymoon (which seems to be a modern trend) I would happily contribute for an element of the wedding in these circumstances.

If you're loking for a cake then why not consider M&S? By all accounts the cakes are lovely and alot cheaper than a 'proper' wedding cake and you can decorate them cheaply as well.

With regards to flowers, do you have a wholesalers near you? you can often buy flowers from such places but you'll probably have to order them a week in advance - but check first.

koalamummy

If you have any vaguely artistic friends or family then Debenhams dresses are worth investigating. I got a £90.00 dress from there and some diamantes and ivory roses and some fabric glue, (as well as a big notepad and pencils to draw my plans) and created a dress that I am still being asked about now.

Do your own invitations. John Lewis sell Parchment pads with matching envelopes very cheaply, and there are many invite templates available for free.

Favours and table decor are the easiest. This is usually the field dealt with by the bride/her family so always wise to check if any have plans to deal with this. If not it can all be done very easily and tastefully, but advice would depend entirely on theme.

charlieann

Check if your local collage has an evening class in flower arranging. A collegue of mine attended one a few years back. If you could find one local your could maybe approach them to put them together for you, just paying the cost of flowers or even attend the class yourself.

nearlysorted

Firstly, I would like to say how sorry I am for your friend and her fiancee, so young x

When we got married we got "mates rates" on practically everything. Maybe you could try posting an appeal of sorts on facebook? You would be amazed at what people can secretly do!
We/I bought my wedding dress on ebay £99 Opened an account at bhs to get extra think it was 10 but may have even been 20% off bridesmaid dresses, shoes, tiara's etc... Obviously paid the card straight away, was just an extra saving.
I made the invitations/order of service cards myself. We did actually pay to have these hand made, but they were not very nice (mine were better;))
Ask older bridesmaids if they could pay for their own dresses, if they were not bridesmaids they would probably be buying a new outfit anyway.
Put disposable cameras on the tables, so guests can take their own pictures of the day/night.
Have the wedding late on in the day so you can skip the dinner and go straight in to the evening buffet.
DIY balloon kits are really easy to use, you could decorate the venue yourself.
I think somebody already said M&S and Tesco sell plain cakes you can decorate yourself.
Ebay for artificial flowers, try getting all from one seller and negotiate a discount.
We hired a minibus to go from the church to the reception, everyone that would have got a taxi chipped in
All of these tips though are just if you don't have friends that can do some of these jobs.
I know it sounds like we had a "bargain basement" day, but truly we didn't, you would have thought we spent thousands.
Please remember the true meaning of the day though,
Good luck to your friend, I hope she gets the day she deserves xx

sandyrosie75

Do a google search on Bridal brooch bouquets, they are lovely and with a bit of hunting around charity shops and asking on freecycle/fb, you should be able to make one really cheap
College students for the hair and make up
Everyone bring their own cameras and ask to borrow the SD cards after
Make your own invites
Ebay for wedding dress
Book local community centre for reception
Rope a few family members in to do the food
Buy a couple of plain cakes from waitrose/M&S and get an artistic friend to decorate them or you could buy ready made icing flowers
Good luck with helping your friend, and don't stop asking businesses, I had a nice case of Shloer at Christmas for my daughters 18th
Email all you can think of, especially the big companies

pinkclouds

If there is no money then homemade all the way. Ask the guests to do one thing each, for the wedding. The cake, the buttonholes, the posies, the favours, the cards, etc. It might not look like the glossy magazines but everything will be made with love and that might be more meaningful if the bride is ill. Depending on how ill she is, it might also be more important that the wedding actually goes ahead rather than how spectacular the party is. If there aren't many guests then local college students could be a good alternative. Something for their portfolio and maybe a written reference too.

jjblondie

Especially if marrying in a church, a church hall may be much cheaper than other reception venues and it could just be decorated to make it more glamourous. Besides, isn't it the company that counts more than if there are lots of flowers or pretty invites?

stiltwalker

Firstly OP, I'm so sorry your relative is so ill but how wonderful she has such a supportive fianc! and family, I hope they have a wonderful day, and I wish them all the best.

My OH and I are getting married at the end of the year, as it's my second marriage and my parents already contributed heavily to the first (and paid for the divorce ) we can't ask them for much! OH's parents are contributing some but we are mainly self funding. With 2 kids (3 yr old, with disabilities and one not quite 1) money is naturally tight. We have been together a number of years and have all the house stuff we need so rather than doing a traditional wedding list we are asking our friends and families to contribute their talents to the day so we all have a fantastic day to remember. Two friends who are keen amateur photographers will be taking photos, a relative who lives near a brewery will be bringing a barrel for the evening, my friend's children are guinea pig sitting for the week after that we are away and we'll be asking others to help with hair, make-up, heating up the pies for the pie and pea supper at the ceilidh. Everyone we have spoken to already about the idea has loved it and are more than happy, indeed flattered, to be asked to be part of the nuts and bolts of the day - so to speak.

Sometimes people hide their lights under bushels and you may well find that you have a multitude of talented friends and family who would be only to happy to do something to make it a wonderful day. For example is their someone who ways has lovely cut flowers in their house when you visit? - they may well be able to do lovely flowers for the day and a less talented (in that direction) but equally lovely friend or relative may offer to pay for some/all of the flowers to be arranged.

skint_chick

We got married on a tight budget and I actually enjoyed spending time with friends making things myself - invitations I designed myself and got printed online from www.fileprint.org - it gives you a list of sizes and paper types then a list of companies and their prices. I got my invites for less than a store bought pack - hand delivering where poss cut down postage costs too.

Flowers I went to local flower store the day of the wedding and bought 10 gerberas for £10 and they threw in ribbon the same colour as my bridesmaid dress so I just wrapped them in ribbon and taped the end under. The favours were Ferrero Rocher wrapped in silver tissue paper - I cut circles round a side plate used two layers of tissue paper gathered at the top tied with 1kea ribbon to match the bridesmaid and curled with scissors, cost just over a fiver as the sweets were on sale! Or you can get clear cellophane bags off ebay for a pound or two and fill them with colourful sweets and add some ribbon.

Cake was from M&S for £30 and then bought a sheet of pre rolled coloured icing and cut out our names using a set of alphabet cutters. Table decorations were silver candle plates from 1kea with some coloured stones and a round candle that we lit at night - this cost about £20 in total.

If your friend is well enough to help with the making of things it's nice to have some girly bonding sessions talking about memories of family weddings etc and take some pics of this too for future memories. Most people have good digital cameras these days so ask them to make you cds of the pics they take (you can get these from pound shops in packs) and then put the nicest ones into an album - Boots do some nice ones.

Hope you create a lovely day for her