Ideas for cheap wedding?

emujuice

hi, here's the photos the photographer took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chocolatecaroline/sets/72157594263766205/
I haven't got round to putting up the heaps of others our lovely friends took us!

Another hint, if photos are important, take your own mini digital camera (or buy one) then you can make sure you have candid pics with your mates and family. It was important to me

I got my necklace from debenhams, I treated myself using the 50 squid voucher from setting up our wedding list. We actually only got one thing from the list!

Also we had pots of colour pencils and and pens on some of the tables with sheets of cards for the kids and others to draw us pictures or write us message, which were lovely to read later - especially the drunken ones from the end of the night

caslates

I can't believe your dress was only £25! It looks stunning! And the cake looked lovely. I'm tempted to make my cake out of a collection of cupcakes for the first 2 tiers and then the top tier a small cake from M&S as they say to keep part of your cake for your first childs christening. My fiance's sister is a master-baker so she should have no trouble in making loads of little cupcakes!

caslates

Thanks so much for those tips. I had actually already come across your website and have subscribed to the newsletter, it has some really fantastic ideas; thanks for taking the time to help out us future brides!

lizzielie

Congratulations!

My best ideas includes to contact your nearest college. There should be plenty of last year students wishing to get some practice. And very often they have a teacher than can supervise/help. This can work for your wedding flowers, photography, entertainment and photography.

Gumtree is also a fab place to get services like photography and entertainment. We got our wedding photographer for free, but we paid for a cd-rom of the photos. We got over 600 photos that we can use as we like! And they are of high quality.

Gumtree was also where my OH found my wedding dress! It was a seamstress setting up a new bridal business and needed guinea pigs to promote her business. The dress was designed by me, and made after my specifications:)

Main thing is, go with your instincts. If someone is new in a business, it does not mean they do not know what they are doing! But if it does not feel right, walk away.

Good Luck with the planning!

SuzanneWW

Barnardos sell new wedding dresses at half the RRP

vixenvic

I made my wedding cake for under £100 using Asda value fairy cakes at 48p for 12, (bought a few packs and it only came to something like £4!!)) then roped in family to ice them and top them with a sugar flower. I bought an acrylic tiered stand from eBay for £49, and a top cake for cutting from M&S. You can see full instructions and pictures at my blog livingdoing.org

a66y31

we are also getting married on a budget £2000 or less next july hopefully...cant book reg office yet they are moving....theres a start..:rotfl:

registry office in the afternoon...followed by a hot/cold buffet at my mams..she has huge garden also..then to evening do in club..will save a fortune doin it this way..than a church n sit down reception. Ebaying for my dress seen one for £95 free postage..mother in law n family friend are doin cake & evening buffet..save alittle there!!!ebaying most things...mens suits, bridemaids,tiaras etc..decorations..invitations homemade on pc..or cheap printers for evening ones.Hubby 2 b..is buying a good camera he is into photography...so using his for photos that day..cars so far need a limo for me n bridemaids :rotfl:not sure wat hubby to b yet for his car.

vixenvic

Sorry, should have posted a direct link to the instructions in my post about the cheap Asda value cupcake wedding cake.

http://www.livingdoing.org/2008/07/make-your-own-cheap-wedding-cake.html

mangabird

Ask guests to bring a dish with them for the reception instead of a wedding present. Specifiy a course, savoury or sweet or whatever. My preference would be for cakes only. Yum!

Tiger_greeneyes

I'm getting married in October and it's all coming in under £2000. Neither of us want to start married life in debt so it's an achievable figure for us, especially if you spread the costs and buy something when it's got a discounted price instead of waiting until nearer the day.

My dress (well, separates actually, I'm different sizes top and bottom!) have come from Evans bridal range - they start at size 14. It's cost £100 for the bodice and long fishtailed skirt. I bought the matching bolero on Ebay for £2!

Sir is hiring a suit for around £50 - it includes everything except his boxers and socks lol!

I contacted a local hotel - I started with the best in the area - and they're giving us free use of one of their rooms, and a sit down three course meal for £20 per head for adults and £8 for children. It's a brilliant offer - there's only 23 of us and half of them are children House wine starts at £9 per bottle, but as it's a lunchtime do, I doubt we'll drink too much - I'll budget for 2-3 glasses per adult.

Sir wanted a titanium ring - and the one he liked best was £30! I managed to find a Tiffany band (in platinum) with a tiny diamond in it - way under half it's original price - on Ebay - it cost £296 but it had hardly been worn - I'm getting it resized so the jeweller will polish it for free.

Shoes are from Ebay - £8 Sir is wearing some existing shoes.

As for hair and makeup - I'm going to ask my sister in law to bring her ghd straighteners and I'll use them on my hair, and I've got makeup already, I might need a new eyeshadow but that's about it. I've studied professional makeup artists explanatory videos on youtube and I'll just have to practice loads I'm keeping my nails short and using a very dark polish - it'll look nicer than my natural nails but save me £40 getting them done professionally.

My cake - I'm making it myself. There's lots of videos on youtube regarding decorating it. I bought a couple of small heart shaped cutters and some edible glue so I'm going to use roll out icing over marzipan (it's a fruit cake), use a smoothing tool (Ebay!) to get the icing ultra smooth and stick on a handful of little hearts made from left over icing. I'm thinking of making some cupcakes with similar icing for the kids if I have time - the cake tin I've got is only 8" lol!

My flowers are going to be a mixture of white flowers with a bit of greenery. It'll be a small posy which I'll pop on top of the cake at the reception. As we're getting married in a register office, there'll be flowers already there.

My bridesmaids dresses are £15 each from Ebay and all match. Their presents are small silver heart necklaces - £19 for 3. I've got a larger version which I'll wear on the day - so we all match.

I'm making the favours myself - ivory organza bags with a mixture of shiny silver chocolate smartie type sweets and matching silver heart shape sweets. They're costing about 50p each to make.

My invites are from Ebay too - £1.90 each - although I only need 7 - that includes one for me to keep as a memento.

We went to a wedding fayre last week - and got chatting to a photographer. She charges £575 - which we can't afford - so I asked if she would charge less for a weekday (we're getting married on a Friday) and she said she'd discount £50. Still wasn't great for us so we mentioned that we'd only want a dozen or so photos - so she said "make me an offer" - I replied "£250 cash" - and she accepted Don't ask, don't get

I'm now looking for a taxi company with a nice car to ferry us about, it'll be cheaper than a wedding car as we'll only need it for a 5 mile journey.