Wedding Tips start here...

Mrs_Thrift

I really wanted people to contribute to the day as their wedding gift, but it seems it's not the done thing. So what about splashing out on the party (that's the biggest cost), and asking for supermarket vouchers so we are guaranteed to be able to eat in the months afterwards?

I've heard of lots of people asking for contributions to the day, either via cake making, invitation making, use of a car, floristry, hairdressing, etc. or through vouchers to pay for the photographer or honeymoon, so it's done pretty widely. I think people are pleased to be involved in your special day as well.

OTOH, people might feel a little strange about buying supermarket vouchers as they might not view them as "proper" wedding gifts. Not that I'd agree with them, it makes good sense from your point of view, but some people might not see it.

Of course, I'm not too worried about "the done thing" - I think it's overated! The best ideas are simply the ones that work best for you personally.

Clarabell_3

Hi there

I am getting married next year and I have to say many of the tips I have read are very useful, many I have already adopted - mainly making use of talented and lovely friends to help out. Fortunately my partner and I are artistic so I am making my own head dress and invites. We are also doing a jewellery workshop to make our rings. This means we get to have fun together and make them to our own unique design, plus they are still very reasonably priced.

My dress was my grandmother's from the 1930's and is more beautiful than anything I could buy today, it needs attention but fortunately my mate is a textile conservator. She is going to sort it as a wedding gift.

We have the loan of a fantastic house for the afternoon reception, friends of my parents, they asked me to make replicas of their weather vein figures in exchange for using their house and gardens. (The figures live on the front of the house and are now badly weather worn). They have loaned us their vintage car too.

We have mates that used to play in a band and used to do weddings. So we are hoping they will reunit for us for one night - they do fantastic funky music that all ages will apreciate.

The evening venue was peanuts as my family are residents of the village where we are marrying which is also the location of the hall. We have had so many friends of friends recommended and got our hire of crockery etc.. very cheap through a friend of a friend. We saved ourselves £100 by hiring the village hall all day and using the chairs from the hall instead of hiring them from the marquee people - this was agreed with the lady we hired the hall from.

We have asked friends of my sister (all experienced waiting and staff and cheifs) to do the waitressing and last minute food prep on the day - even paying them a reasonable hourly rate and making the food ourselves is miles cheaper than caterers (lots of family members and friends are helping cook). We are having many guests- we have too many sisters and brothers etc.. plus lots of friends we dearly want to invite.

Two good tips -
we already live together and have all we need barr a vintage racing car and an idillic cottage !!! but seriously we know several people who asked for money instead of presents. We have decided to ask that if people want to contribute money they can do it anonomously in to an account to go towards our dream honeymoon. This way people can pay in whatever they feel they want to or not. We are just glad for people to celebrate with us and help make the day special. But if we get some money it will definately help us to pay for a dream honeymoon that ordinarily we wouldn't be able to afford. My friends friend asked for Thomas Cooke vouchers.

As keep sakes a friend suggested sending out handmade paper with the invite and asking people to do a drawing or write something for us so that all the papers can be put together in one album as a lovely reminder of all our guests. I love this idea.

So far all have gone easily I think this is because I am organising everything so long in advance.

All in all I never thought it would be easy to pay for a wedding but with parental help and lots of luck and favours I think we can do this very cheaply and still have a beautiful day. As my friend said after her wedding, still a modest affair financially, it was worth it.

I also feel that saving on some things means an excuse to splash out on others. I aim to have a fabulous pair of shoes even if I never wear them again!!

Good luck and remember this is a once in a lifetime event if all goes well.

System

Hi Everyone

I am getting married this August and have been trying to cut costs where possible, although it is still costing too much!

My tip is not to buy a tiara but make one for less than £10. All the shop ones seem to cost a fortune but if you look closely at them, the majority are just a wire headband with wire beaded bits twisted on. If you have a Hobbycraft near you (or a big craft shop) they sell the headbands for £4 and the crystal/pearl arrangements on wires for about £2 for a pack of 8. You literally just twist the wire round the band where you want the sticky out bits. Be careful when you are buying the bead bits as there were so many nice ones I got a bit carried away and now have enough to make about 20 tiaras!

The only thing I really need to sort out now is the wedding band, we are finding it very hard to get a decent band without paying a fortune. Has anyone got any suggestions or recommendations?

System

Tanya,
I'm SO glad you said about making your own tiara, coz that's exactly what I was planning! Except I haven't made the visit to Hobbycraft yet.
Cheers

Jeryth

By the way Ms Thrift, I wonder whether you can tell me where you are considering holding your reception? The descriptions fit the sort of thing I would like. Ta.
I'm happy coz I've found my wedding ring! It seems 2mm is not very common. ALso considering Dr Scholls for the day (July wedding)

Mrs_Thrift

I've PM'd you, jeryth.

System

Thanks, Ms Thrifty (I'm jeryth when I log in)

Clarabell_3

Hi

On the subject of tiaras

I saw some nice flower ones in 'Claire's Accessories' would be great for bridesmaids and very cheap. Or to be adapted.

Plus if Hobby craft don't have what you are looking for try looking on the internet or in a craft magazine for some bead suppliers as wire and beads can be very cheap and then you can get exactly the colour you want.

If you want a unique dress at a relatively cheap price check out vintage wedding dresses on the internet I found many sites during my searches and found a lady based in the West Country who also hires original vintage dresses or makes them for £300 upwards I haven't got the details to hand!

But to really save money try the old outlet stores, this has probably been said before. I went to the Monsoon shop at Gunwarf in Portsmouth and they had fab wedding dresses reduced from £500 to £30!! Mega saving.

Where there's a will there's a way!

Miss_Scrimp_n_Save

Hi All!

Have been following this thread since Ms_Thrift started it back in August last year. I am planning my wedding for August this year, so the thread came along at just the right time for me to implement lots of the money saving ideas!

Despite all my efforts, the whole thing seems to be costing an awful lot, but have been quite strict with myself and only been extravagant with the things that really mattered to me.

One thing which saved us quite a lot of money was by turning the traditional wedding format on it's head. We are having our full number of 105 guests to the church and to a 'garden party' type affair afterwards. (Luckily the venue is right next door to the church so we don't have to worry about lots of transport etc.) Then a few hours later, we are ending the 'afternoon' by cutting the cake, and having a whole group photograph to signal the end of the afternoon part of the reception. Then about half of these people (close friends and family) are staying for the wedding breakfast. By doing it this way round we get to have all our friends attending the ceremony and pay a smaller amount for them to have some champagne and nibbles, than if they all came for the wedding breakfast or a buffet in the evening.

Hope this makes sense! Sounds confusing, but it's not really! I went to a friends wedding last year who adopted this format and it went brilliantly! I was one of the people who went home at the end of the afternoon and I didn't feel at all offended that some were staying and others weren't as I had been told in my invitation that the wedding was from 2-5.30pm.

Another significant saving I made was on my dress. I went around all the shops trying on everything that took my fancy irrespective of cost, but typically the bodice and skirt combination that I loved was totalling in excess of £2000! So I contacted a dressmaker who I had been recommended to, and told her what I wanted. She has designed my dream dress which is completely individual to me, for a total cost of between £500 and £600. This dress maker was asked to make Sophie Wessex's wedding dress and makes outfits for Princesses, so hopefully she will turn out to be good - yet she is SO much cheaper than the wedding shops, I just can't understand how she does it!! But who am I to complain - what a saving!

Our one real luxury is having both a videographer and a photographer. Having a video is one thing that people kept saying to us was very important to have as you would never remember all the details. So we have splashed out and gone for both.

I bought my chief bridesmaid's dress today in Debenhams and when I got to the till was told that if I opened a Debenhams card today then I would get 10% off plus £20 worth of vouchers off the cost. (Meaning the dress would be £61) I already had a card but my bridesmaid tried to open one but was declined unfortunately - but they gave us 10% off for trying anyway so still made a saving. If you can get the card, then quite a saving could be made!

The venue that we hired includes a wedding car and accommodation for the wedding night, so that is less to think about.

There are lots of little things which I keep thinking to myself are quite moneysaving, but can't think of them all at the moment, no doubt I will remember them!

Has anyone else found that the cost of getting married in a church was more than they thought it would be? I was really shocked when I saw the Reverend and he listed off all these cheques I would need to write! Oh Well!

Anyway, this has turned into a long post, but hopefully someone will find some good ideas amongst this lot!

Good luck to everyone getting married in the near future. Can't believe how much hard work it is - but it will be worth it on the day!!

Lucie_2

Just trying to remember the details - we got married in 1998 & didn't spend an awful lot of money.

Dress - I had a gorgeous pure shot silk dress made for £120! Shop around for local dressmakers. The tiara was borrowed from a friend who had got married the year before.

Bridesmaid dresses - about £50 from BHS.

Flowers - I'm lucky that both my Mum & Nana are pretty good with flowers. They bought all the flowers from the market & did my bouquet, 2 bridesmaids, table decorations & button holes for about £30.

Car - hubby's boss at the time had a lovely old Bentley which he lent us.

Photographer - our photographer from work who wanted to break into wedding photography. We were his "guinea pigs". He did a fabulous job - if a little too enthusiastic! We didn't bother with a video. No-one ever watches them

Wine - we bought our own (on offer in supermarket plus extra bulk discount) & paid corkage. Far cheaper & much better quality than hotel wine that you know they've only paid £1 a bottle for.

Cake - my Mum made the chocolate layer & her next door neighbour made the fruit layer & iced them both.

We had long & anguished debates about who to invite - we both have quite big families that we hardly ever see, so decided to be ruthless & invite immediate family & friends only. There were 28 of us & it was a brilliant day.

*Just noticed* - My Mum seems to feature quite heavily in all this - mybe I should rent her out as a money saving wedding planner!!