Wedding Tips start here...

hobbeshalftail

Just thought I would post a few of my money saving tips for brides to be. I got married in a fantastic ceremony nearly 2 years ago, and we had a brilliant day, but didn't spend a stack.

Firstly - wedding gifts - we'd lived together for a few years so did a small list from John Lewis, but asked for B&Q vouchers as well - we were able to redecorate and do the whole garden with what we received.

Dresses - find a good dress maker! Find the design you want - try it on in a dress shop and get lots of pictures, then take it to a dress maker - you can then subtly change it and get a bargain - mine cost £600, and more importantly fitted like a dream, and there will never be another like it!

Be selective - talk to your partner about what you really want, and what you aren't bothered about - we didn't want a dvd, a top table or a fruit cake, we did want decent Champagne, relaxed photos and real flowers. You can now spend your money on what you really want.

We bought Champagne that we wanted from an online site in bulk and paid corkage to the venue as we didn't like their choice - this was still cheaper than buying their cheapest Champagne!

We got a chocolate wedding cake covered with mixed berries and served this as the dessert for the reception and evening buffet - no cake left over and a cheap pudding!
Instead of spending a fortune on frilly wedding favours - really not my scene- we bought mini boxes of the best chocolates in the world - https://www.chocs.com and had these one per couple.

We saved money on invitations by ordering posh printed ones for the small main ceremony, and then bought M&S ones for the evening do - lets face it you don't get one yourself, it is at the end of the day only for information!

I made my own thank you cards using one of the wedding pictures that I printed out wallet sized, on a piece of folded A5 card - ended up sending about 40 cards, cost approx 20p each!

Save money on Parents Albums by doing them yourselves - instead of buying bouquets for the mums on the day we said thank you, but since I had organised the wedding and paid myself we merely said a spoken thanks for their support over the years, and that we had something special to remember the day for them. I bought albums from Paperchase for £11 and filled them with a range of photos from ours and friends digital cameras of the day, plus ones of us a children, our vows printed out etc. They are really special and personal and only cost about £30 each - this might sound like quite a bit, but off a photographer they cost a fortune -(£195 for 6 pictures was our quote!)
Don't have throw away cameras on tables - nobody knows what to take pictures of, they usually get lost and the quality of prints is pants - ask everyone with a digital camera to send you theirs on a disc instead - we got some hilarious, and relaxed shots of our day this way.

We had a Friday wedding, which was slightly cheaper as others have mentioned.

At no time did it look like we had scrimped on our big day, most of the guests thought is was the nicest, most relaxed and elegant wedding they had ever been to. Focus on what is important to YOU and spend your money on that, and if you don't want something, DON'T FEEL OBLIGED TO HAVE IT!!!!
Hope this is helpful
Caz xx

zztopgirl

vickitoria100 wrote:

Hi all you gorgeous newleyweds and newleyweds to be!

My lovely partner and I are hoping to get married on New Years Eve 2008 and I've noticed that this has been touched upon here. i was just wondering if you could let me know as guests, how you would feel about being invited to an NYE wedding (a collegue told me she would think it was selfish!) and whether there is anything else I need to consider?

Currently finding out from the venue whether they will allow this as they have a NYE thing each year and may be reluctant to lose all the money they'd make from that! Also, we'll be having a civil ceremony so do you think there'll be any problems getting someone to marry us on that date? Will DJ/photographer etc be a lot more expensive??

Eeek - so excited!

x x

Cant offer any advice sorry, but agree with the others, those who tell you its a bad idea are just being selfish.

We got married on the 29th but would have loved to have had the 31st, but anyway its great to have something fill the gap between christmas and new year-like a wedding anniversary.

Summer weddings are so last year:rotfl: only joking, we had a blessing last summer on what must have been the hottest day of the year, it was great.

vickitoria100

awh, thank you for all your lovely replies!

In a bit of a pickle now though... went to see THE most gorgeous venue at the weekend and now my heart is officially set on it (www.thishotel.com) BUT they're booked for NYE! Meep.... found out that my dear old Nanny Lily and my Grandad had also got married on this date and so I was even more excited about it as she has now passed away, and I though it would be a nice thought. So the question is... venue or date?!

iva_b

Does anyone know of any websites (or shops) to get cheap ribbons from? Preferably satin ones, but whatever's cheap will do. We're planning on making all our invitations and decorations and will need a huge amount (I'm guesing about 100metres!).

Thanks,
Iva

saxy1

Have you tried Ebay for ribbon - there is loads, from 99p a roll!

jamesy_a_2

My wife and I used that site mentioned earlier on in the thread https://www.whattogive.com . It does let you have stuff from different shops on one list but they don't order the items - its just a list and your guests pick (the site calls it "promising" an item) something and then they have to go and get the item from the store.

I guess in some ways its not as convenient as having someone order it for you but
1. we don't have to trust them with our money!
2. guests can just bring the items (or money to the same amount as some did) to the wedding.

Worked well for us

Rachie_B

vickitoria100 wrote:

awh, thank you for all your lovely replies!

In a bit of a pickle now though... went to see THE most gorgeous venue at the weekend and now my heart is officially set on it (www.thishotel.com) BUT they're booked for NYE! Meep.... found out that my dear old Nanny Lily and my Grandad had also got married on this date and so I was even more excited about it as she has now passed away, and I though it would be a nice thought. So the question is... venue or date?!

stunning venue !!

Id be inclined to go with venue rather than date TBH

If you dont you will regret it if your heart is really set on it.

Unless you can find as eaqually a lovely venue which is available on NYE ?

Fritha_2

Quick money saving tip I accidentally discovered!

We emailed the photography tutor at the local college and they have put us in touch with a lovely lady who's just starting her photogrphey business and is happy to do our wedding for very little so she can have experience, marketing material and a reference from us. It might not pay off but we're willing to take a gamble and frankly the pictures she's taken for her website are better than a lot of the established photogrphers I've seen!


Oh and another one, Cresta city breaks have lot of free nights deals and upgrades for honeymoon couples! You have to push for the deals from their brochure but once they understand you're looking to get it as cheap as possible they seem to then go out of their way to knock money off!

Fritha_2

vickitoria100 wrote:

awh, thank you for all your lovely replies!

In a bit of a pickle now though... went to see THE most gorgeous venue at the weekend and now my heart is officially set on it (www.thishotel.com) BUT they're booked for NYE! Meep.... found out that my dear old Nanny Lily and my Grandad had also got married on this date and so I was even more excited about it as she has now passed away, and I though it would be a nice thought. So the question is... venue or date?!

My word, what a pickle, I know Rachie B has suggested venue over date so I'm going to play devils advocate (sorry) and suggest date over venue. My reasoning is that you're going to be in the venue for one day but you'll celebrate your anniversary for the rest of your life!

Although I would like to issue a word of warning, my friends got married in December, two days before his Birthday and her Birthday is just after Christmas. They hate it. You can't get an anniversary card around Christmas for love nor money, lots of people forget (their anniversary, and indeed their Birthdays!) becuase they're all caught up in Christmas, and my friend said she was freezing at her wedding!

Which leads me nicely to venue over date (I'm so bloody fickle!) it's a gorgeous venue and if you love it and could go on a different date (NYE 2009 anyone?) it would be beautiful! You could even go for January, everyone needs cheering up in January and you can lots of lovely presents in the sale? How about January it's the first? Starting the New Year with a new life?

Sorry, just thought of something else, the venue is gorgeous, but if you're willing to travel there are equally stunning venues around the country!

I'll stop, sorry, it's just much more fun imaging other people's weddings to my own wedding-from-hell!

zztopgirl

Fritha wrote:

Quick money saving tip I accidentally discovered!

We emailed the photography tutor at the local college and they have put us in touch with a lovely lady who's just starting her photogrphey business and is happy to do our wedding for very little so she can have experience, marketing material and a reference from us. It might not pay off but we're willing to take a gamble and frankly the pictures she's taken for her website are better than a lot of the established photogrphers I've seen!


Oh and another one, Cresta city breaks have lot of free nights deals and upgrades for honeymoon couples! You have to push for the deals from their brochure but once they understand you're looking to get it as cheap as possible they seem to then go out of their way to knock money off!

I tried to get an amatuer to do pics for us, but couldnt find anyone at the local college, i got told i had to post an advert on the messageboard.

There are some amateurs who will try to rip you off, i was quoted hundreds from people who had only ever shot one wedding before.:mad: I went for a professional who charged by the hour as i only wanted about 40 minutes worth of picture taking, but he was so dreadful and rude (he was nice previously), he turned up late and took hardly any, what he did take were awful. I now wish i had made more effort to get a keen amateur. Than a smug thinks he knows it all but doesnt photographer. Mind you, he says on his website now, he is self-trained, that should say it all really.