Wedding Tips start here...

mumtoj_2

Some ideas on the last two posts
sorry if been mentioned before but a friend recently got married in a youth hostel ! during off peak you can hire some of the hostels as whole building which means accomodation for guests is sorted too. prices are great as it is yha and if you sign up for membership this cam make it even better. http://www.escape-to.co.uk/index.php this should link you to all properties that can be hired whole and then search for occasions to find ones that are licensed.

on the mother in law food curse thing have you tried local colleges that do food courses? they may have some students willing to help for low price or similar i know another friend did a few 'parties' as part of her training might be worth a try

good luck to both of you

pinkkaz

jiblets1 wrote: »

oh lord. No help to offer, but good luck. Fish and chips I reckon...

Get everyone to bring a dish each?


Our wedding is getting quite close now (Jan 5th). Everything is very "bitty" at the moment so I'm hoping it's all going to come together! Had some good news over the weekend though - apparently the church is still going to have its Christmas decorations up when we get married so that means flowers and holly in all of the windows, a christmas tree, christmas wreath and lots of candles hurrah!

shelovestobuystuff

smousie wrote: »

Where did you manage to get a venue for that price? We were quoted £2700 to hire a local B&B from Saturday morning until 12pm Sunday (just over 24hrs).

I'm struggling with venue ideas actually; the big hotels are FAR too expensive, and even places like B&Bs want thousands of pounds to hire their facilities for one day. All I want is a place with a nice room that I can decorate cheaply and bring in a cheap caterer. The local pubs and social clubs are a bit grubby, the only really decent places are the ones that have their own caterers etc and charge a fortune

We first saw the castle in a Hoseasons brochure.Its not available through them anymore,new owner has it for let through a highland sporting events company.
Checkout Hoseasons and also Blakes Country Cottages for some superb venues.Its not just little cottages,they have big country manor houses and castles as well.If you don,t want to travel far do an internet search of your local area for venues.I was very surprised when I looking for my venue at the sheer volume of privately owned mansions and castles near me which are available as holiday lets and suitable for weddings.
WE opted for a full week for £3,000. but could have had a weekend for just under £2,000.

TechyC

Finally............ Phew
Accepted boyfriends proposal 4 weeks ago and have only just reached the end of this thread reading a few pages when I get some spare time.
Some really good ideas here hopefully should cut wedding casts by loads. I'm already doing pretty well (got estimate down to £3500) but trying to do more. Main costs seem to be food and drink although my mum and sister have offered to cater I don't really want them spending my entire wedding day racing around like loonies trying to sort out buffets and stuff. A few people have mentioned catering colleges any idea how I might find these!!!

mrs-b_15

Dear wedding forum readers
We were engaged in February and married 3 weeks ago and spent many hours reading this forum!

So thank you to all posters for your exceedingly valuable advice - it is so much appreciated. Here's my hints and tips for the mix: (some are repeats - apologies)

Friends friends friends - Spend some time thinking about all of your friends and their talents and skills. A friend of ours is a pro photographer so we paid him a nominal fee to take our formal shots. Other friends and relatives did flowers, table decorations, provided cars and made the cake.

Buying vs renting - sometimes it really is cheaper to buy than rent. We paid £1.50 each for an M&S bud vases for each reception table and will be ebaying them shortly. Glass ikea t-light holders came in at 9p each.

Personal touches - the personal touches are often the most remembered things about your day. We printed all of our 'group shots' of friends and family taken over our 6 years together and stuck them on boards around the drinks reception area so people could spot themselves. (Photos printed online using all the offers available, Black A1 boards from hobbycraft at £2 each - very cheap decorations)

Venue - Hotels cost a fortune. Finding somewhere you can take your own caterer and wine is absolutely the way forward. We decorated a village hall in Wraysbury near Windsor. We found lists of village halls on the internet and drove around to suss them out. Councils often have lists of the local ones and some village halls have their own websites. (Google to find them). We got married in the church we go to, so this did limit our geographical area to have a reception, lots of stunning alternative venues listed on this forum though (very impressive!). Don't forget to ask your caterer where else they have catered.

Flowers - if you can do any of them yourselves you will save - even if it's a few vases/decorations for your reception venue, or some extras in the church - do it. We got the flowers and bits for pew ends from the local flower market. You have to get up early but it's really cheap and excellent quality. We had our bouquets/button holes from the floristry in our our local garden centre. The flowers were absolutely immense and very good value. 3 weeks later and they are still going strong.

Transport - Call your friends with posh cars (or any car for that matter) and give them some ribbon. They'll love being involved and you get a free ride!

Table runners - our venue had loads of trestle tables which we used, and we bought some material, which my auntie whipped up in to table runners, and even used the leftover material to make favour bags / table place settings. (Double up wherever possible too)

Candles - a simple cheap effect is t-lights. Ikea do glass t-light holders for 9p each. We wanted 6 hour t-lights, and found these cheapest in Sommerfield at £2.30 for 30. 4 hour ones are cheaper though from loads of shops. Have spotted them in Ikea, M&S, poundstretcher etc etc.

Wedding dress - if you find the dress you want in a shop and don't fancy buying online, look at the designers website and their UK outlets. Ring around and see who else is selling it at what price. I saved £150 this way.

Shoes - all bought in the BHS sale for £12.50 a pair. I never wear heels but had 3 inches on the day, and they were really comfortable. Ours were ivory, but if you can't get away with ivory, try your local sari shop for fantastic coloured shoes at non wedding prices.

Men's accessories - instead of hiring outfits for the wedding party, we bought them all a tie and made our own matching hankies (perfect colour match material from the local sari shop at £1.50 a metre) to go with them. They looked brilliant!

Whatever you do, and whatever the carnage the day before in all the decorating and last minute preparations, make sure you relax on the day and forget the stress, focus on what's important - your wife/husband!

Best wishes all you wedding planners
Mrs B

leannejjesp

Hello all, I definitely think that you can save money and still have an amazing wedding!
By getting married in a church and having our reception at a local sports and social we saved so much money but its still amazing (it will be in Dec ) we have 3 different rooms to use and we can decorate them how we like and its a short walk from the church instead of 8000 as we were quoted at a hotel the room and church wedding then only comes to 700!!
Then i talked to a friend who had been married slightly before me and got her vases for my table decorations! On ebay i found artificial snow for 2.50 for 4 pints! (I ordered 40 pints for £20!!) and on the web i found a website in US that do Home made ice sculptures (small) for about £20 (www.sculpturesinice.com)! I then went to my local market and spoke to my local florist who found me gorgeous beaded crystal twigs for £2.50! So in all by hunting around as opposed to just accepting a florist quotes my winter wedding tables wont cost more than £100!
My caterer was recommended by the club and when i spoke to her i have got my tables set out and a 3 course meal for £12 a head!
The biggest bargain was my wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses which i found on a cute little website called www.bridalbellesofbirstall.co.uk i got my wedding dress for £275 and my bridesmaid dresses for £70 each. At first i was abit unsure about buying something like that off the web so emailed the sites contact me section, the people from the site organised so i could visit them at home and look at the quality of the dresses, which was great. I wasnt disappointed when they turned up as they were perfect! For all my dresses i paid under £600! they were all lined and had incredible detail i just hadnt paid through the nose and they were even cheaper than debenhams. (the Ben de lisi dress i looked at was £500 and the bridesmaids were 100 each!).
Debenhams were good for the suits too as it was groom goes free!
And my invites cost me less than £10 for well over 100 as i found them at Dunelm in Jan sales for £.50 a pack of 10!
Hope this is some help to people as it has literally saved me thousands bargain hunting, which means alot to me as a new mum on a budget!!

leannejjesp

TechyC wrote: »

Finally............ Phew
Accepted boyfriends proposal 4 weeks ago and have only just reached the end of this thread reading a few pages when I get some spare time.
Some really good ideas here hopefully should cut wedding casts by loads. I'm already doing pretty well (got estimate down to £3500) but trying to do more. Main costs seem to be food and drink although my mum and sister have offered to cater I don't really want them spending my entire wedding day racing around like loonies trying to sort out buffets and stuff. A few people have mentioned catering colleges any idea how I might find these!!!

If you go on your county council website and under education alot of the time they list the colleges! Hopes this helps! Many congratulations on your engagement! I also was recommended to my caterer by the venue and by my photographer!

cazcaz_2

I love the thread! Loads of fab advice and ideas. Thanks

Me and OH are just starting to plan our wedding now, problem is I'm a student (a mature one!!!) and I need to keep costs to a minimum.

Couple of tips, sorry if these have already been posted!

Wedding photos - we were going to place disposable cameras on each table, but have decided to put a blank disc/ couple of blank discs on each table instead - the digital camera users can place their photos on the disc and send it to us. Also OH is a computer whizz, so I will get him to make an online album so that we can share with all.

Also the wedding dress - I spent many hours (which I really should have spent studying!) going around dress shops, found the look that suited me the best and then bought one on eBay - saved about £500!! I bought it a couple of sizes too big so that mum (who's a bit nifty with a needle) can adjust. We gathered that it would be easier to take material away!

Thanks for all your help so far!

little_miss_sunshine_3

Hello Everyone,

Getting Married in June 2008, Me and my OH are both students, so we are looking for bargins!

My sister is making the invertations so thats another expense I can cut down on.

Just finshed reading the thread, lots of useful tips, going to order my bridesmaid dresses from shopshop.com, has anyone else brought from them? If so how did you find it?

I looked around at tons of dresses with my mum but couldn't find anything that I liked, I ended up going into Oxfam and I fell in love with a dress there, much cheaper that the shop across the road! I felt good for doing some good with my money! It needs altering but as they say, you know when its the one!

emmapolo

omg!!! Can't believe i've finished 96pages!!

Got loads of fab ideas so thanks guys. Date tbc will be xmas time 2009 (so aages yet!) but my friend is getting married in april of the same year and has found some venues already booked out!! I'm more excited about my colour coded wedding file at the moment because everything seems so far away and now, after copying and pasting all my fave tips i will be organising them to print out to put in my file too!

Will keep u all updated! Emma x