Wedding Tips start here...

paddingtondoo

loopy_lass wrote: »

well, ok, im getting married in june, i am not thinking about anything until 3 weeks before, well of course ill book the registry office - wherever we can get one, not bothered. will just ring round till we find one.

not inviting anyone except respective children (4), and 2 witnesses. not sure what i will wear, my fellas already has a suit. The children can wear what they like.

once we have got married, we are going for a meal wherever we can get in, and if anyone from respective familes wants to join us, they can pay for the meal themselves.

Job done.... ;-)

tooooooooooooo much fussing and hassle for my liking.


am i wrong?

loops

Don't blame you would go for a hassle free wedding if I could get away with it!

As far as a registry office goes you will need to check if you have to give notice if it's outside the area where you live. If you do, the time to give notice is a minimum of 15 days. Have look on your local council's website to check the details.

x

loopy_lass

will do paddington, 15 days isnt too bad to wait, gives me time to get few hours off work to do the deed ;-)

loops

controlledspender

I've been reading through ALL the tips on this thread whilst planning my wedding which is on 18th April 2008! Less than 5 months away. I've got some tips which i have used - my budget is £2500 and I want to have all the trimmings so my aim is to get as much as i can for this money rather than spend as little as i can!!

OUTFITS

1. for your dress - a lot of bridesmaids dresses come in white/ivory and they are a lot cheaper than the brides dress but often just as nice. I'm having quite a simple but stunning ivory bridesmaids dress from JML £180

2. for your bridesmaids - choose a colour & get them to wear outfits they already own in that colour. My colour theme is white, black & gold. My bridesmaids are wearing they're favourite Little Black Dresses!! They love this idea.

3.borrow, borrow, borrow. It's amazing what people keep in they're attic. Veils & garters can expensive. Your mum, sister, MIL or SIL is bound to have their stowed away - and then it's your 'something borrowed!'

DECORATIONS

3. Get flowers from a flower market or wholesalers and pick your own greenery from the garden or nearby woods & make your own flower displays and rope in your bridesmaids.
I'm having white roses, greenery, dried grasses (sprayed gold - spray paint £1 from local pound shop) tied together with black ribbon to match the theme. Total cost £120 and this is for 500 flowers!!

4. Have themed posters to match your stationery or to match your theme. This is a great cheap way to decorate your venue. This site has some great ones i'm having 10 at a cost of only £12
http://www.friendsinvited.com/

5. Balloons sometimes much cheaper than flowers - they look great as table centre pieces - again go with 2 colours from your colour theme.

VENUE & CATERING

6. avoid spending loads hiring the venue by having your wedding on a friday instead of saturday or save even more midweek. Also spring & autumn are cheaper than summer

7. alot of venues are cheaper than you think - they want you to by booze n food so the keep the hire costs low. My venue modern & tasteful venue is £150 hire. Buffett £10.95 a head for 60. Total cost £807

The buffet is good too - it's beef stroganoff, chicken in creamy white wine sauce, pesto penne pasta, tomato, mozarella & rocket salad, green salad, crusty bread & banoffee pie to follow.

8. Cake - make your own, or go to M&S or TESCO

9. Don't buy all the booze, nobody expects this!! Either buy a bottle of wine for each table or if your having a buffet like me. Buy the 'toast' drink for everyone when the arrive. My costs is £14.95 for each bottle of bubbly (6 glasses) x 10 = £149.95. I thought about having cocktails instead (just to be modern & funky) this was actually cheaper but i didn't know how the oldies would like it!

EXTRAS
10. Even if your not making your own invitations you can get cheap invites online or at least print your own oder of service - these are normally the most expensive bit of the stationery.

11. Wear your family heirloom jewellery, or wear cheap costume - it looks just as good & who can tell the difference anyway. Or ask someone to buy your jewellery as your gift.

12. get the guest with the nicest car to be your driver - just tie a ribbon to their car - easy!

13. forget the favours, especially if your having a buffet!!

14. get the guests to take the photos - photographers are soooo expensive

GOOD LUCK!!

harryhound

I had to help cater for a wedding reception a dozen or so years ago.
I "volunteered" to do the drinks. Booze cruises were a new concept then, but over I went to Calais. Before the UK multiples had opened up, getting the glasses from Majestic Wine Warehouse was not an option. So I bought a wine glass and a champagne flute (tulip glass) for each of the 75 guests.
(I have plenty of pub type glasses because customers of two local "roadhouses" will insist on driving down my country lane, sometimes parking up, and then lobbing the glasses they have nicked out of the windows - If those two establishments think I'm going to collect and wash them, and then return them, they can dream on.)

There are two reasons I mention this:
My stock, which is now about 100 place settings has proved a wonderful investment. I am the member of the family who does the glasses, they come out for a party about two or three times a year. As long as you don't smash too many or wash them in a dish washer they last for ever.
I store them in the loft at 24 to a wine box, individually wrapped in newspaper.
"You get the booze, I'll bring the glasses:D". (chuckle)

Secondly, I paid about 4 glasses for 1GBP over the years, but I notice Wilkinsons appears to have balloon wine glasses, pints and "mixers" (tumblers) for sale at about 10% cheaper than I have been paying. No flutes though, France is probably still the cheapest place for them, even though the Euro has climbed from its low point of 59p to something over 70p in value.
(Unless someone out there knows of a cheaper source of glasses).

LashyLashla

Here is my M&S wedding cake. Our colour theme was green and white


http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliverandlisa/402810415/in/set-72157594555039176/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliverandlisa/402862074/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliverandlisa/402810426/in/set-72157594555039176/

An_E

One of my friends is currently planning her wedding and we have been looking at ways to save money. One of the things she has been looking at for the reception is table crystals (little crystals that you sprinkle on the table like you would with flower petals) - very pretty and a great way of adding some bling. There seem to be a number of companies that do them, and they can get quite pricey, particularly as the standard recommendation seems to be for about 100 crystals per table of 8 to 10 people. After trawling around on the internet I have found that some companies sell a wholesale amount that you can then buy from them. This means that you can get around 1440 table crystals (enough for 14 tables) for less than £40. This is a lot cheaper than buying the crystals in bags of 100. We haven't bought them yet, so can't gaurantee it's totally problem free, but there doesn't seem to be any reason why there should be any difficulties. Also, some of the companies that sell table crystals do supply samples for as little as 15p, so I think we are going to get a couple to see what they look like, then buy them wholesale from somone else. It is the same company that makes the crystals, so they should be the same as the sample, even if the company we buy them from is different.

When I got married we had a garden theme, so we could do all the flowers for the wedding quite cheaply. I got 10 nice terracotta flower pots from the garden cetre while they were 50% off, so they only cost me £1.50 each. I then got a plant for each pot at between £3-£5 each, planted them up and used them as table centre pieces. If you were really green fingered and had the time, you could grow your own plants for the pots from seed, and cut the cost down even more.

We also had two free standing hanging basket stands made at a local blacksmith - they cost £100 for the pair and could hold 2 hanging baskets each. A local nursery then put together 4 hanging baskets for us at £25 each - they were absolutely brimming with flowers when we got them. This was a great way of doing the flowers for the venue (we had a civil ceremony), as not only did the hanging baskets look fantastic, but we could move them to different locations throughout the day really easily. If you didn't want to pay for the hanging basket stands, then something like standard fuscias in pots would cut down the cost of this even further.

I then gave the table centres and hanging baskets to people who had helped out as a thank you present. We got married 4 years ago and most of the plants in the hanging basket I gave my mum are still going, so not only has it lasted a lot longer than a cut flower arrangement would, but we have a lovely reminder of te wedding flowering every year.

Hope some of this helps!

jellybean78

For all those making their own invitations on this forum (and i'm sure there are many of you!) i've found a nifty little punch on the lakeland website - www.lakeland.co.uk. It's call the 'punch and fly' and cuts out the edge of the butterfly shape, allowing you to lift the wings for a 'flying off the page' look!! I'm using a combination of these cut outs, together with butterfly punches of various sizes for invites and place settings.

loopy_lass

i hope you guys all have wonderful days, but in true money saving terms, there is no way i would part with that much cash on one day... nope nope nope. as far as i see it, a wedding is the joining of TWO people, i can tell everyone else after the event. After all i thinkg all the guests are there just to be officially told you are married.

Also i think the whole pomp and ceremony is a right faff just to get a piece of legal paper. I really wish i could just nip down the post office or registry office and buy a wedding licence and sign it infront of witnesses, job done.

Yes this is my first marriage, i am 42, and have never really been ready to get married, and to be honest, im still not too bothered ;-)

guess im just not romantic ... he bought me a lovely xmas card...... OOOPPPSss i never got round to buying him one.... waste of money if you ask me........ lol ;-)


loops

jellybean78

This forum seems to have gone a bit quiet of late! For those looking for bridesmaids dresses, M&S have reduced their adults and girls dresses down to £15 and £5. I've just snapped up 2 adults dresses and 3 flower girl outfits for £60!!
See here: http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/node/n/56674031?ie=UTF8&mnSBrand=core
and here: http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/node/n/56675031?ie=UTF8&mnSBrand=core

chrissie55

I agree with what Loops has posted - fair play to u if u wanna splash out, but advertising will always try to persuade us we MUST have loadsa costly things. We did without wedding dress, photographer, iced cake, HONEYMOON,all the pricey stuff, & still enjoyed the day (even tho Maidstone Registry Office is in a shopping centre!), & had a good music night @ our local.
When I was 1st married, there was lotsa pressure from in-laws to produce some children - what a cheek! & no way; I knew parenting's best left to people with a vocation for it! Left me free to look after some kids whose mothers didn't have the vocation.:rolleyes: