Wedding Tips start here...

lynneinjapan

A while ago there was a post on this thread mentioning a shop in Lichfield that sells Bhs wedding dresses etc. (excess stock and slight seconds) at knock-down prices. Does anyone have any details? Just the name of the shop, or even a description of where it's located, would be helpful!

sally_pearson

Does anyone know where you can get a margaret lee dress, style number 9017, cheap?
I have been looking around and I can't find a one.

macchicken

try https://www.confetti.co.uk
8)

shanz_mum

hi everyone, this post is brilliant i've bin sat here for about an hour now having a read and trying to entertain and feed my little one at the same time.

;DGood luck Ms T, me and shanz dad have bin together for 6 years this year engaged for 5 almost and have been planning to get married every year since just hasnt happened yet but plan is to do it next year hopefully.

My biggest problem is trying to please everyone, parents that have splilt up and don't get on and all that, but every time reminding myself that it is my day and thats what counts!!!
I love the idea of the shot glasses for a toast and a favour.
Im trying to find either a venue that holds civil weddings aswell as being able to hold the reception there to so no rushing about but at the same time i want to be able to provide my own food and drink!!
without paying throgh the roof.it's either that or a wedding abroad???[/color]

shanz_mum

BY THE WAY THE NATIONAL WEDDING SHOW IS AT EARLS COURT IN OCTOBER if you log onto the website i think it is https://www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk you can enter the comp to win 2 tickets to the show of your choice thats gotta be a money saving tip if you win that is!!!
xx ;D ;D

EvilMonkey

Having just returned from my Honeymoon, I thought I'd put a few of our better moneysaving tips down....

Wedding Dress - Luckily my wife wasn't after a typical dress, she wanted a lovely dress which she could wear again for future posh do's. We found https://www.thefrockfactory.co.uk which made her a beautiful purple thing for under £200

Wedding location - not being religous we went for a registry office, one point though, down in Dorset, different offices charged different prices (even though its the same person doing them) up to £400 difference....

Reception location - Her parents garden, just luck really, but it was perfect. The marquee hire wasn't cheap but good negotiation bought it down and also allowed us to buy our own booze and food.

Booze - several day trips to France and a local brewery, this second tip is worth looking into as you can get top class beer for around £1 a pint! My mates LOVED it! Also a big tip if glass hire, I'm sure its been said before but Safeways (now Morrisons) loans you glasses for free. We didn't even buy the drink from them?!

Cake, decorations, favours - Avoid EVERYTHING with the word wedding in it and you 1/4 the price. Petals are sold by https://www.confetti.co.uk at around £25 for a big box, I found the same at an online herbalist for around £7-8.

Photographer - This is my hobby, so it had to be good, but to ensure a really good reportage style person, your looking at £1500- £2000. I looked closer to home and choose the best of the guys I go on shoots with (not too close to me to be awkward though) and asked him. We got FANTASTIC results at a tiny cost (putting him up for the weekend and buying him a new flash), but best of all, he's given me the raw files (he shoots digital) so there's no cost for more prints etc.

Honeymoon - Cheap flights to Sicily and we stayed in a remote part of my wifes aunts house there. Private, sunny, italian, what more can you ask for.....

All in all, it was a home made wedding, we did a lot of things ourselves or amongst family and friends and got what was (for us) the perfect relaxed wedding at a stupidly low price....

EvilMonkey

2 other things I forgot...

Moneysaving for guests - We prebooked a range of rooms in the local hotels and B&B's for our guests. they then came along later and took them off us. It allowed a lot of our guests to get good prices at the local places

Flight upgrades - After all the talk (and a little of the slagging off) of honeymooners and upgrades I was a little nervous. No upgrade, but we did get the exit seats (lovely extra legroom) and a stewardess heard us chatting and bought us 2 bottles of bubbly!

Luke

spookmeister

[glow=maroon,2,300]Hello there[/glow].

I thought I'd put my little penny's worth in here too. ;D

I would say that some of the things wedding related we chose not to scrimp on but others we made some real belters of savings.

We had a civil wedding on account of us not being church goers - something we felt would have been hipocritical doing. :-/

[glow=blue,2,300]VENUE[/glow]
My wife is a teacher and so to is my mother-in-law. As a result they tend to travel the county (Beds and Bucks) for courses that they get sent on so needless-to-say these places which are often owned/run by the local authority are all equipped for accomodation, catering and conferencing which of course are the perfect ingredients for weddings. If you're a civil servant you might even get discount - do ask for it though.

[glow=red,2,300]FLOWERS[/glow]
We didn't really scrimp on the flowers but we did go somewhere that was recommended by friends for their wedding. Personal recommendations should always be your first port of call.

[glow=green,2,300]CAKE[/glow]
We had stroke of genius with the cake which I have seen repeated many times since. CUP CAKES. Mother-in-law cooked and iced them. Then her, the wife and me made iced roses for the top of each (more than 100 in total). You can buy a special tool for making the roses from any decent cake making shop. They took a bit of time to do but it was great fun, it looked great and everyone loved it. We did hire a special stand though. After making the batches of cakes we froze them and defrosted them accordingly. ::)

[glow=orange,2,300]STATIONERY[/glow]
Writing this makes me realise how much of a resource my mother-in-law was/is. Two years prior to getting married she and her godmother started cross-stitching invites and place settings. A lot of the stuff she already had from other projects. The card was given to us by a mate who pretty much runs a printing company and there was loads of it too.

Artwork for the invitations and orders of service was supplied by our next door neighbour who is an amateur artist (but not amateur quality). We gave him a photograph and free range to interpret into pen and ink sketches. Best bit was he didn't want paying because he was honoured we asked him - so he should be!! As for all the printing - well of course we did it ourselves.

Our only real expense on the aspect was the gold coloured envelopes we used and the inkjet cartridges.

[glow=purple,2,300]WINE[/glow]

I have already seen this suggestion posted on this thread but is worth repeating. Do consider using corkage services - We have good friends who owned their own pub and being french and him being a chef knew a thing or two about wine. They allowed us to buy from them at cost 50 bottles of red and white wine and 20 bottles of sparkling. This is the best bit because the wine was their house wine they offered to buy back unopened wine - which never happened of course because eveyone wanted to buy it from us which we obligingly sold - at above cost price too!

[glow=black,2,300]MISC[/glow]

Because of everything being at one venue we didn't need or want a car.

Photography was informal and candid. We used everyone elses photos and our own disposables placed on each table for the dinner. We got just the perfect results.

Anyway there is probably more but I am exhausted and my wife is shouting for me to get on and do an advert for the car we are about to sell. Much needed funds for our first baby due in 8 weeks.

See you.

S.

;D ;D ;D

Mrs_Thrift

Hi Lynne, glad you found a venue that suits - it sounds lovely.

And Hi to everyone else getting married or already married that has posted tips - even at this late stage we're trying (I did say "trying"!) to keep an eye on cost!

Good luck Mr & Mrs Spookmeister with your imminent arrival! ;D

A quick update on our progress - we get married in 8 days now and are holding our joint Hen and Stag Night tomorrow. We were planning to travel cross country to Nottingham, but it was proving too stressful and too expensive so we're now having a wee party in my brother's house / garden which he has kindly offered to us (well, we asked really nicely, he could hardly say No, could he? ) Everyone will be asked to bring their own drink and we'll lay on some food from Makro and some more beer from the offers in Asda!

My Bridesmaid came back from Taiwan this week (where she lives) and in one evening we got her shoes, handbag and necklace, all at pretty reasonable prices. We weren't really trying to scrimp too much on them, but we just avoided designer places and got a lovely pair of shoes and matching bag in Dolcis.

While we were in the shops we found some gorgeous costume jewellery in a lot of the shops at great prices. M & S had a lot of choice, but BHS had even more, at even better prices - necklaces for £4!

We went to the venue last night to see the tables laid out and it looked smashing, ;D so we just have to decide who will sit where now! ::)

Wil try and update again before the big day.

Good luck with your plans to everyone else going through it!

Ms (Almost Mrs!) Thrift

annecooper

I'm planning my wedding, and have always read the tips, but never commented. However, after seeing the comment about ebay, I thought I'd register. I saw a dress I loved on ebay from Waimanman, and I won and received it, but it did'nt fit - I think I measured myself badly!! Suki in Hong Kong - alias waimanman - was brilliant, though, She refunded all my money and it didn't cost much to send it back - £10. She even sent a congratulations card. The dress was amazing, lovely quality, and I keep looking to see if she's another that's the right size!! Highly recommended!