Wedding Tips start here...

bigzippy

Scruff74 wrote: »

bigzippy I can reccomend a dressmaker!

When I got married in 2002 Stella made my dress, her shop is all over the place and she can be a bit grumpy some days but she's a superstar and her dresses are amazing, she'll fit in with whatever price bracket you're thinking.

I thought she might have retired but found this in the net so looks like she's still there http://www.stellasweddingdresses.com/www.stellasweddingdresses.coms/contact.php

I checked out her site and emailed her. She's in hospital at the moment awaiting surgery, will reopen the shop in January but only to sell off her remaining (cut price) stock - so if you guys like what she has then it will be useful to you. There are some well known (including Alfred Angelo) designs so check out the site. She closes in March.

No good for me, but might be for someone else.


Edit:
I emailed her asking if she knows of any dressmakers she could recommend to me, got this back:

Most wedding dresses are made in the Far East these days. There really aren't many people making wedding dresses in the U.K as it's no longer economically viable. I don't know any.

So I guess I may still be buying from Far East ebayers...

BargainGalore

:spam: from marquee hire london

Intastella

Eyup y'all!

I'm getting married in May, and to say that we're broke would be an understatement!

Our ways of saving money are:

1. Getting married at the registry office. Only @£103 this is just to get the legal stuff out of the way really, it's not the 'important' part of our day, because...

2. We're getting handfasted at the reception site. This is what we're classing as our true wedding ceremony. We can say the vows we like in the setting we like, without having for fork out a fortune for fancy venue hire and paying a registrar to come to us! I'm going to look for an officiant on witchvox a bit closer to the time. Apparently most of them will come and officate for the price of petrol and a nice feed, and they'll work with you over the wording of the ceremony to make it as pagan or unpagan as you like...so it's not all dancing nekkid in a circle! (unless of course that's what you're into! )

3. I'm buying my dress on Ebay from a Chinese seller. It's a copy of a dress i tried on in a local boutique and fell in love with! Only now it's going to cost me £100 (incl. 15% off Ebay voucher :T) instead of £950! AND i can have it green! (I'd get struck by lightning if i wore white LOL :A )
I also tried a veil on, which i really thought i would never bother with! I loved how it looked, but didn't love the £270 price tag! It was one of those floor length trailing jobbies, so i went back on Ebay and bought 2 metres of emerald green tulle, and a length of crystal danglies that i'm going to attatch here and there. Oh, and 3 metres of emerald ribbon to edge it with. Total cost - £8.50!

4. I designed our invites using Photoshop, and FHs cousin works in a printers, so that's a massive help. We're not printing many off tho, they're just for the less computer-savvy of our friends and family. Everyone else is getting an e-vite...basically a link to our wedding website ( free using google pages) with an RSVP section. For the RSVP part you have to create a form using Google documents. Go to create spreadsheet and there you can create your own questions (guest's names, bringing children etc), it's all very easy. You have to have a google account/e-mail to do this...not sure if it's still invite only, but if it is and you need one, just give me a shout

5. FHs sister and her friend are doing our catering. We're having a buffet rather than a sit down meal...soooo much cheaper! We recently went to a christening where they'd done the food, and it was easily the best buffet i'd ever had! So keep your eyes (and tastebuds!) peeled at any events you're invited to!

6. We're buying a cheap cake and decorating it ourselves. Our colours are green, red and black, so i'll probably end up covering it with green icing and tying a red ribbon round it...not decided on that one yet!

We were going to have our reception at a farm that FH knows...he helped to build the dairy there quite a few years ago. Unfortunately we've had to nix that idea due to family illness in the family that runs it, so we're going to have to save up a bit and see if we can rent a field from a local farmer...luckily there's lots of them in Yorkshire! We know a couple of people with marqees, and we have friends in bands who are going to come and play for us. We're going to ask the local pub if we can hire their outdoor tables and chairs (that they got in for their wedding and kept ) and buy material from fabric stalls on the local market to decorate the marquees and tables with. We're also pricing up inflateable furniture from various places.

Phew! That's quite an essay isn't it! Sorry bout that lol

Intastella

Ooh, i forgot one!

I'm making the flowers myself out of felt, inspired by the lady who makes these...





They're going to cost between £40-50 for around 100

mummykaz1988

liza83 wrote: »

Hi, Ive only read the first and last page of this thread and already had some fab tips i intend to use for my wedding in march, After ive finished the housework i intend to read the rest.
Ive been planning a cheap wedding since may but only came across this site and thread today so wished id seen this months ago lol.
So far this is what i have done for my wedding

• Im getting Married at the same venue as My reception so saving on transport, My wedding is at 4pm so just having an evenin g reception and no wedding breakfast so saved there.

• Its on Thursday so I struck a deal withj the venues manager and got it for free for the reception usually £250 but i have to have minimum numbers for the buffet so probably been jibbed there lol. as i needed more than 120 people to get the venue fir free.

• The venue can supply a Dj for £250 but i work in a Jumpin jaks so the dj there is doing it for free but i need to pay for the rental of the decks and stuff which is about £70 still a good saving though

• My original plan was not to have bridesmaids and just have my 2yr old daughter as a flower girl but my sisters where having none of that and are Happy to buy their own outfits for the day. I am letting them choose their own dresses as long as they match my colour scheme which is pink and white.

• I am Making my own invitations Bought enough stuff for 100 invites and that came to under £20.

• I am not having a photographer or videographer and am asking guests to send me their pics via email and have found a great site called photobox that you upload them to and arange them onto pages and they send you them in an album the more you buy the cheaper they are which is great for my large family. Fil to be and my uncle both have video cameras so im sure i will have a video of the day too.

thats as far as ive got at the moment still looking for a cheap dress for my 2yr old and a suit for my 5 yr old(seen some on ebay for £20 but not sure what they will be like??)
Not sure what to do about flowers, looking for a second hand tiara (pink stoned), oh adnd favours still trying to find something for them too so hopefuly ill find these tips inbetween the 1st and last page lol.
Liza x

hello, im getting married on the 10th april next year and am makin my own invitations where did you get your bits from?

bigzippy

mummykaz1988 wrote: »

hello, im getting married on the 10th april next year and am makin my own invitations where did you get your bits from?

Hiya Mummykaz, I'm gonna get my cards and envelopes from Country Basket (£2.59 for set of 50 pre-scored cards with envelopes) I've made some little wire flowers out of really thin jewellry type wire from a craft shop (they're actually purple but don'tlook it on the pic...5p to show size)


and got butterflies off ebay (all in it cost less than £10 for 50xwhite and 10xpurple incl P&P from Kuala Lumpur!)

I hope that helps?
You should be able to get card&envelope packs pretty cheap from places like the Bookshop (knock down prices) or maybe TKMaxx. I know that Tescos and the like do stuff like that sometimes too. Just keep your eyes peeled when you're out and about or check out ebay if you haven't got access to a Country Basket or Makro or similar.

VictoriaElaura

We're getting handfasted at the reception site. This is what we're classing as our true wedding ceremony. We can say the vows we like in the setting we like, without having for fork out a fortune for fancy venue hire and paying a registrar to come to us! I'm going to look for an officiant on witchvox a bit closer to the time. Apparently most of them will come and officate for the price of petrol and a nice feed, and they'll work with you over the wording of the ceremony to make it as pagan or unpagan as you like...so it's not all dancing nekkid in a circle! (unless of course that's what you're into! )

I soooo wanted a proper wiccan wedding but got talked out of it.
Have a wonderful time!:j

I'm going to make my own invitations it works out so much cheaper.

I have a tip on a photographer. I have just booked a photographer who is going to shoot all day then touch up the photos then just send me the disk with all the pics on in high res.
On top they offered me a medium sized album for £900 but I found lots of sites that help you can make your own (I think thats how they make them anyway). I think you download a wizard and you set it out how you want it yourself for £80ish.:T
The ones i have seen look so so so much better that the ones in the photographers studio.

mummykaz1988

bigzippy wrote: »

Hiya Mummykaz, I'm gonna get my cards and envelopes from Country Basket (£2.59 for set of 50 pre-scored cards with envelopes) I've made some little wire flowers out of really thin jewellry type wire from a craft shop (they're actually purple but don'tlook it on the pic...5p to show size)


and got butterflies off ebay (all in it cost less than £10 for 50xwhite and 10xpurple incl P&P from Kuala Lumpur!)

I hope that helps?
You should be able to get card&envelope packs pretty cheap from places like the Bookshop (knock down prices) or maybe TKMaxx. I know that Tescos and the like do stuff like that sometimes too. Just keep your eyes peeled when you're out and about or check out ebay if you haven't got access to a Country Basket or Makro or similar.

thanks i check it out

Sally_Gee

10 Money Saving and other tips for wedding photography

I saw this today when looking for a photographer. May help somebody.

kheywood

Hi Everyone

If you are planning to spend over £300 on Jewellery/Watches etc then go to Beaverbrooks.

For EVERY £300 you spend you get a £100 Jewellery Voucher (to spend before 28th Feb or straight away).

Hurry as the offer end 24th Dec 2008:beer: