Wedding Tips start here...

bigzippy

Hi guys, this thread's been really quiet for a while so it's nice to have some new blood

I get married in September and here is how I'm doing it/my tips:

Church: We're getting married in our church. My Brother in law is marrying us, a bloke in the congregation is the registrar and the church aren't charging us a penny and would've let us use the place for the reception too. We're arranging with the couple who are marrying the day before about flowers (we're getting married on a Sunday). The only thing we'll have to pay for (and remember this one folks, cos I keep forgetting!) is to have the Notices of intention to marry (or whatever it's called) in our local district - I think it's £40 each? If you're getting married in CofE or Catholic the Banns cover you, and if you're getting married in a "proper" venue then they'll talk you through it, but for anyone else - don't forget!

Reception venue for 140 guests with welcome/toast drinks and hot and cold varied buffet with desserts=£1500. We have booked a venue which is owned by a local council authority and they are basically not for profit so the prices are really good. It's £200 to hire the venue (which is a lovely black and white beamed oak panelled tudor building) for the entire day and then you just pay for what you want. They're letting us buy drinks by the bottle rather than the extortionate per glass rate and we're bringing our own desserts, including the wedding cake. Parents are now paying for this.

Photographer - friends are doing it, plus we'll have thousands of digital images from all the guests there, which can be handily uploaded to our wedding website...

Wedding website: I know it sounds cheesy and geeky, but they have their uses. It saves on printing maps for the invites or spending forever on the phone telling people where the local hotels are or the directions to the place (our site does maps to both venues and between each other). Plus you can RSVP online too, which was the main draw for me, as I really don't think people use snail mail for stuff like that anymore and I'm not sending stamps out on RSVP cards with the invites! You can add as much or as little detail as you like. PM me if you want further details about the site I used.

Cars: I wasn't too bothered about spending here, but we'll either blag an acquintances nice car for the day, hire a car, like a Beamer or a Merc, and get an usher or my bro to drive it for us, or brother came up with an ace idea... get one of those weekend testdrives for a nice car and use it for that! Also some local taxi firms have nice older cars like mercs etc in their fleet and are more than willing to bung a ribbon on for you at a fraction of the normal wedding car prices.

Cake: friend who's trying to set up a business doing cakes is making it for us at cost.

Flowers: MIL2B's friend is doing them for us at cost.

Bridesmaids: dresses from BHS, awesome ranges and styles to fit all shapes for probably half what you'd pay in a prom/bridal shop. BM's parents are paying for their dresses/outfits. Bought jewellry for them (as presents and to wear on the day) from Tescos as well as my own necklace.

Groomsmen: all buying their own suits etc. A designer friend will be helping me design personalised labels to bottles of wine - which will cost a fraction of the price to get them done "professionally".

Favours: small loveheart sweets packs with personalised labels done by myself and designer friend. We'll make up little goody bags to entertain the kids with too - with small colouring/puzzle books in etc

Entertainment and music at church: friends of ours will be doing this.

Stationary: all handmade my me. Will work out about £50 including postage.

Wedding Insurance: I wouldn't've bothered but Dad insisted when offering to pay for reception costs (my sister's caterer never turned up to her reception and it was a nightmare!) - £69 paid for by him. Might be worth another look in this economic climate if you've dismissed it already, as if a supplier goes bust you could have problems...?

My dress and our rings are our main extravagance, but I was REALLY fussy about my dress and the kind of embroidery etc I wanted and my parents are paying for it anyway and the rings I figure we'll wear for the rest of our lives so I don't mind spending a bit more on them.

I know it's a pain when you're reading about other people's wedding and they're talking about friends and relatives doing things cheaply/for free and you're sat there thinking "huh, lucky for you" but if you rack your brains I'm sure you can think of someone who'd be more than likely honoured to be asked. Plus, the more you talk about your wedding plans with people, the more offers are made and the more mentioning of names occurs...

Our entire budget for everything (apart from engagement ring and honeymoon) was £5k. Now that the parents are chipping in I think it will be more like £3k spent by us. We're planning, after much deliberation, to hire a lodge or cottage up in Scotland somewhere perhaps for our honeymoon as I have health conditions that would mean going abroad might be a bit wasted and we both would have to pay to renew our passports too! (For the ladies out there that have no valid passport but don't want to renew and then change the name afterwards (which I think you have to pay again for) you can apply for the passport 3months in advance of the wedding, in your new name, and it just won't be valid til the wedding day. Hope that helps, as it was bugging me!)

Hope this helps, it's a longer post than I was intending!!

Mrs.Metallica

Evansangel wrote: »

Mrs Metallica will be your new name? Wow

I'll be Mrs Valentine

xx

hahaha i wish.. tho it might aswell be as my H2b is metallica mad.. ie.. its like a drug in his veins.. got me hooked to lol. but on the fun side i will me Mrs.Giesbrecht .. or Mrs.G as i fondly refer to myself as hehe..

marshmallows

I booked my wedding with 5 weeks to go, I had the majority of the money but I was naughty and got a 0% on purchases card with a small limit so that I could use in an emergency. I didn’t need it because my parents offered to pay for the majority of the wedding and my inlaws also paid for bits and bobs including bridesmaids full outfits


As many people have said a non Saturday wedding is cheaper but if you get married on a Sunday and you need a registrar it will cost you a little bit more. Monday to Friday is the cheapest you will get, Saturday is normally about £40 more than the mon-fri price and then the Sunday price is £40 more expensive than the Saturday price.

I got married on a Sunday and although this cost more but everything else is so much cheaper.

I booked my wedding with 5 weeks to go on a late minute deal, it cost £2000 and this included:
Whole venue hire,
House floral decorations,
Front of house manager – who was totally fantastic I couldn’t have done it without her
Drinks for the arrival of guests,
When the photographer was taking pictures they provided canapes and drink
3 course wedding breakfast, inlcuding all table wine and then champagne for speeches, toasts for 60 days guests
Evening buffet for 120 people
Dj from 7 – midnight


They also did discounted rates on the rooms for us
Normally on a Sunday just the venue hire alone is £3500

I didn’t have a car as I got ready at the venue. It was a massive historic country mansion so there was tons of room

I had to have someone to do my hair and make up, I have very unmanageable hair ¾ of the time and I also have skin that is very sensitive , I did not want to take the risk but the woman who I had was fantastic. She did me a package for £300 which included trials for me, my mum and my chief bridesmaid, and then me, my mum, and all 3 bridesmaids on the wedding day. This is very cheap when you look at other prices. Obviously this isnt a necessary but I didn’t want to risk me doing it and my skin having a reaction etc

Photographer – got a family friend who is a professional photographer to do it, he was a commercial photographer so I was worried at first but he has done some weddings before and the pictures were lovely.

Cake – my hubbys old school friend did it, we got a 4 tier cake for less than ¼ of what it normally costs

Flowers – my mother in law and her best friend did the flowers for the tables, I ordered silk flowers for my bouquet and bridesmaids , I have very bad hayfever and I also wanted to keep my flowers. I got a very good deal from one of my brothers friends mum who is a manager of a florist.

Dress – as I only had 5 weeks I originally was going to buy from bhs, but I went into a wedding shop local to me which happened to be the biggest wedding dress retailer in the county and bought a dress in the sale, they keep them very clean and safe and if anything is wrong they fix it. I bought a dress , my tiara and veil for less than £160
My dress was a designer dress from America and normally cost £700 , I didn’t like it on the hanger but my friend said to me try anything on as they look totally different on you, wshe was right the dress made both me and my mum cry when I tried it on.

Bridesmaids outfits- all from bhs, bhs and places like that have choice days where if you have their store/credit card you get 20% off. We put all the stuff behind the counter and waited for a choice day which was 3 days before the big day. The only thing I didn’t buy from bhs was flowers for their hair which I bought from hobby craft and spent about £1.20

I was always going to have a videographer as I wanted the day filmed so I could show our children plus so many people have regretted not getting it videod, the day goes so fast its untrue. My godparents are professional videographers so they did mine. Obviously you can get anyone you know with a camcorder to do it, my cousin also videod it and his copy is good but obviously the professional one Is amazing, I cant watch it without crying

Favours- if you have them they can be as cheap or as expensive as you like.

Presents for bridesmaids/best man/usher etc – they can also be as cheap as you like. Younger bridesmaids will be happy with a ‘when I was a bridesmaid’ book, it also keeps them very entertained.

My main advice is if anyone wants to offer to do something then take them up on it, as much as you will think ‘yeah but they are guests and they wont enjoy it as much’ its not true in fact they love the fact they have done something productive to help on the most special day of your life. My godfather absolutely loved the day, he said he felt much more involved and it made it more special. Even friends of friends are good, they will always do some sort of discount or are more likely to lower the price if you haggle

shelley100_2

Does anyone know where I can find cheap fairy lights? I am having my reception in a town hall and would like to decorate it with lots of fairy lights draped with tulle in colours to match theme.

thermalnermal_2

I've no idea how it works, hadn't even thought about it until some one mentioned passports in the post above.

The Home Office website does not seem to be very helpful in answering any of my questions so perhaps someone who has done it can help, save me a long and expensive phone call!

- How soon after your marriage do you have to change your passport name?
- Can you go on honeymoon immediately after the wedding with your maiden name on the passport?
- It seems risky and not to mention expensive to pay for your passport to be amended in advance of your wedding. Do you have to do this? What if something goes wrong and you don't end up getting married, you'd have to pay again to get it amended again.

Any hints or tips?

brownbabygirl

thermalnermal wrote: »

I've no idea how it works, hadn't even thought about it until some one mentioned passports in the post above.

The Home Office website does not seem to be very helpful in answering any of my questions so perhaps someone who has done it can help, save me a long and expensive phone call!

- How soon after your marriage do you have to change your passport name? I dont think it is necessary. Some people dont change their names at all.
- Can you go on honeymoon immediately after the wedding with your maiden name on the passport? Why not?
- It seems risky and not to mention expensive to pay for your passport to be amended in advance of your wedding. Do you have to do this? What if something goes wrong and you don't end up getting married, you'd have to pay again to get it amended again.

Any hints or tips?

Reply in red above

Horace

Another moneysaving tip - try looking at your local auction houses some of them have general sales that include wedding dresses etc. I went to one on Tuesday or was it Wednesday (I can't remember now:rolleyes: ) and picked up 3 boxes of stuff - I was thinking ebay when I got them as they claimed to contain petticoats and veils - well there were 3 veils, 3 petticoats and the rest was made up of beaded bodices and fantastic designer gowns and a few other bits and bats:D It pays to look. They had other dresses too and things were going for silly money and I dont mean expensive either e.g. 4 top hats for a fiver etc. My boxes cost me a total of £71.43 but the contents are worth a lot more:j So see if you can bag a bargain at your local auction room.

shelley100_2

Hi I was worried about this to as my flight and room are booked under mymaiden name and my passport will also be in maiden name. I spoke to my travel agent and they said that it was fine to travel under maiden name and change the passport when I get home. I will be taking a copy of marriage certificate as proof for hotel as we have booked a honeymoon package. Hope this helps.

bluemeanie999

a tip I've been told recently was regarding shoes

if you cannot find the correct colour of BM shoes to match their dress, go to a car paint place and get tester samples - if 1 matches the colour of your dress, then purchase the can of paint and spray the shoes with that

1. it is waterproof
2. doesnt crack or split
3. doesnt fade in colour
4. you can pick up a cheap pair of shoes and paint can
5. works on leather and silk shoes

my mate who got married last year was told about this by a dressmaker and she as passed it onto me when we went searching for dresses the other day - she said she was a bit weiry over it but they did it and never looked back good thing about it though too - you can respray them back to original colour or other colour for another outfit etc

fairydiamond

You can get your new passport with your NEW name on it before your wedding. I have read about it somewhere, I will go look.

My youngest bridesmaid is 7 and very small. I want to get a dress from BHS for her, but she will have probably grown by October. I don't know what to do. She would probably fit into an AGE 6 at the minute, but I'm stuck as they won't have the dresses in September/October. Any advice?