Wedding Tips start here...

Tigerlilley1980

Hi all, we are looking at getting married on Sunday 6th December this year. We have found a wonderful hotel that is only charging for food and drink no room hire whatsoever. So in the afternoon, as late as possible, we will get married at the hotel and only pay the registrar for the ceremony. Drinks and canapes afterwards. Then on the evening we are having a hot and cold buffet and a disco. It will come in just under a grand!!

We are going to have a red and white theme. All dresses will be from Landy, I think I have already found the ideal ones lol!! Mens suits from Asda and thinking about hiring waistcoats and cravats but not sure yet.

We aren't having cars, silk flowers either from ebay or homemade. Balloons and diamante on the tables with cheap pillar candles which I am going to decorate with a piece of burgundy ribbon and a diamante pin. Possible some little battery operated fairy lights aswell but only if I can find cheap ones.

Have just ordered the invitation bits I need from Ebay, homemade again, and it has come to a grand total of 10 pounds!!

The cake is going to be chocolate and lemon cupcakes with a small tier on the top from m and s, again homemade, but shouldn't be too difficult as I bake a lot anyway.

So with a budget of 2 grand I think we are getting there. Oh and I forgot to add we are having 50 guests for the buffet and 22 for the ceremony as we just want an intimate do with the people we care about.

Good luck to all those planning aswell!! Tiger x

brockers2209

Myself and Fiancee are tying the knot in March 2010 and we've made a lot of progress in a very short time with some top tips from this forum.

We've been looking at suit hire and are pretty fixed on Choc Brown suits but not the Black shoes offered with them...

I don't want people to have to buy shoes and I'd like them to all have matching ideally so have started pricing up buying pretty decent shoes on E-Bay at about £25 per pair (Frank Wrights) which is more than I really want to pay as it will be 7 pairs!

Does anybody know anywhere close to Manchester (Stockport ideally) that does Brown Shoe hire?

We haven't tied ourselves in with the suit hire compny yet so can change if it needs to be a full package hire and also so that we canswap to grey suits if required!

Cheers

xJayJayx

do you have to hire the shoes?
Primark and priceless shoes do mens brown shoes for about a tenner, may be worth looking into.

caelshorn

Jonono wrote: »

Hi all
I have been registered on here for some time and have just browsed, but am drawn to this thread as I am now getting married too yay! My fiance and myself are both late thirties and (mortgages aside) debt free but still feel it is silly to have a ridiculously large and extravagant wedding. Having said that we still want to provide our friends and family to a day to remember, that is important to us. Having attended many weddings in the past I know that I have found extravagant weddings and in my view ridiculously greedy gift lists (from people who between them have 2 fully furnished homes) rather offputting and neither of us subscribe to doing that. We live in Glasgow area and some folk will be travelling to stay. My priorities are not a big dress etc but that we have a nice setting for friends and family (people approaching 80 in some cases and 2 years old at the youngest) to enjoy some decent fare. It doesn't even have to be a tradiitional 3 course meal, but food of good quality and well made is important, some good music and for everyone to feel welcome and 'at home' I will be working my way through this long and helpful thread but will also appreciate any advice. Date for wedding is not yet set, probably we are looking at 2009 springtime (that would be nice). I look forward to reading your advice and getting lots of hints and tips in the year to come!

Hey Jonono, we seem to be of the same mind! I'm also in Glasgow, and despite really looking forward to being married am dreading the whole wedding thing. We're having a tiny registry wedding with just our parents in May and are hoping to have an informal party with the rest of our family and friends later in the year. If you have any tips on venues, ceilidh bands or photographers (studio based in Glasgow for the actual wedding day) please do share.

For the party we're looking at hiring a photo booth for the night (just google photo booth hire), and instead of a DJ we're going to hire a 4kPA from somewhere like RS100 (about £100-£150) and ask guests for song suggestions on our invites, stick them on an IPOD and shuffle

mrshaigh2b1987

hey just thort id let you all no about my bargains so far. were gettin married on th 26th sept 2009 (less than 6mnths!) and hers a few things weve done. weve got some ivory card that were doing our own invites on pretty simple actually put the card in the printer and print the inside then fold it over and add a burgundy bow on it. in total about £15 for 40 invites. our reception were having it in a pub where we dont have to pay for the room hire. 3 corse meal costing between £5.50- £8 pp cos were having our cake as our pudding. bouncy castle hire £50 for the whole day so thats the kids entertainment sorted! disco and kareoke £80 for the night. got my dress made by a dress maker its a copy of alfred angelo style 1516 and has costed me the grand total of £240 instead of £700!! so far have got my two younger sisters who are my bridesmaids dresses off ebay one costed £30 the other £8.70! also got one of my older bridesmaid dresses from ebay for £23! mens suit were hiring from greenwoods. got favour bags off ebay £4.99 just gonna put sum sweets in them and put them on ppls plates. my bridesmaids doing my hair in an up do that shes learnt how to do from a step by step website and it looks proffesionally done! not having a car as its only a 2min drive and cudnt justify spending so much for so little. weve booked our honeymoon to go on a cruise round germany, france, cple places in canada then a few places in usa including new york! (yay!) but thats not till a yr after the wedding as theres no way that we would of bin able to afford that any sooner after the wedding. so thats about it! hope this has given sum ppl a few ideas!

Terri x

bigzippy

caelshorn wrote: »

For the party we're looking at hiring a photo booth for the night (just google photo booth hire), and instead of a DJ we're going to hire a 4kPA from somewhere like RS100 (about £100-£150) and ask guests for song suggestions on our invites, stick them on an IPOD and shuffle

Just on the topic of iPod playlists...I'm doing this for our reception, but my sister and BIL went to a wedding recently where they did this and it ended up being really disjointed cos the songs that were playing after each other didn't go. I'm going to sort mine out so that they flow a bit better (slower ones at the beginning of the night working up in tempo for when people are dancing) and then play it while I'm, I dunno, doing the housework, to listen to whether they do flow right or not. Plus, if you've downloaded any tracks from anywhere other than say iTunes, just might be worth checking the quality of the tracks as it will really be obvious when they're played through a PA system if it's less than v good/perfect quality.

HTH

pomcycle

thermalnermal wrote: »

I am considering going to the Oxfam Bridal Shop in Bradford to see if I can find a dress which won't break the bank. I see no point in paying £1000s on a dress that's only going to be worn once. and if the perfect dress is secondhand so what?

Has anyone been there? What is it like? Is it worth going?

I am getting married in September. Going to start dress shopping in the next couple of weeks. Has anyone been to any shops in the West Yorkshire/Kirklees area which you can recommend or have good bargains?

Hi there
I don't know about that shop, but the one in Southampton is really good, above a normal oxfam shop but set out like a bridal department and had bridesmaid outfits too. I'm considering a couple of dresses I tried on there. Some of them aren't actually secondhand but things that have been donated from designers still with tags on. They had good designers as well. Most of the dresses I tried were about £350 including an Ian Stuart one! They also had shoes and a few tiaras. The only thing is the dresses don't get looked after as much as in a normal bridal boutique and limited number of dresses in size 8 but I guess most could be altered.

Hope that helps

thermalnermal_2

I went to the Oxfam Bridal shop in Bradford. I didn't find THE dress (suspect that it is in my head not in the shops!) but it was really useful to be able to go and try on different styles. They had plenty of dresses but the ones that might have tempted me were too small. I'm sure that if you went and chanced upon the right dress in the right size it would be a bargain. Many of the dresses were from expensive retail places like Pronovias and were fantastic quality if they were what you were looking for. There was some absolute tat as well! I'd definitely recommend a look even if just for ideas. The shop was well set up, completely private - there wasn't even a sales person which was great 'cos we had free reign of the shop but it would have been difficult trying on alone!

MSE won't let me post web links so work this out! solidus is the name for a foward slash - I hate the word slash!

http colon solidus solidus www dot oxfam dot org dot uk solidus shops solidus content solidus bridal dot html

quote=pomcycle;20323787]Hi there
I don't know about that shop, but the one in Southampton is really good, above a normal oxfam shop but set out like a bridal department and had bridesmaid outfits too. I'm considering a couple of dresses I tried on there. Some of them aren't actually secondhand but things that have been donated from designers still with tags on. They had good designers as well. Most of the dresses I tried were about £350 including an Ian Stuart one! They also had shoes and a few tiaras. The only thing is the dresses don't get looked after as much as in a normal bridal boutique and limited number of dresses in size 8 but I guess most could be altered.

Hope that helps[/quote]

newbie_maz

Hi everyone
This is my first post, just wanted to say me and H2B got engagad at Christmas and are planning wedding for 2011, so not much planning happening as yet.
One thing we have decided on though - using Tesco clubcard vouchers for Goldsmiths vouchers to get the wedding rings for free! Should have about £450 of deals points by the time we exchange them so might even have some left over to spend on bridesmaid's gifts etc.!
Can't wait to start the rest of the planning but not decided on a budget yet.

Leylauk

Hi thermalnermal

Hope you had a good time! Was it the Oxfam shop on the corner in Bradford centre? Do they have other accessories as well as dresses?

Thanks!