Wedding Tips start here...

JesaRose

I'm not planning on doing wedding favours - I don't think anyone expects them and the last two weddings I've been to have not had any either

BFem

mdhughes03 wrote: »

Okay so some are going to cringe when I tell you what I've done with my dress and I wouldn't reccomend it for the faint hearted but.....

I bought a beautiful Maggie Sottero dress from ebay for £65 :j which stated it needed to be dry cleaned and came with an orange stain on the skirt! argh! anyway, obviously it says dry clean only but I paid less than the dry cleaning estimate for the dress so decided to risk a home-fix. So... (cover your ears Linda!) mother dearest went and bought some original Fairy Liquid (the green stuff) and with a very clean cloth and some water and very delicate dabbing, every single mark has come off the dress perfectly. I think the trick is not to use lots of water so there's no water mark left. Yes it was a risk but one I was willing to take and sooooooo glad I did it!

xxx

BRAAAAAVE!!! Well done.

BFem

PJ1 wrote: »

I#d just like to ask what is the point of wedding favours? I haven't been to many weddings and I don't get it I'm afraid-same with party bags for kids. Surely the point is to come and celebrate your marriage with you and enjoy the day, and if it's to say thanks for coming, would anyone really drive across the country expecting to be thanked and be happy receiving a few sugared almonds or something? Please enlighten me. As you can see I am still optimistically planning my wedding!! (See above post)
PJ

I agree, I think that a lot of traditional stuff is a waste of money! Humbug, but even things like buying brides maids dresses the same and to match yours is apparently, i heard on tv, meant to confuse the bad spirits into who the bride is so they dont curse her, I mean honestly!! This is why i'm trying to go for a completely non traditional wedding....probably with no sugared almonds! :beer:

kjgood79

Hi this is my first time on here and wanted to share some of our wedding money saving tips.

Firstly the venue – we fell in love with a place that isn’t highly known for holding weddings, which straight away bought the cost down! Then we chose a Tuesday to get married so again cut the cost.
We thought the cost of having a registrar conduct the ceremony at the venue cost a lot but didn’t want to have our wedding in the registry office so we have the best of both worlds. We are going to the registry office the morning of our wedding day, just us and 2 witnesses, no rings, no guest and no outfits etc to do the legal side of the marriage, which will take all of 20mins and cost only £50. We will then hold our wedding ceremony at our chosen venue, with the ceremony being conducted by family & friends with our own vows and we can say and do what we like this way with no religious restrictions or having to say certain things legally. So we are having our very personal wedding ceremony in the place of our dreams for only £50
The reception is being held at the same venue so no transport costs and we will have a late ceremony about 3pm so will just do a hot fork buffet for guests and a small cold buffet for the evening.
I have found most of the ceremony and reception decoration on ebay or pound shops so far.
I am not having a bouquet I will be holding a single rose, which will be a silk rose.
A friend is doing our cake, we are having cupcakes for a fraction of the cost of what cake makers charge for this.
We have found a good deal on H2B suit from visiting wedding fairs.
We are not having a DJ instead we found a company that hire out an ipod disco they supply a docking station, speaker and lights for £99 and it works with any ipod or laptop so big saving there plus no cheesy music we don’t want just all the things we enjoy listening to.
I am making my own hair pin, I bough materials in bulk so with the left over materials will make further hair pins and sell them on ebay which saves money and makes money for the wedding :T We are also selling any unwanted items, old cd’s, clothes, dvd etc from home on ebay so again making money for the wedding fund.
Also having plenty of time to shop around before the big day is a great money saver, we started planning the wedding July 09 and we get married July 2011.

Hopefully this will be of some help to some one :j

Just wanted to add, we are also saving on invertations as we are going to email them using smilebox free designs. We are not having favours as such, we will make a donation to charity in our guests names probably cancer research as serveral of the guests have been touched by cancer, they send you cards for your guests so they know what you have done and you also get a badge for each person.

laurenjs88

Evening all!

Been spending a few days starting to read through this thread!! (got to page 21 so far!)

A couple of things ive noticed hadnt been mentioned so far or I have missed. If your buying off ebay QUIDCO it!! its 40% cashback! (based on ebay revenue not on sale total)

I've found my dress, both my little girl's dresses,my younger sisters, MOH & older bridesmaids dresses on there with the same seller (will total around £700ish I think for the 7 dresses, all in matching colour scheme, My daughters ones being little replicas of mine!

Plus another seller who will do all our sationary to our colour scheme for around the £175 - £200 mark.... (I could probably do it cheaper myself but I will see how we get on!) <<< Getting CB on all of it!

For wedding favours we are going to do lottery tickets with a little poem then wrap them up like a scroll and I need to find a co-ordinationg colour ribbon to tie them with. (who knows someone might get lucky!)

I want to use flower petals and bubbles as "confetti" rather than the real thing, Its more eco-friendly,cheaper and im sure will look absolutley stunning!

The venue I want will set us back god only knows how much as I want a National Trust park, so we need to make big big savings elsewhere to afford it! (they give you a years free membership which will be lovely too!)

Reception will need to be at a hotel as our families will be travelling 100+ miles either north or south to get to us! So I have run out of money saving ideas for that!

Another thing ive seen some people doing is buying TC holiday vouchers on Ebay (40% CB) and saving money on the vouchers for their honeymoon, effectively saving money twice! Also when you go through TC.com you pay for the holiday, ring them and get the equivalent of the vouchers refunded to your card but go through Quidco again for upto 8% cashback! You've now made 3 seperate savings!

Its worth checking your CB sites for who is on there, Confetti is on quidco offering 7% CB!

Also our wedding cake is going to be a gift from OH step-mum as she was a baker for ages & My wedding car is going to be my mums VW Camper! Its blue though so doesnt quite go with the colour scheme but I don't care! I'm so excited!!

No idea when we are going to get hitched, or what our budget is yet, but just wanted to share!

Rose1960

Hi all, been looking at ideas and countless wedding websites and have now got down to 3 wedding venue ideas:

1. Get married in a beautiful church in Bristol late afternoon, followed by a reception in my dads garden a 5 min drive away. His garden is a fair size and is quite pretty down a country lane. I would hire a marquee and cateres and have a garden party and late night disco. Pro's: no limit on music ending, fireworks, close for everyone to travel to, satisfaction for my dad being able to contribute, cheaper!
Cons: family are not very close, garden may look cheap and too small, will have to worry about catering and all the little details.

2. Somerset Mill - beautiful mill in somerset, gazebo, marquee and very pretty. No corkage and can organise all catering. Pros: very nice and different to usual venues. Cons: £4K just for venue, 1 hour drive for guests, music ends at 11:30pm.

3. Last minute wedding at manor house or castle for £3k. Pros: all organised under one roof and inclusive of catering. Very pretty and elegant. Cons: Distance, late notice, and inpersonal.

If im honest the garden wedding is my preference but is this a bad idea with UK weather. Has anyone else planned or done something similar?

Many thanks

Kimberley04

Hi, I am planning a wedding for July 2012, although nothing booked yet, and wanted to ask if anyone has used a wedding planner at all?

There are two firms I have been looking at. Pink Sugar and Fabulous Day. Does anyone have any experience of these firms, or using a planner at all??

Also, if anyone has used any very good reception venue's in the manchester/north cheshire area, I'd be really interested to hear about it. I'm looking for something like a country house, or mill/barn that will allow me to do a BBQ and provide my own drink without corkage fees! Am I asking the impossible ??

savvybirds

Hi Everyone,
I am getting married soon and have had loads of fun so far, planning and saving money...little tips...if you are making your own invites/placecards etc, try Paper Mill Shop where you walk in and choose paper/card at very good prices by the box and save money when you return with box in hand!. Or look online.
Another for real petal confetti....Petals & Roses.com based in Colchester, Essex- 8L Box for £35+pnp is £6.50 and will be delivered 3-4wks before wedding. V helpful on phone and will contact when shipping order out.
Ordered plastic champagne flutes for Bonbonierres,(different to having nets or bags which can work out pricey!) from Event Supplies.co.uk online/or you can phone. They were brill with swift order/del-200 flutes for £38.19. You can buy them in smaller quantities i.e. 1-100. 100 flutes for £15.28inc VAT. Del is £6.50. Hope this might help someone!
Cheers.

hayleythedaisy

FlowerRose wrote: »

hi i'm a first time poster and have enjoyed reading all the hints and tips on here. I've come across some good websites on my trawl around the internet for inspiration.
A great Idea:-
Alternative to a wedding cake is a 'Desert Table' decorated with cupcakes, chocolates and truffles, colourful sweets, Mr Kipling French Fancies and flowers.

To give you an idea of how a desert table could look, check out the pictures on this website alkemie.blogspot.com/2008/12/amy-atlas-stunning-desserts-and-table.html

It's a great way to serve up desert where everyone is sure to like something.

- Waitrose do decorated pretty pink cupcakes 12 for £12
- chouchoute.co.uk have some lovely hand made chocolates 34 chocs for £22
- Or check out Thorntons and supermarkets for cupcakes, maybe even you local bakery/cake shop/chocolate shop.

You could also include a small cheese tower on the table for those that like savory rather than sweet. Decorate with grapes and flowers. houseofcheese.co.uk/acatalog/Weddings.html

Hope this 'Desert Table' idea has given some of you food for thought. It's very creative as you can decorate it with the colour theme of your wedding and add sweet jars and pretty little dishes for the cakes and chocolate to sit on or even colourful hat boxes with cup cakes in them.

After doing this little bit of research i'm definitly sold on the idea and will be doing it for my wedding. Can't wait!!

I've just looked on here and there is some great stuff on there - http://www.alkemie.blogspot.com/2008/12/amy-atlas-stunning-desserts-and-table.html if anyone wants a looky.

Kumari1982

SAXMAGIC wrote: »

My partner and i have decided to get married in august 2012 and we are both in the catering and hospitality bussiness and we are looking to cater for our own after ceremony reception and evening function but we are unable to find places that we can hire and cater for ourselves as i have many contacts who will cook the food and serve etc just the way we want but we are looking for a place with some history not just a village hall. MY PARTNER WANTS TO HIRE A CASTLE UMM I THINK GOOD LUCK THERE!
we have to be able to cater for about 80/90 and we are trying to do it the mse way. So if anyone out there nows a website or anything that can help it would be grately appreciated thanks happy saving

Hi there, I'm a newbie on here, but been watching the website for a while. I just wondered where you are?