Wedding Tips start here...

Savvy_Sue

ie from size 22 upwards are available from 3Bs, who are based in Weston super Mare. I don't know a lot about them, I'm not about to use them being as how I did all this a long time ago, but they featured in our local paper the other day and it said dresses started at £300 which can't be bad! Nothing in the website gallery looks like a meringue, either! Also said there was a special offer with a local hotel for an overnight stay if you didn't live locally to W-s-M. Hope this helps and sorry if they've featured here already.

hopecross

HI, What's the average cost of wedding flowers? I'm waiting for a quote at the mo, and that will include my bouquet, 3 bridesmaid bouquets, about 6-8 buttonholes, A-shaped church/reception entrance display, altar/top table display, flowers for top of cake, couple of thank you bouquets for Mums, and a stem in a vase for about half a dozen reception tables. My florist is a friend of mine, and I know she won't rip me off (although I've been told she's not cheap), but just wondering what to expect before she comes back to me with a quote. My flowers are going to include lilac, freesia, lavender, spray roses and sweet september.
Any info about what other people are paying/ have paid would be welcome!

Jess_B

Wedding flowers can be very expensive but you can do them on a budget.

My bridesmaids were all older so they didn't have flowers as they were £45 each! They all had handbags that matched thier dresses. Also I was about to order thank you bouqets for the Mum's and they wanted £27 each for them so I saved them both one of the table decorations which they were more than happy with!

The only thing I would say is that I spent ages doing all the flowers and detail bits for our wedding and on the day you don't even notice them. And nobody is going to say there wasn't flowers at the alter or at the door.

From my quote I can remember Bride BQ £75, Bridesmaids £45, Table £25 upwards, large display £75, Top table £50, button holes £1.50

Phoebs

now that I've resolved the WP issue (thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=45046), I'm back on with the planning...

unless I can convince OH that Lake Bled in Slovenia is the place for us and we start from scratch again - not a prob cos still 13 months to go and nothing is booked yet anyway - we have our venue decided upon

what we don't have yet are figures we are happy with there (this is what the WP was failing to do for us lol)...

anyone got any tips with what things we might try to negotiate

wildwelshflossie

The YHA website has a list of very attractive looking venues for hire over 2-3 day periods with accomodation included. No idea what they're like inside, but the prices quoted are between £300-£1000

Doinx

I just signed up for a wedding list at Debenhams and they gave me a 50 quid
gift card there and then :-) I /am/ getting married and /did/ go for the
sign up with my fiancé but I didn't have to prove anything. Then we went
round with a beepy thing and built up a list which was then downloaded on to
their system. They also gave us a voucher for 2 free cappuccinos to use
before the wedding date and a bag full of perfume/toiletry freebies. When
we got home we had changed our minds about a few things on the list so we
took them off online! Brilliant. Debenhams rock :-)

nh

Doinx wrote:

I just signed up for a wedding list at Debenhams and they gave me a 50 quid
gift card there and then :-) I /am/ getting married and /did/ go for the
sign up with my fiancé but I didn't have to prove anything. Then we went
round with a beepy thing and built up a list which was then downloaded on to
their system. They also gave us a voucher for 2 free cappuccinos to use
before the wedding date and a bag full of perfume/toiletry freebies. When
we got home we had changed our minds about a few things on the list so we
took them off online! Brilliant. Debenhams rock :-)

But they charge your guests £3.50 each for delivery, which is BAD... but my sister had hers at Debs and I don't think anyone was that bothered about the £3.50 - it is a bit of a shock when you get to the payment page though!

I think you get a percentage of your gifts' worth back in vouchers as well don't you? I am having mine at John Lewis and even though they don't charge for delivery my gran said: "John Lewis, it's expensive there!"

You can't win!

nh

Phoebs wrote:

now that I've resolved the WP issue (thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=45046), I'm back on with the planning...

unless I can convince OH that Lake Bled in Slovenia is the place for us and we start from scratch again - not a prob cos still 13 months to go and nothing is booked yet anyway - we have our venue decided upon

what we don't have yet are figures we are happy with there (this is what the WP was failing to do for us lol)...

anyone got any tips with what things we might try to negotiate

Hi Phoebs, just read about your WP - nightmare! I understand your concern re. your ME, but I think you may overestimate just how stressful organising a wedding is. It depends on your nature of course, but I think it is as stressful as you want to make it. If you want loads of little details and if they are not perfect it is going to ruin your day, then that can be stressful, but if you just get married, have some photos taken and have a meal, how stressful is that?

I haven't been that stressed at all cos anything that was causing me stress (eg. the cake) I have just said 'Well, I'm not having that then!"

I think the WP would have been more stressful than planning it yourself.

Good luck - we're all rooting for you!

Mrs_Thrift

nh, I completely agree, it's all down to your approach, and you can reduce the stress levels enormously! I was pretty laid back and found that the only things that did stress me out were when I was relying on or waiting for someone else to do something, tell me something, etc. and you can't avoid some of that unfortunately. But you can have contingency plans in place so that you're not too reliant on anyone or anything.

Phoebs, if you take a stress-free approach you will definitely have the upper hand for negotiating on all sorts of prices, as they will want your business more than you need them. I can't say too many times that you must ignore all the propoganda and everyone that tells you "you MUST have / do x,y,z" and just build your own celebration to suit yourselves. Also, stay away from wedding suppliers as much as possible - to them it's such an everyday event that they just see the pound signs and charge huge prices. But if you get things for your wedding from "normal" places they are more likely to be happy to be part of your wedding, and maybe even give you a discount (like my green shoes which were from Jane Shilton and the manager knocked £20 off them.) It wouldn't hurt to tell a hotel / venue that you want to plan "a party" without mentioning the W word and get their prices for that, then just let them try and increase them for no good reason, hehe!

I think a good way to approach wedding planning is to start with ONLY the absolute BASICS, and by that I mean - the couple, an offical, witnesses, the correct paperwork and somewhere to do it. You'll probably want to be wearing some clothes too, hehe! But my point is that is ALL you need to get married, and everything else is a bonus. At the end of the day you have the same outcome. It's just up to you to decide what you do add on to the basics, and what you don't.

Let us know any specific questions you have and I'll *try* and help.

Katgoddess

If you don't fancy making your own labels/save the date magnets/invites etc this site could be what you are looking for:

http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/

25 'Save The Date' magnets for £7.99
100 invitations from £32.99
140 Labels for favours etc £4.99

You can use your own designs made with PSP etc, or you can use their templates.

It's primarily for businesses so you don't pay the "wedding tax".