Wedding Tips start here...

julybride

Sorry its a bit long but had loads of ideas to share i hope they help some one

:j
It may sound like I made lots of sacrifices but I really didn’t; I got everything I wanted for a fraction of the cost and a little hunting around. As with MSE planning and budgeting was the key  Me and hubby reckon we spent about £3500 (not including honeymoon) on a wedding for 75 to sit down and an extra 75 in the evening including a paid for bar!!! We estimated the true cost should have been about £10,000.


1. Agree between you the priorities and then look back at them when things get out of hand. i.e. good food / lots of people. And the type of day you want
2. Only agree to things when you and your partner have talked about. Make it a rule! it will stop you agreeing to the whims of family and friends whose expectations are not really what your original priorities were. And save arguments or feeling under pressure
3. If you shop around and get creative, cards, favours and services don’t need to be expensive if you buy them in sales make them. It doesn’t mean you have to settle for what you don’t want just spend the time looking for it!
4. Venues that are registered for ceremonies often have extra day charges it does work out cheaper to go to a registry office. And the venues that don’t offer this service are now much more reasonably priced
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount if you think you will be spending a lot, and don’t be fooled by drinks packages ask for drinks prices separately you may find having something slightly different reduces your bill slightly.
6. Ask for the corks to be saved for you and only pay for the amount they can provide you with. Many venues up the amount of wine that you ‘supposedly’ consumed.
7. Bar tabs. I worked at a venue where they always cleared the amount that had been left behind the bar 45 minutes before last orders; to persuade a tipsy parent to add to the tab!!!!’ leave a % of what you wanted to leave behind a bar to one side and ask to see what has been spent before agreeing to up the amount. You may see 30 bottles of wine consumed in 10 minutes!
8. Ask friends and relatives where they have been to weddings sometimes private clubs (golf etc) are available with out membership and usually come at a fraction of the cost. i.e. my wedding was on a beautiful local family golf course the food was superb and it cost about half that of the other popular local venues!!!! But less people realised it even existed.
9. Consider having a later wedding (4 or 5pm)and then only having to provide an evening buffet. For speeches you could do them while the guest s are having their reception drinks and milling around. This worked great at a mates wedding in the entrance hall before entering the room for the evening.

Ideas for saving on purchases
□ Teddy bears instead of flowers for younger bridesmaids… also doubles as their gift
□ Look into local courses for beading/tiara/ cake making may cost you £50 but save hundreds
□ For shoes buy a nice pair of evening shoes you’ll be more likely to wear again and likely to be more reasonably priced
□ Photographer… see if you can find an amateur who is about to go pro!!!! And needs experience ask friends and family you may be surprised who they know. (colleges may be good for this)
□ If you can find one some companies will get copies of suits, dresses made in Thailand for a fraction of the true cost. A friend had her wedding gown , 5 adult bridesmaids and 2 flower girls + 8 x waist coats and cravats made for under £1000 (would have been at least double that from a shop)
□ Hair Dressers I booked to have a cut and colour a week before the wedding (didn’t mention it was for my wedding as the price shoots up). And then booked in for a wash and style that morning for an ‘evening do’ £20 instead of about £60+ that I was quoted by some hair dressers
□ Ikea fabulous plant pots and miniature sunflowers cost £20.00 and I had them everywhere (about £3 each)


And as an aside maybe useful to know:

□ If you are both changing your names change the males name by ‘Deed Poll’ before the wedding this way by marrying him you take the same name and don’t pay the £80ish it costs twice.

□ Wedding insurance may be money well spent as it can cost a tiny fraction of the ultimate spend. But check what policies cover before purchasing one.

And as a last https://www.hitched.co.uk Is the site that recommended this one to me and I have been at MSE ever since; but it has hundreds of brides and grooms with fantastic suggestions. If you are stuck they are likely to help.

Yorkielass

Our wedding is in just over 6 months and we've got lots of things planned now - some are money saving - some certainly won't be - like my dress, and some things we're not having that some might think of as 'traditional' things like a video, favours, lots of adult bridesmaids etc, so they'll all save money. Oh and cake curtosey of marks and spencer.

I need some advice on flowers what I need/want is:

1 bouquet for me
1 for a 12 year old bridesmaid
Possibly corsages and buttonholes - mistake asking OH what he wants can't decide if he wants a buttonhole or not.
Then 2 lots of flowers to go on the alter in the church, which can be taken to the reception
and then 10 table decorations based on flowers.

(want flowers for mothers too but we'll be paying for those and we can sort them out nearer the time).

Anyway any advice on getting flowers cheaply but nice - happy to have a go at table decorations etc. ?

Thanks

YL

julybride

I would really recomend doing table decorations your self. Cheap glass vases can opften be picked up: (https://www.hitched.co.uk the girls will really help with ideas) But here are a few:

Glass cube vase with pebbles and candles
Long tall vase with Bare grass and a single flower i.e. sunflowers or lily
Hand tied tulips
Terocotta plant pot with dried flowers can be quite reasonable from places like hobby craft or made up yourself with a large hand tied ribbon.

For Corsages look to charities such as the British Heart foundation for roses and hospice societies sunflowers for £1 each and then you know the money goes to a good cause

For the church, double check they do not have just one set of arrangements for the whole of Saturday many now ask each marriage that day to contribut x amount and the flowers remain in the church. If not here were some pointers i was given by my mums friend who did my flowers:

Look for flowers in season this will be cheaper,

the cost often escalates because of the specification of lots of different flowers i.e. if the florist needs 150 roses this can be bought more cheaply if the florist needs 10 lily's, 10 tulips, 10 etc they will cost more!! So talk to a florist and try to minimise the different types you want.

Set a budget and search round for quotes and you will get an iodea for what is fair in your area.

do not shy away from flowers that appear expensive per stem ie. sunflowers adn more exoctic striking flowers that may be £5+ per head because they often need less to accompany them and less arranging which can make them cheaper overall.


Hope all goes well

Lady_In_Seat_65

Try your local garden centre or even DYI store.
We used plants in pots instead of flowers from Homebase at less than £5 each.
They last longer than flowers and at the end of the day we gave them to people who helped us organise our wedding and took some home ourselves. We still enjoy them now!
One tip - try to keep your table decorations 'low' as otherwise people can't see and talk across the table.

Ask the church who normally does their flowers - it's usually someone local who doesn't does it for a hobby and may charge only a small fee to do your flowers.

Also simply shopping around at your local florists and get quotes and negotiate if you get a better deal at one, but like the other better.
Corsages for mothers are cheaper than a bunch of flowers and bottonholes shouldn't be more than £2 (we had ours for only £1.25 each) but the charity shops seem a good idea too! Never thought about that.

Good luck!

gypsy-jane

I am getting married in March and we have managed to cut back on a lot of unnecessary expense by preparing so much ourselves (as we're not very 'traditional' this suits us better)... :hello:

* I made my own dress. (Well worth trying a sewing class if you're unsure, what you can save on the cost of a dress can be better invested in a lifelong skill. As dresses now tend to be quite simple in design (we've come a long way from the '80s puffed sleeves, frills and gathers) making your own needn't be as terrifying as it sounds.) I tried on a few different styles then after choosing the type of skirt and top that suited best I found a pattern that closely resembled what I wanted. I bought the satin from John Lewis, but after pricing the lace at £70-odd a metre at another store, decided to check out our local market, where I found exactly what I wanted for £3/mtr. It's fine white lace, embroidered in white, with scalloped edging and tiny white seed pearls sewn in.
* We made our own invitations and as we created the wording ourselves, we were able to keep it very informal and personal. We picked up packs of inexpensive textured card, parchment style paper (for the inserts) and envelopes, again from a market stall, and some small paper roses along with a sepia photo for the front. (We've had a lot of compliments from the guests on the design :-) )
* We managed to find the Groom and Best Man's waistcoat & cravat sets in the Debenhams Collection at the end of the wedding season, and also the two bridesmaids dresses, working out at a fraction of the original cost.
* I made wraps for the bridesmaids from a rich gold organza from Ikea's fabric dept.
* I also bought my shoes from the Debenhams Collection at a fraction of the price and have sewn on a row of tiny red rosebuds to tie in with my bouquet.
* I bought silk flowers from a local craft outlet (they have a lovely selection and staff were very helpful) and with my mum's help we have made up bouquets for the bridesmaids and myself. They're lovely and they're unique :-)
* A friend of the family is driving me to the wedding.
* My brother is doing the ceremony and vows.
* We have guests coming with children, so have taken up the tip to make up small bags for each child with things in to keep them occupied. We have included in each bag a disposable camera (£1 each from Poundland) so we'll have photos taken from the kids perspective.
* The venue is a lovely conservatory on the back of an old renovated farm building, now a pub. While I was calling round different venues, I came across this one and in talking with the Manageress, I learned that the conservatory had just been newly decorated in my chosen colours. We went to view it and it was ideal. With having children at the wedding and some with special dietry requirements we decided to opt for the 'hot buffet', less expensive than a 'sit-down' meal but more likely to cater to individual tastes. We get to meet up with the chef beforehand to suggest dishes to be prepared on the day. The cost per head should work out at around £15, including Champagne Reception, Hot Buffet, Dessert and drinks.
* We're having our photographs taken on the beach, with a backdrop (further up the coastline) of an old priory in ruins. We haven't booked a professional photographer but as this is the age of digital photography we're hoping to gather together the pictures taken by the guests and compile an album from them.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the tips posted here by other MoneySaving fans and hope that someone may be able to use some of ours.

scruffy96uk

Hi Yorkielass
Not sure if a college near by you does flower arranging, but you could try finding out and seeing if any of the final year students would help you out (for a small fee obviously). I know my dad did flower arranging and he now does local church flowers etc. So it could be worth a try!!

scruffy96uk

Hi haven't had time to read all the tips, but what I've read so far is really good.
We're also opting for no photographer as we would prefer the photos to be more natural, so like gypsy-jane we're relying on digital cameras.
We're also puting disposables on the tables, we have also given responsibility of collecting them at the end of the night to the hotel as no doubt everyone will be too drunk to remember to pick them up.
As a nice little extra we bought a heart shaped paper punch and got coloured paper and in with every invite we are popping a handful of little hearts!!
I'm planning on doing my own make up but getting my hair done!
We worked it out that where we are having our wedding it was going to be cheaper buying our own wine and champagne and just paying corkage. So it's worth finding out what wine/champagne deals are on!
Now onto the important bit HEN NIGHT
I came up with a good idea (well I think it is, if you are game for dressing up) Each person that is going out gets sent along with the invite a CD with music specifically picked and recorded by you, i.e YMCA and the person who gets this must dress accordingly related to the CD. It could be anything 60s/70s, dogs barking, grease, bond, casualty, clown oh the list is endless!!

Hope some of this helps others and I will post back again as I organise mine

gakers

I am currently planning my own wedding but also run a wedding planning business. Usually I charge for the advice I give but this site so brilliant and I have got so many tips and tricks for other things from users post that I feel its only right that I return the favour!

For tiara's try ebay, it may sound tacky but honestly give it a try there is a huge and wonderful tiara selection on there and some fantastic wedding jewellery. Also try ebay for wedding invitations, place cards, wedding favours and for all the kit you need to make your own.

Rather than have a 3 course meal for your wedding breakfast just have a two course meal and a hire a chocolate fountain that can be used as a fun pudding, it can also be the sweet option for your evening buffet as well and you may find its a cheaper alterantive than paying out for desserts and sweets.

Another option is to have a chocolate fountain instead of your wedding cake

cenmlj@leeds.ac.uk

Yorkielass wrote:

Our wedding is in just over 6 months and we've got lots of things planned now - some are money saving - some certainly won't be - like my dress, and some things we're not having that some might think of as 'traditional' things like a video, favours, lots of adult bridesmaids etc, so they'll all save money. Oh and cake curtosey of marks and spencer.

I need some advice on flowers what I need/want is:

1 bouquet for me
1 for a 12 year old bridesmaid
Possibly corsages and buttonholes - mistake asking OH what he wants can't decide if he wants a buttonhole or not.
Then 2 lots of flowers to go on the alter in the church, which can be taken to the reception
and then 10 table decorations based on flowers.

(want flowers for mothers too but we'll be paying for those and we can sort them out nearer the time).

Anyway any advice on getting flowers cheaply but nice - happy to have a go at table decorations etc. ?

Thanks

YL

Hi Yorkielass

I'm buying lavender plants from homebase, putting them in Ikea silver plant pots and putting them all down the aisle and in variuos places around the venue. At the end of the night each lady will be told that they may take one plant home as their favour. I thought this was nice because each female guest from the wedding will be able to plant the plants in their gardens and have a bit of our day growing at their home forever.
It also makes our flowers/favour/decoration costs much cheaper because we're killing a lot of birds with one stone!

Hope this helps.

Michelle

Mup_2

Hi everyone
Our wedding is in a couple of months.

Michelle (cenmlj@leeds.ac.uk) Your idea re: lavendar sounds lovely...
Have you seen lavender plants in homebase recently? I went in to my local one and they dont have and were vague about if/when they might come in. They said they don't get to know what's included in their order... If I had a code, they could order (but I don't!)

I did get some bargains in Homebase, though! 150 partypoppers for £2.50, bags of choc coins (decoration for table) were 20p a bag containing around 20 pieces, lovely tablecloth to use for our wedding cake table for a fiver...

Hope this info helps others too - like everyone, we're trying to decorate the hall we hired on a shoestring.
Mup x