Wedding Tips start here...

scruffy96uk

Have you had a read through the wedding tips, some great ideas there

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=41608

Do you really need a photographer, we're just relying on digital cameras, so all our photos will be natural and not posed for!! We're also using disposable cameras (avaliable in poundland) and then you've got the developing, but places like truprint do it really cheap (envelopes for development also avaliable in poundland!!)

As for asking for presents, go for it. We're asking for Ikea vouchers!!

We're only having toast drinks, when guests arrive and want a drink they will have to purchase themselves.

We have purchased our own toast drinks and are just paying the hotel corkage , so it might be worth looking at different toast options. We bought less than 1/2 price champagne and wine!!

I'm not having flowers, I don't see the point as you don't really hold onto them for long.

As for rings look for a jeweller that does 0% finance over a period of time (normally 9-12 months)

If your having a cake I would look at Marks and Spencers (cheap, but get good ratings)

Just decorate ur venue yourself.

Hope this is of some help

traciemk

thanks for great advice
Do i put bestmens suits or do they buy it them selves?

who do i buy buttonholes for?

FTD

Traditionally you buy/hire the bestmans wear yourself.

FTD

MrsB_2

When we got married my parents paid for just about everything, but DH's parents paid for the drinks package (it was a sit down meal in a hotel, so had to pay for a package of drinks including the toast champers), and my parents and DH's parents split the cost of the men's suits 50 / 50 cos we had dad's and brothers in the outfits too.

Could dh's family maybe contribute towards anything??

code-a-holic

I organised our wedding for £1400.
Including my dress at £350.

Hope some of these can help.
- we found it cheaper to get maried in a civil venue and recption in smae place. than doing them seperate. Avoided needing to hire a car and no wories of how guests will get to the reception. We did it in a hotel for £300. That included the room for ceremony - the ground floor bar for our recption, a bridal suite and buffet for 80 people. And it was a 4 star hotel on the seafront!

- Get maried as late in the day as posible - you dont need to entertain the guests for hours on end then. We married at 3, buffet at 6, partied all night. hotel also gave discounted rates to anyone wanting to stay over.

- Buy the decorations on ebay. All of mine came to about £10!

- My husband found a brand new suit on ebay - we won it for £10.
-I decided my bridesmaids could wear different dreses but same colour. Found them all brand new on ebay ranging from £5 for a BHS bridesmaids dress to £22 for the monsoon one!

-Tesco's do weding cakes - would cost about £15 for a 3 tier and decorate with your own flowers to make it look expensive. Mother in law actually paid for hours - £120 from bakery.
-We roped in a friend to do photos as a wedding gift - he gave us the cd of then then i got truprint to develop for less than £10.
-We asked for argos vouchers, people were greatful for specifing. Not exactly a romantic gift but we were kitting out our house!
Rings were peronalised for free from Argos - Under £30 for the pair.(white gold)
-My mum paid for a dj as her gift, he cost £100, started at 7 and went until early hours.

I think thats most of it....good luck on your big day!

tiger_-_lilly_4

traciemk , i really think you should try and get the wedding moved to later on in the day, like said before, you then go straight into the celebrations, with nibbles etc there. (that is if you haven't got the stationary already finished with dated/times?)

STATIONARY; I also think you should go to an art supplier, buy some card, envelopes (perhapse from a upermarker as cheeper) and a stamp, and a gold ink pad, and stamp the cards with a wedding motif? save you pounds!!!

DECORATIONS; baloons you can get for a couple of pounds from tescos, or a card shop like clintons??? blow them up and stick them to the walls? maybe tye a load of them to string, and have it going across the room???

FLOWERS; You are getting married in the summer.... the best time for flowers, and free ones at that... go round the garden, or friends/family and cut some flowers adn make your own displays> how about the b'maids having a single rose (or 3?) with a ribbon tied around it to match colours???

Rings can be really cheap, as said before, Argos them. who will know? and its the true meaning behind the ring, not the ring itself!!!

Good luck. and dont get yourself worried, it will be fine. the best weddings are the simple ones.... i've been told that over, and over again.

gakers

Hi everyone

Not sure if this applies to all of you but Accessorize on Regent Street in Swindon is closing down and they have a big sales on most things 70% off, they have quite a lot of bridemaids dresses, so for those of you who live nearly it may be worth a look

x

Becles

Have you got a branch of The Paper Mill Shop near you?
http://www.thepapermillshop.co.uk/

They sell all the bits to make your own invites and they're really easy to do. They have a book of ideas or you can be creative and make your own. The staff are really helpful and will give you instructions on how to make the cards.

I bought enough bits to make 10 invites. Total cost: £7.35

You can make this cheaper still if you buy plain card and fold it yourself. I went for an embossed pre-folded card as we're getting married away from home with just close family, so only need a few invites.

This is the design I picked. (photo of shop sample!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/becles/DSC00974.jpg
It's a cream card (or use a folded A5 sheet).
Cut the sparkly card to size and stick the edging sticker round the edges. Glue on card.
Cut a small piece of cream card. Attach the edging sticker and gold rings sticker.
Attach to card using tiny foam pads.
Stick on "Wedding Invitation" sticker.

I've also bought seperate paper inserts and can print the wording from my PC, and I can do calligraphy for the guests names.

Easy peasy, and for a fraction of the price of similar being sold on ebay!

I got loads of ring stickers in the pack, so I'm going to pop back for a couple of sheets of A4 card to make placecards.

Tondella

I'm going to make my own invites and rather than stick things on I've decided to stencil a decorative design onto each of the cards. I'm getting pre-folded cards from an art suppliers shop. Otherwise using a stamp is another nice, simple and effective way of making a card. I've received some home-made ones in the past which have had things glued to them. The bride must have had a little trouble as my invite was glued to the envelope! I think a simple, clean design works best (and costs less!).

My brother gave me an excellent tip. There's a website from which you can buy stock photos for $1. Commercial websites and advertising use them when they don't want to commission their own photographs. There's some lovely ones of bride and grooms on there, rings, doves etc black and white or colour, all you have to do is type in some key words that describe what you would like. If you downloaded the image you could get a quote from a local print shop for getting some lovely photographic cards printed up. There are also some really love illustrations on there. The website is https://www.istockphoto.com.

I'm so chuffed because I went to see a dressmaker this week. She looked at some pictures of the kind of dress I'd like (dead simple - empire line, strapless in lace, no train) and said if I bought the fabric she charge me £150 to make it up. I get a calico fitting and then as many adjustments as I need to get it right. All the dresses I had tried on in boutiques were over £1k, and that was just for bought off the peg sizes, they then charged you extra for any alterations. Even with some fabulous fabric this one won't reach £500. Overjoyed!

jo_b_2

Just ordered my wedding gift list through Debenhams today and they give the couple a £50 gift card just for setting up the wedding list!

This might be common knowledge but it was a pleasant surprise to us. We're not expecting loads of presents as we're only having a small family wedding so that will be a big help.