Wedding Tips start here...

secondtimeround

Tim_L wrote:

Well here's what we did...

We'd had 18 months of friends weddings, for which you travel large distances, attend the ceremony, have a reception meal of variable quality, speak to your friends for about 45 seconds, have a party, then drive all the way back. All good fun, but these dos did seem to be missing something, and they were certainly expensive (in fact we did know someone who was still paying off the cost of the wedding some years into their divorce!).

So we decided to do things differently. We invited a couple of close friends down for the weekend without telling them anything (we let slip a day or two in advance so they could bring smart togs). We invited the parents, and explained what we were doing, and booked them into a 5 star hotel for the weekend. We booked the registry office, and a meal in a local restaurant, and all was set.

Phase one (the day itself) it worked brilliantly - weddings always seem to. In the morning I went off to the restaurant to leave the cake (which was made by a friend who is a professional patissier) there, and was promptly dragged off the street for a consumer survey on various different kinds of whisky (hic). Everyone arrived on time, the wedding was relaxed and friendly, and when we got to the restaurant we found they had done out a room for us (having twigged what we were doing because of the cake) and could not have been more wonderful (including pouring some lethal liqueur down me at the end of the meal. I don't remember a lot after that.

Total cost for the whole day couldn't have been more than £500 or so, but frankly I don't think it would have been better if we'd spent 20K.

Phase 2 was then a sort of extended reception in which we went around other friends over a period of time and celebrated with them.

Not for everyone, possibly, but I think it shows that by ignoring some of the conventions you can have a great time and not bankrupt yourself.

God I really wish we had worked out just how much it was going to cost before going down the route of a 'typical' wedding. Currently we reckon that we could have done exactly what you did and spend less without missing out on spending quality time with our family & friends. Its insane that the cost of food per head is more than we would pay if we took the same people out for the evening at a decent resturant including drinks!

Becles

welshnoonoo wrote:

I am interested to know how much people would spend on average on one wedding favour? I guess it would depend partly on how many people you are inviting to your wedding, so an indication of how much you would spend per 50 people would be great.

We are thinking about giving people an alcoholic miniature with a personalised label, although we haven't fully decided yet. I think more people would like alcohol than sugar almonds

A quick google and I found this site which supplies personlised bottles starting from £1.95
http://www.messageonabottle.biz/onlinepayments.htm

[Deleted User]

Hi People!

I got married July 2005 and for favours for 100 people I spent £14
I gave out Wedding Scrolls on cream paper see this site its free [URL=http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/wedding/favour-scroll-instructions.asp[/URL]

Then tied them up with Burgandy ribbon which I had printed with our names on and date of wedding which cost £14 for 100!
Everyone said it was more personal then almonds or alcholic minitures!

Total cost of my big white wedding was £2,000 for 100 Guests, Meal, Disco, Decorations, Hotel and Wedding Dress!!! That includes Hanmade rings for £450! (its the only part of the wedding you'll use everyday for the rest of your life!)

I Had 4 bridesmaids, 2 best men, 4 ushers, 3 page boys, BMW convertable car, Landrover Discovery, Calla Lily Brides Bouquet, 4x Matching Calla Lilly Bridesmaid Bouquets, 100 Handmade Invites, Professionally Decorated Hall, Church, Organ, Videotographer, Photographer, Professional Make Up, Professional Hair, Grooms Suits, 3 x Page Boys Suits, 4 Usher Suits, Tiara, Jewellery, 100 Handmade Favours, DJ for 8 hours, Village Hall, Hotel Suite, 3 Tier Wedding Cake, Seating Plan, Outside Bar, £450 Spent on Handmade Rings, Buffet and Canapes for 100. And lots more!!!

Everyone said it was the best wedding they had been to ever and we run a book on how much people thought it cost average estimated cost was £7,000!

I'm proud of how I budgeted for my big day. Its not the wedding that counts it's the way you feel about the man you marry!

Any Questions! Let me know!!!

Good Luck fellow wedding planners!

Nicci

tee_pee_2

I bought a dress that was from the previous season so it was £300 inc veil. I had 3 bridesmaids 1 adult 2 kids and as the sale rack didn't have 3 dresses the same. I used my colour scheme ( blue and yellow) Got a massive bargain for the adult dress as it was one on it;s own £40!! it was 2 sizes too big took it to a dress maker and fitted perfectly on the day. Tiara off a bling bling stall on the market £10 ( £60 in the shop)

I didn't have an order of service the church usually gives a little booklet out for guests to follow the service, so don't bother. Flowers were a steal, I befriended the lady who does the flowers arrangements at church , went to local market spent £25 and ended up with masses of flowers which became several arrangements in the church.

Do your own make up I think it's better than a stanger who doesn't know you, you don't want to look completely different on your wedding day.

Favours I made my own. Almonds from pic n mix off the market bought the lace and bought ribbon off the market as well with some little pears and they looked great and cost me next to nothing

Lastly don't bother with disposable camers on the tables for guests you just end up with 50 pictures of the bride eating her dinner !! Plus they end up stuck in a drawer. I had a big white wedding and no one knew we had cut corners. Costs of day plus honey moon to Dominican under £4k.

jules0971

Dear all,

Im getting married in November this year and although were not having a money saving wedding by anyones standards (best part of 10k I reckon) I am trying to save money where I can much to h2b's pleasure as he is out in Iraq (hard) earning the money! Im making the invitations myself and can recommend Hobbycraft if you have one near you. They have packs of 30 ivory textured ready to fold A6 cards plus envelopes for £10. Ive bought a load of hearts and bits and bobs to decorate them and I will be printing the inserts on my pc at home on coloured paper. Their metallic confetti is the cheapest Ive found at 99p per pack. Tesco have packs of 10 ivory place cards for £1.87, again the cheapest Ive found. Ive bought them a pack or two at a time whenever Ive been shopping so dont feel the pinch so much later in the year!

We're having a chocolate wedding cake (well I decided we would is more accurate!) from Waitrose. 3 tiers would have been £165 and served between 75 and 95 according to the book, so I saved £20 by having a 2 tier cake instead (the larger 2 tiers of the 3 tiered jobby) which serves 60 to 80 and a plain cutting cake the same size as the top tier which serves 20 to 30. So hey presto same amount of portions and a total of £143.99 instead! Could have gone even further along that line and had the small 2 tiered cake (£90) and 2 or 3 plain cutting cakes (£26 to £39)....no-one will know any different once its all cut up.

Table decs are the large gold charger plates that were everywhere at Christmas in all the shops. We picked up 2 boxes of 9 in a matching tray for £15 each at costco (now £5 per plate in John Lewis!) and are having 3 candles of 3 different heights on them surrounded by ivy and roses. Sounds good so far?

Except the florist wanted to charge £20 per plate for the oasis, bowls for the candles, ivy, 5 roses per plate and their time! Stick that! We then had a chat and they brought it down to £10 per plate for artificial ivy and roses (which they sell for 50p each!). Hmmmm still too much when we have 13 plates to do! So Im going to buy ivy and roses off the net and do them myself. Total cost? I reckon about £9 per plate ALL in! including price of plate, candles, ivy and roses! And the ivy/rose supplier is happy to send me a sample of each prior to me ordering which is a bonus!

Sorry this has gone on a bit! Hope it helps someone!

themadbird

http://www.jetsupplies.co.uk/

This is where loads of florists get their supplies from. Might help I use them occasionally for my supplies.

Mind you they are wholesale, so I'm not sure if you can use them - worth finding out, especially if you work out a large order?

poppycat_3

Hi all,

This is my first post to this topic but I have been reading it for ages! I thought it was about time I joined in!

I am getting married in September this year and am seriously considering putting somewhere on the invitations, ‘our wedding – sponsored by Ebay!’ because of the amount of stuff I have got/will get from there. I know some people may be a bit reluctant to use Ebay for wedding things but I have had nothing but fantastic buys at a fraction of the cost. So here goes with what my ‘Ebay Wedding’ consists of!

Invitations.

Blank cards from Hobbycraft (good start!) but all decorative items from Ebay including ribbon bows, small paper flowers, tiny rhinestones, and peel offs that say ‘wedding invitation’ and ‘evening invitation.’

Favour boxes.

Flat pack boxes from Ebay, Ribbon and ribbon roses and also glue dots from Ebay too. Oh and tissue paper to go inside them also from Ebay.I have to say I am thrilled with the result, if anyone would like to see a pic of my favour boxes send me a pm and I will proudly show them off!

Flowers.

Ok this may not be particularly money saving as I have spent quite a lot on flowers! I really think I may have a flower fetish, some people are obsessed with shoes, I keep looking at wedding flowers! I wanted silk rather than fresh anyway, one less thing to worry about on the day (ie, not being happy with them but too late to do anything about it) and myself and my bridesmaids can keep them afterwards. I bought my bouquet and also my bridesmaids from a fab Ebay shop. This woman is amazing, she will custom make just about anything you want and the quality is fantastic. I have also ordered cake toppers from her, (cakes will be 3 tier from M&S) and one table decoration (may order more but might economize and just have one on the top table) Also my young bridesmaids have gorgeous alice bands with flowers on and matching dolly bags. I really can’t recommend her enough, if anyone is thinking of getting artificial flowers, pm me and I will tell you where I got mine because you won’t be disappointed.

Wedding dress.

Ok so this is the biggy. I found a dress I really loved on Ebay but was too scared to risk buying it. It came from China or somewhere round there and was only around £115. They say they are all brand new and made to measure and excellent quality but it all looked a bit too good to be true somehow.

Anyway my sister is law is getting married 2 weeks before me and also found a dress she loved in the same Ebay shop. She is braver than me and bought it. It only took about 4 weeks to arrive and it is GORGEOUS! The quality is amazing, the sizing is perfect and you couldn’t get better if you paid £1000+ in a bridal shop. If you do a bit of digging it appears that all the dresses in that particular shop are Maggie Sottero copies. It has given me the confidence to buy mine from there too, which I will do in the next couple of months. I have been in touch with them and they are even making some changes for me, I don’t want a train and I would like some straps (its strapless at the mo) and they will do what I ask at no extra charge. Again, I’ll be happy to let anyone know which Ebay shop this is.
I’ve also bought an A line net underskirt from another ebay shop to give the dress a bit of lift! And I’ve just bought an organza wrap from a UK seller which will finish off the look!

Bridesmaids.

I am having 3 bridesmaids, 1 adult and 2 children. The 2 girls dresses will be coming from an Ebay shop in USA, gorgeous dresses at around £23 each. Ok so they do you on postage but even so it will only be about £60 for 2 beautiful dresses. My adult bridesmaid will also be getting hers from Ebay, my sis in law has received hers from the same shop and they are beautiful so again, I’m confident to order from the far east.
I’ve also bought 2 childs hooped petticoats to go under their dreses.

Pageboys.

I am having 2 pageboys and I bought their waistcoat suits from ebay for about £12 each plus postage from USA. They are lovely and look so cute!

Jewelery

From one Far East Ebay shop I have bought my tiara (£16) a matching necklace set (£7.99) and a headband type tiara for my adult bridesmaid (£5.99) They are all gorgeous! When I ordered the necklace set they sent the wrong one, but they were so apologetic and let me keep the wrong one and sent the right one straight away. So my adult bridesmaid has a gorgeous necklace set for free! I also bought a bracelet for under a fiver.

Shoes

Mine are ex display (but never worn) and were about £5.99. They are ivory satin with a 3inch heel and are perfect. My daughters were also brand new and I think I paid £9.99 for hers.

I think that’s about it! If anyone is thinking of buying any of the above items from Ebay and would like a recommendation, just let me know and I will pass on more details about the buyers I have used. I would put links in this post but not sure about the rules, and I don’t know whether it’s the ‘done thing’ or not!!!

Weggy

Bit of advice required, if anyone can help with our wedding.....

Due to family, let's just say, 'issues', my future mother and father in law can't be in the same room together. No two ways about it - it simply cant happen.

So, we're trying to arrange a workaround, where both sets of in laws-to-be can still share in our special day.

So far, we've thought about this (based on a midweek wedding)

Wednesday: Registry office wedding. Small affair with just mother in law, my two parents, family friend and his wife (to give my other half away), my best man and his wife, and probably two bridesmaids. Our plan is to then go to a local hotel for a meal with these people. Day ends there.

Thursday: 'Traditional' wedding day. Everyone else invited except the mother in law (everyone else that was present on Wednesday, plus all our family and friends). The idea being that we still have some sort of wedding ceremony in the morning, followed by a reception, meal, and a buffet and disco in the evening......

Problem being, how can we have a second ceremony on the Thursday, without anyone suspecting that we were married the day before? Can it be done? Would a registrar be sympathetic and allow two ceremonies? Is that legal?

Sorry, I know not very MSE, but I see you guys have a lot of experience of weddings..... hopefully someone will be able to help!

scooper

hi
thought i would post here in the wedding chat for a bit of advice and to see if anybody has been married in the south of france,where,who did they use?any advice really?
we were thinking of spain but it seems its difficult with civil ceromoines.

Callisto

Weggy wrote:

Bit of advice required, if anyone can help with our wedding.....

Problem being, how can we have a second ceremony on the Thursday, without anyone suspecting that we were married the day before? Can it be done? Would a registrar be sympathetic and allow two ceremonies? Is that legal?

Hi Weggy,

As far as I know, you can only have the 'legal bit' with the registrar done once. The other ceremony would need to be a blessing (not necessarily religious) of some kind... (for example we're thinking of having a mediaeval style handfasting ceremony after the legal registrar ceremony as we want to say our own vows without restrictions from the registrar.) Therefore, people will be able to tell that it's not the 'proper' wedding ceremony on the second day... which shouldn't be a problem as you're still inviting them to celebrate with you...

However are the inlaws really that bad that they can't put their differences aside for one day? It will cost you more than it should to accommodate their wishes by having two seperate celebrations.