Wedding Tips start here...

mini

I saw some rather nice tiaras reduced to half price in Debenhams today, had to battle " I do not need a tiara, I do not need a tiara, I do not need a tiara"

System

hi, we are getting married nxt june in rhodes. for the wedding day we have been quoted approx £1200 then £10 per head for a 3course meal. we will spend no more than £3000, guests will pay for themselves..we get a wedding and a week in greece!! not every1s cuppa tea but we werent prepared to get into debt by doing it over here.

amazon_2

So did you succumb Cinderella and is there now a tiara lurking in your wardrobe with a bargain label on or not - by the way I just remembered I didn't have a tiara but a cheap ring thing with flowers on (but I do have long blonde hair) so it didnt look too ponsy honest - but I remember I saw it by chance and it cost peanuts
(Hot tip:keep ivy away from your skin including your bouquet as loads of people react to it and will come up red and blotchy..poison ivvvvvy!

nh

How annoying are these hen/stag dos where people go away for three days to a week and spend hundreds?

My fiance went on four stag dos last year at a total cost of £2000 (including spending money - although he probably spent more in the end, we budgeted for £2000). We had to save up £200 a month! It is ridiculous. Just think what we could have done with that money...

Now his brother is getting married and they are going to Prague for three days - £300 – and will spend at least £100 a day. Total cost £600 (and why do men spend so much money on nights out?) It makes me so mad - why is a night out not good enough any more? And everyone then wants to out-do everyone else when their stag do comes around...

I am getting married next year and I was thinking of chucking my fiance out of the house for the weekend, inviting everyone to stay on Friday and Saturday. Go out locally on the Friday night (we live about 10 miles outside Liverpool) and then go out in Liverpool on Saturday night. I am not into pampering and such things so don't know what we will do on the Saturday!

WeirdoMagnet

You can order up to three FREE sample wedding invitations from http://www.confetti.co.uk/invitations/stationery/sample.asp.

Good to get some ideas and then make your own!  ;D

Edited to add the crucial bit - FREE!!!

MaryC

I had a tiara when I got married (2 years ago last week, the time has flown, it's frightening!), but it was borrowed from my mum's friend's daughter who was married the year before.

Very little duplication of guests so no worry that anyone would recognise it and you are supposed to have a "something borrowed" aren't you??

Another thing that saved us a lot was that we were married the saturday after Easter and the church was already really nicely decorated with loads of flowers etc so we just had to do the flowers for the hotel. We also found a florist who worked out of an enterprise centre, no high street shop overheads, who was fab at coming up with really stylish and cheap ideas to minimise the cost.

Have fun with your planning everyone, I almost wish I could do it again!!

nh

Borrow all you can!

I am borrowing a tiara off my sister (£100), veil off sister-in-law (£150) and I was going to borrow sister's shoes (worn only once at her wedding) until I got some off Ebay for £10! Luckily I have a friend who will do my hair. Don't bother buying expensive underwear (you will only collapse paralytic at the end of the night so why bother?!). Make your own invitations (obviously). I pity those who feel it is necessary to spend £3.50 per invitation. What are they trying to prove (except that they are rubbish with money!). Then you have to get matching thank-you cards and order of service etc and before you know it you are adding on an extra £6-7 per person! A lot when you are inviting 150-200 people. I would rather give people more free wine than send them a fancy invitation - and I am sure they would rather that too. I am not doing my wedding cheap (£10,000 at last count) but I am using the money for the things that are going to make me and my guests happiest!

I know so many people who say once it gets nearer the time you just end up spending loads because you think 'what the hell, we are spending so much anyway'. I am going to be prepared for these feelings and stop myself!

That is all the tips I can think of at the moment...

LCard

For my wedding cake I got three cakes made in Costco. 2 sponge with white icing and 1 chocolate. Total cost was £45. They were pretty big and tasted yummy

To decorate them all I did was put an orchid on each of them and a bit of greenery here and there

System

Well, we've just passed the 5 month mark for our wedding in September, and still have loads of things to arrange! But everyone around us seems to be more worried than us - perhaps we're being a little too laid back??

Anyway, one thing I have been doing is hanging around on wedding websites and message boards, hoping for inspiration to make me get a move on. It's not really working, but it has made something clear to me: When it comes to money saving for your wedding, the first question, even before you say "can I find this cheaper elsewhere?" HAS to be "do we REALLY need this?"

Now I know that's not original (I think Martin's copyrighted it along with "Never, ever, ever...") but seeing some of the messages on wedding chat boards has really brought it home to me.

For example, people are worrying about how they're going to afford petals for decorating the tables when they're on a tight budget. My first thought is "Do you need petals on the table?!"

I know it's easy to get carried away with all the wedding preparations, and I know how convincing the propoganda (aka magazines) can be, persuading you to spend money, so it needs some clear thinking.

My advice is, when you find yourself saying "We NEED..." take a while (either minutes or days) to really consider how much the thing, such as petals on the tables, will really contribute to the day, and if it would really cause a problem to not have it.

So far, doing this, we've decided we're more than happy to dispense with official wedding cars, veil, tiara, video, favours, "proper" decorated cake (having plain shop bought layers with fresh or silk flowers), "proper" printed invitations (printing them ourselves on the computer).

Some of those things I wouldn't actually have wanted anyway, and the relief at deciding to do it "our way" is very liberating!

For extra stress-relief we're not having speeches or a one-sided top table either. People are surprised at first, with this and other things, but when they say "but you have to..." we just challenge them to explain why, and usually they go "because, because... yeah, you're right, you don't have to!"

We're confident that anyone that still has doubts will be won over on the day when they experience a truly fabulous and relaxed day (as long as we get a move on and arrange it all!)

Ms Thrift

WeirdoMagnet

Glad to hear you are still chilled about your wedding plans Ms T!

Did you ever find your green shoes, I thought of you the other day when I saw some in M&S!