Wedding Tips start here...

pattycake

At my daughter's wedding, my husband and I paid for the drinks reception, wine with the meal and fizz for a toast. Jugs of tap water were on the tables. Our venue was a reputable one. We wanted the wine to flow freely and we trusted the staff to charge us for what was consumed. Our trust was not misplaced.

In the evening, we calculated that each drink was an average of £3. We had 50 guests. Therefore, we put money behind the bar £150. The bride and groom and his parents did the same. The groom's grandfather was too ill to attend but he sent £200. This means a £650 tab. The idea was that once this was exhausted, the guests could buy their own drinks. In the event, the money lasted all night. I even had about £18 credited to my final bill as there was a little left.

Everyone had a great time, did not need to pay anything and I had no worries that I would have a large invoice at the end of the night.

Does this sound like a good compromise?

treacle

This a really pretty easy to use site that allows you to create your own wedding website. You can add photos, stories, planning pictures, details of the wedding, reception, places to stay, gift lists etc. Much easier than trying to include it all on a single invite. Guests could even RSVP via the site. Best of all it is free!

I've had loads of fun putting my site together! :j

www.weddingpath.com

Joyful25

I've just got engaged :j and I've never wanted a big wedding so hopefully we're looking at something that will cost no more than £3,000. As for parents, mine are divorced. Mum's in no position to pay, and Dad has his own family, though he's quite traditional so he may want to contribute something.
Everyone is different, but what I keep in mind is that I don't want debts hanging over the start of a married life (our monthly outgoings mean saving is an issue right now); it's only one day and while people rightly argue it will be the only day you do it, sometimes more thought and imagination goes into a small budget than a straight-out-of-a-brochure wedding where money is less of an issue.

8pnoodles

We're getting married this September and it's costing us £2k for the whole thing (no honeymoon).

Bloke is a photographer so he's photographed my engagement ring and some ivory roses and that's our pic for the invites. he's making the invitations using glossy photocard, they look fab. He's also going to be doing most of our wedding photography, which should be hilarious! Think - lots of him setting the camera timer, then legging it into the photo!

Staying at a travel inn the night before for free with leisure vouchers from Pigsback.com. We'll have around 50 guests. Get married in a registry office around midday. Bloke is wearing his army uniform he got for free off a mate. Just needs alterations. My dress and two bridesmaid dresses are from ebay.

Silk flowers from ebay, I didn't wanna pay £18 per bridesmaid bouquet so I'm making my own using flowers I bought cheaply from the seller I got my bouquet from so they match.

My ring is from Goldsmiths, so only £120 as I have £230 of deals vouchers from tesco clubcard points! We racked these up quickly by buying our wine for the wedding online using grocery codes from here.

We're having a BBQ wedding main meal and then a small buffet and DJ/disco in the evening. The reception is in a gorgeous building that looks like a church! The tables are decorated with a single silk rose in a glass bud vase each, with silk rose petals around, and a gold bowl of white chocolates. Sooo cheap but looks stunning! If the budget can stretch and the weather looks good we may buy giant garden jenga for outside where the BBQ is.

Obviously we're selling most of our wedding stuff on ebay once we're done so we should make around £200 back off the wedding if we're lucky.

We're both in debt but worked out it'd be cheaper for us to be married than not as bloke is in the army and we're currently spending a fortune on travel costs to see each other. We'll live in cheap army accomodation once we're hitched.

The wedding is setting back our debt free days but it's worth it.

We were thinking of having a honeymoon either when we can afford it or maybe going camping, but I don't trust the weather!

My parents have been amazing and surprised us with a gift of £1k towards either our debts, the wedding, the honeymoon, whatever we want it for! They are also giving us a gift of £3k for a deposit towards a house.

We're currently toying with the idea of a last minute cheap deal to the Canaries or Greece.

Bloke is worried he can't afford to pay for his half of the wedding though so, as I don't want him panicking, I've said we can use some of the money towards it. We were gonna buy a new washing machine when we moved into army accomodation as we'll need one, but we can go for second hand and cheap.

roses

My brother got married last year. He paid £1000 for 100 people for a 3 course meal at a local restaurant, absolute bargain!

Also I bought my dress from a charity shop for £27. It was gorgeous & originally a proper wedding dress!

Weddings don't have to be expensive. You don't always "get what you pay for" by doing things on the cheap. It's only snobs who think this and anyone that says this I wish I could smack!

purpleimp

Hello folks,

I got married a fortnight ago so I'll share all my hints and tips with you, there were a lot of places where we saved, we got our cake,and invitations, as presents, we had a buffet meal which my folks paid for but there were still expenses, my jeweler is a friend so my ring was cheaper than usual, our photographer was a friend so we got them at cost price etc etc.

We hired a members club for the venue which was beautiful, it cost us £5 for a social member ship and £20 for the hire of the hall, we hired tables and extra chairs from a local bowling club for £20.

Our alcohol was ordered wholesale with £1 a bottle corkage, from the club itself, our toasts were whiskey, orange juice and pimms, we had 70 guests with red and white wine on each table (not even choosing the cheapest plonk) and it came to less than £300 for the drinks.

My dress was my mothers that I had re-altered which cost £20 for the fabric and matching stole and £40 labour. I made my own tiara from fake pearls, a kids wire hairband and a solder gun, ( the hairdresser, who does weddings every week said it was the nicest tiara she'd seen) I also made my own garter, my shoes were bought from meadows bridal shoes online from their clearance range, they cost £10 plus £4.50 p and p.

My table decorations were metalic confetti ( I bought them on ebay as a bulk 10 pack order for less than £10) I got my balloons (satin latex helium quality £2.49 for 40 also from ebay) my tablecloths were starched white sheets who everyone has and my purple napkins also came from ebay at £1.20 a packet of 40!

table numbers were round stones from the shore spray painted silver with the numbers written on in marker pen, I got my candle holders on ebay, (used once for a wedding) 60 for £5 p and p was £25 because of where I live but they were still much cheaper than buying them new, the candles themselves were 99p for a packet of 100.

A friend of mine is also getting maried in the next few weeks and a mutual friend organised the favours for both weddings as neither of us had planned to bother, so she hopped onto ebay bought 200 bath bombs for £19.99 selophane bags £3.00 for 100 and a few packets of suitably coloured ribon roses and over a couple of bottles of wine we sat down and assembled them, we put 2 bombs per bag so got 50 favours each, so doing them with 1 per bag would stretch them twice as far, if doing this though make sure you check that they wont irritate sensitive skin, my skin is very iritable and sensitive so I checked them first and figured if they were ok for my skin they'd be fine for anyone! and they went down a storm.

OOOOh and as for the chocolate fountains, dont bother hiring one!!!!I was given one as a wedding present from the best man because he knows how much of a chocoholic I am, he bought it on www.firebox.com,( it's a stainless steel 3 tier one) I have to say it's dead easy to clean and fantastic, we used it for the first time on wednesday night using the 900g back of chocolate supplied, it stated that that quantity would feed 6, 6 of us spent 3 hours dipping till we could hardly breathe ( the best thing to dip is ice cream!) and what was left filled a pint jug, what was in it could easily have fed 40 people dipping after a meal, go to firebox instead!!!!!!!

I'm sure I have loads more suggestions and when I remember I'll let you all know, I hope this helps!

Imp

Contains_Mild_Peril

A very good list of questions, deecy.

deecy wrote:

Find out who will get the copyright and how long they keep your images and what they will use them for.

The photographer will almost always retain copyright, unless a good friend or relative of the bride or groom. Most will keep the images for a long time in the hope of reprint orders, but it's worth checking how long - you never know who might want a print maybe 20-30 years down the line. The photographer will usually rubber-stamp the back of each print with copyright information to help prevent unauthorised copying - photo labs will not make a print from a copyright-marked print without the copyright owner's permission.
Ask about the longevity of prints, too.

Ask what back-up equipment they have?

Very important! I was gobsmacked to learn that another member of my camera club has carried out professional wedding photogaphy with only 1 camera! I would not dream of living so dangerously.

Ask for a discount!

And be prepared to haggle!

Since I live in Scotland I have no previous knowledge of either of the photographers mentioned, but having clicked on the links, I'm very impresses with Chris McLellan's work. Many of pictures have a very natural feel to them - it's so easy for wedding pics to turn out looking overposed.
A Google search will probably also find many little-known semi-pros who may produce comparable work to full-time pros, but at better prices.

Viz_2

helenyw wrote:

Hi,


http://www.chris-mclennan.com



Helen

This one looks good.

We booked our photographer yesterday. I think basically with price you get what you pay for in terms of quality. We see a few different photographers but booked this one there and then.

http://www.reportagephotography.com/

jellybabies_2

what area are you in??? i used to deal with lots of photographers. might be able to recommend someone. if not it is best to go by personal recomendation, for price and quality and personality. some are a bit grumpy and that dont make for a relaxed day.
ps. most photographers started off being in the engineering trade and then swapped jobs. useless info or what??

cookiemonster25

the chocolate fountain we have hired is 54 inches high so slightly more impressive than the table top ones, defo worth a few quid to hire for the wow factor