The All New Wedding Tips Thread (no chat please)

Marionette

Hey JBee1979,
Im feeling the same - as soon as you mention "W" word, the prices skyrocket!
We're also thinking of numbers and costs as dont want to start married life in debt. It is only 1 day after all.
I've been to smaller weddings as a guest and had more of a blast than the larger/more expensive days/weekends. Im thinking of what we enjoyed about those days and trying to incorporate ideas that way. Also, its your and your OH's day - do it the way that you want.
Above all, enjoy it as its the reason why you are getting married that is important, not how much it cost.
Have fun

savvy

Making it yourself sometimes is cheaper and a bit more fun!

Here's a thread for Do It Yourselfers on MSE that are making their own items.

This is a link to Crafster, an American crafters site that also posts tutorials on some of the items - Wedding Forum

savagestrawberry

I'm getting married in May 2013 and these are a couple of things that have saved me money:

Ceremony time:
We're getting married at 4pm so will only have to feed our guests once. We've been to a few weddings where we've eaten a 3course sit down meal and a few hours later the evening buffet is out and barely anyone touches it! We are forgoing a sit down meal - for 60 guests and a very optimistic £30-40 per head it would have cost £1800-2400! We decided to just have a buffet and spend the saving on our honeymoon. We're doing the buffet ourselves and plan to get catering platters from Costco.

Photographer
We were horrified that a photographer costs the same as the venue hire. I posted on Facebook about my quotations and asked if anyone knew a good affordable photographer. I got 3 responses from family and friends. We decided to go with one of these friends who is doing it for free- we've paid for their hotel is all. She loves her photography hobby and cares so much about doing a good job she has enrolled on a 2year photography course, bought a new camera, and is doing a pre-wedding shoot. So top tip would be utilise your social media!

Wedding dress
My dress is from monsoon, his suit is from h&m - cost approx £300 for both! Our bridesmaids are different ages 10,13,19. So I realised I was going to struggle with off the peg. I used lightinthebox.com I told each bridesmaid to pick a different dress each but it had to be made from the same fabric as each other (satin). They just arrived, all in matching fabric exactly, excellent quality, for £150 in p&p. Definitely recommend.

Venue
There's a really grand hall we liked for our reception. It's 15mins walk from where I live and my grandad is scattered in the gardens, but it cost £1500 to rent. We walked round the grounds- there is also an old coachouse which has
been turned into a golf club - hire £100. And we get to take photos in the gardens! So always explore all options.
When looking at venues it will usually be cheaper to have ceremony and reception in the same place- if you don't want a church wedding. Check out the council website(s) for the area you want to get married for registered venues - quickest & easiest way to find suitable wedding venues in my opinion!

Hope this helps x

Juliaevans_2

I noticed there is little mention of wedding entertainment in this thread - am I missing something? I really feel that a wedding band or wedding dj can really make or break the reception. Does anyone have any recommendations in this respect?

Someone has previously suggested Eight Ray Music and they look great but I'd love to hear from anyone else who may have used them before?

I really want to get the best wedding band and obviously for the cheapest money! ha!

Thanks, Julia

p.s. as a newbie, I cant post a link for you to see them but just add the dot com

skintmumof2

jbee1979 wrote: »

Great tips, my head is swimming. I've been internetting all night!! We're hoping to get married next year in the smallest wedding in my family EVER as an alternative to eloping. 30 guests max.

Everything is so expensive if you google "wedding"!! The price just inflates!! I can't rely on practical help as I don't have friends that can flower arrange & decorate & bake etc. dying arts!!

I'd like registry office then a restaurant dinner, eat what you want, drink what you want, chat, laugh, go home when we're all merry. I know this will offend people. I'm really struggling with the guilt re: the people who won't make the cut, but I'm not made of money.

I'm scared I might regret not having a big doooo in years to come, but realistically now, I want to be married and I can't afford to be paying off a loan until I'm in my 40's!!

Is this normal?

Im really new to this forum & everything wedding related, so I'll cut to the chase, can anyone in Northern Ireland recommend a lovely restaurant with a quietish corner, with room for 20-30 guests, that would allow us to eat, drink & be merry without adding in the seemingly obligatory "wedding tax"?

I am the same.
Id like more people though as i have a big family, they are all big drinkers!
I wanted a non religious wedding, and a disco to get drunk at!
Its hard to try and fill the time between as i only want to do a buffet. Im struggling to see if i can get a late civil service as our local offices only hold pre dinner ceremonys.
They do say they will be doing sat ceremonys every 1st and 3rd sat till 4pm so im hoping i could get a time like at 4pm and then do something after before a disco. But no idea what!

david516

Thank you so much with all the information..plan to help get my friend married this year..this thread has made things easy for me to plan out the wedding frm venue,guests, decoration etc..

savvy

A few forum members are planning weddings on budgets of £3K! :T

You can follow their progress on this link - Our 3K Budget Wedding Planning Although it does depend on what the individual includes in their budget, as some people are fortunate to have family and friends' financial help etc.

soga

I wouldn't rule out the Chinese dress makers just yet.

Yeah,Chinese dress makers are great indeed. We are fully confident of high quality. My aunt's beautiful A-line ball gown Princess Wedding Dress is perfect.

JonesM

We just got married and found a really good way to cut the catering costs is to order a cheese wedding cake, really cost effective and look stunning as part of the evening meal. Cost around 2.5 pounds per head and the cheese was lovely. My family love cheese and if this is the case with you, just be a bit careful where you get the cheese from. We got ours from the cheeseworks in cheltenham, you will not find their cheese in supermarkets, you can really taste the difference. We got their Jersey Cheese Wedding Cake.

ellay864

Ok so it's 18 months since I did the deed but I still lurk a little, and hope it's OK to post on here. Not so much a money saving tip but something I did that I thought I'd share.
This was my 2nd wedding, and as I got into planning mode it amazed me how much I'd forgotten about what I did first time round, how I found things out, and even details of the day itself. Now maybe there's a reason I'd wiped it from my memory banks but I was actually quite sad that details of what had been so special were pretty faint. Although everybody says your wedding day is something you'll never forget, over time some of the details will get lost...and assuming your marriage lasts, you won't want to forget them. So this time round I was determined to make sure I captured everything.
In the run up to my wedding I did blog a little on the gettingmarried.com site, but after my wedding I went to town writing up all the details of where I'd sourced things, what I'd made, details fo my dress. I spent some time during our honeymoon actually writing up a detailed diary of the wedding day before the little details escaped me. Then over the next few weeks and months when the post-wedding blues start to hit I got busy creating a web-site (free one )where I put it all down.
I included details about us, how we met, the proposal etc. I included the transcript from the ceremony (the registrar just e-mailed me it), copies of the readings, our vows (we wrote our own), and links to the music we had. I also then did a separate blog with every possibel detail of the day and linked that in too. And of course lots of photos.
Last week a friend mentioned it and I sent her the link. It got me looking at it again and brought back some lovely memories. I'm so glad I have got this now. No matter how much you think you'll never forget, you are bound to as you get older (and especially if you go on to have kids!) and other things take over, so I'd really recommend thinking about capturing as much as you can to look back on