Wedding Money Saving Tips?

quatrofromageo

The Good News: I got engaged last month! :j

The Bad News: We just added up the cost of a wedding :eek:

Does anyone have some general good advice about saving money?

We're currently looking at centre pieces, flowers and churches.
Church of England wants £1,000 to marry us!

I had no idea it would all be so expensive.

securityguy

Go down to the registry office, get married, have dinner afterwards with a few friends. Change out of two hundred quid. Easy. Everything is your own choice.

The definition of someone who shouldn't be reading MSE: the person who continues renting because they spent the deposit on a house or more, on a party.

Shovel_Lad

Have a look here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

motorguy

securityguy wrote: »

Go down to the registry office, get married, have dinner afterwards with a few friends. Change out of two hundred quid. Easy. Everything is your own choice.

The definition of someone who shouldn't be reading MSE: the person who continues renting because they spent the deposit on a house or more, on a party.

+1

We did this. Have a fantastic day.

We used a local top hotel who were doing an offer of £140 per double / twin room including breakfast and a 4 course evening meal in the their restaurant for two, and we paid for all 14 of us to stay over.

We'd a fantastic meal, a great night in the bar into the early hours, then up the following morning for a great breakfast for everyone all for less than £1000. Only other expense was flowers (which we used at the wedding and then brought them to the hotel) and the registrar.

loulou123

Congratulations

I got married 18 months ago and cut costs on the following ways...

We got married on a Thursday - we saved a couple of thousand pounds on venue alone doing this, the DJ and photographer were also much cheaper as it was a weekday.

Hired a fairly "new" photographer, this was a gamble as they were an unknown wanting to build up a portfolio so gave us a fantastic deal and the photos were brilliant.

DIYed everything possible, I made all our save the dates, all our invites etc myself using my computer, printed them on a normal printer and then embellished them with ribbon etc. I also made our table plan, place cards, order of day, my bouquet (foam roses and beads and sparkley bits!) Pin holes, my headband.

We brought cupcakes from m & s and a top tier to cut, this was fairly cheap.

We brought all the bits for our centrepieces and room decorations (it was cheaper then hiring them) set them all up the day before and the venue set them up on the tables for us on the day. We didn't have any fresh flowers, as I'm not fussed by flowers and they worked out so expensive.

My dress I was lucky and my parents brought. Our rings were fairly expensive but we wanted good quality, so it was worth it.

Hope I've given you some hints...

quatrofromageo

Shovel_Lad wrote: »

Have a look here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

Cheers! Don't know how else I'd get to this board :rotfl:

JimmyTheWig

quatrofromageo wrote: »

Does anyone have some general good advice about saving money?

Don't go to specifically "wedding" suppliers.
In fact, don't even mention the word "wedding" when getting quotes. E.g. you want a DJ for a family party, food for a function, etc.

securityguy

loulou123 wrote: »

Congratulations
DIYed everything possible, I made all our save the dates

Why not just send out invitations? This "save the dates" thing is just modern flummery.

Bella73

We didn't bother with save the date cards.

Made our own invites using computer to be honest they just get binned anyway.

Had fake flowers as they look very real and were loads cheaper.

Didn't bother with favours as most weddings we've been too, everyone sits down says how cute and that's it left on the table so I feel it's a waste of time and money.

We has a buffet so no headaches with top table and seating plan as people could sit where they liked.

Made our own postbox for cards.

valk_scot

Oxfam wedding dress shops...designer samples, end of ranges, vintage and antique second-hand.

Seanymph

work out what you want, then save money on that.

My first wedding we made the invites, thankyou's and service cards with a pencil drawing of the church on the front. But we still hit about £15,000....

I could have saved loads more.

My second wedding, my OH and our three kids came, my dress was ebay, the jacket charity shop - and it cost us stuff all! we then rented a campervan and went to france house shopping for two weeks.

So, teh first time I wanted a church wedding - the second I didn't.

So, what is important to you?