How's your budget been spent & how have you saved money?

Jolene89

Incredibly nosey of me, but I love hearing about bargain weddings.

I've been engaged since my 23rd birthday in 2012 and have been with my fianc! for 5 years. WE planned a massive remote hotel wedding because he wanted to be traditional and give me the princess day.

We had no concept of budget though and to be honest, was dreading that kind of day! So we cancelled, moved everything to the City Centre - and saved £9,000 in the process, as well as bringing the date forward by 6 months - our day minus honeymoon now is costing £8,000 - I'm quite obsessed with bargains/eBay & my Excel spreadsheet!

So how does your budget breakdown/ what have you bought so far and where have you found your bargains?

Ways we saved money

• We're getting married on a Friday afternoon @ City Hall which saved us £300 on the registrar and room hire ifor a Saturday hotel wedding.
• The late wedding means our evening guests can join us straight away and we only need to feed everyone once
• We're feeding everyone mini fish n'chips and burgers cos that's the food we love, with bacon rolls later on. The idea of a sit down meal of food we don't enjoy was daft. We've saved £3,000 on the catering alone compared to the hotel wedding.
• We're not having favours or chair covers (saved us £400!)
• We're having fake flowers
• We're only providing one arrival drink and then it's pay bar. Neither of us are from families that would expect a free bar so on we go - and there's a Wetherspoons across the road!
• We set limits for everything - lots of things have come in under and we've not gone more than £50 over on any overspend
• We bought our palladiujm wedding rings in Jewellery Quarter. They were a bargain £600 for the pair
• My perfect jewellery came in a set from John Lewis for £20

Bought so far

• Shoes £26 Red Mary Janes from Simply Be
• Notice £70
• Insurance £57
• Wedding Invitations £106 from Vistaprint, I do wish we'd waited to be sent discounts but hey ho!
• Ceremony room hire (in City Hall) £340
• Photographer (6 hours coverage, 4-10PM, photobook and hi-res images on disc)£350
• Reception room hire (private hire space in the hotel across the road) £200
• Rings (6mm palladium for fianc!, 3mm palladium for me, Birmingham Jewellery Quarter) £590
• Wedding dress £160 Made to measure tea length dress from Honeypie Boutique - I love it and am so thrilled I didn't get sucked in to paying thousands!
• Bridesmaid dresses £112 4 Red polka-dot bridesmaid dresses from eBay
• Jewellery £25
• Bride's bouquet £26 eBay, artificial roses in red and ivory. Same seller will do the bridesmaids' bouquets and a table arrangement for another £60.
• Registrar £284 Wedding ceremony is at 4:30
• Cake topper £27 from eBay (it's actually three Lion Kind decorations)
• Lingerie £40
• Cufflinks £26 My gift to the fianc!. They're infinity symbols, which he also had engraved on our rings
• Mini-moon £550 3 nights away Saturday to Tuesday in a local hotel just for us to be together and eat rubbish
• Hair & make up £80 That's the trial. It's another £130 for the day. Seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me, but I never spoil myself in this way!
• Groom's suit £83
• Groomsmen's suits (x5) £415
• Floodlights £67 To illuminate the stage
• Buttonholes £70 2 double white rose ones for our mums, 6 single white rose for his dad, my brother and the 4 groomsmen and single red rose for the fianc!.
• Memory candle £7 For my dad.
• Map pinboard £31 The fianc! is running a book on where he's going to book our honeymoon. He won't tell me and we're going to use the game as a way to raise funds for Cancer Research in honour of my dad, who passed away in March.
• Bolero £15 eBay
• Mr & Mrs Sign £12 eBay
• Haircomb £6 eBay
• Sash £3 eBay
• Postbox £17

Left to get

• DJ - £200
• Catering (mini fish n'chips/burgers and bacon rolls) & arrival drink (prosecco) for 135 (day and evening guests) - £2500
• Petticoat - £55
• Grooms shoes - £50
• Remaining flowers & decs - £180
• Bride's hair/make-up & accessories - £180
• Thank you gifts - £385
• Hotel rooms for me & fianc! - £460
• Cake costs to our lovely friends - £50

What's everyone else's secrets?!

steph2901

I've also saved a fortune by getting items from eBay. My dress, flowers, hair accessories and cake topper were all from there.

74jax

I have a thread on here ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3811691= ) for my wedding which i did on 3K, the last breakdown I did after the weddding is :

Invites.........................................Fr ee (as emailing)
Website........................................Fre e

Ceremony Total.............................1045.50
Giving notice..................................67
Registrar fees............................... .350.00
certificate.....................................3. 50
Ceremony Room Hire...................... 200.00
Drinks..........................................16 0.00
Canapes.......................................250. 00
Table pieces..................................15.00

Night Time Total............................1760.00
Hire of venue (DJ, Buffet & decs)......1500.00
Sangria Fountain............................160.00
Toast...........................................10 0.00

TOTAL SO FAR...............................2805.5

bits to go on chairs at ceremony Total.............2.00
Order of day..................................1.00 (25 off vistaprint)
You have been listening to...............1.00 (25 off vistaprint) I'm going to list all the music during the ceremony as they are all very special songs and quite quirky to us, the guests know the song and why we've chosen it.

Clothing Total...............................311.00
My wedding dress..........................150 (paid as a gift)
My shoes......................................A present
My jewelery..................................A present
OH.............................................125 .00
MOH............................................48. 00
BM.............................................48. 00
Hair & Make up..............................90.00 (i'll be doing mine, MOH and BM)

Photobooth/tree/frame TOTAL...........23.50
Photobooth....................................10.0 0
Top Tip Tree...................................1.00 (banner, pen and cards from vistaprint) making tree with twigs
Signing Frame.................................2.50 (Already have a suitable frame and mount, personalised pens from vistaprint for signing with)

Items for tables Totals.....................43.00
Driftwood.......................................Fr ee
Various pebbles/shells etc ................Free
Bowls............................................6 .00 (plastic clear ones, ordered off ebay to see how they compare with glass ones.
Mr & Mrs Cards for guests/pen..........1.00 Vistaprint
Mini Buckets..................................5.00 (for 12)
Rock sweets..................................11.00
Wine coasters................................1.00 (100 postcards off vistaprint to cut out)
Evening leaflet................................1.00 (25 of vistapring, showing what is on and where and the menu)
Table names...................................FREE (doing ourselves)
Mirror Plates x 12.............................18.00

Gifts Total......................................90.99
Wine glass charms...........................7.99 (items for me to make them)
MOH..............................................5 .00
BM................................................ 5.00
Person doing reading........................2.00 (bag with a token mug, saying thanks for the reading and sharing our day with us)
Godson..........................................2. 00 (bag with a token mug, saying thanks for not losing the rings and sharing our day with us)
Other............................................3 0.00
3 x satin wraps................................24.00
3 x gem messages (on wraps).............15.00

Photography...................................200. 00
Album (did own off vistparint)..............20.00

GRAND TOTAL................................... 3495.99


With details of the wedding here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4644407=

cashewnut

I tried on a beautiful Monsoon wedding dress today - I think it's the one for me and it's £300


I hate the thought of spending over a grand on an outfit I will wear once!

arbrighton

I bought my dress from phase eight, and with end of season sale, well under £300. Not technically a wedding dress so may well wear again

Sister is very kindly doing the invitations, table plan, thank you cards etc, as she is arty and all goes to theme.

Best man/ groom/ FOB all wearing own suits

Real flowers but £150 all in for bouquets (only two admittedly), buttonholes and matching bit for the cake. Was going to make cake myself and have friend ice it but didn't work out.

michelle09

We're trying to keep ours to 6.5k (minus honeymoon). We want to have a great day but are hoping to buy a house next year so don't want to blow our savings. Thankfully, my parents have been incredibly generous but I don't want to waste their money either. If I wouldn't spend my money on it, I don't think it's right to spend someone else's either.


Invitations £100. Including international postage.


Church Service (£700)
£500, for a Saturday afternoon service. Includes service, licence, marriage certificate (and copies), banns, heating, organist.
£200 for church bells. A little extravagant but I love church bells and it's not crazy money.


Outfits (£650)
Bride's Dress - £140.
Groom's Suit - £170. He's gone for a black suit that he can wear again. The £170 includes a waistcoat and the tailoring costs.
Bridesmaids - I've allowed £200 for the bridesmaids. I've given them a colour scheme and letting them collaborate and pick - long as they run it by me first before buying. They're providing their own shoes/accessories.
Ushers/Best Man - Buying ties. Probably £50?
Have allowed £100 for shoes, accessories and bouquets. Which will all probably come of eBay.


Reception (£5000).
£3500. Includes a welcome drink, two course sitdown meal for 80, half a bottle of wine per person, use of the reception venue until 1am, and a honeymoon suite for us afterwards.
Photographer £800. Includes engagement shoot, 150 photos on a disk and photo album. Really liked their style.
DJ/MC £500. More than I was expecting but this seems to be the going rate around here.
Favours. £200.


Main Ways We Saved Money
- Saturday Wedding (it's an incredible pain to go to a weekday wedding so I wouldn't force it on my friends), but 3pm service. Easier for people to get there, avoids Friday night in the hotel and means we only provide one meal at 7pm which will feed everyone happily.
- Church and Reception venue are on the same road and only half a mile from where I'll be staying the night before so we have avoided a wedding car.
- I decided to buy a high street dress and fell in love with one that was £210. Sadly, they didn't have my size. All that was left was a size 6, 8 and 20. I got home to find one just posted for sale online, unworn, for £70 less. From someone who lived a short bus ride away from me.
- Not buying suits from the ushers/best man. We've asked them to wear the darkest suit they have. I don't mind if they don't match, it'll still look fine. For the bridesmaids we are paying for the dress and then letting them accessorise however they please.
- My sister in law designed the invitations, very similar to the ones I loved on Etsy that were £200. Printed them at home and handwrote all the envelopes. Main cost was postage.
- Making placenames/favours. I love favours and wasn't prepared to do without them. We decided on Lego keyrings (we are very geeky) which retail approximately £5 each. I bought cheap sets on eBay from Hong Kong, a jewellery drill, superglue and keyrings and made them myself. £1.05 each. For placenames I've made solid hot chocolate on wooden spoons which have everyone's name on the label.
- Wedding Dress. I decided to buy a high street dress and fell in love with one that was £210. Sadly, they didn't have my size. All that was left was a size 6, 8 and 20. I got home to find one just posted for sale online, unworn, for £70 less. From someone who lived a short bus ride away from me. I'm not a girly girl and nothing about a designer store/dress appealed to me which made it much easier.
- Cake. We asked a couple of friends who are fantastic bakers for a cake as a wedding gift. I feel a little awkward because we didn't ask anyone else for a wedding gift, but they didn't seem to mind. I don't know what it'll be like but we get a lot of messages about salted caramel that sound tasty.

Gloomendoom

You could have saved another £210 and a bus ride by only buying one dress.

michelle09

I did only buy one dress... did I put that I bought two?