Wedding Planning...

Cathygpie

Daughter has got engaged and has booked registry office for August. She was thinking of farm type venue for reception but not much luck in the middle of a city and we are likely to have over 100 guests, her idea, not mine

Found a Boho type warehouse, we thought we could provide own alcohol etc but I think licencing laws won't permit that. Turns out the warehouse is going to be more expensive than local hotel package. 

We are contributing financially, fortunately they have a house. I just hate the whole wedding circus and added extras they try to foist on you. 

I would love to hear how others have saved  money e.g.making own table decorations etc . 

Emmia

Cathygpie said:

Daughter has got engaged and has booked registry office for August. She was thinking of farm type venue for reception but not much luck in the middle of a city and we are likely to have over 100 guests, her idea, not mine

Found a Boho type warehouse, we thought we could provide own alcohol etc but I think licencing laws won't permit that. Turns out the warehouse is going to be more expensive than local hotel package. 

We are contributing financially, fortunately they have a house. I just hate the whole wedding circus and added extras they try to foist on you. 

I would love to hear how others have saved  money e.g.making own table decorations etc . 

A smaller wedding will be the most money saving.

Areas of easy saving are in the wedding dress - either a white evening gown could be bought, or you could go second hand, Oxfam have special wedding shops where you can try on and buy donated dresses. (But if your daughter has a dream of a new Pronovia dress...)

Whistles has a wedding section too if your daughter would prefer a new dress.

Bridesmaids, again avoid the wedding shop, great dresses can be found in department stores, or online via Coast etc. I wore dresses intended for the races/prom and bought in the sale for both my sister's weddings, and they wore shift dresses from BHS(!) for mine (I think the dresses were less than £30 each)

Have you booked a photographer? I ask, as they're often more difficult to get than a venue, and some will be booking now for summer 2026 or 2027!

Misslayed

I did all my own flowers and table arrangements- I had a trial run several weeks before (which demonstrated how far in advance I could do them), I learned the techniques from YouTube and bought supermarket flowers - saved loads. 

Don't buy anything labelled 'wedding' - for example, I had circular mirrors on each table, £5 each from a wedding supplier, £5 for a pack of 5 in The Range. Our venue was next to the sea, I made origami yachts for name cards (took ages but worth the effort). I also made my own invitations, added fancy paper inserts to cards bought from our Hospice shop. We spent our budget on the venue (with its fabulous view), the wedding band and the meal. Second time round for us so we knew what our priorities were. 

coffee_cake

We had no bridesmaids, no flowers (other than bouquet which I made myself), sorted our own table decorations.  Also made our own wedding invites and favours.  Photographer booked via a Groupon offer.  Wedding dress was under £250 from a discount website. 
Most of the budget went on hiring the venue - included the meal and entertainment.

Cathygpie

Many thanks to you all. Never released photographer would be big priority first.
Made me see that venue is the priority and many of the extras can be 
 Sorted ourselves.  Retired, no excuse 

RAS

When she was interested in a farm type venue, what was she wanting to achieve, see? Can you add elements of that in your new venue.

Ideas from weeding I've been to:

Bride and sister made wedding favours, in this case sweet almonds encased in circles of net picking up detail on the brides dress.

Bridesmaids wore black evening  or cocktail dresses, trimmed with detail identical to the bride's dress. It meant they would wear them again, with the trim removed.

Wholesale-bought little pots of flowers on the tables. Buy a batch of relatively cheap cover pots, paint if necessary.

Another family went for a couple of huge containers of white flowers, cow parsley. Everyone was wowed by this weed out of context. OK it was a country venue but think outside the box.

tealady

RAS said:

When she was interested in a farm type venue, what was she wanting to achieve, see? Can you add elements of that in your new venue.

Ideas from weeding I've been to:

Was it a hoe down (I'll get my coat!)

Savvy_Sue

Have you googled "City farm near me"? We have several. But what is she after, haybales in a field or what?

Ours was cheap: no bridesmaids or best man, I made my own dress, friends at church provided cake, flowers (I didn't have a bouquet), photography, limo to take me to church, byo food at reception. Held at our church, no charge for hall, no alcohol. So it wouldn't suit everyone.

I don't know what youngest's wedding cost last year, but they did their own flowers and the bride's mother made the cake. Most of my outfit was already in my wardrobe, charity shop bargains, because I couldn't find anything I liked better. Added new sandals and shoes for dancing,and indulged in a hat! Probably spent more on my outfit for that than on the entire wedding 40+ years ago!

twopenny

My friend got married in a registry office. It was intimate and a great feeling of being at a very personal moment.

She bought her dress from Monsoon...........she is a bit eccentric but we loved it. It was gold, full length, hair flowers and small bouquet.

Buttonholes only for the immediate family

The reception for close family and friends who attended the wedding was at their house (with buffet) and garden.

It's the only wedding I've enjoyed because we were able to mingle and chat and laugh with people we knew and walk around. Not tied to being next to strangers just where we were put and unable to move for hours.

Then there was a big evening reception for the masses at a large country pub when all the formal stuff was done.

One tip, everyone I've been to has meant driving even is the majority is local or staying local to the couple and so a large proportion of people can't have a drink while the rest are getting stuck in. You are unlikely to be able to sit with people you know and that makes a long night.

northAthenian

hi, just to add,  apologies such a long post....
 ..  we followed the rule of picking 3 things to concentrate money on & the rest became nice to have if budget /dreams met..
We had decided on 70 guests max.. someone told me, that their venue told them that 30% of invitees will end up not attending - i scoffed.. we invited 68..53 made it .very spooky!!
 we were early 30s so paid for our own wedding.(family treated us to honeymoon)
  our 3 criteria to spend budget on
 -  Venue that had accommodation & ceremony space on site
 (used a historic Scotland property, not as crazy a price as you might think) and booked a midweek date for the ceremony -  not just because it can be cheaper, but most usefully as you wont be fighting for every other provider on a Saturday who has bookings 18 months out at minimum.
we got "wed on a Wednesday". The cost of the site Monday afternoon to Friday midday was equal to Friday midday to Mon morning. We sent a save-the date-email a year in advance since it was a weekday - one guest had a job that couldn't allow them the time off, the remainder treated it as a holiday as they had that time to plan. 
Photographer
- we wanted someone to do reportage style -  . back then we got a disc, no album. still love the photos. I've got excellent, un-posed portraits of treasured friends & we did something unusual .. inspired by  'a first look'  we did our wedding couple photos before the wedding ceremony itself. was brilliant - 40 minutes in the grounds - calming down in nature away from the hubbub. didn't regret that one bit. it might horrify some people but worked for us.
 Caterers for wedding meal
- equal in cost to venue hire, but important to us and they were superb. patiently liaised on menu, did BBQ night before, sourced our Cake of Scottish cheese wheels, Let us use own booze for after ceremony toasts while mingling, own wine for meal, ran their cash bar for the night.
 
  the extras we found extra cash for:
Music: 
planned to use Ipod for music, in the end saved a bit more cash & got amazing live band for discounted price by booking a month before at a wedding show and simply as a Wednesday it was cheap as was off peak
make up  -  for bride & maid of honor. again, booked a month before at same wedding show - simply easy to get her as it was a Wednesday! dont know that it was any cheaper, but i got the business owner herself & felt immensely comfortable with her

 > cost saving 
as all on1 site = no wedding cars

no flowers
no favours
did own hair
no bridesmaids = no dresses
best man wore own kilt, as did groom.
bride wore a £280 floor length sequin number from Phase Eight & rocked it 
made own invites 
 collected silly hats from charity shops for a few weeks before, took up with us, gave them out as an 'icebreaker' at  the night before meet & greet - great photos 

   for our own decor - used Pinterest for inspiration - there's a wealth of 'how to' also on You Tube these days
pick a theme, pick a colour palette & let it guide you 
 ours was October wedding - autumnal colour in Scottish highlands, so for months before had BIL - a postie - collecting hundreds of fallen pinecones* on his routewalk.. posted a large box to friends with a glue gun & tiny metal hoops, they attached them & put them on hessian twine to create garlands we put round reception room

 table decor/ lighting
- collected jam jars etc removed labels (used Sticky Stuff Remover) for the prior year & used battery operated tea lights in them..  in evening placed around walls on floor, it gave gentle lighting & met H&S rules
  - soup & baked beans tins - saved, removed labels, sprayed copper, tied tartan strips on & planted heather from supermarket in them
-  instead of flower display, had mini 'twig' tree per table... had cut out 1 inch leaves in tweed fabrics i had remnants of, zig zag sewed onto wire, wrapped wired leaves onto bare twigs, "planted" this in a vase

 if she's looking at August & thinking of  a Barn.. that makes me think a bit of rustic/boho style?
Harvest time/dried flowers/wheat sheaves/ trimmings of lace- source items in charity shops & chop up/ get hessian ribbon... 
 could you make tissue paper flowers if want a large wall display - vary the scale to big & small for variety- think about displays you see in fancy shops in town- Anthropology/Seasalt  had recent great examples of flowers made from cardboard etc
on reception tables.. make wreathes of wheat stalks, put a glass jar in centre with tealight, tie ribbon etc

 
NB *pinecones
-  still have these years later - in fact using spare cones right now which i found in box in attic - for a friend's wedding decor next month - painting these white & tying nametags for seating places onto them to put on table, have introduced her to the jam jar idea so for her wedding we are tying ribbon & hessian twine round the (we are replacing the batteries in the tea lights i kept in a shoebox for a decade......!)
 This friend needs a wedding welcome sign- so i have this spare mirror from a bathroom we dismantled, wil need a bit of tarting up but - yesterday my You Tube showed me how to write a sign on a mirror.
Also am creating a 'post box' for their wedding cards ( have cardboard tube in garage, wil chop up/paint/etc)
 
places like The Works have wee paper & crafty stuff in them, i got the Kraft paper nametags in Flying Tiger reduced to 50p a pack for 15 in January sale. You might now find xmas lights - the battery operated types, cheaper and can put a long curled bunch into a big jar or vase -again get vases in charity sops

 I'm aware that I'm creative & enjoy this type of thing - if bride themself is not into it, then like i am doing for my friend, I'm willing to bet there's a friend in the bride's circle who is into things like this & will love to be involved. 
happy to send piccies as cant seem to upload on this.
sorry so long a spiel

sheramber

My son made the table decorations for his wedding.  A narrow vase with a single artificial arum lily in it and some narrow leaves of foliage and a bamboo spiral.

These were given to the significsnt females fter the wedding. I still have mine. 

The brides bouquet was made with artificial arum lilies. She wanted artificial flowers so she could keep them.

Do any of their friends have any skills they could use?

Both my sons have taken wedding photographs for friends.

My son printed the invitations and place cards using his computer.