MoneySaving Weddings Article Discussion

irisandalex · 6 May 2011 at 11:25AM

I think Martin is spot on - a money saving wedding doesn't mean second rate wedding, it just means choosing what your spending priorities are and ensuring you aren't overpaying!

Reception venue: My tip would be to consider using a church hall (often free) for the venue and hanging a couple of surplus army parachutes stretched out from the centre of the ceiling to create a wonderful atmosphere. They even come in pink (don't ask me why the army has pink parachutes though...).

Photographer: Tips for finding the perfect wedding photographer? Find a number of photographers who are free on your date, look through their example photos, and you'll soon get a feel for the kind of style you'd like.

We couldn't find a professional photographer we liked without spending more than we wanted to so asked various friends to photograph parts of the day. I have to say we do now regret not finding a professional as the photos are a such a key memory of the day!

Then it's just a case of deciding how much of the day you want photographed and whether you want albums, enlargements, online galleries etc.

Also consider having a pre wedding engagement shoot: often a photographer will offer to do this for free and it's a great chance to get to know them and get comfortable having your picture taken in a no pressure situation.

Use a website like trustedlocal.com to find photographers who are free on your date. Get an idea of their charges, check their portfolios and take it from there!

(Disclaimer - I'm involved with this website so would recommend it, but alternatively look in the yellow pages and you'll be able to find local photographers yourself who you can then phone to see if they're available.)

Confetti: My final money saving tip for now: start collecting and drying petals. Make cones from your old wedding magazines, fill them with the petals and you have beatiful confetti which will be lovely to walk through and will look wonderful in the photos.

misscoupon · 6 May 2011 at 1:22PM

irisandalex wrote: »

Confetti: My final money saving tip for now: start collecting and drying petals. Make cones from your old wedding magazines, fill them with the petals and you have beatiful confetti which will be lovely to walk through and will look wonderful in the photos.

Sorry to hijack the thread but how do you keep the petals from going brown?

altheavlive · 7 May 2011 at 8:41AM

My partner and I are getting married next year, we are getting no help from parents in this so have gone for an all inclusive package at somewhere we never thought we could afford. Rowton Castle in Shrewsbury. We did our research on the web, as we knew what we were looking for but needed to try and find something that fitted budget so we also looked at registry offices with wedding breakfast elsewhwere, for us it became apparent that we would have to do the all in one. Our choice came down to two place the Christopher Wren house in Windsor and Rowton in Shrewsbury. Rowton one for a couple of reasons it was both of our ideal of getting married in a castle and fitted in with our love of the medieval age; and the cost. For a wedding on a Saturday with exclusive use of the castle with its 10 acres of land and 14 bedrooms the cost was a little over £5k, yes therre is food on top of that, however if we could have afforded to go during the week we could have had a lot more for our money including the exclustivity, the dj, the flowers, etc all included in the price.
We have splurged on our rings, but we have made our own invites adn wedding pack, we are asking for money for our honeymoon as our wedding list or if they dont want to do that they can give money to a charity.
We are also making our own table decoratiosn and place names and sitting plans. We have decided if we cant afford a photography we will use friends photos, but we have some friends who are very good photographers.
I thought we were doing well on budget but we still can do more so looking forward to getting more ideas from this link to what we can do to save more

sexymouse · 7 May 2011 at 9:42AM

I might be wrong, but I don't think the article mentions getting married abroad. This saved us loads of money, as we only spent what we would have on a honeymoon anyway, as the wedding was included when you book a certain category of room and stay for a set time. I know it's not an option for some people, but our wedding was perfect, and we just had a small party for family and friends on our return.

Rainbowsend_2 · 7 May 2011 at 9:51PM

We got married on a smallish budget.

We were fortunate enough to be able to have a humanist ceremony and the reception in our parents back garden. Just needed to do the official bit at the registry office first. We had a marquee but saved on a swanky hotel venue or church wedding and all that goes with it. It was my family home so I found the setting really personal.

I got my dress for £199. It was an ex display one that I found and tried on at the NEC Wedding Fair. I was very happy with it and a lot less stressed when it got splashed with red wine :mad:

A friend of mine who is a stationery designer made my invitations to fit in with my theme. There are loads of websites and designers out there who can do this (or give it a go yourself). I found the bits I wanted from Syntego stationery and Claire made up my invitations, order of service, menus etc.. and saved me loads.

Newly_Married · 8 May 2011 at 12:39PM

Hi All,

I am so interested to read what everyone has to say below.

I just got married in January. We chose January because that was when we could both get time off work and when relatives who are important to both of us could come from abroad. A lot of people were surprised we had such a large wedding in January (we had 100 guests) but we would highly recommend it. Many of the suppliers we used were available and at short notice - unlike in the summer when there appears to be at least five couples chasing their services on any particular day. This meant that we could pick and choose who we used and then haggle for discount! Also, a lot of the services offered a discount anyway because it was January (the man's suit hire and the venue), which was great. The downside (if you can call it that) was that nearly all of the guests we sent invites out to jumped at the chance of coming - no-one is doing anything in January so all greatly looked forward to our do but this pushed the guest numbers and related cost up.

I would warn anyone planning a wedding that we found the fees charged by the Church very expensive. We thought that it would be cheap but it cost hundreds to use the facilities for the service, which was an unexpected cost and they wouldn't allow us to bring our own organist or anything to cut the cost. Despite both being religious we felt it was a bit of a battle and very expensive to get married in church and it would have been cheaper to have a civil ceremony!

My bridesmaids dresses came from a high-street store when there was a special discount day on so this saved hundreds - the bridal shops were quoting me over a hundred pounds for a little girls bridesmaids dress, whereas in the end they cost me £35.00 each.

I have a question for everyone now though -what can I do with my wedding gown please? It is a Pronovias La Sposa Martina dress, size 12 and is beautiful! It has straps with beading on and a long train. I loved it so much and don't want to put it into a box into the loft, I want someone else to have it to enjoy it as much as I did. The problem being that it was worth £1400 when new so ideally I want to sell it. I have tried advertising it on the board at my local supermarket and on Pre-Loved and Gumtree but no-one seems interested. I have offered to take a £1,000.00 hit on it from new! Does anyone know how I can sell it without spending a lot more money out on advertising? Has anyone any tips please on what I can do with it?

Any ideas would be gratefully welcomed! The dress is just hanging up in the special bag at the moment gathering dust which seems such a shame.

Good luck to you all who are at the minute planning weddings. My biggest tip would be not to mention the W word when first negotiating - because the price totally rockets!

Newly_Married · 8 May 2011 at 8:42PM

altheavlive wrote: »

My partner and I are getting married next year, we are getting no help from parents in this so have gone for an all inclusive package at somewhere we never thought we could afford. Rowton Castle in Shrewsbury. We did our research on the web, as we knew what we were looking for but needed to try and find something that fitted budget so we also looked at registry offices with wedding breakfast elsewhwere, for us it became apparent that we would have to do the all in one. Our choice came down to two place the Christopher Wren house in Windsor and Rowton in Shrewsbury. Rowton one for a couple of reasons it was both of our ideal of getting married in a castle and fitted in with our love of the medieval age; and the cost. For a wedding on a Saturday with exclusive use of the castle with its 10 acres of land and 14 bedrooms the cost was a little over £5k, yes therre is food on top of that, however if we could have afforded to go during the week we could have had a lot more for our money including the exclustivity, the dj, the flowers, etc all included in the price.
We have splurged on our rings, but we have made our own invites adn wedding pack, we are asking for money for our honeymoon as our wedding list or if they dont want to do that they can give money to a charity.
We are also making our own table decoratiosn and place names and sitting plans. We have decided if we cant afford a photography we will use friends photos, but we have some friends who are very good photographers.
I thought we were doing well on budget but we still can do more so looking forward to getting more ideas from this link to what we can do to save more

Hi - can I just give you a tip. If you are doing your own name place cards and going to put them on the tables yourselves then put them into table order before you attend at the venue, rather than trying to lay them out when you have limited time. Basic but sensible and it will save you at least an hour of work and being hassled! Wish someone had told me......

DiamondsnPearls · 9 May 2011 at 1:38PM

We are challenging ourselves to do our wedding on less than £2k, idealy for £1.5k if poss!

I have managed to find a country pub that has a premier inn hotel attatched to it and conference facilities, including a late bar and private courtyard.
It has cost is £205 to hire then we have to order food on top, which was sit down 3 course or buffet. We chose the buffet which is £10.25 per person, although they do have 2 cheaper options starting at £7.75. Oh and we are getting married in the registry office, which comes to a total o £110.50.

We have about 80 guests, including up to 20 kids! and the lady who organises it all said to order buffet for 75% of the guests, we are counting the children as half a person each, so all together it is 70 people which means about £520 for food for 75% of the guests, assuming they all come! Then we are going to chuck a couple of hunderd quid behind the bar and give everyone a raffle ticket or a free drink.

Then obviously we have to decorate the hall and do the cake, which OH and I are doing ourselves.
Ebay is fantastic for scourcing everything from dresses, to decorations, ballons, people even sell sugarcrafted stuff on there to decorate the cake with! I bought my dress off there, BNWT for £46 inc delivery. OH is scottish so he and our boys are going to HAVE to wear kilts, which is pretty expensive, about £200+ just for hire.

We are still not decided on the photogropher front, it's a massive expense, so that one is still up for debate.

irisandalex · 9 May 2011 at 3:51PM

misscoupon wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but how do you keep the petals from going brown?

We didn't do anything apart from air dry them. I guess that does mean the petals don't stay their original colour, but that's not a bad thing! Still lovely!

Also of course this is eco friendly and biodegradable, so no worries with littering your venue.

jac2603 · 10 May 2011 at 2:24PM

hi im a wedding cake designer nobody ever asks me what i could to for a price instead they always pick what they want and ask the price if you have a buget i would be wilingl if given notice so that when im quite i could be making flowers and would be quite willing to do a cheaper price for the following year its much better to have a designed cake than a shop machine cake

MoneySaving Weddings Article Discussion

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free