Help me get married on a budget..

[Foxxi]

Is it important to you both to get married in this country???


We got married in Cyprus.. and for the whole thing including outfits, wedding, 2 week holiday in 4* Hotel, champagne reception and night do including meals for about 30 people..the lot excluding rings tho.. cost us about £3000 or there abouts.


My brother on the otherhand...got married at the registry office..then we all went to a nearby pub where the pub put out banners and balloons and stuff free of charge and reserved the corner of the pub for us...then we all went to a worky club on the night.. we all had a fab day..probably one of the nicest and best weddings Iv been too!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.. Im sure it will be lovely

 

[Bloom]

For me its all the little things that im going to do at no extra cost that will make it extra special to me like im planning of having all the name/place cards with peoples names and there meanings on. Im going to have a wishing tree instead of a guest book so that after the wedding i can plant it and it will represent our love and marriage as it grows. Having only 40 close friends and family for the ceremony. The first dance song. All the things that cost very little but will mean so much. I really wanted a sit down meal as i wanted it quite formal with the speeches.

But i did love the castle. If you really want the castle then why don't you price it up and just have a not so glam venue for your party with say only a buffet in the evening as opposed to a sit down meal.

 

[niblet]

Just a question though... how did you choose the local bands? Did you go and watch them fist in a club or something to see how good they were?

We did, we went to local little independent gigs at little venues with little local bands playing, and found a couple we liked and tracked them down on myspace and asked them. They were both happy to do it for just petrol money and a go on the buffet. I think playing to 150 wedding guests was the biggest crowd they'd both had. It's certainly worth a try!

 

[lisa&alex]

church £800 wish we had gone somewhere else now as it was a hell of a lot of money just to have it in a church but it was my nanna and alex's parents wishes and they payed so i cant winge really..
Venue was a quaint hotel room £100 food £1000 (evening hot carvery buffet)
Table decorations balloons were aobut £50 and i just put love hearts on the table and some tea lights

Alex's suit shoes his bestmans suit etc £150
My dress and shoes veil underwear £200 (debenhams dress)
Rings £200
adult bridesmaids dresses at £30 each- £120 ivory prom dresses from newlook, £50 accessories..shawls and waist ribbon
Kids dresses ivory dresses from matalan £8 each in the sale £40
they got their own shoes
Flowers- i bought ivory roses in the flower market for £50 and made my own boquets and buttons holes..and bought fake ivory roses and made rose balls for the bridesmaids
Cake made my own £50
Made crystal necklace's and earings for adult bridesmaids, £50 bought the kids a butterfly necklace each think they were aobut £10 for all
we bought each other a present.. alex had a pocket watch £50 and he bought me diamond earings and necklace (not sure how much they were)
Car we used alex's step dads merc..

so all together we spent about 3k

hope you dont mind me adding pics.. i dont think the day looked skimped on (lol maybe im bias) so wanted to add pics as for the wedding we had it was really cheap

forgot to say.. disco was £100 and i also did our wedding invites myself.. lol.. it still came to aobut 3k.. we also had a family friend do the photography and video

 

[muppetmummy]

Muppetmummy; Can you not get the dress let out a little hun? May cost with a proper seamstress but better than buying a new one altogether

I have an appointment with a dressmaker who SarahH recommended on 3rd March. I'm gonna ask her how much the dress can be taken out cos I haven't a clue. Once I know how many inches I need to lose I will have to decide whether slimming into the dress would be realistic, or whether I should just stick it back on ebay (I only paid £70 inc P&P) and try and get hold of a size 20.
I think the skirt can be made to fit, its just the corset. I wonder if it wont fit whether the dressmaker could make a new top half

I was quite keen to get married abroad but the inlaws weren't happy. Because I'm getting married up here and all my family live in the south of england only 3 people are coming from my side of the family!! I might as well get married abroad! Too late now though, already paid a £500 non refundable deposit

 

[Krystal]

Is it important to you both to get married in this country???

Not me, i'd love to do what you suggested but OH wants his Nana to be there and some other of his family who just wouldn't be able to make it otherwise

For me its all the little things that im going to do at no extra cost that will make it extra special to me

I agree, it was always the little things that made my budget explode LOL, but with the internet at my fingertips I haven't got any excuses not to do these things still but cheaper.

We did, we went to local little independent gigs at little venues with little local bands playing, and found a couple we liked and tracked them down on myspace and asked them. They were both happy to do it for just petrol money and a go on the buffet. I think playing to 150 wedding guests was the biggest crowd they'd both had. It's certainly worth a try!

Thats a fantastic idea, i'm definately going to look into that - Thank you

Lisa - Your wedding pictures are fab and your right it doesn't look 'cheap' at all, it looks really nice. I don't think I am going to get married in a church tbh, probably in the hotel where we get married, save travelling in cars and stuff doesn't it. Your cake looks fab


Muppetmummy.. I hope the dressmaker sorts it out for you, it sounds like she should be able to

 

[Foxxi]

For bands... on the 1st of each month clubs have a band book of who is playing in their clubs for that month... and the book has the tel.numbers in there for the bands agents..its an idea

I could recommend the Manhattens.. they are fab..play middle of the road type of music for everyone to enjoy.. Dunno how much they'd cost tho for a private do!

 

[*Star*]

Rings we got from argos (lol) and we got them engraved (total about £100 for both). We will, one day, buy new wedding rings, if we can ever afford something posher but the white gold bands are all we need

i wonder if we are getting the same rings!! 9ct white gold?

 

[chickadee1976]

Im going to a weeding in May not sure how much its costing in total. But they are getting married at 5pm so are only having an evening buffet.

When i was costing all my money seemed to be going on paying for people to have a meal and give them drinks. Skip this have a big buffet and a great party. Who ever remembers a meal at a wedding its the dancing everyone talks about

 

[*Star*]

oh a tip for the cake, have a really luxurios small cake that gets cut with all the pics taken with etc, but have a bigger one with just icing on to dole out to guests. no one will know the difference and you'll save a fortune

 

[lisa&alex]

krystal.. tbh.. i really wish we had had a decent hotel near that didnt want 50+ day guests for a sit down meal and atleast 100 for evening buffet mounting to over 6k jsut for food i wouldnt have minded a registry type wedding at a hotel/castle etc if we had had an appropriate one that we liked etc.. we could have saved even more money that way...if you feel quite creative.. then have a look at some tutorials online im so glad i did my boquets, invites, thankyou cards, cake etc.. coz it made it even more special to me..and i was in control of it hahha! no bugger could mess it up then could they!

we also had an afternoon wedding at 3.30pm... i prefured it.. i think the kids can get a bit bored if its all day.. and i needed the time to get ready lol

great tip there about the cake star i was lucky that i did cake decorating in school.. maybe you could ring your local catering collage and ask if anyone would like a challenge?

 

[Magic Monkey]

We spent about £4000 on our wedding, we saved money by:

Making all our own stationery - we went to the paper store and bought a box of good quality card and then I designed an invite on the computer and just printed them out.
Having a friend do the bouquet and I made the centre pieces - they were cheap vases with candles in them.
Buying a cheap dress - mine was £200 in the Debenhams sale and noone believed it was a cheap one. Accessories were from BHS/Claire's
Cheap rings - ours were £100 for both from Samuels - they are only a gold band, but that is all we need.
We used FIL's car instead of having a wedding car.
We found a really cheap venue so that we could have everyone there and have a sit down meal - it was our local golf course.
Best Men and Ushers paid for their own suits.
We didn't have favours - noone misses them if they aren't there!
We had a friend who was studying photography to do the photos - I disagree with the person above who said to get a decent photographer - our photos are in a box in the roof and the ones that we have in frames are ones that other people took and gave us on disc.
My MIL made and iced the cake

With hindsight I wouldn't have had disposable cameras as we ended up with about 100 photos of us cutting the cake and of the speeches, just get people to give you their photos on disc.

THe best way to save money is to do as much as possible yourself and call in favours from everyone you even vaguely know!

It is so exciting I would do it all again tomorrow!

 

[Suzie and Faith]

Oooh if there will be lots of kids there then have some stuff for them to do - we gave the kids little party bags which had notebooks/crayons/small toys in (all cheap, lol) and it helped keep them occupied, we also had a small table with crayons and colouring books too

 

[mrs_tommo22]

I did mine on 500 quid and that included everything


God krystay you will have a wonderful day with 5k!

 

[Krystal]

Mrs Tommo - how on earth did you do that

Aww Suzie.. I love that idea, especially with 36 kids on the list Good idea, thanks.

Thanks Magic Money.. some great ideas. And the price is I hadn't thought of somewhere like debenhams for the dress, I could do that. I';m not wanting a BIG gown just something simple and elegant

Cheers for the band suggestion foxxi, once we set a date I may have a listen. You can help me.. we obviously need to go to lots of pubs to see bands play though.. which means drinking

Thanks everyone else, this thread is brilliant for ideas and i'm going to start writing a list of them all down they'll definitely help

 

[happy-chick]

Our original budget was 3k but we spent around 4-5k without honeymoon (we're still waiting for that one day!!) We got married in registry office then had a sit down meal with just close family/friends. Everyone paid for themselves & we just provided champagne for a toast. We then had reception in the evening for all of our family/friends and had disco, buffet etc. It was an amazing day & I loved every second of it! I made the flowers myself and some of the decorations etc and then family & friends helped lots with cake, buffet, decorations etc. You will have an amazing day no matter what you spend xx

 

[poppy160]

We don't really have a set budget, but we're trying to keep stuff as low as possible.

We've been really lucky, our reception venue is beautiful but so, so affordable. We're only having about 45 guests so the venue for the ceremony, reception and evening do, food and drinks comes to about £3000.

As for photographers, I would really recommend you shop around. The first few I looked at cost over £1000 and I really started to panic, I thought they were all going to be that expensive. After looking around I found some to be as low as £600, but in the end we went for a package which is costing £800. This is reduced, as our wedding is at 4:30pm so we're not doing an all day thing. They knocked off £150. Look at what the package they're offering includes aswell and make sure you're getting what you want.

As we're doing everything at a hotel, wedding cars are not needed. My OH will be making his entrance in his Best Mans sports car, though

Flowers are being done by a family friend. She's getting them wholesale and won't be looking to make any profit out of it which we are really grateful for!

My Mum is making our cake, as she is really good at it. In addition, she is making our favours (Muffins!).

Uhhh, invitations we're making ourselves. All the supplies came to £50, so works out at about £1 an invitation.

Can't think of anything else right now! Hehe!

 

[melissa5317]

If you don't mind the slight cheekyness of it, I know a lot of places will put their prices up the minute you suggest the 'W' word. If you're booking anything initially (venue, reception, catering, etc), maybe tell them it's for something else, like a family reunion or something and see what kind of a rate you get.

We had a budget for our wedding but it was a bit higher than that and it was also in the US, so not sure I can make any other suggestions, but good luck, hon!

Oh, just thought of something else - you might consider using students for things like catering, photography, hair/makeup, etc - they come cheaper and are often just as good! We had our reception in the ballroom of a university that did a catering course, so we got all sorts of great food and really elaborate designs (birds carved out of fruit and things) for really cheap. It was a sit-down dinner, too, so we had a student waitstaff; it worked really well!

 

[mum2A&L]

we are aiming to do ours for around £3000... but we can stretch to £4000 for any extra luxuries.

We are calling in a few favours, shopping around, haggling, doing things ourseves.

We are only having 17 people at the registry office (including us, and my two). if i wanted more than 25 people i would have to pay almost 5 times as much for what is essentially nothing more than a bigger room!!! we are just spending the money on the evening instead!! i don't see the point in payiing money to have people watch us sign a piece of paper, i would rather spend it on enjoying ourselves & being with the ones i love & care about!


ive still got soooooo much to organise

 

[valentine]

I am hoping to get married next year for around £3k-£5k so thanks for the thread Krystal!

I am planning to get a Monsoon/Coast/similar dress, have no bridesmaids/attendants except my two children and do lots of the invites/favours/decorations myself.

We are hoping for a small registry office/maybe humanist (if I can persuade OH) cermony with just 14 of us which includes my 2 children, my nephew, us two, parents and brothers/sister + partners. Then a meal with just us lot. There's a lovely local place which has a private dining room which will just let us choose off the main menu. Then maybe the next day we'll have a huge party in our local village hall.

beanie, I was really sad to read that you have to have 2 ceremonies if you want a humanist wedding in England. Come to Scotland, a humanist wedding is legally recognised here - I've been to 2 in the last 2 years and am going to another in May just before the baby is due. Clicky for more info.

Valentine Xxx