MoneySaving Weddings Article Discussion

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MoneySaving Weddings

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• One of the things that I really wanted for the Wedding was a tailor made suit - I think it's the one occasion in my life when I could justify purchasing one.
  After visiting a few tailors I was looking at Ј500-700. Then one day I stumbled into Debenhams and saw that they have a 50% OFF deal on tailor made suits at the minute. This means that my wedding suit made to my specifications is costing Ј275 - only Ј40 more than off the peg business suits in the same store.
  I know that it's still a bit extravagant but I thought it was a great saving and hope other grooms-to-be find this useful.
• Hullcity. Another thing you could do is look online. My other half got one made when we were in India in italian silk for Ј70
• You can buy off the peg in wedding shops too. They sometimes have a little smudge here and there but can drastically reduce the cost of your dress especially if it fits already! Also, look out for sales at wedding shops and wedding fairs.
  OH fell in love with an Ј800 wedding ring! NOT MSE at all but we have found someone who will design something similar for Ј250 - cost of gold is increasing so we are buying custom made cheaper than off the shelf. of course there's always cheaper stores too
• The most important budgeting tip I found was not to join any online wedding forums! I joined a couple, but found them full of people spurring you on to spend more and more and who insisted that it was obligatory to have things like favours or an evening reception. It isn't. It's your wedding, don't let anyone tell you you have to have something there! At the end of the day, no one will notice whether your napkins match the bridesmaids' dresses or the shoes all look the same or whatever!
  Yes, there are tips about things like cut-price favours, or making your own invites. And if those are important to you, then have them. But we didn't have favours, and we had invites designed by my husband and then printed on fairly basic cream card that looked lovely. Bear in mind that most people aren't going to keep things like the invites and order of service - no point spending hours hand-decorating them.
  We wanted to have a church wedding (I'm Christian) and really all you need to get married is yourselves, the vicar and two witnesses. Everything else you just add on, so it's up to you how much you add.
  The church was fantastic value - the whole thing cost about Ј800 for the service, absolutely masses of beautiful flowers arranged by people who took a great deal of care, organist, choir, bellringers and the most important bit - marriage preparation classes (I would highly recommend, really helps you put things in perspective rather than obsessing over wedding details).
  We had several conversations along the lines of "do we really want..." etc. In the end we decided we didn't care about having a wedding cake so didn't have one, and no one noticed. We had an afternoon tea reception in the pub by the church rather than an evening do, which only cost Ј450 (65 people) and which people loved (especially as they didn't have to fork out to stay overnight). It gave us a chance to see and talk to everyone at our wedding and worked brilliantly for us. The pub put on a really good buffet as they were keen to attract custom, and also decorated beautifully at no extra cost.
  We went to Stratford-upon-Avon for our honeymoon for a week. I'd recommend not trying to go somewhere exotic or a long distance - getting married is exhausting and only having to drive for a couple of hours to get on honeymoon was wonderful! I definitely would not have wanted to be stuck in an airport.
  Our whole wedding, including honeymoon and putting our relatives up in a hotel for two nights cost less than Ј4000, and it could not have been more perfect.
• I got married last year and although the wedding wasn't exactly on a tight budget we got an great deal on our honeymoon. We went to Thailand for 16 nights (2 travelling, 7 in Phuket and 7 in Koh Samui). It was am AMAZING, amazing time which i'm trying my hardest not to ramble on about! We stayed in 2 5* star hotels and got upgrades in both. So tip number 1: Book early, I don't know about the rest of the world but a lot of Thailand hotels seem to upgrade you on an early booking deal. We booked around November and got married in July.
  Tip no 2: we got a quote from a travel agent and thought it was pretty steep so we decided to shop around. Martin's money tips was great for finding flights, we used skyscanner to compare and found flights for a great price (just over Ј500 each). It wasn't business class but left us with more money to enjoy our Honeymoon whilst in Thailand. All n all we saved about Ј600 on flights, internals and hotels by booking independently and shopping around.
  I fell in love with my wedding and honeymoon that much that i decided to start a wedding recommendation website where married couples can recommend wedding supplier products and services to other brides-to-be to help make their perfect day a reality. Whether they're looking for the best price, product, customer service or wow factor...Your Wedding Unveiled. Hopefully it will give the budget savvy bride some ideas & let all you married couples help them on their way with your recommendations of fab suppliers.
• im trying to do everything on a budget i got my dress off ebay and my daughters flower girl dress i got my chief bridesmaids aswell all 3 for less that Ј150 and all brand new.im still in need of 3 more dress even though i only wanted my 2 daughters and 1 friend involved been bridesmaids my friend has asked if her 2 daughters can also be bridesmaid and i didnt have the heart to say no .The church is costing us Ј500 and i found a limo company that we can hire a limo for 3 hours for Ј250.I have got a hall and the decorations caterering and dj for Ј900,I am now on the hunt for cheap wedding flowers and a cake.we have been paying everything off weekly for this wedding i know it may seem its a cheapo wedding but thats all we can afford we wont be having a honeymoon as there will be no money left for that at all .i cant afford a hair dresser or make up doing it may not have been the wedding of my dreams buts it the man im marrying that counts to me.oh and we are hiring suits rather than buying them and im still looking for the cheapest quote.if anyone knows or can give and help or advice please write back thank you
• We're getting married in August and we are on a budget. We have had lots of help from our families and have worked it out we are paying about half of the total costs towards the wedding.
  There are certain things we really want - like the church, the venue we have chosen and my H2B will not budge on having a sit down dinner whereas I would be happy to have the cheaper option of a buffet dinner. So we have had to make savings elsewhere.
  Dress
  I was going to get a dress on eBay to save us a fortune. The plan was to try on loads of different dresses, get an idea of the style that suited me and find one from an eBay seller in China - there are loads for around Ј100. It turned out my Granddad offered to pay for my wedding dress from a shop which was so lovely of him. I found my prefect dress and lo-and-behold… it was being made in China! Most probably by the very same people who sell the dresses on eBay. My dress from the shop cost Ј1000. Even if I bought a dress off ebay for Ј100 and had to spend Ј100 getting in tailored I still would have saved Ј800… oh well I was not to know. My advice however is to try on loads and loads of dresses to find out the style that suits you. It's hard to tell online if that style will even suit you.
  Bridesmaids dresses
  These I did get off eBay. Ј30 each from eBay in China for some pretty, summery cocktail dresses that the girls can wear again. Don't be afraid to ask for your bridesmaids to pay for their own dresses, or their shoes and accessories etc, it's apparently fine in terms of etiquette.
  Groom and Ushers
  Many formal wear hire places like Moss Bross do offers like hire 5 pay for 4. Which is a great deal. The simple classic tails are the cheapest and look fab. Again it's fine in wedding etiquette to ask the ushers to pay for their own suit hire. Could save you Ј100's.
  Dressing the venue
  I think balloons are pretty unnecessary to be honest. I personally think they can look a bit tacky. If you are dressing your venue - chair covers and sashes alone have a huge impact. No need for balloons at all. You can get your own flowers and put 4 or 5 in a small bowl in the middle of the table. Looks lovely!!
  We have ordered lots of little bits like paper sun flowers and gems from eBay which look lovely for table decorations.
  Make Up and Hair
  Kate Middleton apparently did her own make - up for the Royal Wedding! She apparently had a lesson on how to put her wedding make up on and did herself! So if it's good enough for her it's good enough for us! You can go to a makeup counter like MAC, they are really good will go through things with you and send you away with a few samples which you can use on the day. They usually give you enough for about 5 days.
  If you have a friend who is fairly decent at hair, you have plenty of time to get practicing with styles so no need for a hair dresser.
  Cake
  I don't know why more people don't attempt to make their own cake. You can do it! It doesn't have to be iced in white either, you can do a yummy choc cake and decorate it with posh looking chocolates. Again you have lots of time to practice. If you have a tiered cake, have columns between layers and put flowers between those layers. This gives the illusion of a grander and taller cake than you have.
  You can also save money by having no dessert on offer and having the cake instead, especially if it's something like a chocolate and Turkish delight cake.
  Party favours
  A few hundred coloured foil covered choc hearts and organza bags come in at around Ј40. It's all you need! You can get them to match your colour scheme.
  Hope it helps someone! )
• Don't forget places like Etsy and Artfire for great handmade and vintage wedding bargains, such as dresses, jewellery, invitations, place cards, favours, etc.,
  Crystalpearl
• Hi
  First time user of the Forum and think this should be a new thread but not sure how to start one - sorry!! Can someone move this to where it should go please?
  TAKE OUT INSURANCE, we are a good example of why you should.
  We had to take out wedding insurance as we needed Public Liability Cover. We did a mix and match option with Ecclesiastical (assume I can mention them as you have quoted them in your examples?) and took the "Failure to Supply" option. Then the wedding shop supplying all the outfits except the bride's and lots of other costly things shut down. The owner wouldn't give us our money back or offer the goods and refused to go bankrupt or into liquidation. Our bank confirmed we would get our money back under the Visa Chargeback scheme but only after the wedding as until that date the shop still had time to supply, in theory.... Then we were told that the shop had filed for liquidation. I rang Ecclsiastical and within a week the full amount we had lost (minus a small excess) was in my account. Not only that they have also paid up any additional costs for getting the same services replaced. So what could have been a nightmare (and was for three months) was made so simple by the lovely staff at Ecclesiastical. If you are spending money, and who isn't? take out insurance. The amount we paid was nothing when you think of all the other money spent and it has made a HUGE difference.
  PS if you do mix and match check what your household insurance covers, no need to pay twice.
• 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.
• 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 Ј5k, 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
• 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.
• 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 Ј199. 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
  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.
• 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 Ј35.00 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 Ј1400 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 Ј1,000.00 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!
• We are challenging ourselves to do our wedding on less than Ј2k, idealy for Ј1.5k 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 Ј205 to hire then we have to order food on top, which was sit down 3 course or buffet. We chose the buffet which is Ј10.25 per person, although they do have 2 cheaper options starting at Ј7.75. Oh and we are getting married in the registry office, which comes to a total o Ј110.50.
  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 Ј520 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 Ј46 inc delivery. OH is scottish so he and our boys are going to HAVE to wear kilts, which is pretty expensive, about Ј200+ 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.