Wedding Venue is now booked Horray!!! Any tips or DIY idea's to help keep...

Hi make your own wedding invitations and save the dates if your having them :)

We are making our own flowers. Saving a load of money.

I'd definitely suggest hiring things like chair covers, table cloths and sashes and any other decorations you can hire. It works out so much cheaper and you aren't left with it all afterwards. Also I am making my own centrepieces, I'd suggest that you pick a theme for them or else its hard to be inspired, well I found that anyway :) x

I have decorated wine bottles with glitter and lace for table decorations, made my own favours, invitations, table names etc. Look on Pinterest for ideas and then try and make them. x

I've managed to get my save the dates, invites, RSVPs and everything from Vistaprint for less than £70. You can order them and add your own embellishments if you want something a bit fancier. But has saved me £100. I would also say go for faux flowers instead of real. Real ones are pretty but they will break the bank. You could also think about doing your flowers yourself if you feel up to it

I made my own bomboniere, bouquets, floral arrangements for the plinths and table decorations.

Decide what you like and shop around. I also bought a wedding mag that had breakdown of average cost of each aspect. I copied this down but in the next row i worked out my own budget too. Then the next how much i would save on average if i did that. Then as i buy/book things they go in the actual column with the actual saving. Seeing what i am saving in average really motivates me to get the overall spend down even more. At the minute we are expecting to come in 3.5k less than our original budget and still opportunity to save more.
Our centrepieces are cheap photo frames from b&m. I stuck some lace on to make them pretty and then using postcards we have bought from places we have visited. You could use photos of yourself. To go alongside these i am using empty jars (different shapes and sizes) with lace and stick on pearls round the centres. Going to put gyp in some and tealights in the others. I think my budget could be spent better on other things than paying a few hundred quid on a florist doing centrepieces that are going to die after a few days even though they are stunning. For this same reason i have bought artificial flowers from the range and will be doing my bouquet, 9 bridesmaids and 10 buttonholes for less than £100. It just takes some patience, florist wire and florist tape. We are able to have our own catering so we shopped around. Found one unbelievably cheap but arranged a meeting and taster session and they did exactly what we wanted. Other bits of decorations i have just shopped around for on ebay,amazon and pound shops. Doing my own photo station. Going to get a cheap tablet. And got lots of cheap props/fancy dress stuff. So much cheaper than hiring a photobooth and at the end i can sell on whatever doesnt get damaged. I havent bought expensive shoes as after the pics i will be changing to flip flops or trainers as our venue is a barn and field. We are also buying the mens clothes rather than hiring as if you shop around there are some amazing deals to be had. Dobell is a menswear website their stuff are fab quality. Colours arent always true to the online pic but its free delivery over x amount and free returns xx

Make your own centrepieces!
Also I'm buying my cake from M&S. Buying a large, medium and small sized cake and decorating myself. The cake costs £54. I'm not a lover of cake and don't like the idea of spending £200-300 for a cake x

Speak with the venue to see what is actually included in your booking. My package has a couple of flower arrangements for either side of the "altar" and then also floating flower arrangements in fish bowls for the meal, so I've managed to get away with my florist not doing anything for the venue and may add a few decorations myself to save money! Also a lot of venues include chair covers and sashes, but some don't so definitely speak to someone at the venue before you start buying anything!

M&S wedding cake and decorate with ribbon and silk flowers. My friend has made 12 stunning table centres for under £90 with £1 glass jars from Poundland and put hessian inside around an oasis and arranged silk flowers in. Got led light strings from Poundland for each table (and cheap batteries). Doing silk flower bouquets. Used an online template which cost a few $ to download and got invitations printed (with envelopes) cheaply but fab quality at Printed.com.

Make your own centre pieces, favors, flower arrangements. Also own place settings invites and save the dates ( if having then), not only would it be cheaper but you cab make the three to match each other

I did origami. Found step by step vids on YouTube. Used it for centre piece and flowers. Also bought a 3 cakes from m&s for £80 and it was lovely had none left to take home. Bought a cake stand off eBay and cake decs off eBay to. Also invites aren't to hard to make.