Audrey Orman
Audrey Orman 18 Jun 2017

Planning a wedding on a very low budget. Where do I start? Im going to do...

Planning a wedding on a very low budget. Where do I start? Im going to do decorations, flowers, centrepieces, favours etc myself. Xx

30 Comments
Lucy Lewis
Lucy Lewis 18 Jun 2017

Hi there are a lot of odds and ends you could get in Poundland and they have just stated selling a wedding range :)

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

There is a site called Wish. it is overseas but so very cheap. Delivery can take a few weeks so it's ok if your not in a hurry for the goods. I have ordered loads of things for my wedding from there and it's been fab so far!

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Try the range. We are getting married in 5 weeks and we did the name cards flowers etc ourselves. We spent £80 on flowers/ name cards /diamantés / table number stands/ diamanté stuff to go round the bottom of the flowers.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

I found eBay fab for all the little things xx

Carrie Olford
Carrie Olford 18 Jun 2017

charity shops

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

We've made centre pieces out of jars and glass bottles, asked family members who are tree surgeons to give us scraps from logs they've got from work.. made pick and mix table ourself, got suits from designer outlet, bridesmaids bought own dresses but we got them in sale from quiz, shopped around for make up and hair person, family member doing photography, flowers are coming from a posh Tesco bouquet and or what a family member has grown for us the day before.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Hey! What's your colour scheme? I have bouquets, button holes, ties and bridesmaids dresses from my wedding!? X

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

The first place to start is your budget and from there work out what is more important and what can be cut.

Could you/would you do email/online invitations? could you hire a barn from a farmer and decorate it yourself? Could you do a buffet yourself, or do a pot-luck style do?

I wouldn't bother with favours as no one remembers them, and do a diy bouquet of paper flowers, or if you want fresh buy from the supermarket and tie your own.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Ebay and Amazon have loads of great stuff at very reasonable prices

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Hey i do little pampering gift sets and wedding favours x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Make amazon and eBay your new best friends!

Becky Masters
Becky Masters 18 Jun 2017

Pinterest! There's loads of amazing ideas on there for you to copy. Also, look at best western hotels. We got a package for £2000 which includes hotel room for the night of, 4 course meal, evening meal (hot meat sandwiches), wedding cake, favours, chair covers and brides make up. Definitely cheapest we saw for the amount you get xxx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Look out for bridal shop sales. They often have display dresses half price or lower

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Pinterest!! Look in Debenhams etc for bridesmaid dresses I got mine from there 'formal maxi dresses' were beautiful and mine were in the sale I made my own centre peices I didn't bother with makeup did my own as don't wear a lot anyway had help with hair got favours from eBay (only had small wedding at Gretna) and had h4heroes badges so money went there

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

I used baby jars cleaned out labels off sprayed the lids silver (any colour you like) and filled with love heart sweets and tied a ribbon round them.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

I got center piece bowl from b&q filled them with stones and water and put a big flower floating in them then Bought some battery operated light to surround it

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

A member uploaded image

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

pintrest for ideas :) and by written a list of what you want/needs doing :) my mum made nearly everything for my wedding last year from invites to table centre pieces,bridesmaid flowers, sweet trolley (came out of a skip) , also brought our cake from marks and spencers and decorated it herself as well as decorated the village hall for our reception :) our whole wedding was probs just less than £5000 my dress being most expensive part. Our church ceremony was cheaper than our local registry office and local hotels etc and luckly the village hall was cheap due to my mum being the cleaner :) heres what our wedding looked like in a few pics x

A member uploaded image

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

I did my own favours, invites, decorations and cake to save money. I made my cake by buying cake dummies. I iced them and decorated them weeks in advance. Just left the bottom tier as real cake. I made more cake a few days before the day and had it all sliced and wrapped ready for the big day.

A member uploaded image

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

We did the same
Flowers were artificial (so much cheaper plus everyone got a momento from the day). We got married in a church and had our daughters christening at the same time. My mother in law and sisters in law did the buffet/ wedding cake my sister did the christening cake. Decorations were hired which meant I had no clearing up to do afterwards. I had 11 bridesmaids which I kitted out from head to toe by finding the dresses we wanted and then ordering through eBay they were less than £30 each. Our venue was a local pub/hotel which cost £42 for the entire day. Our biggest expense was we had so many children (and big children lol) coming so wanted to go over the top with entertainment so had a disco dome, a rodeo camel, a photo booth, a dj and a caricaturist. Favours I made myself we had 150 people and the whole day cost less than £4000

A member uploaded image

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Try places like poundland b & m the range card factory etc. I got decorations invitations etc from those places

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

DiY flowers. I've done mine ready for Sept.

A member uploaded image

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Start by working out which bits are most important to you both, that's where to spend the majority of your budget and everything else that is not you either drop or do for little as possible.

Jade Rees
Jade Rees 18 Jun 2017

my friend is going to a registry office late afternoon with close friends and family then going to her reception where there will be an evening buffet. She's going to the venue in the morning with helpers to decorate before getting ready. she found deals on either groupon or wowcher for her hair and makeup. Also I found a photographer and cake maker on Facebook for mine they had offers on. For your wedding suits and dresses go in between seasons they usually have a sale xxx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

You can get married at the registry office for £40 plus the cost of giving notice, so anything over and above that depends on your budget. Work out what you can afford and your priorities and go from there. For example, I don't care about cake and cars, so I'm having a £90 cake from M&S and not bothering with hiring cars. Buying my flowers from a wholesaler ( Triangle Nursery) and arranging them myself. Little Mistress do nice wedding dresses for under £100.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 18 Jun 2017

Ooh this was me! Thanks for all the ideas ladies! Spoke with the MIL today who a school caterer and she said she'd happily do the food for us as our wedding gift. I have a cousin who is doing a fashion degree at uni so I'm hoping she'll want to make either mine or my bridesmaids dresses. Failing that my sister is veryyy good with textiles, she made her bridesmaid dresses for her own wedding, four in total and each individually designed to suit the person intended for. Cake I'm pretty sure I can do myself. We were thinking just a registry office and then a church hall or community centre (I work in a rented church hall which is available weekends so can possibly get discount!) For venues and would decorate myself. I'm not eager to spend hundreds on my dress/shoes/accessories etc. I do want a good photographer so I can foresee that being the biggest spend! So so far I'm confident we can keep costs low! Very excited

Thanks to all the ladies offering their stuff and businesses, as yet we have no date or colour scheme in mind so I'd rather hold off buying anything until we've got a few of the very basic things organised lol, but thanks so much xxxx

Naomi Chappel
Naomi Chappel 18 Jun 2017

I would start with the budget then the venue and your dress x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 19 Jun 2017

Groupon, we got a fab package for ours on there x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 19 Jun 2017

Still planning mine but we got a budget we have got a registration office booked as it cheeper we booked a pub for after as there asking for the bar staff pay getting fake flowers got my dress for £600 my hair my friend doing it for my wedding present a friend is doing my photo we doing are hunnymoon a year later

Sarah Quilliam
Sarah Quilliam 20 Jun 2017

I have a lot of people who are willing to make up centre pieces and flowers etc. other people have offered to give a donation towards the wedding rather than buy a gift. Not sure if this helps but hopefully you have some friends who are good at crafts attend may be willing to pay a small amount to help out x

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