I am hopefully getting married in 2015, but as neither me or my family have won the lottery I am looking for advice/tips on planning a wedding on a budget. If you have any advice on venues/decor ect. I would love to hear it!
Many thanks Dani
CommentAuthorShazk
Hi
You are not the only bride on here to be on a budget.
The best thing to do is decide on a relistic budget for what you would be happy spend and cover what u want for your day. There are loads of great tips on here for DIY stuff and the bay of E is a brides best friend (if you look under the DIY category may find some ideas)
See what you are able to do urslef (invites, table plans, flower etc) and haggle as much as you can dont settle for the 1st price you are given lots of brides have saved loads by haggling xx
Away with the flutterbys xxx
CommentAuthorMrs-Mouse-2-be
The best advice I can give is to have a small ceremony and dinner then have a big party afterwards. The huge sit down meal is massively expensive.
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
There are loads of us on budgets here!! The best thing I have found is looking to see what DIY you can do and it has saved me loads! Also if you know someone who has a certain talent (cake maker, florist) dont be afraid to speak to them and ask for mates rates, the worst thing they can do is say no xxx
Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorJules81
Hi,
I think there are so many people at the moment who don't have very big budgets for weddings so you're definitely no alone!!!
I've looked on google for inspiration and decided what I want. Then I've gone about finding a way to get it at a great price.
For example, I knew I wanted glitter twigs as centrepieces, and found some for £2 in tesco (winter wonderland wedding!). I'm then getting vases for them, tealights and tealight holders from ikea and they're dead cheap.
But I would definitely recommend finding out in your own mind what you want, rather than looking for things that are cheap and choosing them for that reason.
Agree that the most expensive part is the actual reception, but it all depends on what type of food you want and as above if you want a 4 course sit down meal it will cost far more than a buffet, or afternoon tea.
The main areas you can make HUGE savings are stationary, the dress (preowned maybe?), favours, flowers (maybe silk instead of real, but jsut as beautiful), centrepieces and suits (i've found some for £57 hired online).
Also agree that if you're confident doing something yourself then go for it. I'm making my own wedding cake :-)
Do your homework - it's easy to only consider the venues where people typically get married & have their reception, but have you considered having the reception at a restaurant? The food can work out miles cheaper and you could be more likely to get something a bit more special than a hotel would offer? Some restaurants I visited had a separate upstairs area with either low hire or no hire fees. In the end we found a lovely pub which is a chain pub (offering their meal deals for us to take advantage of or we can pay more if we want something a bit fancier to eat), room hire of £200 (for three rooms - two joined to make a large eating & dancing space, separate one for buffet food to be laid out). The buffet is the same price as they'd charge for a funeral or any other occasion. My advice is to look on the Internet to see what is in the area you want, then spend a couple of half days just getting out and about to see & investigate. Just drive around and se what hidden gems are to be found! Sure, some want you to make an appointment to have a proper look at a different date, but its the ones who made an effort to show us around there and then (on spec) that really stood out as being helpful.
CommentAuthorAmyK
Oh yes, wait for the sales and take advantage of them ;-)
CommentAuthorTori
First of all decide how much you are willing/able to spend. There are some fantastic package deals out there and you may find that you can do things much cheaper than you first thought.
Second you need to decide what is most important to you and that you cannot compromise on.
Third shop around and be honest with suppliers. I told my car people that I can't afford to pay £3-400 for a ten min taxi ride, they agreed to do it for £100!
Bay of E is a godsend as is UK Bride, loads of people on here will give you some fantastic advice x
CommentAuthorKatieD1
Get married on a weekday, we are getting married on a Monday and its less than half the price of a weekend wedding! Also do lots of research many places offer all inclusive packages for a good price, my venue is costing £3800 for the whole day; drinks, meal, disco, evening buffet, decorations and chair sashes/covers for 50 people through the day and 70 on the night. Do you have any friends/family who could offer any skills, like photography, cake making etc? My mother in law to be is making our wedding cake for us. Then of course its things like using artificial flowers instead of real flowers etc. Set aside a certain amount of money you can afford to pay each month and put them into an ISA and dont touch it. Hope that helps :) x
Mrs Redford to be
CommentAuthorpink*wink
I too am on a budget and my advice is to be realistic!!! I would love to have a videographer, l.e.d dance floor and fancy cars but.. i simply cant! It wont make ur day any less special! In my opinion, the best weddings i have been to are the cheaper ones with personal homemade touches :) xx
CommentAuthorbeanies girl
I agree with pink*wink. The best weddings are the ones with personal touches, and the ones where the bride and groom are clearly just so happy to be married and in love. Design your wedding around your personalities. If you like funky and fun then let that show in your plans.
The best advice i can give is try not to get carried away when looking at wedding magazines. Yes, they are full of great ideas but dont compare your wedding to everyone elses. Make it personal and unique to you.
another thing would be decide what you want and pick up things as you go along. You have time on your side. I decided early that i didnt want flowers for centre pieces and would prefer candles, so every week, i have bought a candle in with my supermarket shopping. You dont notice an extra £2 on your bill that way. Good luck hun xxx
CommentAuthorButtonAndBoo
There is soooo much you could do on a budget and keep it beatiful.
The best place to start is work out the best buget for you.
Work out what is the most important things to you and work from that. Keeping the least important at the end and if you can get them at the end then get them.
Do you have a theme? That would help if you want to make things.
X
CommentAuthorSiobhianS
hiya, what i did was look round the venues in the area that we were interested and then put together a bit of a table with the prices of everything from each place written down on one bit of paper, that way you can see how much things are at a glance. then after all that we got suggested a local tithe barn (you may have a village hall or similar). our ceremony is at the registry office (cheaper than paying at a venue) and reception/evening do at the barn. we found a caterer who could fit everything into our budget for example do you really need a big evening buffet when all the day guests are stuffed and the night time guests want a good drink?? we went for cumberland sausage in rolls and wedges. overall we have cut our budget in half-coming well under 10k! diy most of it too, im making tea light holders out of glass jars with ribbons and paper flowers on-grand total of £8. overall, think whats important to you and what you would like the most and sometimes when you budget you will find you come well under that price xxxx
