Wedding Forum - Easiest and best ways to cut the costs?...

Me and my OH are on a very tight budget for our wedding. Does anyone have any ideas of ways to cut the costs? Things that are easy and cheap to do ourselves? We are loving the idea of using flowers or candles in Mason jars as center pieces for example.
Thank you.

There are charity bridal suites that have new or once new dresses for a fraction of the normal cost. Also consider doing a bring and share buffet instead of a wedding breakfast.

DIY where possible: stationery etc can really add up, as can flowers

Get a venue that requires minimal decor: ours has gorgeous decor as it is so we need to do very little: we've gone for super-simple table centres, and will prob have a few tea-light candles in jam jars dotted about for the evening

Have a later ceremony so that instead of having a sit-down meal and then a buffet later on, you can just have a substantial buffet/BBQ/similar

Look at high street stores, sample sales, outlets and charity shops for your dress

Don't have bridesmaids (saves on flowers as well as dresses) or ask them to wear something like a black dress that they own already to save money on bridesmaid dresses. You can do the same with the groomsmen eg provide matching ties but ask them to wear a suit they already own

Scrap cars/transport unless you need it; if you do need it, look at luxury cab/transfer companies or black cabs which are much cheaper than wedding cars

Limit your guest list: food and drink account for 40% of our budget, so fewer guests = less food and drink = less money

If anyone you know is a good photographer/plays in a band/makes cakes see if they'll do you a favour/discount; just make sure you get a contract as with any other supplier as sometimes 'employing' friends doesn't go too smoothly

HTH!

Defo go for as much DIY as possible.

The biggest win with cost cutting is to go off peak season so October to April and mid week Monday to Thursday as venues are far cheaper usually and you're more likely to then be able to negotiate deals with suppliers who are less likely to be in demand and will be grateful for the business. Venues are also more likely to have better packages with more included which all helps with the cost. For example the venue we had our reception at, if we had a mid week out of season wedding rather than our Saturday peak season wedding we'd have paid less per head plus would have had a DJ , venue dressing including chair covers and evening buffet thrown in.

My sister had a mid week off season wedding and it cost half what ours did.

My best tip is to take the time and read though threads on here there are masses and masses of amazing thing the members have done to save money .

I am slowly turning into a Pinterest addict and some of the stuff on there with tutorials are amazing especially when you see how much making it yourself is saving yourself money !