Please help! After doing my own head in and considering not bothering getting married, I am in dire straits. I have practically no budget, or less than a grand anyway and we are aiming to get married next year about 3-4 months after his divorce comes through. Any ideas on how to keep the cost down? I want to go the registry office, hire a room in a pub possibly and thats as far as I have got.

Probably 60 maximum x

Thank you - I'm off to the bay of e for the afternoon..

Fiona if you make ur profile public i can post a few other sites on ur wall x

Making things yourself really keeps cost down, I'm making my own invites and centre pieces x x

You may also be able to still watch superscrimpers on 4od. they did a wedding episode recently with a few good tips. but diy is definitely the way forward, and any friends/ family who may be able to help as well. for example my fmil has a friend who used to be a caterer is doing our food for the price of the ingredients :)

N xx

At my first wedding we did everything ourselves pretty much. the biggest spend we had was the venue as we had the reception at the town hall it cost us £500 and was not worth it.
my dress was from a high street shop £140
the suits were hired for £50 each
the flowers were done for a mere £27
my cake was £120 in total from marks and sparks and did the rest ourselves with what we got from cake shops to decorate
the food was about £150 my friend did the buffet for us. we shopped at iceland for buffet food and went to gabbots farm for freshly cooked drumsticks.

all in all it was about £2k for 40 day guests and over 170 evening guests
it can be done

however this wedding is going to be my luxury and im not doing anything
going to cost over £7k but im worth it apparently ;)

This is a very American idea but depending on your family & friends it may work. You could try a pot luck wedding buffet. Pot lucks are where everyone brings there own favorite dish. I've been to ones with people bringing mains, and others where people bring salads, apps, etc. just a thought

£1000 is tight, but not impossible; I'd say if you could squeeze it up to £1500 it'd be a little easier (as even if you have a ceremony at the registry office, there will still be a couple hundred £ to pay for the registrar, room hire, and certificate). Anyway, my cost saving tips would be:

Don't have BMs: saves money on outfits as well as flowers. Or, just have just one or two BMs, and ask them to wear something they have already, and ask if they would maybe buy their bouquet (some are around the £20-25 mark) as their gift to you.

Ask the best man (if you have one) to wear something he has already. Your OH could do the same, or else rent a suit for around £50; stores like Marks, Next etc also do cheap ranges, starting at £50-70.

Have a look on the bay of e for your dress, or check out Oxfam bridal, or second-hand websites like preloved. Also check out high-street stores, esp at sale time.

Consider having your reception at home, or, check out village halls: most start at around £200 for the whole day and evening, and provided chairs and tables. If you do this, you could provide a small amount of food (have a look at supermarkets; most do party ranges; then if anything needs heating up, get friends to chip in and help) and drink (Xmas is a great time to buy, as loads of places do 25% off if you buy 6 bottles or more); I imagine this would cost something like £500. Then, ask people if they can bring a plate and a bottle of their favourite drink instead of getting you a gift. We host a fair few parties at mine, and just a simple NYE party can set us back around £600 for food and drinks (we get a couple dozen bottles wine in, as well as a few crates of beer, plus cava or champagne for 60 people to toast, plus a selection of food); so, we ask people to bring a plate and what they drink, and no-one minds at all; you also end up with a great selection and variety of food.

Supermarkets do free glass-hire, so use that for glasses, then get plastic or paper plates and paper napkins.

Keep decorations simple: balloons are cheap and cheerful, or, collect bottles/cheap vases from carboots/charity shops/friends, and stick a large, cheap, cheerful flower like a gerbera in each one, and scatter about. Table confetti is also cheap but effective. Paper pompoms are also SO cool and effective, plus very cheap to make, as it paper bunting. For entertainment, see if anyone you know might be able to DJ/play, or else plug a loaded iPod into a sound system.

Or, look at a pub, or sports venue: many will give free hire as well as lay on a buffet and a DJ provided x amount (usually around £500) is spent behind the bar; that way, you get food plus entertainment plus venue, and if for some reason £500 isn't spent (I would imagine it would be), you can always pay the difference (or, put say £200 behind the bar to get everyone one free drink)

Pull favours and DIY wherever you can: have a friend who's constantly snapping away with her camera at parties? Ask if she would't mind being 'professional photographer' for the day. Know someone who's cakes are to die for? Ask them to bake you a cake or some cupcakes. Make your own stationary and decorations

HTH!