So.. I just read this whole discussion and I have to say.. WOW!

What I would give to be you BOB. I have to say I congratulate you on your intelligance. The wedding industry is a BIG money maker and to be honest you have done a great job of getting the wedding of your dreams by kind of exploiting it. Hands up to you hun! I am impressed...and being honest..VERY jelous..! Teach me!

I've just got back from a year in Australia and my h2b is not far behind. We are having to move back over here with no jobs, no income and into a house that will cost us ALOT to live in. All our savings are going towards having a roof over our head and we cant afford a wedding in our current situation. We deserve to get married just as much as everyone else and I would chop my arm off(after the wedding because my dress would be falling down and showing all my bits off without it :P) for £5000 to get 'hitched'

I take my hat off to BOB. You want a wedding and you got it.
I may get stick off some of the ladies on here but if the advertising is tasteful then who cares. Its a wedding, its about the couple nothing else. Do you really think people will be paying attention to afew adverts? I dont. Its like when your watching TV.. who actually watchs the adverts.. anyway I'm going offthe subject..!
BOB is clearly a bride who wants to be happily married and have the wedding of her dreams like the rest of us.. if she cant afford to do it without help then get help! I'd be the first in the queue!

xxx

Yeah linzi - but the difference is you've used him for your flowers but paid for them, not scrounged for 'free'.

I've read through this thread and tbh I am in agreement with Tiggs and suzky 100%.

A wedding is something personal to you, the couple - and if you can afford a big wedding then go out and have one - if you want a small wedding that's ok too. But whatever size you have, it's only personal to you if you work, save and pay for it. You can't justify BOB's actions by comparing to celebrities. Celebrities have well and sold out and love to get 'something for nothing'.

And the comment about nothing is free is absolutely correct - no doubt the price of these wedding services will rise to pay for the 'freebie' that the BOB's of this world get. And Tinsel - are you comparing the actions of BOB to the uninsured drivers and shoplifters??? If you're not then you really should be because it's just as bad!!!

Oh and Sara - I don't think people on here have been rude. They've stated their opinions (be it ones shared with you or not) and had an adult debate. Some people will probably find some comments rude but on a discussion like this not everyone is going to have the same opinion.

I think it's disgusting some of the comments that have been made. At the end of the day bob is going to have the wedding of her dreams and what does it matter what has been paid for and what has been given for free. Have any of you every turned down a discount offered to you cos I sure as hell haven't. If her wedding has cost 20k then so what. My wedding is costing 5k and my wedding will reflect the fact I love my husband and want to spend the rest if my life with him as I'm sure bobs does. Just cos bob has a few freebies doesn't mean their wedding should mean any less. I think there's some flat out jealousy among the other brides. As I've said before good on you bob! I hope you have a fantastic day.

Angela - I can assure there's no jealousy on my part because someone wants to scrounge the cost of their wedding. I have absolutely nothing to be jealous about as my wedding is going to be perfect - and all paid for by us. And I'm sure nobody else on here is jealous of this person just because we disagree with what they are doing and make our opinions known. Tbh that is just a lame excuse for someone who hasn't really got anything else constructive to say, and is a bit of a poor excuse as an argument for what BOB is doing.

Mym72, Suzky said the cost of the freebies that BOB is receiving will be added onto the prices other brides have to pay. I was simply pointing out that that's the way things go. Shops charge extra to recoup what they have lost through shoplifting; insurance companies put up their prices to recoup the costs of those who have claimed, especially uninsured drivers. I think you misunderstood my comment.

We will all have different opinions on this, but we can debate in a civilised manner without resorting to rudeness. What does it matter who pays for it? It doesn't make her any less a person, or her wedding any less special simply because she got it for nothing. I originally joined this site to WIN to £25,000 wedding; I didn't earn it, it took no skill or grafting by me. If BOB had entered 30 different competition and won the prices, would she be called a scrounger? It's the same principle - she WON the sponsorship.

i agree with tinsel its no different to a competition, dont tell the bride, 4 weddings in my opinion i still think good on her, i wouldnt do it but im not annoyed at her cause she did!!

i think people are talking how they've been brought up and the way people have spoken isnt polite!! we all have opinions but some times is best to say your bit and keep them to yourself

bob came on here to answer any questions people had in case they wanted to do the same and all people have done it b**ch at her.

i have a friend who asked her parents for the money for the wedding, and when i got engaged asked when i was going to ask my dad, that in my eyes is NOT a gift its scrounging! another friend's parents paid for her wedding but wanted it dont in their certain way i wouldnt do this either i would rather do it myself and have it my way without their help

i really think this should all stop now cause its getting nasty and its not fair.

i do have a questions for bob tho if poss, how did you think up to the idea to do this? like i say hats off to you and i think its very clever lol


xxxx

morning i have read comments left over night including one for the thread to be closed .. please let me know if you would like this to happen

I think we all need to remember that we are different and different people have different idea's on things. That doesn't make other people's ideas more 'right' or valid than yours, just different.

I do think that the idea raised about competition winners is interesting.

The girl who won this years UK Bride prize was (I believe, and may be wrong so apologies if this is the case) going to have a very small wedding as their budget didn't stretch to a larger event.
UK Bride steps in and asks people to give prizes which are then passed onto the winner. She has to participate in some promotion / marketing as part of the rules.

The winner is now having a bigger, more expensive wedding than her original plans due to people giving her things for free that someone asked for. Granted, she didn't ask for them but they were 'scrounged' as some of you have put it on her behalf. Do you not think that they may thank UK Bride and the other suppliers in their speeches or mention them at least a few times in the run up and after the wedding?

There was another girl on here who got some kind of large discount on her wedding because it was being featured in a magazine. I don't recall her being slated for it, I believe she was called lucky by a few people.

Many of us are not planning to have a £25K wedding as we can't afford it, but if we are lucky enough to win, then I don't see many of us deciding that the promotion that we HAVE TO take part in to qualify for our prize will be so 'vile' that we'll decide to forfeit.

The way I see it is this: BOB sets up a competition where the prize is various things for a wedding up to the value of say £20k. BOB enters the competition and has won. The fact that she organised it, that she set up the prizes for it and only she entered are incidental.

I haven't read the article but have read a lot of the posts on here and can completely understand all points of view. I have entered as many competitions as possible to save money and didn't win any. If I had I would have been so pleased to have a freebie to help out with the wedding and would have happily been involved in promotion because at the end of the day you don't get something for nothing.

I like what Suzanne and Charlotte have said above. I think it is admirable what BOB has done and the amount of work that she must have put into it is most probably a lot harder than what me and H2B have done - for the record my wedding is of the same value and I have worked hard but I haven't had to please any companies, they have to please me as I am paying - I couldn't have done what she has done, I would have been exhausted!

Good luck BOB and all other brides to be with their wedding planning!!

All I'll say is - how many people have had, say, new windows or building work done by a company who offers a discount if they can use your property in their advertising? How many people on here have suggested getting a photographer free, or very cheap by approaching someone (say a student or similar) just starting up and offering for them to use your wedding in their portfolio? I've seen similar suggestions for single items of a wedding go on this website all the time without anyone slating anyone over it.... Point is, it's not unusual and it's a common way of doing business.

The only thing that is unusual is that BOB has done it for almost everything about her wedding, and has had media attention because of it. She is still paying money for some aspects of the wedding.

I don't know if I'd do similar for, say, the whole of my wedding. But there are certainly parts of the wedding I could see myself doing similar with, if I had the negotiating skills (which I don't LOL). How many threads are there on here complaining about the obvious price hike that suppliers appear to plaster on anything related to a Wedding? Isn't it a good thing that someone has managed to get stuff out of them for free or a discount for a change?

As someone else said - all the competition winners on here, will effectively be doing the same thing. They'll win the monthly power user prize and an article will go up on the website about it - giving the donating company some publicity.

I can so totally understand how some would never dream of doing a similar thing at their wedding, but a wedding is an individual thing, and what is acceptable for one person would be completely alien to another.

After reading all this who in here now feels slightly more hopefull. Or has come up with their own money saver because they were inspired?

Ok ive had sereval complaints about this thread this morning so I have closed it!

Please remember one of our rules is to be nice to ALL members weather your opinions differ from theres or not!!!
thank you
MODS