I've come across yet another article about hosting a wedding for next to nothing (posted on my profile). A lot of these articles tell of how people used help from friends and other freebies on their big day. My question is, would you be willing to call in favours to save money on your big day? If you've done this, how did it work out?

That's what I was thinking. I might know someone who could do photographs and people that would help with diy & setup. But I couldn't imagine sourcing food or a venue this way.

I do agree that it depends on your friends as you still want a professional approach. We have however, pulled friends in to help with our Wedding, and has helped us save a fair bit of money but they are all experienced in what they do.

Flowers - My Mums best friend is a trained florist so is doing our flowers at cost rather then retail+labour
Photographer - The son of someone that works with my Dad and we have got a good price with him that includes have 3 photographers all day and night
Hair - BARGAIN!!! My old hairdresser who did my hair when I lived at home and is my sisters friends Mum is charging £140 to do my hair plus my 6 BMs
Make-Up - ANOTHER BARGAIN! Daughter of someone that I used to work with and said she will match the price of my hairdresser for us all
Cake - Someone my Mum knows and again, has given us a rather nice discount to the point our cake is £150 under our budget
DJ - A very close friend of ours is a DJ and has offered to do this for us for nothing but we are going to pay for his accomm

i totally would - providing i knew the people to call in favours off lol - which other than us getting crafty with centre peices and invites, theres nothing else i can really delegate.

I wouldn't go to that extreme.

We are very lucky and have family and friends doing an awful lot.
Two close friends are hairdresser and make up artist and are doing that. My grandma is doing all the stationary and helping me with bouquets. H2b's friend is a photographer and is doing that with disc, album and retouching for £200. Cake, dj, food and alcohol are all included in our package. Another friend of a friend is doing our cars for mates rates, and best men and ushers are decorating :)

I think if depends. Some things you pay for not only the products but also the time It takes to make the end product. I'd be wary of asking my friends to do anything that would cost them money, take up a large amount of their time or cause them alot of stress. X

It may be through naivety (maybe not) but I don't think some people may realise the true cost of the favour they are asking for. X

I don't think I would have felt comfortable doing this as we wanted things our way and to dictate this to friends and family who are doing you free favours wouldn't sit right with me xxx

Hmmm I just read this and to be honest its all a load of bu ll!
Yes THEY spent £1 THEMSELVES.............but not really as they had to pay £70 for the legal fees so £71 not £1
But their guests spend a h ell of a lot more on things for their wedding so in actual fact their wedding cost alot more it just ddnt cost THEM any more then £1 (sorry £71)

Basically they got their friends and family to pay for THEIR day........would I do that?

NO

I would never ASK for freebies or discount but if someone offered I'd not say no, as long as I knew it wouldn't turn into them dictating part of my day to me...

We literally know NO weddingy people whatsoever so nothing's being cut price in that way.. I have manages to get great prices for stuff though but researching the hell out of it lol xxx

My daughter is doing my make up and my step daughter is doing my hair she's a hairdresser. I didn't ask they volunteered so i gratefully accepted.

My MOH and her sister are both hairdressers and they've offered to do my hair for me and our friend is a photographer and she offered to do our photos as a wedding present and her husband is going to video the wedding for us. We've also been really lucky with our venue, it's our local pub that has a function room that we're getting for nothing and we can take our own wine in for the meal without having to pay corkage

I'm getting properly stressed about money already! There are so many aspects I hadn't really thought about, im starting to think our budget isn't going to cover our plans. Any method of cost-cutting is definitely happening in our case!
A friend makes cakes so will pay for ingredients only
BFF is making STDs, invitations & favours so getting all 3 for 62 day and 100 nights guests for about £50
Ordering BM dresses from t'internet/ 5 dresses for £300
Seriously considering having a flower free day!
Any ideas from others greatly appreciated!

X

I personally couldn't do this, I always like to pay my own way so couldn't live with getting all my friends and family to foot the bill for us. I've just been looking out for bargains and as soon as there's a sale on in a shop I've been looking to buy from I'll get what I need and my student discount has saved me a few quid too!

there is asking for help and then there is taking the p1ss.
i do wish i had more people i could ask for a little help with but there arent really, but i have still managed to get a lot of things cheaper than i thought i would simply by realising that doing things myself will not only make them cheaper but will ensure that they are exactly how i want them (bridezilla coming through :P ) and if they go wrong its my fault.
A friend of mine is doing my photography but its his business so we are still paying a lot for him to do it and i would never expect him to do it for free.
Amym573- if you want flowers maybe try looking into fake flowers, all my flowers for 4 bms, me, 20 buttonholes, my church and my venue are coming to under £200, and thats from a florists so bay of e is probably cheaper. As for other budgety ideas, when you see something in a shop you want and you dont have to get it at that exact moment leave it and look in other shops and bay of e and only get it if it is cheaper than both- that has helped my budget no end :)

if you read the fb page for this story, it seems that alot of businesses are getting involved for the publicity factor. there are numourous posts regarding whos following the story.

Personally I think I could do something like this, however, I would be concerned that something could go wrong from a publicity point of view. I wouldnt want to seem ungrateful however i dont think that i could cope with 5 different photographers all doing my day, all from different companies. How would you pick without seeming ungrateful? How would you know the photographer hasnt got out nothing but their BEST work to show you rather than a selection of shots? How would you know they havent used someone elses work to show you? How would you know they are not just in it for the publicity, they may not be getting enough business, seen an opportunity and thought "ah this'll get me the free publicity that i need"? I have used photographers to highlight my concerns as the fb page thanks an awful lot of different photographers!

On the other hand, like i say i think i could do this, however, i have enjoyed my DIY projects... I realise I havent been on here in a while but i ended up needing to use my wedding savings :-( However, I think i can resolve my issue and have all my savings including the coming savings back by christmas & pay for some driving lessons! & obviously christmas prezzies for my kids - we started a cr@ppy £2 present rule last year regarding friends.

I have had a friend offer to do my cake free and transport it to the wedding also have a friend offering to do my flowers at cost have a photographer friend doing my pictures but dont know how much he wants yet but i have asked him for a price so I haven't actually asked yet. I will be asking my sister to source 4 things for me which will cost her nothing and will be trying to make as much as i can so will be asking for man power when the time comes.
I have picked my bridemaids already bar 1 as i know due to my health I need ideas now so once my budget is done and saved I can sut book things and not have to stress so I have bridemaids coming shopping and going to fairs with me which wil be awesome :D