I don't get married until August 2014 (when I finally get round to booking the venue!! oops!). I was originally working to a £15,000 budget but have had to make some cutbacks and am now looking at £9-£10k. I have 2 years to plan and play with ideas, but I was wondering if any of you had some good ideas on things I could make myself?
I sat for ages last night making boxes in all different shapes and sizes but my art and craft skills have always been my downfall and they all look a bit weird shaped! I'm sure in 2 years I could perfect it tho :S
The thing is, I don't want to have to not get the bigger things I want like a band, i'd rather cut the costs elsewhere... And my family is huge (I have 10 uncles and 5 aunts... and then their partners make it 30!!) and I have to invite them all, hopefully they wont all come tho but it means my guest list is over 100 with H2B's family and our friends. So I am looking at £4-£5k of the budget going on the reception meal/buffet.
Any Help would be amazing !!!
CommentAuthorLaura JaneW
Bay of e for everything! I've done this for a load of things like favour boxes, invite card etc for really cheap. Try the tree of gum for things like photographers, musicians etc. some great people trying to establish themselves in wedding field, most with years of experience and very cheap!
CommentAuthorShazk
Hi, like you my art skills are not to great and i plan to do all of my stationary myself so may be starting practising very soon (luckily my nan very crafty so may sweet talk her when i find a design lol).
Are you planning on having a formal sit down wedding breakfast or would you concider a self serve carvary style (if your venue offers that and works out slightly cheaper?)
x
Away with the flutterbys xxx
CommentAuthorCrawf
I have no idea Mrs Brammer 2B - I like the idea of a posh meal but sometimes it can be a bit of a strained atmosphere, especially with my fam and H2B's fam cus they just dont seem to mix well. To be honest, I would be happy with booking out a pub and having a nice meal there. His Brother and wife did that at their wedding and it was lovely. I live in Coventry and wedding is in Newcastle and I am finding it hard already being in a different city! :(
I know what u mean with mixing i have the same with my family thats why as soon as we started the planning i already said not having a formal sit down!
The other thing depending where u live we have something called freecycle (people ask, give and sell stuff on there like Tree of gum) maybe try that x
Away with the flutterbys xxx
CommentAuthorCrawf
Ah I have heard of that... will check it out!! Thank so much xxxx
CommentAuthorShazk
Its great check it out may not have joy but worth a try x
good luck x
Away with the flutterbys xxx
CommentAuthorlorecuore
the only recomendation that I can give you is to look for cheaper services... I would recomend you to look on websites like groupon, or vowscher (specialiced on weddings) they have great deals all the time and you can save a lot. I bought the other day a vowcher for pedicure and manicure on vowscher and I saw that they have lots of stuff for weddings like cars, venues.... I hope this helps!
CommentAuthorPrincess2be
Yeah, e b a y for everything, lol I got 40 save the dates for ten pounds and they were gorgeous! x
CommentAuthorPrincess2be
You could also boook a weekday and make saving on venue and photographers band and more cos how often do they get a booking in a weekday? x
CommentAuthorLauraJo87
Yeah Thursday weddings work well as long as people have enough notice to book time off for it.
We are making all the centrepieces and bouquets, the invites (I'm not arty either, so should be interesting!) and debated making the cake
Xx
My Beating Heart Belongs To You
30 August 2013
The First Day Of My Happily Ever After
CommentAuthorMaryS88
we are going for a sunday and so much cheaper for this!!figured people would need to take a day off work if on a sat (as we having family coming over from ireland), would need to take 2 days off it was on a friday and so also only 1 day off if on a sunday and so much cheaper!!online for dresses-got gorgeous dress from china for £115, bay of e for loads, VP - print of vista for free invites!!just pay postage. i have got thank you cards, evening invites, save the date magnets free!!you can order 10 free at a time but then go back on at diff time and re-order again!!!and if you go via quidco you get £5 cashback so goes towards postage!!bridesmaid dresses from high street store-DP for £20 each in their summer sale!!i promise chick it can be done!!our budget was £10k and almost £7k is being used on ceremony venue and then reception venue (getting married in a historic castle and then back to a hotel for reception) so we need to cut back on everything else!!!and don't be afraid to haggle. found a photographer whose style i fell in love with and explained situation that had been offered similar package cheaper and possibility of him being able to stay later in evening to capture guests when formality all over and having a drink and the craic (irish family so want to capture them being themselves). he totally agreed and doing all day for £499!!! obviously not gettign album but hey we have agreed we will have fun of making our own wedding album from the cd of prints we will get!hope some of this helps!!x
CommentAuthor
go for a weekday or sunday wedding...much cheaper...and fridays are a bit more expensive but still cheaper than saturday. You could have a buffet rather than sit down meal? that has saved us £3000 before we even started! find a venue that does ceremony AND reception and then you dont have to fork out for a load of cars to transport you all over. Make your own invites, table plan etc or get them cheaper off the bay. (im not very creative but managed to make ours) to be honest with a 10k budget i think its just all picking the right venue, if you get a bargain there everything else will fit in nicely :-) xx
met the man of my dreams 22/09/2006,
Had our amazing twin boys 16/05/2008
Finally becoming Mrs Davies on 31/08/2012 will make me the
happiest lady alive :-)
CommentAuthorCrawf
Im thinking of making wine glass charms as wedding favours - i used to be quite good at making bracelets when I was younger and I think it would be a similar thing to make them? My Sister in Law is a very crafty person - I may instruct her help haha
Thinking of making these things myself: Save the Dates Invites (well, my cousin is!! haha) Place settings and place setting holders Table Plan Menu's Centre Pieces
Obviously there will still be cost involved with all of them but hopefully significantly less. Also thinking of having the photographer only do the ceremony and until we cut the cake, I am sure there will be loads of people who have their camera's out for photos at the night time do. I also think MaryS88's idea of making her own Wedding album is great money saver... or again ask my BM to do it (she is v good at stuff like that) I've got my budget planner from 15k to 12k so far... so not much left to go!! :) Lets just hope I can stick to it and get the things I want!!
Thanks everyone for your help :)
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
I made my own wine charms too! They are very easy, and it cost me 12p per charm in the end (I made 200 of them! also going to use them as napkin rings so everyone will have 2) and I also bought some wooden roses (£17.99 for 100) which I am going to use as place names and favours too! So all in all I spent £41.99! And that covered favours and place names! xxx
Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
Pics of the charms are in my album if you want to have a look, they dont do them justice though as the camera on my phone isn't very good! xx
Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorPrincess2be
cannot believe you made 200 wine charms Linzi-jo!! Woop Woop! x
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
They were so easy to do that it didn't really take that long and I was doing them whilst watching tele so my mind wasn't completely on them either. I really enjoyed making them though and in real life they look gorgeous! xx
Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorOssie12
I made all my own invites and will be making my place names and table plan saved a lot doing it myself! x
CommentAuthorCrawf
thanks Linzi-Jo for the pics of your charms :) My cousin is making all of my invitations for me and the venue I like said that the place names and table plan are included (although I am a bit of a control freak and will end up asking if I can replace with my own! haha)
CommentAuthorKastobe
I'd suggest a weekday rather than a weekend (venue cost went from £1,000 to £500 for us by doing this), making your own stationary is time-consuming but you can get all the bits from Hobbycraft and save money there too.
We have a number of friends doing our photography as they are wanting to get started and need to build their portfolio so thats saved us £££ plus we are not having a DJ, we are putting playlists on an iPod for different stages of the reception (we actually did this more because I hate cheesy music and my H2B and I have completely opposite tastes and no DJ would make us both happy, lol)
Also, shop around on the internet for voucher codes - you can save £20 here, £10 there, £30 over there etc.
We have ordered the chair covers and are going to put them on ourselves which has cut the cost down nicely too.
CommentAuthorbridalmiss
Instead of doing the traditional crafty invites, do it on the PC and get postcards printed from somewhere like v!staprint or on a photo etc. We did our Save The Dates on the computer and emailed them out as attachments about a year before, which meant free postage! Also found a free wedding website so we set up a load of info on there about hotels, times, gift list etc - means there's less paper to insert into your invitations.
Instead of church flowers we had bows with trailing ivy on the pew ends (so much cheaper than flowers from your florist) and the church flower club sorted the flowers for the entrance porch, altar etc for just a donation towards the cost of flowers. We made our own centrepieces (we made sweet trees) but check out wholesalers nearby where you can get things like vases, candleabras etc so you can make your own easily - we had 14 tables plus top table so we didn't want to spend up to 40 per centrepiece, made ours for 8-9!
I also borrowed a friend's tiara, shopped around for my underskirt and bought things like FG dresses etc in high street sales - I even gave the FGs a cuddly bunny each to carry instead of flowers which I thought would be a waste of money, plus it doubled up as their thank you present!
Oh and we made our own table plan, using a vase and artifical twigs etc from the floral wholesaler - and I just listed people per table, meaning I didn't have to make individual place names, they could sit how they liked on the tables themselves. My Mum made our cake too so that saved us a major expense, but I've had friends who have got simple cakes from M&S and decorated these with flowers - if you want ideas, look at my album to see how we did it - my cousin also made us cupcakes too for our favours, which ended up free as she offered them as our wedding present too! :-)
CommentAuthorKirstyJ22
I'm getting pretty much all the bits from the bay, making our invites and male favours. I got my jewellery in a sale and the bridesmaid jewellery from the bay. Using foam flowers instead of real, half the price and they're a nice keepsake. We also haggled with our venue and got them down £2000 from their original quote. We're having bacon and sausage rolls for the evening do which was £11 cheaper pp. My friend is brilliant with a camera and is doing our photography for £50. Another friend is making the cake. lots of ways to save money =] x x
CommentAuthorCrawf
I have been seeking out all different ways of doing it! My cousin (u may have mentioned) is doing everything 'paper' for me: invites/place cards/menu's etc My aunt is going to 'bling' up my dress so I can look for a cheaper, plain dress and save some money and she will customize it and make it the way I want it. Me and BM's/SIL are going to make the wedding favours together over a weekend closer to the wedding I work for a large car manufacturer who are going to give me some lovely old cars for the day and a nice high powered car for OH for free! My BMs and FGs will have corsages on their wrists instead of bouquets
I have been scouring the bay and found some wonderful ideas :)
I have a long time to search out things and make loads of stuff!
