Wedding on an teeny, teeny budget

[happilyflowingalong]

At the age of 80, my uncle is getting married again. He and his bride to be are the loveliest people and as they're religious have opted for a church wedding and small reception. The church itself isn't very pretty inside so I've been asked to come up with some room dressing ideas but on a small budget. They're both pensioners with very small income but have said they just want the room to look 'pretty and weddingy' and are happy for me to decide how to do it.

Things I'm currently thinking!

White stretchy chair covers (to cover ugly chairs)
Simple flower arrangements on windows
Create an 'aisle' perhaps with large glass vases and fake LED candles lining it.

I'm looking online and hire seems to be SO expensive. Has anyone planned a wedding with a tiny budget and got any tips for sourcing nice decor?

Start collecting smaller glass jars (ask friends and family to collect them, get the labels off and clean them). You can buy 100 tealight candles very cheaply to put in them. Collect greenery boughs and branches from local parks, collect early and let it dry out somewhere so there are no bugs. For flowers stick to white pink and yellow carnations which look nice in small groups in empty tin cans (again washed with the labels properly removed). If it was my 80 year old family member I would get photos blown up of them and other weddings, children grandchildren and put them up around the walls. I wish them both a lovely day and lots of rock and roll music.

My budget was £1500.

I would suggest joining online bride pages, there are many on Facebook and people sell bits all the time and cheaply.

I made my own flowers, I found a step by step on a blog, very easy to do.

Bridesmaid dresses came from charity shops and one from Marketplace.

I got a local college group to make my cake as part of their training, and a health and beauty student did my make up.

These for ends of pews or backs of chairs nearest the aisle?

Time to Sparkle Pack of 10 Organza Sashes 22x280cm Wider Sash Fuller Bows Chair Cover Bows Sash for Wedding Party Birthday Decoration - Silver Cloud amzn.eu/d/68wFqKk

So I would be thinking you can grow flowers or work with green fingered church goers or guests to grow flowers, then just top up with a few bits close to the time.

Foliage, you need to locate people with large gardens.

The chairs, can you go along on a Sunday service and have a look? I find once everyone is sitting down, you might not notice the chairs etc?

Does the church have a lady (or gentleman) that does the flowers? The chances are they have a nice little stash of stuff that comes out on Easter Sunday (and maybe some Christmas stuff that is pretty enough for a wedding) which they'd be happy for you to use. LED lights are a great idea. Some battery ones arranged on the pews could look really effective.

Congratulations to them! It’s also so heart-warming that you are helping them have a lovely day.

I found the few little extra things like candles and vases really added up, despite only getting a small amount, so would put all the budget into in-season flowers. This would minimise waste with plastic ribbons etc. and you wouldn’t have to sell stuff afterwards - which is actually quite difficult to sell at all, let alone for a decent price!

Go for a multicoloured theme so you can put whatever’s available the day before together and brighten the venue up. My florist’s advice was go for fewer larger arrangements (such as two urns or big vases - whatever family and friends have available - at the alter) which can be enhanced and made to look more dramatic with cheaper in-season greenery and foliage.

Something I really wish we did was have some paper sheets (newspaper will do and look rustic!) available for staff at our venue to wrap bouquets for guests to take home as a lovely favour and very eco-friendly. You don’t even need staff to do this.

I agree chair covers are very expensive and I don’t think they matter. We actually hired chairs but couldn’t see them as our lovely guests were sitting on them and we just saw their faces.

Good luck! It’s lovely planning a wedding regardless of budget.

My Facebook marketplace often has people reselling their wedding decorations but I'm in the USA so don't know if that happens in the UK.

IKEA is where we got vases and lights from and we bought flowers wholesale.

I got my wedding flowers for a wedding in Paris for €200. We went to a little tiny florist run by an old Chinese couple in a run down part of town and said we wanted a bridal bouquet, two bridesmaids' posies, two large arrangements for the church and a single rose for the end of each pew. We had just red and white roses but if you're more flexible, ask what is cheap and in season. You can always pad it out with greenery - or even pick your own greenery for free. Our best man picked the flowers up on the morning of the wedding and taped the roses to the ends of the pews.

I agree, speak to the church flower arranging team. They will be able to work wonders with a small budget.

Congratulations to them!

Thank you everyone!

I think simple flowers, a tea light in a candle looks nicer than heaps of things maybe simple ribbons

A lot of cheap stuff can look cheap

For flowers, go to your local Saturday market. If you speak to them in advance and tell them you will be buying flowers for a wedding on X date they can even help source the things you want. We got married end of March so we bought loads and loads of daffodils plus lots of other random stuff and we decorated a whole village hall and made bouquets for me and 4 bridesmaids for less than £50.

I'd go with small posies of flowers placed through a doiley and have ivy trailing down and put on end of each pew. I'd put tea lights in jam jars on the floor to make a runway for bride to walk up the isle. I would ask members of congregation if they have any flowers in their garden they would donate. Plant dalia's in garden or patio pots in May and in August you should have lots of bright blooms you can cut.

We used helium balloons. Got church pews, arrangements at church door and reception including a balloon arch for £250 including delivery and installation. That was 8 years ago.

Get on your local buy nothing FB groups and the Olio app and ask for used decorations. A lot of people buy decorations for one-off events and are then happy to give them away or at least lend them out. You then give them away once you’ve used them.

You should be able to find ribbons, bunting, paper flowers, vases or glass jars and tea light holders this way. Maybe even some chair covers.

Hydrangeas, ivy, eucalyptus, pampas, etc. can be beautiful . Do you know anyone with them in their garden? Have a look in friends and family’s gardens. I’m sure they’d happily donate, I would. For an August wedding you could also sow seeds very cheaply for flowers that will bloom in August e.g. cosmos, nigella, etc. (google is your friend for ideas.) They’re simple to grow and if you add in a few supermarket bought roses (Coop ones are surprisingly good) there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to create displays that look expensive on a tiny budget.
For example, a long top table display you can use a plain green Christmas Garland as the base layer and build it up, giving a more 3D look. Use safety pins to attach it to the table cloth (flat white sheets are often cheaper) so it doesn’t fall off. I did one that was over forty foot long by attaching three garlands together. Everywhere I went I was looking for foliage (DS had an amazing cedar) I could use to completely cover the fake garland. Beyond the floristry wire, seeds, roses and some cheap chrysanthemums (I found Lidl cheapest for those) I didn’t buy anything.

So this may sound a bit morbid..... but local funeral homes often have loads of flowers that they have to dispose of after.... I work at a hospice and often get them donated.... we just take them apart and make little posys for vases

Ivy is brilliant foliage and people are often happy for you to take it off their houses.Run it down the centre of the tables,fill the window ledges with it, and then use a few white flowers/bows/candles to make it wedding-y. My wedding flowers were ivy with pink and blue and white.

Call a local supermarket and ask if they'd be able to let you have some of their remainder flowers on the morning of the wedding. When we had my dad's funeral we left with a HUGE armfull of flowers from Sainsbury. Took every jar in village hall and we jad to send put for more.

Not all of the supermarkets will do this but certainly worth asking

Skip the expensive chair covers. No matter how ugly the chairs, people will be sitting on them. If you're not expecting many guests, you could see if some of the chairs could be moved.

I wouldn’t worry about chair covers. Like the idea of lights.

I agree speak to the church - here it’s quite common for ppl getting married to leave their flower arrangements in the church for the rest of us to enjoy. Maybe another couple is getting married that weekend?

Also once I sent flowers to a couple in the newspaper who were in their 90s and getting married in their nursing home, any chance of a bit of publicity in the local rag?

Bless them this is really sweet.

You could get greenery from the local forest - we covered ugly beams with foliage and it transformed it

You could get some glass vases from charity shops , and fill them with flowers. I know someone who did this and allowed people to take them home if they wanted or just donate them back .

When we married (on a shoestring) the lovely thing was that so many people contributed to the day. It felt like such a strong message of support.

In your situation I'd liaise with everyone coming to ask them what they can do or contribute for the day - making cakes, arranging flowers, someone with a great car etc. And anyone without a special skill gets to buy a packet of seeds and get planting!