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?

It’s probably had its day now but when we got married the trend was for shabby chic, thrown together DIY stuff. We made tons of decorations ourselves and it ready did look beautiful. We collected jam jars for tea lights and also as vases for home grown sweet peas. We bought ribbon and tied little bunches of lavender for pew end decorations. I think covers for the chairs would be nice if you can stretch to them to give it a clean, bright look but I wouldn’t prioritise that over other things.

We went to a beautiful, very homegrown wedding at our local church recently.
they was organza strips tied to the edges of the chairs on the aisles only, the rest of the chairs had people sat on them so couldn’t see them.

Bunting was strung across everywhere which made it so cheerful. A lovely flower display at the font of the church.

White table cloths, jam jars with small amounts of fresh flowers. Tea lights and light strings in bottles. Catered for buffet mains and desserts provided by guests and friends. So much love in the room it was amazing.

That’s not quite right. For various logistical reasons we got married in a church outside our parish. We lived hundreds of miles away from our hometown at the time and my mum attended on our behalf on a regular basis for 6 months in order that we be allowed to marry there. She didn’t go every week as it’s not her regular church.

So it can certainly be done (in C of E anyway), but I agree that if there’s no barrier to being married in their own church, a religious couple are highly unlikely to marry elsewhere for purely aesthetic reasons.

I’d not bother with chair covers.

1. they don’t look great unless they’re on the right shape chair
2. they don’t fit if they’re not on the right chair and can be difficult to sit on
3. they may actually cause injury or a trip hazzard
4. exoensive!

decorate the end (back edge) of the chairs to decorate the isle. Chairs will be sat on and not seen. Focus on what people will see looking at the isle and the alter.

remember trip hazards! And don’t do anything that will be kicked about. You don’t want anyone falling over and hurting themselves!

also remember sometimes less is more!

white chair covers, flower, fairy lights and tea lights sounds totally over the top for a church.

what about a sprig of greenery (from gardens?) tied with a wide organza style ribbon and fixed to the chairs along the isle.

& an arrangement at the front of the church that you can either leave for the church (as they’re both part of the congregation) or take to the reception. ….. unless the church flowers team already have a plan for that week and you’ll get “free” flowers anyway!

are you decorating for the reception?

Jam jars for flowers? Can be jollies up with rustic twine etc. lots of folk sell off their wedding décor cheaply so have a look at Facebook marketplace etc!

people sell left over wedding decor on Vinted so that’s worth a look

I saw a post on a local community facebook page recently. On someones behalf, a lady posted about the fact a couple are getting married on a super small budget and wondered if she could be 'cheeky' and ask if anyone has anything wedding related that they are either getting rid of (free) or selling suor cheap.

It's worth a shot, as the response was do great! Even a local cake maker offered to do a cake for free! Obviously you'll have to ignore the few keyboard warriors who just HAVE to say how cheeky it is or comments of 'don't get married if you can't afford it' 🙄. But the vast majority of comments were super helpful. It's amazing how much a community page can help!

There are websites like hitched.co.uk where people sell off all their second hand wedding stuff, so I would try there. That way you might be able to buy all the things you need off one person. It might be a good place for ideas too.

Or if you figure out what you want, maybe try asking on your local Facebook group. If you say it's for an 80 year old wedding on a tight budget I'm sure people would lend you stuff also. They would on my local groups anyway

For my wedding I did actually just collect together different sized bottles and jars for flowers and it looked lovely. They were literally just bottles we had used up. The flowers still cost quite a lot though, but sure they could be bought cheaper.

I think a lot of people are imagining a traditional C of E type church. From what the OP has said, it sounds more like some of the churches I have attended which have more of a repurposed sports hall vibe, complete with ugly stacking chairs.

Paper pom poms are super easy to make and cheap (tissue paper and thread). You can make them in different sizes and colours and then hang them anywhere you can to brighten up the place

Any pics of the venue so we can imagine how to decorate?
And is it just for the ceremony or for the reception as well? I think £200 could go quite a long way if just for the ceremony space.

Check the church allows candles even if in jars. And that you have long enough matches to light them safely.

Battery operated tea lights are reasonably cheap. As are white battery operated fairy lights which look great in a large glass container or two. But if the church is sunlit, you might ask if it's worth it - most people use them in our typically dark and gloomy churches.

Another one saying check the church flower committee for help and advice re flowers. August is a bit of a hit and miss month for amateur flower growers but ivy, greenery, lavender and cow parsley are very pretty - make sure you have buckets of water and time to arrange them if doing them yourself. If flower committee can help, can you take them to the wedding party venue?

I wouldn't do chair covers. As PPs have said, from the bride and grooms point of view they'll just see their (delighted) friends and relatives and bows might get in the way of hymn books, congregation. Send us pictures of chairs!

Where are you located?

I’m a wedding stylist based in the midlands and would love to help you if you’re in the area!

We got married in September Sun flowers are in season and can be grown quite easily or can be bought cheaply.

I’ve done white lanterns from ikea with large pillar candles in them to create an aisle walkway and used coloured petals around them. If it’s summer you can probably just pick some flowers from the garden for petals.
homemade bunting is always great too.
For centrepieces you can get really thick satin ribbon and creates criss cross runs across the table for colour
little vases with cut lavender look fab and create beautiful scent. And is super cheap depending on season
good luck 😊

I think some people might have the wrong idea. Many modern churches aren’t like traditional churches at all -they don’t have pews or an altar. They have stacking chairs and might look like a school hall. They don’t necessarily have flowers or a Mothers Union.

Is there a community spirit in the village - could you enlist the help of anyone who enjoys gardening and ask them to plant a few flowers that you could use - dahlias, zinnias and cosmos are good August flowers. Or to donate greenery.

You could fill the venue will vases of the flowers - don’t have to be professionally arranged.

Is it the church or wedding venue you are decorating ?

@Sunnydays0101
I don’t think it’s a village. Modern churches are often in cities and their suburbs and they might also share the space with other groups. But it may be that members of the congregation will be happy to help. I’d approach the church leader for advice.

Ooh another one, buy some florist’s ribbon and watch youtube for how to do a fancy bow. They look good and the florist’s ribbon is ridiculously cheap - £3.50 for 91 m ! www.hobbycraft.co.uk/white-poly-ribbon-5cm-x-91m/6525551000.html

As lots of pp have suggested, we bought a massive roll of satin ribbon for not very much (I think it was a tenner), and turned it into bows, wrapped it round the stair bannisters, the chairs, bought a box of pull bows at the same time and used those for the end of the pews. These were all combined with ridiculous amounts of trailing ivy that I had been resisting the urge to pull out of the edge of the garden for months...

Tealights went on the tables in ikea glass tealight holders. We're still using the holders years later. We encouraged people to take them home too...

Best thing for a massive, cheap and easy effect is to grow sunflowers. Especially the smaller ones with loads of flowers. One multi-stem of those in a vase is spectacular and August is the middle of their flowering season.