To ask for your 'cheap' wedding tips

[InTheBirdBox]

Me and DP have recently gotten engaged.

I hear that the average wedding costs around £17,000.00 which I just find incredible (and we have no where near that much to spend on one).

Does anyone have any tips on keeping down costs? Things that worked for you maybe?

I want it to be a nice day to share with family and friends but I'm not overly extravagant so I'm hoping I can easily do it for less!!

village hall
eliminate what you don't need

1. special car any car with a decent size back seat will do with ribbons if necessary
2. wedding favours

3, don't do a free bar just drinks on arrival and some wine on tables

1. a dress maker could be the cheapest route to nice dress

5, have a colour scheme for bridesmaids so they match and get a dress that suits them

1. plain gold bands are not that expensive
2. anyone with a printer can make own invitations order of service name place things as well as thank you cards
3. do you have friends that will do anything for mates rates don't ask for free
4. food especially for buffets is not the expensive part going from £6 - £8 -£10 a head is only a couple of hundred pounds sit down meals are much more expensive

10 make your own cake get someone to ice it or plain ice yourself then flowers ( you can buy ready made icing flowers)

Invitations by email to the most/many who use it.

I did my own hair and make up

Got a band from a local college to do the music

I didn’t have a “wedding” dress.

Mil made our cake

I got married at 4 and went straight into the evening do, so just had a massive buffet. I think we had cake and drinks in between.

Don't have Save the Dates.
Don't have favours.

Don't have transport.

Cut guest list to the bone.

If you can face it, scrap evening do. One of the nicest weddings I've been to had a teatime reception at a village hall which was 'bring a cake'. V cheap but also delightful.

Steer clear of bridal shops. Ditto wedding fairs.

Think seriously about how often you will actually look at your photos. They need to be good but don't get carried away. Our album sits in a box at the bottom of a cupboard.

Finally, bridesmaids - I highly recommend child ones. They are cute and plus their mums' do their hair.

See if you know anyone into card craft who will make invitations - even if you pay them, it will still be worth it.

Do own hair and makeup. There are enough youtube videos out there for there to be DIY options.

Take a look on Groupon - not joking. There are often wedding packages available on there. I have just looked and there are a few in the Derby area.

Gretna green :)

Rope in family and friends with skills and get them to give you that instead of a present. My son got married in the summer, MIL did the flowers, my daughter made the cake, friends made various decorations, we got the alcohol on a quick trip to France (we live near a ferry port).
Registry office wedding, marquee in the garden, hog roast and homemade veggie alternatives and salad buffet, supermarket canapés for the evening guests. Everybody had a great time without costing a fortune.

Get comping. There's dozens of win X for your wedding competition every month. If you enter every single one you find(if you Google comping there's loads of guides and websites to help you get started) there's a good chance you'll win something.

I managed to win a really high quality wedding band for my husband by being second prize in a count the gems in a wine glass contest a jewellery shop ran.

My ring was a vintage one from a pawnbroker that I got for £50 I could spent more or less but that was the ring I loved

Do what my friend did. Get married at a registry office on a weekday in term time. Invite only immediate family and a few close friends.

Book a table at the local Michelin-starred gastro pub for lunch for everyone. I think there were about 15 of us.

No new outfits, bridesmaids, page boys, car, flower arrangements, musicians, photographer, evening do, disco etc etc. Total cost, a few hundred quid.

The newlyweds then drove to Heathrow to fly business class to Cape Town for a 3 week holiday of a lifetime in South Africa.

Groupon! We got our venue - room hire (ceremony and reception), 3 course wedding breakfast, 4 glasses of wine per guest (1 on arrival, 2 with dinner, champagne to toast), evening buffet, honeymoon suite for 2 nights and a wedding co-ordinator for £1,499 (50 day guests, 70 evening). It was a lovely venue too in the Cotswolds (so not a "cheap" area as it were) and a Saturday wedding!

Yes! We did ours for 6k.
I was lucky as my friends are really talented, one has a home baking business and one is a florist! So got cake fit £100 and flowers for £150.

I used an up and coming photographer for £250.

I used a family members car - put a ribbon on it.

We had a bbq instead of a sit down meal, and got married late afternoon.

My parents live in France and (lush!) wine was €1:50 per bottle.

Biggest costs were venue hire,catering and corkage - my mum bought my dress.

Congratulations! My day was perfect.

Elope!

If you're not feeding evening guests, you run the risk they get drunk quickly so unless it is midweek, i'd do an simple buffet in the evening

We had a 1pm wedding followed by lunch then all over. If I had my time again I'd have married at 4pm and had a buffet after. No separate 'evening' bit (which is devisive anyway). Wedding and reception in same venue.

We cut the non essentials like cars (got taxi). Made own invites. No wedding favours which are often left on tables. Assembled own wedding cake with iced fruit cakes from M&S. Photographer for after ceremony only. We were going to do own flowers but found a reasonable florist. Flowers moved from ceremony room to dining room.

We didn't stint on the food and drink though. I went to so many weddings with chair covers and fancy decorations but awful food. I didn't want that for ours.

Work out what is essential for you. I have seen some lovely ideas for eco weddings recently. No invites or unnecessary paper, emailed wedding invites and with as much recycled/ repurposed as possible.
For a wedding that I went everyone who had roses in their gardens was asked to dry petals and bring them to use as confetti to share out.
Rather than lots of wedding gifts as if anyone wants to give things that will be used at the wedding. A farmer that I know gave meat to be cooked for the wedding reception. I have also been to a wedding were we all had to take a dish of food for the buffet

An open bar seems to be rare now. Much more usual for guests to have to buy hair own alcohol.or even BYO.

Small guest list - only nearest and dearest
Don't have both a daytime and evening 'do'. Have one event for all your guests.

Congratulations! Things we did that saved money:

• shared church flower costs with another bride marrying same day
• bought table flowers myself and made rustic arrangements
• no bridesmaids
• no veil
• did my own make up
• did my own invitations

We spent money on a lovely meal as that was important to us but tried to save elsewhere!

We're doing ours next year on a relative budget - about £5000 for 80-90 people. Things we're doing to save money are...

Not officially getting married on the day - we will go to a registery office with just 2 close friends as witnesses few days before p, then a friend will do a ceremony/blessing on the day so we can have it as we want and save £££s.
Booked a very pretty village hall (Fri-Sun) for our venue - much cheaper than barn venues but with similar flexibility.

No cars, wedding favours, sweet carts etc

I'll be buying my dress from high street - think monsoon etc. My best friends (who will be a kind of bridesmaid) are buying dresses to our colour scheme (green) but to their individual liking so we're not paying for them. DP has just bought a nice suit from Next. Cheap wedding bands (which we will have engraved for the other) and no engagement ring.

We're having BBQ rather than sit down meal. Then we're getting loads of samosa & pakora from a local Indian deli for the evening - super tasty, good for soaking up alcohol & cheap. We're not having evening only guests and were not starting till 2.30pm so people will have had lunch beforehand.

We have a local pub doing a paid bar and aren't going overboard on the free fizz and wine. We're having cupcakes from a local shop rather than a wedding cake and they will be pudding.

Doing my own flowers for table decorations - rustic style using supermarket flowers.

We have a good friend DJing but if they couldn't we would have just used a playlist. We're having a band in the afternoon - rather than a wedding band we approached a local band we'd seen and liked in a local pub and asked them to do it - about half the price.

Roping in friends to help with putting it all up and down etc. Not having a photographer, friends are going to take shots and my brother is getting his drone ready to make us a video! 😁

All about working out what is important to you and then giving yourself a slap when you've been on Pinterest too long and reminding yourself of your priorities!
Jeez that was long apologies, been in wedding planning mode this evening!

I had my wedding on a Saturday in a village hall with a humanist ceremony. I had a hot food buffet and bought my amazing dress at wed2be. We hired a bus for our guests and a friend dj-ed. We borrowed a PA system and it was BYOB. We bought champagne from Lidl and had bottles of wine on the table for guests. We borrowed glasses from Waitrose.
My flowers were fake from The Range and my table centrepieces were made from ikea fake flowers and a wee 90p vases.
I made my own table runners but you could buy some, the whole wedding for £3000 for 100 people.
It can be done. As long as people are fed, most people don't mind. By going more diy wedding it cut out loads of extras like fancy favours and the like. Everyone loved it. X

Crikey sorry lost all my paragraphs! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I've bought an ex display dress. Its a Justin Alexander, originally £1400. I got it for £150 on eBay. The zip needs fixing and it will need altering to take it up but still cheaper.

I'm only having neice's and nephews as bridesmaids and page boys.

I'm getting a ribbon boquet and grooms button hole. I might get button holes for the bestman & page boys and wands for the bm's but not decided yet. No flowers in the venue's. I'm not fussed about flowers.

We think we're going to book a town hall and then working men's club.

Reception will be decorated with balloons, battery fairy lights etc. I'm not fussed about decs.

I'm going to put the starter food out on the tables as centre pieces for when ppl arrive. Again I'm not fussed about the decs.

I'm considering spending a lot on catered food (,I want a specific meal) as well as a buffet but it will be 'go up to the table to get' and find your own seat. I'm not fucking about with table plans or the stationary that goes with it. I'm not paying for a table served meal.

I'll get a cake/s from m&s and that's desert.

I've chosen inexpensive invitations and I'll set up a website for further info.

I'll spend the money for a decent car to the venue, Mua & hairdresser.

A friend can DJ but we're paying out decent money for a band.

We'll have a free bar.

You just have to decide which bits are important to you. For us it's being able to invite everyone we want, feed & water them and provide decent music which imo makes a good party.

We hired a golf club for our reception (not a particularly fancy one but perfectly nice). Venue hire was £150, we paid £8 per head for decent but casual hot buffet meal (pie and peas, chicken legs, samosas, that kind of thing) and a bit extra for cava (not champagne) for the speeches. We had no formal seating plans or anything like that, all very relaxed. It's not for everyone but was just what we wanted.

We also called in favours for everything possible - we had friends who helped out with flowers, invitations, photography and make up, DH's band played at the evening do and I made my own cake. Dress was £180 from monsoon and bridesmaids dresses were £60 each from Mango!

The smallest wedding I've ever been too was also the best. The couple got married late afternoon with a single bridesmaid and best man, no entourage that seems to have become the norm. Then everyone went to a beautiful restaurant for the night for a fantastic meal and great company. No second tier guests, wedding favours, decorations etc. Was a true celebration of marriage, simple and elegant.

Marry in winter, do your own flowers, not on a Saturday.

Get quotes for a party never mention wedding.
Ridiculous pricing.