How to do a wedding that is affordable ?

[Nakchakab]

This is not my wedding but I’m a bridesmaid.

My friend is unwell with an incurable condition, she wishes to get married this year before her condition worsens.

She is getting married at the registry office, and having the dance at the local cricket club which have given her the room at a very good price.

For food they are going to get Chinese takeaway who will cater it (her favourite food).

For the RO, room (including it being dressed up) and Chinese food she’s been quoted ~£500.

What else can we do for the extras to make sure it’s a great day but not expensive.

Thanks

What does she like? And the groom? Then I would take inspiration from that.

Eg, she likes painting? You could have few cheap canvasses, paintbrushes and watercolours on a side for people to paint the couple.
Origami station? With papers and manuals?

Plenty, but really depends what they are into

I'd look on any bridal facebook groups and see if anyone is selling anything second hand?

I kitted out my wedding 90% with second hand things (table centres, table plan, confetti etc).

Hardly spent anything as most couples just want rid of all the stuff that takes up space in their house.

If she wants flowers, find a wholesale florist and watch some YouTube videos. Alternatively there are some beautiful fake/dried flower alternatives which aren’t cheap but can be used at home afterwards.

Can anyone bake? Instead of a gift could they donate a wedding cake, if they want one?

Confetti - use a shaped hole puncher to stamp pages out of an old book/plain paper. Would have to be done inside as it would be a nightmare to clear up.

For my friend's hen do we decorated the house with photos of her with all of us over the years pegged on to pieces of string. If you know enough of the wedding guests, you could ask them to send you pictures of the couple at different stages of their life and relationship and do something similar?

Have you had any thoughts about photography? It is likely that amongst the guests there will be some one with a decent camera and a bit of artistic flare that may be happy to offer up their photos.

My wedding dress was from eBay, it cost £120 including postage.
However if that's still over budget, look on Amazon at Ever Pretty dresses, they go for under £40 but size up at least 1 size. They have some lovely styles.
Shoes I got from a secondhand shop for £5
I made my own flowers, from fakes ones I bought in Home Bargains and some wire and ribbon from Amazon. I had my large bouquet, and 4 bridesmaids ones for £12 all together and it was very easy to make them, I just used the ribbon the cover the wire.
Bridesmaids dresses were all from secondhand stores, Facebook Marketplace and eBay. DH wore a suit he already had!

Booze was from Approved Food which do some amazing bargains.

As for all those extras like favours, I didn't bother with it.

With photos, you can see if there's a local college with a photography course as some of them will give you details of a student as long as you don't mind someone using some for their portfolio.

I got driven to church by a friend who had a nice car. DH walked up with his best friend.

Our wedding cost under £1500 and we had 60 people there. It was no thrills but for us it wasn't for showing off so we were happy

Just pay for a really nice bridal bouquet it will be in all the photos. Maybe someone will pay as a gift?

Nobody cares about table flowers
Or the bride's shoes
Cash bar
Does someone have a nice car you can decorate with a ribbon
Don't skimp on the photographs either, if not professionals find a way of guests uploading them to go in one photobook

Oh and get a Waitrose or M&S royal icing cake but pay for a professional cake topper of the bride and groom

Thanks so much - going to look at this now

2nd hand dress and fake flowers. I used Angelk Silk weddings (she's on fb) and I loved my bouquet so much.

Home made wedding cake.

Wedding guests all email over their two fav party songs

I'd decorate with lots of fairy lights and tea lights instead of flowers.

Homemade wedding cake and/or get people to bring favourite childhood biscuits/chocolates/cakes for a dessert table
get people to bring a cheap bunch of flowers for table centres-or just leave them out all together. Can also forget about seat covers and things like that as no one will notice and they quickly add up.
do own hair and makeup-I find that people mostly know what suits them and I never feel quite right/myself in professional makeup
photography student is a good idea
cheap or second hand dress and shoes

We had bubbles instead of confetti - these from Rex London are super cheap.

@Albgo she’s got some lovely bouquets! Do you mind telling me how much l need to budget for?

There’s lots of FB groups with free decorations and other wedding things.
have you looked at the Wedding Wishing Well Foundation or Gift a Wedding?

I second the Marks and Spencer’s cake with a topper on top. It’s great moist cake

There’s lots of good 2nd hand stuff on Facebook groups and eBay

How about making a sweet buffet? Not sure if bride or groom has a sweet tooth. Again it’s east to get glass / plastic jars, tongues, bags, sweets etc online

Sorry to hear about your friend

Honestly, check out few FB pages.
I'm always seeing brides sell unworn dresses because they postponed due to lockdown then had a baby, table decor, candle stands and loads of other stuff - people just want rid.
I gave away all my centerpieces and church decor to the church and venue - they were designed with the locations in mind and the caretaker/restaraunt manager were delighted to be able to hold onto them for further use.
Family members made and decorated the cake - and honestly it was the most fabulous cake! Others made the candle stands, or did the floral bits as gifts. I think everyone who wanted to help, were delighted.
I didn't bother with bridesmaids or groomsmen, or a band or photographer and that cut out a lot of expense.

The most lovely wedding decorations I ever saw were yards and yards of old-style bunting - everyone helped to make it, it was festooned. Just give a general colour theme so it is not clashy (so pastels, or brights, or florals, or a colour relevant to bridal party) and ask everyone to help by cutting and sewing a few yards, and then they get sewn together and the whole place gets covered.

We also made a LOT of cupcakes for one, and decorated them as a group, that was super cheap and looked impressive.

For desserts you could ask everyone to bake and bring some for a general buffet table, if it is that sort of group (you need to trust the bakers!!)

We had a friend make our cake as her gift. Another was the photographer, all candid snaps nothing posed. Both were amazing and much more personal than if we'd paid a stranger to do it.

I went to one wedding where they asked guests to make origami cranes which they strung up as bunting - looked lovely and so sweet!

My sister's bouquet was made by her lovely neighbour who had a garden full of roses and peonies and was chuffed to do it.

What's important to your friend? E.g. my DH is music-mad so our DJ was only allowed to play songs off DH's very lengthy, very specific playlist :) We had a great day but the dancing was the highlight, it's our thing so was amazing to get it "right"...

Hope she has a lovely day!

Look for things friends can do - make a cake, make cupcakes, make favours, take photographs, sing or play an instrument at the ceremony, decorations, flowers, hair, make up etc? We had friends / family do all of these for us and it was lovely! Much better than 'professional' imo!
Can she provide her own drinks or is it a pay for bar? If provide own Do you have any friends with a supermarket discount or similar to bulk buy the booze?
Could she hire a dress? Or buy secondhand? Borrow accessories?

BF hired a cake stand and used plain iced fruit cake as the wedding cake. Wrapped some cheap broad ribbon round each cake - you can buy cheaply if there is a fabric/sewing stall at a local market. Topped the cakes with a few fesh flowers - gerberas/dahlias would be good and draped a bit of ivy round the stands. I don't think it cost more than £50 including stand hire for the three tier cake.

If you have some craft enthusiast friends then there are lots of ideas for inexpensive table centres on pinterest etc from piles of antique books topped with mini easels (v cheap at the works) with romantic quotes to vases of twigs decorated with paper feathers/flowers/birds etc. Perhaps some twigs with origami cranes as your friend is having a chinese meal?

I had a fairly cheap wedding. I did pay a lot for some things, but they were the things that really mattered to me.

I hired a hall, got a friend of a friend to cater it for a fixed fee, but no waiters and between us we bought everything wholesale, so it was really good food. I paid a lot for a cake, but it was worth every penny, and we had it for dessert. We also paid a lot for a band, but they were worth it too. An iPod would have worked if someone was happy to put the time into a playlist. I got in a ton of bacon and sausage and bread rolls and bribed everyone to come back and help clean up next day. We did our own hair and make up etc. I know what suits me. We did have a photographer, but she was rubbish. People’s own photos were much better.

DH and Co wore a regular suit. We had button holes and a bouquet, but nothing on the tables. An arty friend did decorations for us for a wedding present. I got my dress from Oxfam and I bought bridesmaid dresses just for little girls from Debenhams.

My stepfather got a load of wine and fizz in France and bought it back (I’m not sure you can still do that). I bought (and still have) a million cheap wineglasses and steak knives. We used sugar cane plates, paper cups and beechwood forks and spoons, so that people could make coffee and tea and also a really good value supper of cheese and biscuits, as dinner was mid afternoon.

I’m sure there was more, but that’s all I can remember! Just shows it’s not worth splashing the cash. It cost about 8k, which is a chunk of cash to be sure, but we had a couple of hundred people and fed and watered them all with fully organic, locally produced food and nice wines. It was a bargain, although it was a fair bit of work sourcing things myself and problem solving things which would be provided by a proper ‘venue’. We saved a load of money. It was right for us.