wedding on a budget

[olafthesnowman]

Hi there my dp and I are going to be getting married next year.
We have around 4k for everything.
We woukd like a shabby chic and vintage theme.
Do u credit crunchers have any idea where to start cutting costs or saving money on things.
If my mum doesnt turn her nose up at it we would like it in a lovely hall that we could decorate ourselves.
Not sure about food.
Any ideas would be so grateful! !

Lots of great ideas on here already! We shopped around for things and didn't go crazy on unnecessary stuff. We did do favours - I bought a big bag of lavender, some patchwork squares on ebay and made little lavender hearts for everyone. Really easy to do and don't cost much. A friend used patchwork squares to make litt coasters for everyone as favours at her wedding.

Have you checked out etsy.com for accessories/ideas etc? Lots of lovely crafty people on there making things and you can also commission them. We got usher presents from there (map cuff links with places that were personal to them) and a necklace for my sister who was my bridesmaid.

I got my shoes from Filippa Scott sale shop and they were a bargain rather than the £100 odd they should have cost. Barrett's also have some good shoes in.

Made our own invitations, order of service, menus, place name cards, seating plan etc

Also eBay is great for bulk orders of things if you need them.

Go for a venue you don't need to decorate. If you need to decorate some bits, check out tissue paper Pom proms on Pinterest or Martha Stewart website. They can look amazing and are cheap and easy to make.

Depending on when you get married, you can save on flowers by growing your own (like daffodils in spring etc). Save bottles and jars for vases for the centre pieces of tables and cover with a bit of fabric and a piece of ribbon to 'shabby chic' them up.

Good luck!

I made my own invitations, coloured cards with gold writing and a sticker, they looked much better than shop ones and cost about £15 to invite a hundred. ( only about 40 cards to make, as most were four couples and families)

I bought my Jenny Packham wedding dress on eBay for £40 + £50 for dry cleaning, meaning to dress only cost £90

Food for a vintage wedding... Surely got to be afternoon tea, right? Job lot of scones (draft in the family bakers), jam and clotted cream; quiche; sandwiches cut into triangles; selection of cakes and tarts. You might even find that a few people would like a cup of tea!

We got married in july and spent about £6000 pounds in total. Ebay is definitely your friend when it comes to weddings . Look online for ideas on wedding websites and you will find most things you see can be homemade pretty cheaply with a little imagination and a girly night in. I bought my dress on ebay for £80 it came from china and i really liked it, some people aren't so keen to buy wedding dresses on ebay but i didn't have any problems with mine. Once you've decided on a venue ask if you can do your own catering, it might work out cheaper but we found feeding guests was our biggest expense.
Find out if family members have any hidden talents like baking or sewing or anything that would be useful to you.
And most of all remember its about the two of you, people will always have an opinion but its what suits you that matters.
Happy planning can you tell i had a great time planning mine

I think it depends on what sort of wedding you want. DH and I are fairly weird quirky, so we didn't bother with most of it. I wore an ordinary dress, DH wore a suit which then got used for work, I did the flowers myself, we wrote out place names ourselves on bits of paper, my mum made the cake, etc. No favours, no disco, no photographer, no hairdresser, no wedding cars, no bridesmaids, no best man, no speeches, no music, no entertainment, no buttonholes. We just spent the money on a good quality meal and drinks for everyone. We also had the wedding itself separately, so there was no worry about getting from the register office to the venue.

The only downside is that I found the register office wedding itself to be pretty crap (it lasts about a minute and I'm used to church services going for about an hour including sermon, hymns etc), but then that's life.

I'd start by making a list of what, if anything, actually matters to you, and use that as a touchpoint. Anything else on top of that is probably just marketing and can be ignored.

Decorate the hall with bunting(ebay is full of cheap but pretty fabric bunting in 10-40 ft lengths) and jam jar flowers. Fairy lights can look fab for night and be hired cheaply. I recently hosted an event using the above plus giant paper pom poms.

The drinks on offer were jam jar cocktails with chevron straws in matching colours to the décor. Ask everyone you know to save you their jam jars... the more shapes and sizes the better.

A large picture frame from the charity shop can be backed with fabric and painted in your colour of choice... makes a fab table planner.

Favours are not essential but homemade table in tiny cellophane bags (amazon) tied with lacy ribbon and a little tag with the date are cute and in keeping with the theme.

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/bridesmaid-prom-dress-a-budget-8-95-everything5pounds-1838093

My advice would be to spend as much as you can afford on your rings and the photographs. These will be the items that last from your day.