Cheap(ish) wedding advice

[mushroom]

Hi everyone

I'm looking for other experiences of cheapish weddings. Dp and I would like to get married, but are on a bit of a budget. I would only like to do it in a registry office and that's no problem, but I have a huge family and wide circle of friends and just could not afford to have a huge no expense spared 'do'. We've been thinking along the lines of maybe a meal for close family and then a party, but for that, we would love to be able to invite everybody. I've got a small idea of expenses but would love to hear how anyone else did it, on a budget of about £2 to £3K.

Cheers

Hi Mushroom, when me n DH got married we did it in the local registry office then had a buffet reception for close friends and family (40) at a really lovely spanish restaurant where they made tapas and paella. We had spanish flamenco dancers (£150)which added a memorable touch.My Dad contributed the Wine from his Wine Club. Friends did photos and we picked out the best of everyones. I wore a Ghost dress, we got our rings from Hatton Garden (simple bands of 18K, u pay by weight). Then we had a party with dj's for friends in a place we hired cheaply in SE london.It cost about £2,000 for the whole day!! Then friends contributed for us to have 2 nights in a suite at the Hyde Park Hilton.It couldn't have been better.

We had 'afternoon tea' as a reception. We got married at 2 then had a buffet tea in a posh hotel. It was cheaper for us and also for our family and friends as it meant that it was over by 6ish and people didn't have to stay the night in the hotel. Because people were driving there wasn't a big drinks bill either.

We didn't do cars, brother did the photos as a wedding present, mother bought the flowers and the honeymoon was 4 nights in an expensive hotel in Italy with cheapo Ryanair flights.

My dress was £100 and is still the best wedding dress I've seen

I have always said I'd recommend the way I got married. Me and hubby went off to the Dominican Republic and tied the knot there! We didn't invite anyone with us (a bit mean I know!) and we had our wedding and honeymoon in one! It was a fantastic experience and we had the ceremony videod. All together it cost around £3,000 and that was all inclusive too! I still watch the video of it now, nearly 6 years on.

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You've come to the right place. When it comes to cheap and cheerful weddings I'm your gal.

Venue. Try Sundays. You can often get things much cheaper then. Or Fridays are often discounted.

Get as many of your family involved as possible, ask for a contribution in lieu of wedding gifts. I catered my sister's wedding as a present as I was unemployed at the time. We asked my sister in law (a photographer) and a friend who is a part time photographer to take the photos for our wedding. I drove the wedding car for one of my sister's wedding and my brothers have been barmen at others. If you know someone artistic, get them to do the flowers. We asked the friend of a friend to do the disco and made up our own CDs for the first part of the wedding reception.

We got our cake from Marks and Spencer. They do about 4 different sizes, you can also get the pillars from them. I decorated ours with red and white carnations just scattered over it, you couldn't tell the difference from an expensive one.

I made our invitations on my home computer using Microsoft Publisher. I sacnned a photo of dh and in, and used it for the cover. I then printed them off on some nice paper that was 3 for the cost of 2 at W H Smiths.

I bought my dress in the Ghost sale, and dh got his suit in the Paul Smith sale.

We did the whole thing at a posh venue for under £3k. That included a bar bill of nearly £1k, £300 for getting the registrar out to the venue on a Sunday, food, clothes, cake, music and entertainment.

I think these weddings sound a lot more romantic and personalised and fun than many of the big expensive ones I have been to where some "toastmaster" tells everyone what to do. Imo of course. There are some great ideas here

We painted the invites the wp the insides
Had 30 people for a sit down (& top tier of cake)
then 200 for light finger buffet (& remaining 2 tiers of cake)
Table decorations were little pots of african violets (I think they mean 'forever' wrapped in crepe paper

My Brother was married in Scotland in a 14thC Castle up the side of a mountain - they walked down the side of the mountain and along the river bank to the sound of a piper - their table decorations were Rosemary teid with twine on the napkins, the whole thing was magical
Lots of luck

when buying things buy them in the sales and put them away for when you need it ou will be surprised how much you save there

SEXGODDESS - have you never heard of the lancashire hotpot? Did you never watch Coranation street when Betty used to serve her hotpot in the pub? It's very popular around these parts.

Sorry Flip - didn't make the connection - duh!!!

Hi there mushroom
My wedding was last July and it was the most wonderful day - I wouldn't have changed it for the world!!

Here is what we did!
I bought a cream bridesmaid dress £120 - beautiful. Bought shoes too - but you could do without out these. Did my own hair and make-up. had 2 bridesmaids - there dresses were £100 each (you could leave that out too). DH, best man and my dad hired suits (you could do without if they ahd smart suits too). I bought flowers and 3 button holes (again you could do without). We also hired a car and a friend of a friend did cheap photos.
We invited 40 people and did not worry about anyone being huffed.
Afterwards, we all went to a local italian restaurant which we booked out - everyone had a cheap 3 course pizza/pasta meal with a starter, icecream and coffee too. We also bought wine - we limited how much wine we woud buy with the restaurant but didn't run out.

On the night, we all went out in town and got drunk. A friend paid for me and DH to have a night in a hotel. Me, DH and DS also had a week in majorca.
We got wedding rings on 9 month interest free credit and they were paid off last month.

Cost us between 4 and 5 K for that - you could cut lots of corners as I mentioned above.

We had a fantastic time and so did everyone else.

Contact me if you want any more info.

Getting all nostalgic now!!
Popsy x

oh we also had a lovely one tier cake!!
and MIl made little 'favours' for the table

Ours was about £1000- paid for by inlaws.
Registry office. Dress from monsoon bought by sister. DH's suit bought by his parents. Flowers done by dh's florist friend. Pictures by dh's friend who processed them and everything for free. (semi pro). Hired a restaurant so all food and drink done. Night in posh hotel paid for by my mum and sister.

and cake by cousin imn law - also semi pro.

Yes, I bought my dress from Ghost too (actually a 3 piece of skirt, top and floaty see-through white jacket); "proper" wedding cake made by SIL with white sugar roses tumbling all over it; champagne provided as a present by my parents (we find that only having champagne to drink makes everything go with a swing!); reception at MIL's south coast cliff top home and garden with beautiful sea views and food paid for by her as present (catered and served by caterers). First night in hotel nearby then week on beach in lovely Deauville hotel(crossed to France by ferry from port up the road from hotel). Luckily we were blessed with hot sun throughout even though only early May. Just as well as dd came too!

Where abouts are you, mushroom? We saved a load of money at our wedding by getting flowers direct from Covent Garden - got up really early on the Friday morning, having told a guy there what I wanted by doing a recce a few weeks before. Got vast, huge, brilliant amount of flowers which I really wanted (reception was in big room that was just a white box so a bit souless and I wanted to pretty it up a bit). Got mt MIL and a friend of my Mum's to do arrangements for church and then just had all the female chums and relatives who were around on the Friday help us make table centres with the rest of the flowers. Followed a really simple arrangement that was in a magazine and they all looked brilliant (and this was despite everyone swearing blind beforehand that they couldn't arrange flowers). And the arranging was really fun too - lots of gossip and girl talk. Made the whole wedding thing an even more special occasion for me. If you are anywhere near a flower market, or know a florist who will do you a deal on just bunches for you to arrange yourself, I really recommend it.

Church wedding, hired upstairs room of pub for afternoon reception, everyone paid for their own drinks, except the sparklink wine (DH hates Champers). Friends of friends did catering and photos. MIL made and decorated the cake. Didn't have evening reception - just did a pub crawl round Newcastle for those that wanted to.

Wedding dress was end of range at Bainbridge's (Newcastle) so vastly reduced (£500 down to £125 including alterations).

Including the honeymoon-2weeks in Majorca, the whole think cost roughly £1500. This was nearly 14 years ago though.

One of my favourite memories from the day is the Vicar running across the village green because the best man forgot to pay him.