Tell me about your small budget weddings

[DesperateHousewife21]

Am getting married next year, havent started any plans yet, havent even got a date etc.

I think our budget will be around £5k, has anyone had a wedding for this or lower and what was it like?

Thanks

My wedding wasn't that low (it was about £11k) however that's because we had 250 people and also, the hotel was a complete rip off. With hindsight, I truly wish we had done everything on a smaller scale and even though we had a big budget,I still saved wherever I could.

This is how I saved:

I had a friend (dress designer) make my dress so she only charged me £250 to make dress and I bought the material (about 150).

I had a friend make my cake, although you could buy a cheap one from M & S and then decorate with flowers. (£90)

A relative did our wedding photos (he's a photographer) and gave us all the negs and double prints of photos. (about £200)

Father in law, swapped his work car for his boss' work car so we had a cool S-type jag (free).

Made all the church sheets ourselves.

Had a local printers do the invites on a piece of card (like an 'at home' card)rather than an open card invite.

Our honey moon was 4 nights for the price of 3 at a luxury hotel up north so because it was out of season, it was a real bargain (£38o dinner, bed and breakfast).

There are so many ways you can save vast amounts of money. If you bought the material, have you thought about asking a college design student to make your dress for example? Or buy a dress from Monsoon.

I think if you have lvoely friends and family, you can really save heaps but still get the wedding you want.

Pre-loved is a good website for second hand wedding bits and pieces esp dresses.

Think about what you want from the day and what is most important, for me it was that I wanted to be married to DH (obviously) but also that I wanted our friends and family there and to have everything as locally as we could to save everyone a lot of time and money travelling about.

I am going to a budget wedding this year and I'm really looking forward to it!! Much prefer that idea as I'm not really into stuffy affairs they have kept the costs down by utilising their friends and family- I am making the cake, doing all the chair covers, table cloths, invitations, centre pieces, anything that involves being creative and they are having it in the groom's parent's garden!

If you were having a party, then 5k would be an amazing budget wouldn't it ?

Decide on your guest list first, and then build your venue/food choices around that. If you want loads of people, then a big village hall/sports club and a hog roast/chinese takeaway/fish and chips is perfect as you can control all the costs.

Also, concentrate on the stuff that matters - you can spend a fortune on cars, decorations, invitations and favours, and no one will notice or care really. But leave them for two hours while you do photos with no drink or food, and they will remember that for a long time !

Our wedding cost about that, but was 9 yrs ago (how did that happen!). The main things we spent money on were the venue, food and drink, as I think these are prob the most important things - people really don't notice that you had coordinated sugared almonds.

MIL made our wedding cake - it was incredible and survived a 5 hr trip down the motorway to get to us. My wedding dress was readymade and came from Monsoon. DH spent a little more and had a suit made to fit him, which he wore many times after the wedding. A friend of a friend who was just starting out in wedding photography did us a bargain deal. We had a wedding car but no ridiculous white rolls etc, just something smart to get us there and back.

I've been to quite a few friends weddings and the ones I've enjoyed most have been the lower budget ones... Dancing barefoot by the ocean in Nova Scotia comes to mind!

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Im thinking about 30-40 guests, its not going to be in a church. Either hotel/registry office, the venue and food are def the most expensive parts so Ill try to save on everything else.

I know people who can do my flowers, photography, cake so Ill save money there. I guess Im just worried I wont get what I want for the money but I just want to make DP my DH!

£5k isn't a budget wedding to me! We spent £1.5 at the very most!!

Lol at myself; I read 'low budget' and then was shocked to see £5k, but I guess that is low these days! First time round, I wasted £2800 on the wedding and honeymoon (late 90s).
When dh and I got married, we spent £800

Mind you we still haven;t had a honeymoon (2 years later)

I did our wedding very very very cheaply. In fact, seriously, it cost about £1,000. I am very proud of it - best day ever!

My nana bought me my dress from a charity shop as a gift (she wanted to contribute, so this was her way of doing it). It really was beautiful and fitted like a glove - fate or what!?

We had our wedding at a new building in our area which is set in an old park and specially for civil ceremonies - £340 for registrar and building and the parks department provided the flowers for the venue too.

I made all my own invites (65 folk) really simply. White card and a black calligraphy pen (I am blessed to have nice writing).
We hired a function suite in town for evening do - good size, free to hire, nice bar, cheap drinking for guests and stuck on a home-made buffet, as provided as a wedding gift by FIL, who also did a soiree at his house in the afternoon where he served beer, wine and buffet (he did huge trays of lasagne and comfort food).

We got married in winter too, 5th Jan, so the car we hired (gorgeous old Henry Asquith bus - 8 seater) was half price as nobody else was remotely interested at that time of year. Good thing about this time of year too is all the alcohol offers, cheap hotel rooms and flower discounts!

A friend of my auntie was interested in phtography, so did our photo's.

A friend was a piper, so she piped us down and back up the aisle.

My auntie baked our cake.

I made my own wedding favours which were a handwritten poem folded into a fan shape, thanking the guests for coming.

My friend is a professional make-up artist, so did mine and 5 bridesmaids make up.

I did my own hair - aided by bridesmaids.

We all sat and did our own bouquets the night before with winter twigs, ivy stolen from a neighbours garden and flowery bits from Tesco (another bonus of a winter wedding - flowers are generally not seasonal, thus more natural to not have too many).

My sister hired the d.j for night-time dancing as a gift.

My friend hired a bellydancer as a gift (best part of the night, however we might have been before it!)

The lads at DH's work all chipped in to hire a swing band too, who played for an hour.

We had such a cracking time - and everyone still harps on about how great it was. It was dead chilled out, relaxed, formal enough, but not too formal and generally just one big party after the serious occassion.

Have since been to some weddings where the brides dress has cost more than my whole day and I can very very safely say that theirs just didn't have the same atmosphere. Sometimes I wish we had had the money to do some of the stuff I have seen at other's weddings, but then I sit back and think, well, nah! It really was the perfect day. No stress, everyone pitching in for all the right reasons and so much love in the room among very close family and friends. WHich is all I wanted to achieve.

Oh and the bridesmaids were all happy to buy their own black dresses, and I bought Tartan sashes to match dh's kilt and my tartan ribbons for each, and a nice wee brooch for each too as a keepsake and thank you. I only have 5 close friends, so couldn't pick between them all! They all understood - some had their own black dresses. And they were all different shaped girls too, and black is very flattering for every shape. :) They all looked stunning. And were very comfy and happy!

Oh Im sorry if offended anyone.
5k is alot to me too but I just assumed thats quite low for a wedding these days!

threelittleducks your wedding day sounds really lovely! Thats exactly the kind of wedding Im thinking of. Chilled out, relaxed, everyone having a good time. I hate really regimented weddings.

Agree that it depends what you want from the day. Its a huge waste of money on some of the things which people think you NEED for a wedding.
£5000 is a huge budget really, and there is no need for it to be spent on stuff that no-one else really notices.

My family wanted me to have a traditional type wedding, but that is really not my thing so I only agreed if some things could be low key.

My dress - my DH to be designed it and I made it - V cheap
One bridesmaid - dress from Monsoon
We did our own hair and makeup - like i would want someone else to do this on an important day?

Flowers - I bought all from a wholesaler and asked a relative to do bouquets and decorations. (repaid her with a gift)

Cake - simple style - I bought ingredients and one relative made it, and another did the decorations. Both were delighted to be asked to be honest.

Car - just used one old Jag which my Dad brought out of retirement for me. nothing special really, but free and I got my bother to drive it.

Venue - borrowed a marquee from the church and put it in a field beside my parents house. It was not a snazzy modern posh marquee, rather an old style canvas tent. We decorated it with lots and lots of fairy lights etc

Food - hired a local girl to do a huge fresh buffet - again kept the costs down immensley.

Photos - my sister and her husband did these - mostly casual unposed. love these as i did not want the usual boring posed family wedding pictures.

It can be done - and in my experience everyone who helped out was pleased to be asked and liked being part of it.

In the same way i would be pleased to help out friend or family who asked for help for a party or wedding.

good luck

I think you can save a lot of money if you go to a registry office and avoid traditional wedding venues for the reception (hotels and similar places). They often require you to get the food and booze through them and the prices can be pretty ridiculous. They often have hefty room hire fees and sometimes "hidden extra" fees for cake stand hire, etc.

I'd suggest investigating pretty pubs or village halls that may have a nice room you could hire for not too much. Easy enough to decorate yourself especially if you know someone who does flowers. Then you can get your own caterers which gives you much more flexibility to have cheaper food rather than rack of lamb or the usual expensive stuff (I wouldn't advise trying to do your own food though, way too much hard work) and also buy your own booze - a quick trip to France can come in handy here. Alternatively look at restaurants which might be available for exclusive hire - they tend only to charge for the food and booze, no additional room hire fee unlike the hotel-type venues.

My other tip is to think through all the wedding traditions and work out which ones are really important to you and which ones don't matter that much. Then ditch anything that isn't really important. For example, we had no cake, because we don't really like cake. Also had no bridesmaids or favours.

quite a lot of these ideas are what we did.

we didn't pay for the church because DH is the organist. we didn't pay for an organist (DH didn't play the whole wedding, our church is lucky enough to have two unpaid organists). we didn't pay for the choir because we're members.
we didn't pay for the bells because the bellringers did it as a wedding present (it pays to be well in with your church, you know)
the flowers were done by the flower ladies at church, and we just paid the cost of the flowers.

we printed our own orders of service, using a desktop publishing programme. and my sister made our invitations as a wedding present.
our cake was made by a friend and we got a good discount.

we had bellydancers at the reception, which were free because they are the troupe I dance with!

our reception was in the church, which we catered ourselves (cold buffet). and lots of cheap cheap wine from Asda. (my other sister did a lot of the work as her gift to us)
then we had a disco in the evening at a local members' club. they did a buffet too, which was our single biggest expense (apart from the photographer) the buffet cost about the same as everything else we spent!
We got a discount from the photographer because we hired him last minute and got a cancellation slot. (the discount was basically the other party's deposit)

I made my own dress, and DH's suit was a special offer at Burton's (they're doing one now where you get shoes too - DH was a bit annoyed about that!) I already had my shoes from when I was usher at my friend's wedding.

My best woman bought her own dress, and my little bridesmaid's mum paid for her clothes.

Ours in in 4 weeks - and 5k is our budget...and we're going to almost have done it but are over by £300!
We're having 60 adults and 24 kids and planned it all within 5 months.

This has been how we've (almost)done it for the money!

1. Venue with no corkage - also ask for their cheapest months / weeks. We could have saved money if we'd chosen a Friday.
2. Caterers with the cheapest menu option (seasonal) and we're doing sausage and mash - so the kids can have that too. We're adding our own stuff. We're building our own cake of cheese - that'll then end up as an option for the evening menu. I've made pickles etc to go with it...and we're heading to Costco for the crackers, biscuits etc. Chips for the kids and posh chips n'dips for the adults. We're having h
3. M&S cake along with MIL making one. Mr & Mrs Potato heads for the top
4. No posh transport to the venue.
5. No fancy favours
6. Ipod and fave music
7. BIL bringing decks for disco later - three of the guests gagging to be DJ!
8. Dress from monsoon - shrug from NExt and two flower girl dresses made by MIL...all in at £300 (including shoes - BHS)
9. All decorations ourselves. It's in a barn - so we've got paper lanterns from IKEA and filled them with little LED lights made ourselves from the internet! Buntings made from sheets and lashings of fairy lights from Wilkos. Collected loads of passatta jars as they're great shape - sprayed them with plasticote (from Wilkos) and it's given them a frosted look. Drop in a LED light and put in a flower!
10. Drink from Costco! No champers - just Prosecco.

Enlist loads of help - and favours. Friend doing hair and make-up. Other friend doing face painting a tatoos to keep kids happy. DP has ring from Argos Because of his job he'll never wear it - so it's only a token!
A tight budget certainly makes you creative!
As CMOTdibbler says - 5K would be a great budget for a party