Tips for a low cost wedding please!

[polarbearshuffle]

DP and I are getting married next summer. We have booked the local registry office and have about 60 guests. We will probably have the reception at the local social club or function room.

So any tips/ideas for a low cost wedding would be great! We'll probably hire someone for the food. Any advice about weddings would be appreciated as I have no idea what I'm doing! Thank you!

don't tell the reception venue or any supplier that it is a wedding. Make a few banners, buy some flowers, provide lots of good food and drink (including stuff for drivers, and I don't mean warm orange juice!).

plenty of people around who make cakes, but again most people won't care so just jazz up something from the supermarket.

don't book a photographer, anyone can take a good snap with a digital camera (NOT an i-phone!). Get everyone to take lots of photos and ask to be sent the best.

enjoy and congratulations.

I would email invites I'm afraid
a friend had a lovely lovely dress from M&S - £90 at full price I think, and a flower in her hair.

I would do your own make up but if you don't want to then look for a student in training for that, ditto hair

if you're not tied to a particular caterer with the venue, get the most filling food you can - this might be doorstep sandwiches!

Waitrose Entertaining cakes are very good

have prosecco not real champers

do your own music - much nicer anyway - get a guest to DJ, I'd happily do that (not fishing for an invite, lol)

don't waste money on chair dresses and tablecloths

save money on decorations - fake flower garlands abound on ebay and Amazon if you feel you need something. I know someone who used vases and fruit as table pieces and of course you can eat the fruit after!

hope it goes well!

Don't ask friends to do official photos. I did my friend's (I was a keen photographer and had a City and Guilds in Photography, before the DC stole my life) and missed most of the wedding.

I went to a wedding once where the bride had grown herb and chilli plants in little terracotta pots, the chalked names on. They acted as place names, table decorations and favours.

Don't tell any shops, venues, suppliers etc that it's a wedding!

Yy bikerunski the one wedding I went to without an official photographer had a really erratic album at the end, some good individual candids but you wouldn't have known Grandma and Great Aunt Mary were there, all the group shots were from weird angles etc not worth the risk unless they really know what they are doing and you are clear about what you want.

Our cake was m&s and was wonderful.

Buy things for decorations in the post Valentines sales - I had heart chocs scattered on the tables at our evening do.

You could save money on flowers for tables by buying little flower plants and decorating the tubs.

Pick what counts for you and what doesn't. Cars didn't matter to me, so I went in a taxi. The photos show me just getting out of the car, you can't see what it is.

Bake the cake yourself!

For favours put seeds in fancy envelopes so people can grow plants - we had people sending pics of them when they flower which were so lovely!

Don't do anything you don't actually want! That saves loads!

We didn't bother with a cake - unless you're going to serve it for desert I've seen tonnes get wasted at most wedding I've been to (nobody even noticed we didn't have one, and I don't like that contrived cutting the cake photo anyway, what's that about??)

Don't pay for floral decorations on your tables, we had candles which worked out much cheaper (check your venue will allow real ones, some places don't)

I got my dress from House of Fraser, they have a lovely bridal selection (plus I didn't actually like any dresses I found in 'bridal' shops which all seemed very similar tbh). I also didn't have bridal shoes, I got mine from Next, and I'll be able to wear them again :)

You don't have to have favours at all, they only get left behind at the end of the night :)

I didn't have a 'wedding' car - it seemed like a huge expense for something nobody else would see or enjoy, so we put that money behind the bar - that went down well!

I work in this area so some tips from me to help save some pennies:

• flowers: have a go at growing your own especially for the centre pieces (depending on the time of year). Some lovely potted flowers as centre pieces can work wonderfully with a few added extras and save you a lot of money. The other option is approach someone you know locally who has a lovely garden and see if they wouldn't mind helping you grow something specific

• wedding cake: look out for store cards that give points (M&S and Waitrose partnership cards used to - not sure if they still do). Use the card for day to day purchases (make sure you pay it off each month though) and the use the points to pay for the cake. Otherwise make your own or enlist a fired to do it as a wedding pressie. A fruit cake is a really simple cake to make (trust me - if i can do it anyone can), put plain white icing over it, construct it however you want and then add some flowers to decorate.

• booze: Look out of the Christmas drinks offers in local supermarkets. The always tend to have big discounts at Christmas plus extra offers for bulk purchases. We were really surprised by how cheap we got our wine and fizz this way

• invites - how important is it to have a paper invites to you both? If it's not high on the scale, think about designing something and sending it out via email. I've seen it done a few times and it works really well and saves a huge chunk of budget.

My main advise is work out with your partner which elements are really important to you both and plan your budget accordingly. If you are both huge food lovers then put a larger chunk of your budget there or likewise if music is your thing make sure you spend the money getting the band/dj you really want and compromise on other bits. Ignore all the glossy magazines - I would even say avoid looking at them full stop. All those great "low cost" ideas they talk about are never that and will secretly have you piling on the cash without even realising it. The key is that the day is built around what you both want and that you both can enjoy.

Check the corkage charges at your venue for bringing in your own drinks, they can be extortionate so make it pointless unless you're given it for free!

Might sound obvious but don't have loads of bridesmaids/groomsmen who you need to buy outfits for

We are getting married in September on a budget.
Dress I did go to the bridalbshop to try on but knew I didn't want a huge thing. Ended up scouring coast, monsoon and bhs and it was around sale time so some absolute bargains to be had. I ended up with a dress from bhs for £150 full price.
Bm dresses Debenhams sale. Debut prom dresses £90 down to £20 and they were on a buy one get one half price so 4 dresses for £60. My bm's wanted to buy their own shoes so they would be comfortable.
Mil is making my cake but we had planned three tiers from m&s would have been around £50 for that.

The biggest expense has been food really. I looked at all the options thinking that a hall or social club and caterers would be cheaper. After searching all the local hotels found most did packages if above a certain number of guests 50 seemed average. This worked out way cheaper in the end and ours includes honeymoon suite on wedding night, welcome drink and canapés, wine on the table and a toast drink with a 3 course meal plus evening finger buffet and entertainment so they portion off some of that to pay forward dj or band we can choose.

Sil and bil are making our favours as a gift otherwise may not have bothered.
Made my own invitations after seeing ones I liked on pinterest and had a load of craft stuff anyway but vista print are good. Set up wedding website as well because do many people are travelling so directions, hotel details are all on there so cut back on what I had to print out.
Table decorations and flowers made by my mum and hotel supply linen and candles cake stand etc.

Buy a plain cake from a supermarket and a cake topper from ebay.
Buy suits from somewhere like George at Asda or Tesco.
Theres some lovely dresses that would be lovely as a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses from High Street stores like New Look, Matalan, etc or ASOS.
Look on such as wowcher or groupon for snapfish and vistaprint deals for photos, then design your own invite as a photo and get them printed for cheap.
I also recommend looking on pintrest for many DIY ideas
Good luck