Money saving tips for weddings

[orchidsfromikea]

Just thought I'd share some cost saving wedding tips. It's nearly a year since I got married and we managed to do it without breaking the bank.

There are some really easy ways to save money, please share yours.

• buy chair covers off eBay and then resell them after. (Cost me less than my friend who hired hers and mine didn't turn up with muddy marks on them!)

• for table centre pieces during the day we used orchids bought from IKEA (then gave them away to relatives as presents afterwards and I still have some flowering in my conservatory.)

• second hand dresses for flower girls are fine. I got three dresses for £8, worn once and in perfect condition. My flower girls were so little the dresses came off quickly after the photo and were replaced by something more comfortable for them.

• be creative with entertainment. We hired buskers we found on the streets of the local town for afternoon entertainment. They were brilliant and three lads studying music at the local university.

• our venue was just starting out in weddings so the price was so cheap compared to other places. Shop around and don't be afraid to go with somewhere new. Our venue is now charging at least twice what we paid! They were also amazing and working really hard to make everything right as they needed to build up their reputation as a good wedding venue.

• use the sales. We found my adult bridesmaids dress in the monsoon sale. It was £179 originally and we got it for £15.

• don't pay for a sweet buffet, buy some jars from Ikea, scoops from eBay, personalised bags from eBay and your sweets from an online wholesale retailer. It is about a third of the price.

I'm sure there is more that I have forgotten, I will add more if I remember. Please feel free to share yours

Buy invitations, place cards etc online from somewhere like Vistaprint.

Make your own favours, if you must have them. E.g. Bulk buy little fancy boxes and a load of wrapped sweets e.g. chocolate hearts or Ferrero rocher

Utilise the talents of friends and family for flowers, cake and photography. Without taking the piss though

Planning my wedding at the moment. So I'm gonna follow this thread with great interest.
need all the money saving ideas I can get!

So many decorative bits can be picked up in places like The Range, B&M bargains etc at a fraction of the cost many wedding supply companies will quote. Steer clear of 'hobby' wedding decor companies. They charge a fortune for things like wooden crates etc that you can easily source yourself for the same rustic type look.

Cut out the unnecessary expenses for example, there's No need for

Chair covers
Favours
Flowers everywhere
Inviting the neighbours cousins or aunt ethers dog etc

Buy your flowers from an online wholesaler that caters to trade and public. They buy your flowers in the Dutch flower markets and fly them over in boxes ready to go. Some IKEA vases and you're away. Lots of YouTube videos on how to tie a bouquet too.

Friends house for reception venue....admittedly a very nice house and location, which I was very fortunate to be able to use (and now owe a lot of hours babysitting).

M&S Buffet, Tesco for drinks, friend called in favours of her friends who did waitressing/ serving.

Desserts and cakes made by myself, DM, and friends kids (who loved being able to help out).

M&S Cake, modified and decorated by me and my DM

Wedding dress from China, £170 including import duty and P&P, + £50 at local tailoring shop for alterations.

Bridesmaids dresses (all children) from Matalan a friend spotted them for me after talking about colours and styles and they were so perfect.

Friends Mum who is starting up as wedding florist did the flowers as a gift from her and my friend.

The only thing I think I paid the going rate wedding price for was my hair and make-up trial/ on the day, and of course the registry office fee.

DH and I both decided at the start on things we definitely didn't want...Rings, photographer, favours, veil, stuffy outfit for the Groom and made sure we weren't pressurised into any of them.

All the planning was done by myself and my friend whose house I used, she is a planning pro and would sit me down and make me think about boring things like timelines, and who was travelling in which car etc.

Came in at just under £2k, only small 25 Guests, although I totally over catered and could easily have had 40 guests with no extra cost....everyone got sent home with a food/ drink parcel :-)

Don't bother with wedding favours!

I saved myself a fortune by making my own invitations (and order of services), because i was so fussy the ones i ----wanted needed were close to £4 each for daytime and £2 for evening. So 40 day time invitations would be £160 and then a further £100 for evening invitations. I made them on microsoft word and bought photo paper all in all it cost £20 for invitations and 100 matching order of services.

Don't pay for a professional make up artist, they charge a fortune. Instead I went to my local mac counter where they do a 'bridal lesson' for £50, I think it lasts about an hour and a half and then you get to pick £50 worth of products to keep- so technically free lesson if you like mac products!
I found it really useful and loved my make up on the day!

Just got engaged and following with interest!!
Fill me with your tips! Xx

Shamelessly bumping for more tips.

Bumping also!

A follow on tip for the new venue idea - look at the local council licensing applications for venues. You can see the new venues applying before they have their licence and get in first.

Oh and my sister had her wedding reception in a gorgeous old country pub. It was so lovely looking that it didn't need to be decorated, so they could spend money on a fancy menu. Much better than paying for decoration of an ugly place and lower cost food!

My money saving tip is to ask someone within the family if they have a veil you can use.

I got married last week.

I ordered majority of stuff from ebay and etsy (I had a theme wedding).

I went to the pound shop and bought lots of little bits for the kids to keep them occupied and put them in brown craft bags I got from the works.

I made so much stuff myself.

I paid out for a photographer for the ceremony and afterwards only it halved the costs but the first few pics I've seen are beautiful.

I bought my dress from phase 8 and boys suits from primark.

I'm now selling all of it.

I'm getting married in March :)

So far i've made my own cake, rich fruit cake using Christmas cake kits from last year, think its cost about £20 but its massive.

I'm reusing a dress i had from my brothers wedding for my bridesmaid

We're having afternoon tea in a local cafe in a great location so finishing at 6pm. Not bothered about an evening do.

I've made the invites, had lots of card making bits anyway

Got a 2nd hand dress

Hoping our total will be approx £3k for 65 guests.

We've both been married before so didnt want a 'big' do

Hoping to also do my own flowers, not sure about table decs etc yet.

Looking forward to seeing others ideas

We wanted lots of guests but not to spend a fortune so we:

• Had the reception in the local town hall which was luckily a beautiful Georgian building, only £200 to hire with full staff and crockery etc - so many 'non traditional venues' out there if you dig a bit
• Had a cold buffet rather than hot sit down food and served a 'cheesecake' from M&S, crackers etc and wedding cake in the evening.

-Made gingerbread men with little name tags for wedding favours -Made our own invitations -Got the bridesmaids dresses made to measure - thought this would be more expensive but two were heavily pregnant and they allowed us to measure last minute - just over £100 per dress.

Oh and don't bother with seat covers!

Elope!