All things wedding

[roseannaleeXo]

What is your list of things you brought/hired that you wish you didn't bother with for whole of wedding?

What do you wish you spent more on?

Tell me your wedding stories?

marrying very soon!!

Going to watch this thread closely. Getting married in 2019 so starting to plan everything soon. Do have the venue, DJ and photographer booked but everything else still needs to be done. Looking to do a lot of it on the cheap, silk flowers from eBay, cake from M&S and invitations from Card Factory.

Things I loved

Photographer - worth every minute

Hog Roast in the evening - ALL the guests talked about it afterwards

Cake - my mum made it as a present and it was just as I wanted at a fraction of the price (well still fairly expensive for ingredients)

Wedding website: I know everyone thinks these are cheesy but loads of people could RSVP online and saved us a fortune on bits of paper. Anyone who couldn't get online sent their RSVP by a postcard instead or let our parents know.

Flowers - I am not artistic so decided not to do them myself, we paid a lot for the florist (£800) but they were stunning and were so nice and helpful throughout the whole process.

Invitations: a very artistic friend did them for us a wedding present and I just wrote on the names and posted them.

Things I didn't need

Favours - I did handmade sloe gin in mini bottles which went down well but wasn't exactly needed.

Car - my mum wanted a proper wedding car rather than a taxi (we live about four minutes from the venue by car) so she offered to pay for it but it wasn't really required except to make a pretty photo.

Bar Hire: They were great and we needed them but actually we needed a much bigger selection of drinks, I don't drink beer and forgot to ask if they did a good range.

DJ: They, again, were great but we had not allowed enough time in the evening for dancing - most of the party were still dancing away whilst the poor team at the venue were trying to pack up.

If you have a beautiful venue and amazing photographer the rest is easy so spend money there. A beautiful venue doesn't need to be decorated (so you save money on flowers and 'light up backdrops'...which I personally hate).

I went to 5 weddings last year and got married myself almost 3 years ago, I'm LOVE weddings, I love everything about them so some helpful tips from me would be....

-don't overload your tables with table confetti or 'stuff'. Keep it simple, no one really looks or cares
-keep the time between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast as short as possible....we had a 3 hour wait at the last one...snooze fest
-get a band who will also do the DJing, the atmosphere is 100 times better!
-don't stress over your dress, it will get trampled on and it will get ruined, I called it 'making memories' and love that my dress is ripped and (still!) covered in dirt from the dance floor
-if wearing a veil, take it off at dinner, peeing, moving and dancing with a veil not only looks silly but also isn't practical
-really take in the walk down the aisle, you'll think back on it so many times
-consider a round 'top table', while the traditional long table looks well, traditional, it's a bugger when trying to have a conversation with each other
-don't get a family member or friend to do the photography, even if they are a photographer, they're a guest, they can take additional pics if they like but pay for a professional
-if you want your bridesmaids to have a certain look then pay for their make up and hair
-finally, be a nice bride! You get one day, that's it! So be nice! (side note: although don't be a pushover to bossy friends and relatives!)

Haha love some of the comments!!! Great suggestions thank you, I keep them in mind am Defo scraping back and saving as much as poss while having a wedding that is us. I am getting married in church we have a photographer ,was gifted our wedding car so that is fab! Me mother is making our cake and doing little bits of decorations so they are simple pretty bits. Balloons table gems that type of thing no grand centre piece here lol! She also doing the food as I felt certain caters were taking the Micky.... ahh so lucky to have a hog roast would be so yummy!! Had to cancel one they get quiet expense don't they. Bridesmaids paying for there dresses we are having mix and match so they get to wear something they all like. I brought some beautiful hair pieces of eBay! I am paying for a make up artist while my best friend is doing all our hair. Flowers I have foam ones so I can keepsake them. dj our friend is doing that for us. I brought a frame that you get the little hearts with, sign them and pop into frame as a guest book we wanted something different. I can't wait! Me and partner going to have a holiday after. Saving means we can have a beautiful holiday ❤️

I sent emails instead of invitations. so no wedding stationery needed not having a sit down dinner ( so that saves a bit) we are having a buffet in the evening variety of foods so there Is something for everyone.

Oh yes defo the favours!! Few weddings I have been too there either left or are every where in the venue. They can have cake/desserts instead!

Hey brides to be! I started this thread last month which has some helpful tips in/thoughts on what wasn't worth the £ in hindsight: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/wedding/3134777-Anyone-care-to-share-what-was-a-total-waste-of-in-hindsight

Favours always seem to come top of the list, my advice would be don't bite off more than you can (happily) chew - if you're happy to put time and effort into favours/home made centre pieces etc then great, however consider how you'll feel doing it 10/20/100 x over when you would rather be relaxing in the lead up to the day!

Veteran wedding attender here, my top tip would be pay for a bar extension (if you can get one). Been to many weddings in England that call last orders at 11.30pm/midnight. As a result lots of guests scarper when they realise so they haven't left it too late to get into a nearby pub/club. Obviously this is totally dependent on the type of guests you have, location of venue etc but this is just my experience!

Also following with interest!

@MandaraSugar

I saw your thread hehe some of the things people put made me laugh nice to read threads with a cuppa x

I'm just being a budget bride lol

I was a proper budget bride and my entire wedding came in at under £3000.

I did do favours but bought little miniatures from drinks supermarket and hand tied labels myself.

Bought book paper bouquets off Etsy.

Made the kids a little goodie bag with bits from the pound shop including selfie sticks again hand tied with labels with their names on so it doubled up as a place setting.

My dad very kindly paid for the bar but I specified no shots, doubles, bottles etc

Had a shop bought dress from phase eight then added accessories too it.

Things worth paying for:

Photographer I got mine half price as I only had her there for the ceremony and about half an hour afterwards. I didn't want 'getting ready shots etc'

Photo booth was well worth it and I got most of the props off eBay well in advance and they came from China.

DJ was amazing well worth the money.

Love the kids party bag idea! Keeps them entertained!

I think the less bridezilla the more relaxed and welcoming the better -

Good luck

We’ve been to many (many) weddings and the best one by some margin was in London where upon exiting the church, each person was handed a half bottle of Veuve Cliquot with a straw. We were then ushered on to double decker buses which turned out to be Karaoke buses to the reception venue about 5 miles away (via central London tourist hotspots) Such a laugh and just brilliant fun to sing your heart out and arrive mildly sloshed.

I Might do the kids party bags sounds good.

I don't know if you can see but it was a brown craft bag (the works) filled with pens, selfie sticks, stickers etc

Bought multipacks of things like gel pens from £ shop and put them in the bag so spent no more than £2 a bag.

Here!

I wish we'd found exactly what the food was going to be. Melon balls a la 1960 and tinned custard and squirty cream would never have been our choices.

Different driver to take us to our wedding night hotel. She Did Not Shut Up. I didn't want to talk to a stranger when I'd just got married.

Different photographer and I would have looked in the mirror before the photos were done .

YearOfYou didn’t you have a tasting session to decide the menu?

No. We weren't offered one and didn't think to ask.