Wedding on the cheap

[StormcloakNord]

Please give me your best tips at weddings on the cheap. The "package" is paid for, that gets us the guests, the meal, the chair covers etc a DJ and all the sort of stuff you'd expect from a package wedding.

I need help finding cheap invites, cheap flowers, the cake is sorted and accounted for, anywhere I could look for cheap bridesmaid dresses? A cheap dress for me?

I'm a skinflint and OH's parents have paid the package hence why trying to keep the rest of the costs cheap.

We got our invites from vistaprint but you could make your own, that would be a cost effective way to do it.
Bridesmaids dress you could find a dress anywhere and dress it up.
Look in the sale rail for a wedding dress- I got mine for £500 instead of £1200 because it was a try on dress. I got it dry cleaned before.

We got our invites from Vistaprint too, £25 for 40 and got people to rsvp by email so didn’t need extra cards etc.
We go our bridesmaids dresses on the high street from house of Fraser and they were lovely.
I didn’t do it but I’ve heard of people asking locally on Facebook about flowers and getting someone who is starting up as a florist etc although obviously it’s a slight risk. I’ve been to lots of weddings where the bride and friends/family did the table flowers themselves and just paid for the bouquets.

Make your own invitations - a single sided card with the words printed on the front is fine. Or email!!

Do your own hair and make up.

High street for dresses.

We had a band from a local college.

I'll definitely be doing my own hair & makeup, the table flowers are sorted in the package I just need my bouquet and... what do bridesmaids hold??

Vistaprint looks good I'll get the invites off there and get an email RSVP, I can print labels off at work too so I don't have to handwrite 120 addresses!

Make a bouquet from silk flowers - garden centres or Hobbycraft have great selections, and you have all the time you want to fiddle round with them in advance, and can then put them on display after. A friend just had 3 silk calla lily stems which she bound together with ribbon. After, she put them in a vase with fairy lights would round and they looked fab.

Buy bridesmaid dresses on ebay (there are always loads), or choose a colour that you and they like and then say they can buy what they like as long as its that colour. Or Asos have a good range at v reasonable prices

Vistaprint is great- you could make your own but by the time you get all the guff for them you'd be as well ordering the cheapest paper and envelope options etc. from Vistaprint. They constantly have discount events on and there's tonnes of designs. Plus there's the added benefit of not having to write out the venue, times etc 40 times and no wastage due to craft fuckups.

My DSis got her BM dresses from a seller off Etsy- they were those infinity style dresses that you can style like forty ways, one size fits most with plus and child size options, and again, shed loads of colour choice. They were from a seller called the Dainty Yard (I think) and the long style was like £40 a dress.

There's a subreddit on reddit (unbelievably) focusing on budget weddings. A lot of them DIY their flowers using fake flowers from amazon or specialist suppliers. The results can be a bit hit or miss, I think you need a good eye and a lot of patience for that type of thing.

With a cheap wedding dress, what you can do is look at the bridal stores BM dress selections- they all come in white/ivory shades. So go in, pick dress (obviously prices will vary but you'll get something very nice for £200-£300 around here) and tell them you want it in white or ivory or fucking elephant's breath and they'll order it in for you. I probably wouldn't let on about the fact it's your wedding dress lest they try to shuffle you towards the actual "wedding" dresses, but even if they do you can take your business elsewhere.

My dress was £25 off ebay!!

my dress was under £200 on JJshouse :)
I know I sound like an advert for them, but it was beautiful! (although I sent it back because it was too big in the end, but I'm going to order from them again and do the custom measurements)

There are literally 1,000s of dresses new and worn once on StillWhite, Bride2Bride etc. Absolutely no need to go into a bridal shop unless it's to try some on for fit and style.
There are many business sellers who have discountinued dresses from bridal shops at £500 or less for dresses that were £1,000's.

Bridesmaids dresses are on ASOS for £50 for adult ones.

No idea about grooms though!

I always find it very pleasing reading "worn once" on all the second hand wedding stuff!
Like anyone would have a wedding dress they wore twice? (stands back for someone to say they did this)

Maybe those people who have a wedding abroad and then a reception at home? I know a girl who did that, put the whole lot on again. My photographer has done a few wedding photo-redo shoots, so I guess there's that as well!

Oh yeah hadn't thought of that... That's probably a minority though

Still makes me smile...
You buy something else "used" and you're trying to suss out whether it's been worn once then just sat in a cupboard, or it's been loved to death and gone all bobbly!

Well if you buy a wedding dress second hand and then put it up for sale youself it's been worn twice.

I sometimes do wonder when brides put photos of themselves in their long dress for sale in a field in Scotland or dragging them down some steps, how clean the edges are.
Having said that, dresses are on the sites for ages. So many are new too. I have no idea idea how bridal shops are in business. Literally every dress they have is availble for half the price somewhere online.

I really like seeing the picture of the bride actually wearing the dress, rather than just the picture from the website or the dress on a hanger.
But I am very nosy!

For wedding dresses try EBay. Also good for bridesmaids dresses.
Invitations theres always a print place on google offering so many prints cheaply.
Flowers i would go to main retailer as much cheaper and surprisingly now a days so are alot of smaller shops. well near me they are.
Hair and Make up..go to a local college and you would be surprised at how many offers you will get and it will be good for their profile.
If you search wilkos Home Bargains or poundland/stretchers you can pick up some great and not tacky wedding stuff.
Pinterest is also a good site for helping with ideas.
Hope this helps and you have a brill day.

I got my dd's bm dresses from tk maxx for £12 each. Stunning!!
Still have them if you want them?? White with black sash!!

I got wedding dress for £75 on preloved. Bridesmaid dresses were highstreet for £30 each. We made nice invites for day guests and made simple card invites for evening guests.

We did all our wedding stationary on Vistaprint and it was really cheap, I would definitely recommend it!

I've been a bridesmaid several times where the bridesmaid dresses have been high street bought, think Dorothy Perkins, ASOS etc, and the dresses were really, really pretty and elegant and a fraction of the price from elsewhere!

Dorothy Ps, Debenhams, Monsoon and ASOS all do nice wedding dresses; check on eBay and various second hand sites too as you can get a bargain!

A lot of people I know (including myself!) used dried or fake flowers instead of real flowers to cut on costs, and to be honest they looked just as nice as those who had spent ££££ on flowers!

I did my invites via email - completely free! Paperless post is good.

My dress was under £20 from a charity shop, brand new.

Do you want your bridesmaids all matching? Otherwise you could give them a colour theme and let them find something themselves.

Be careful with the " let the bridesmaids chose their own" . I happily gave mine free reign.All happy with the colour, all a similar size, all with good taste.
So one would post what she wanted to wear on Facebook and the others would only ever say " looks lovely" ( even if it wasn't) , but then they ended up all liking the same one but after lengthy searching there weren't enough sizes in stock ,so then they were all looking for matching dresses in completely different styles, but they kept buying and returning ...and this went on for months and months and months.
In the end I just had to chose one and pay for them just to have it over with.

Try "Ever Pretty UK" on Amazon for BM dresses. They are gorgeous and only 25-30 pounds.

Oxfam for wedding dress. Ever Pretty (bridesmaids) also sell through EBay.

You can also send your invites via email. Friend did this. Saves a couple of hundred quid.
Another friend got her BM dresses made to measure on eBay. I was a bridesmaid - they fitted well and were quite nice. Alternatively eg David's Bridal has options if you're near Watford. Also cheap wedding dresses.
Cake - I hear the M&S and Waitrose ones you order online are nice. Decorate with some flowers etc voilà. Again saving a couple of hundred pounds.

Matalan etc do bridemaids dresses. Some are. Quite pretty.