Budget savings ideas??

[LouH93]

Sorry for a long rambling post…

We are (very) recently engaged and are absolutely flabbergasted at the cost of weddings! The idea of spending 20/30k on one day scares us and isn't something we ideally want to do. We are also TTC so any money saved so far is in a ‘mat leave’ pot.

I love weddings! And have always been so excited to plan my own but i now need to think about ideas for a smaller more budget friendly wedding.

We don’t have a massive guest list.. 60 people to the day and probably an extra 20 or so to the evening.

I don't like the idea of spending £7/8k on a sit down meal (as i never really enjoy these at weddings). A lot of venues i’ve looked at offer a BBQ option. Has anyone done this before? Can it still be classy? I still want table plans etc.

We are in Hampshire so looking at venues in Hampshire/Surrey/Dorset if anyone can recommend a cheaper venue!

Any advice in how to cut costs would be amazing.

from a very overwhelmed but excited bride to be!

The best one I have been to was a registry office wedding then a marquee in a field with a dance floor, DJ and food vans (Hog Roast, a Greek gyros van and an ice cream van)

It was really relaxed, beautiful surroundings, food was simple but plentiful, everyone had a ball, kids loved it because the bride and groom had a bubble and smoke machine set up and balloons everywhere. Flowers were all simple wildflowers which complemented the location and general feel but because they were cheap varieties they had loads so it was like walking into a fairytale.

The bride and her friends had spent time making a lot of the decorations and favours which cut the cost. Favours were shot glasses with names painted on these served as the name cards for the table plan and then on the day every glass was filled with smarties or skittles so people had sweets to snack on when they found their table.

This was a few years ago when you could buy disposable cameras cheap, think that's a thing of the past now but they had cameras on every table and asked guests to take photos and leave the cameras. At the end they were collected up and used to supplement the official photos.

We used a local hog roast company for canapés and wedding breakfast, a local gourmet pizza company for evening food and we did the drinks ourselves from Majestic (no corkage definitely saves money!). We got lots of compliments on the food and were able to provide a lot more food and drink than the packages we’d seen elsewhere. It all came to around 40-45/head. The caterers usually do events other than weddings and so were a lot cheaper than others we’d seen.

Our biggest money saving tip was having a pretty venue we could completely DIY - no corkage as above and no expensive preferred suppliers. Other venues we saw were cheaper to hire but insisted on expensive caterers. The venue was so lovely that we didn’t really need to decorate it at all.

Other ways we saved money: fresh flowers from wholesalers in jam jars around the venue and for centrepieces, dress from wed2be rather than a boutique, no transport (used friends with nice-ish cars), bridesmaids dresses very reasonable in an asos sale…

Good luck!

Just one more piece of advice -

Of course you want to keep costs low, everyone does. But think really carefully about how you are going to do this when it comes to food. It's a lot of effort for people to come to a wedding, and not being fed properly makes the whole day shit. No matter how nice the decorations etc are, hungry people are miserable.

I WOULD NOT recommend cutting a photographer! My wedding photos are so special to me, I can’t imagine not having them. Our disposables didn’t come out, and this happened to a few friends and family too so don’t rely on those.

some options:

• don’t bother with favours, half the time people leave them behind.
• wedding cake - don’t order one big enough to feed everyone, you will have loads left over.
• do your own hair and makeup
• Don’t have a bridal party. You will save a fortune on dresses, suits, flowers, etc.
• if you do have a bridal party, use asos for bridesmaids dresses (there are always sales on) and rent suits it possible - we couldn’t do this as bridal party were spread across the world so couldn’t all attend fittings. Suits are EXPENSIVE
• Don’t bother with a videographer. Photos you can have on the walls and look at often but you will forget about your wedding video
• don’t bother with Photo Booth/magician etc. they cost a lot and really, most people are fine chatting and catching up with friends and family.
• have a low key local hen/stag, or not at all if you’re not too fussed
• Second hand wedding dress, or ex display/ end of line
• marry at a ‘cheaper’ time of year or day of the week
• utilise last minute deals at wedding venues if you can. My sister got married at a beautiful very poplar wedding venue with 60 people in attendance for about £5k (for venue, catering, planning) because she booked a cancellation two months in advance in low season. That was about a £10k discount

We spent £9k including my dress which was nearly £1k after alterations. I was going to get a secondhand dress but I saw this one in a closing down sale and it was exactly what I had been searching for. I got it at 60% off.
I designed the invitations on Canva and printed them via print.com, saving several hundred pounds.
I got my shoes on eBay but new. I still wear them regularly now as they weren't traditional bridal wear.
We had a VW camper rather than a traditional wedding car.
SIL made our cake as a wedding gift.
We didn't do favours, but instead got MDF place names made and people took them home.
Mine and the bridesmaids bouquets went in vases at the venue as centre pieces.
I did my own make up.
The bridesmaids dresses were just regular high street dresses.
Groom and groomsmen wore rented and I bought the ties and top pockets.
We had a sit down three course meal with drinks but in a pub restaurant where we had more choice over the menu, the food was much better quality, and I could say "this is our budget, what can you do". They did pizzas and salad in the evening, nothing fancy, and catered for vegetarian and gluten free (no other food requirements for us).
We got married near to home so minimal travel costs and no overnight accommodation required.
I have a florist friend who did our flowers. I was specific about the colour palette but beyond that I said I'm not bothered what flowers, just whatever was in season.
A friend of mine did registry office, close family and bridal/groom party to the pub for a meal and then a big party with pizzas in the evening. Her dress was vintage and less than £100.
In summary, the cheapest way is DIY. Don't get a wedding package at a venue. They are over priced, and very fixed. Decide where you don't want to scrimp and what things you are happy to not have.

Completely agree. Cut on guests rather than food.
everyone in my family is still moaning about one wedding where they weren’t fed enough and my DM “stole” an apple from the Hotel reception display before going to bed as she was hungry.

have a few uncles/cousins less if it means feeding everyone properly

I WOULD NOT recommend cutting a photographer!

So many people say the same and with Photography it really is a case if you get what you pay for. The cheap ones are usually dire.

Married 6yrs ago.

I made my bouquet as did the MOH - we did them the night before with roses from Tesco and Lidl. And a bottle of wine!

Canapés after the service were £175 from a local cafe. Coach between venues (necessary due to where we were) was £275.

The evening venue, a hot buffet for the day guests then evening pasties / bacon butties for 100 people cost £2800 in total - it was FAR less than we had anticipated at a fancy venue. DJ was £200 I think. I had a cheese round "cake" for about £100 (I hate wedding cake, LOVE cheese)!

Dress was a gown from Wed2B for £700 (now about £8-900). Hairdresser was £150 for me and MOH. We did our own make up. I bought her dress and shoes, was about £100.

Whole day came in around £5k including photographs etc - my dress was proportionately the biggest splurge.

My brother spent about £30k, but dear god the venue was £££££ and the wedding band were also £££££ but were incredible! That said, whilst their day was amazing I'm not sure it was £25k better than ours.

Look at pubs, social clubs etc for the evening do. No need to go all out and spend megabucks.

We dressed my friends venue the night before the wedding, decorations were less than £100, the venue and food were about £500 for 60 people. Mostly sausage rolls, sarnies, coleslaw type plates and it was fab. No DJ, just a long party track on Spotify which they had added to for weeks before hand! Again, a fab night was had.

Oh, and I would absolutely not bother with a photographer - we don't like really any of our photos.... All my favourites are from friends and family.

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto mine wasn’t cheap and definitely a very professional one. The photos are nice enough but a few years later I don’t care that much about them. Have a few framed, never look at the rest. Glad I have a few family pics especially since one person since died.

I had a mid priced wedding, I didn’t have any bridesmaids or a hen do.
I bought my beautiful wedding dress from the evening dress department in a London store and made myself a matching wrap.
Unfortunately we couldn’t afford a free bar but I wish we could have.
I recently went to an amazing wedding where there was no photographer, instead we all uploaded our photos onto an app. There are a few good ones but they aren’t as good as a professional photographer would take. For example a lot have random people in the background so for me that would be the last thing I cut back on.
My number one criteria for a good wedding is timings, don’t do speeches before the meal if you know people will be hungry, also you don’t need longer than 45/60 minutes for pre lunch/meal drinks. It’s nice to have plenty of tea and coffee and water available.

We did all of ours for £13k. We did a marquee wedding in my Grandads field, which we decorated ourselves. We made most of the decorations ourselves, rented toilets and had a cake table (baked by our guests). We had a bbq for the meal and hog roast in the evening, rented a horse box bar. Friends did the music and the only flowers we had done professionally were bouquets and button holes. We did table decorations/flowers ourselves. The whole day was really personal as we started from a complete blank canvas. It was a lot of work and lots of friends and family pitched in to make it work. To just rent a venue in our area costs £4k alone, with nothing included!

We did wedding abroad so paid flights and accommodation for wedding party (in laws, me, dad, husband and my lad) and that inc the wedding itself in the carribean with sit down meal was really cheap: we had 4 extra guests who paid their own flight as we had rooms in the villa. When we got home we had massive party with band, food, etc for 100 people whole lot cost less than 7000.

We did our own flowers, just bought them wholesale. Our friend made the wedding cake too. You could hire a wedding dress? That would keep some costs down

We did our wedding for about 6k in 2019 that was about 80 to day and 100 to the night.

We found a lovely hotel in a small town which was significantly cheaper than the ones on our city centre.

We got married on a Friday.

We had a hog roast instead of a sit down dinner. This was half the price of the sit down meal.

We hired an Ice-cream stall instead of dessert (cheaper)

We made our own sweetie table, center pieces and favours.

We had bacon and sausage sarnies and chips for the evening buffet.

We hired a photographer that charged hourly and had her come for 3 hours so she left about an hour after the ceremony but we still had a full album of photos.

A friend made the cake.

I got my dress from an outlet for £500 and paid a seamstress to take it up.

When ordering bouquets I ordered 1 large bridesmaids and 3 small bridesmaids bouquets. And I carried the large one. (It was £100 less than the bridal one)

I bought off the rack bridesmaids dresses.

A friend did our make up.

We bought lawn games for the kids to play with.

We had a wonderful day with all our family and friends in a lovely hotel. It was a full traditional wedding day with toast master, speeches, DJ, first dance, cutting cake , toasts etc for a fraction of the cost.

I have a really simple one… get married REALLY off peak. We viewed a hotel with barn where the full shebang; sit down meal, evening buffet + every bedroom in the hotel was going to be £45k. They then offered us their “winter wedding” package for £18k for the exclusive use, top package, drinks included also. Family and friends contributed £100 each for a room for the night + breakfast the following morning so we had about £4k put to it from that, we paid the other £14k. It is a “luxury” venue so an amazing deal, everyone complimented the food and service.

We had been looking at a garden venue for July and had weather concerns. The hotel had lots of lovely indoor spaces for photos and mingling etc so we just embraced the whole winter thing, had burgundy theming and lots of fairy lights and candles, deliberately hired a photographer who captured low lighting well. We found that when we told suppliers such as photographer and florist, they automatically knocker 25% of the usual rate, simply because they were glad to have a big job on at that time of year.

We got married in February and it was absOlutely perfect- EVERYONE was in the mood for a party in the dullest months of the year, we didn’t lose people to competing commitments like other weddings/holidays, we chose a half term date to accommodate some teaching family and there wasn’t a premium on travel for the time of year. Even the worst storm in 30 years didn’t ruin anything as we planned for the whole thing to be indoors.

My venue is also in the region you are looking so DM me if you want it.

Church fees are mostly set by parliament so are reasonable, around £800 (differs a little depending on music costs etc) get you the ceremony, organist etc. no need to decorate as just use what the church has. Your cheapest option for a reception is probably a church hall, I'd charge you £16.50 an hour for mine to give you an idea, we seat 70-80. You would need caterers, locally there's a lady that charges £20 a head for a hot and cold buffet, another family did a diy bbq plus cold buffet. Local council owned historic hall costs a bit more at £40 an hour but you can set up a band and dance floor beyond the partition and they have a licensed bar (for the church you can bring in whatever drink you want but can't sell it!)

Wedding dresses can cost a couple of hundred pounds or less, tie your own bouquet using supermarket flowers, use suits you own, no favours, use a car someone you know has, make invitations yourself and email, off the peg bridesmaids dresses and not too ... literally everything for £2000 is possible but it's whether that's what you can settle for.

Me - mine cost £1000 but was a while ago, if I remarry, it will be close friends and family in church, dinner at local restaurant and off to the pub for the existing entertainment they put on every Saturday night

Don't go to wedding fairs or looked wedding themed social media. You'll convince yourself that all sorts of things are necessities and they're really not.

If you have talented friends and family use them - either pay them or if a small contribution make that their gift to you.

Photography - look around when visiting people, how many of them have any wedding photos on show? Do you put photos on display normally? That gives you a guide as to how much to spend on pictures/videos.

DJ or Spotify playlist?

My cake was 3 plain iced cakes from a supermarket which I decorated. Came in well under £50.

Food and drink are the only things to not cut corners on.

Late afternoon wedding cuts out one meal.

Twilight wedding, all 80 guests - Prosecco drink reception, one course meal, toast drink, then cut your m&s cakes for pudding.

If you want the sort of expensive looking wedding with all the bits and bobs, it will be expensive (unless as per PP you get extremely lucky with cancellations). Most people have to economise somewhere and my favourite weddings have been where people saved money on faffy shit like table decorations, favours, bridesmaids dresses etc.

Personally I spent decent money on our clothes, food (curry stand, very popular) and wine. Decorations for the venue and music was done by us and our friends and family.

Church weddings can be pretty cheap and obviously they are often gorgeous.

Years ago I was advised to get married late in the day if you want to save money as then you are only feeding people once.

Licensed wedding venues (ie with a licence to host legal wedding ceremonies) are expensive. So the cheapest option is to do the legal bit in a church or registry office, and then you can have a reception anywhere you like - which could still involve spending a lot of money, if you want to, but it also means you have the option to spend much less.

One of the biggest expenses is providing food and drink for your guests. Quite frankly, if you try and cater for 60+ people on a low budget, you won't cater for them properly, and people will end up hungry (either not enough food at all or they have to wait around for ages to get some). Personally I think it's much better to keep the numbers very small and ensure there is enough food, not too much waiting etc.

There are only 3 things you get to keep after the wedding: your marriage certificate (the most important bit, obviously), your wedding rings (if you choose to have them, most do) and any photos or videos that you get. Do (re)consider how important photos are to you, because personally I felt it all went far too quickly and it was great to have the photos to relive the day a bit. You could see if you can hire a photographer for an hour or two to take some couple photos and maybe some with immediate family. I think it's better to use a professional unless you have a very good amateur photographer among your family/friends who could do it.