difficult budget!

We are also on a tight budget as it's just us paying! We have found that the best way of keeping costs down is by watching your numbers during the day. Don't be bullied into inviting Aunt Bessie's twice removed daughter just because! Or friends of your parents because. It is your day. We have had to be really strict and our daytime is a max of 40 but the evening with be 150+. People will understand ?

We're on alot smaller budget then that and we're trying to be as strict as possible. We have prioritorised (spelling?!?) what we REALLY want and if theres any budget left we will have the extra things!

you think they would understand but I've had a few people already moaning when i told them they we may not be able to invite them to the day, i couldn't believe it even telling them i'm on a very tight budget and i have to make sacrifices. Those people are staying on my evening list lol ;-) x

We have the same budget and it was difficult to get everything we wanted and I found myself cutting back where I didn't want to. Luckily our families have really stepped up to help though, despite not expecting any help at all, so that has helped free up some savings for something else. I just figured that if i put in extra weekends and evenings working we will have the wedding we want in the end, but im self employed so its possible for me to dictate this extra time, but just my 5p of how I am coping with paying for the wedding

Hi there,

I'm also on a wedding budget, similar figure to yours. I've only bought two wedding magazines and have basically ignored most of what has been said in said magazines. It IS possible to do it on a budget. http://www.the-broke-bride.co.uk/ is quite good for tips for starters. I've found that it's the seemingly little things that can add up to the most. Here's some of what we're doing in order to keep costs down.

Firstly, we're having a small wedding. 50 guests and no compromise. We've worked out that this is what we want to afford and we're sticking to it - the 50 guests there all know us as a couple well and this also includes the family we want as well.

Secondly, do your friends/family have any skills that may be of use? For example, my fiancé's best friend is an extremely talented graphic designer so he's going to be designing the invitations and we're going to keep those very simple so no 3D pop up invites, it will more likely be a (albeit nice) piece of card. Also, I'm doing the centrepieces myself and am going to scour charity shops for glass dishes that I can fill with nice sparkly bits and bobs and/or floating candles.Things like this plus placecards, favours etc. can rack up the bill more than you realise but if you're up for a bit of DIY you'll not only be able to save a bit of money but it'll be really unique and personal to you too ?

My dress I'm not splashing out on. Sure, it's the one day I'll get to wear a wedding dress but I've fallen in love with the idea of getting a second hand wedding dress as it'll have a history and then I can pass it onto somebody else for their happiness - am only going to wear it once, after all. That's not everyone's idea of romantic sure, but even if you have your heart set on a designer dress then you can look online for sample sales in your area (sample sale in my area had 70% off some Jenny Packham dresses for example) or on preloved.co.uk (I recently asked on here about preloved and some brides/brides-to-be have had great experiences there).

We've also decided not to hire a DJ or a band but instead we're going to have my fiancé's brother's band play a few numbers and then stick the rest of the playlist on an iPod and hire a speaker system instead.

It all seems really daunting at first but what I found helped is writing everything down and the associated cost ... and then shaving off bits and pieces where I could.

Best of luck xxx

Does make you feel better knowing lots of others are in a similar boat!

Just thought I would add to NicolaAngeles comments.

We are not having bridesmaids or ushers. Politics would have dictated and we reckon that has saved us about £1000 - £1500.

No favours saving £200 - £300

Dress was on the Sale rail!

Transport - we have pulled in a favour saving £500

No mother, BM etc presents saving £200

We haven't gone mad on flowers and I will do most of the decoration myself.

Venue!

That's as far as I have got so far, still lots to do

I am the same and am being very strict.

We got the venue for free and they are providing the music. We have invited only a handful to the meal as I only want to share that moment with people I really cherish. We have just got family (immediate only) and 1-2 close friends although that alone tallys to 50! That way people understand and think it is 'just' family. So we are only spending £600 on food.

We have invited the rest for drinks after (they pay not us).

Friends are making my cupcakes, SIL is a photographer so doing it for free, no brides maid, best man etc instead our son and daughter will be them. Friend is getting my flowers wholesale and has offered to make it for me. Dress is only £100 as not a wedding dress but maxi which means I can wear it again!

Rings were expensive but they will be with me for a lifetime so was happy to pay more on these then a stunning reception place that I will never see again. Also friend designed and made them so we did get 'mates' rate. Would have been twice as much from a shop.

I am happy to spend money on the things that matter and not all the things that you are meant to do. I am not giving anyone presents, not splashing out on anything different just because I am getting married.

I have a budget of less than £4k and hope to stick to it

You can do it!

We are working with slightly less. I printed off simple card invitations myself and sent them off inside Christmas cards. We are not having a 'wedding breakfast' but instead having a late register office ceremony (which conveniently limits numbers) straight into evening reception. My daughter is flower girl (our only bridesmaid), our son is best man, no ushers, so no politics and less cost. Dress was in a sale, I'm doing table centrepieces. Friends are doing photography, DJing, balloon decoration and live music. FFIL is bringing champagne, borrowing crockery from my mum, and veil from best friend. My shoes and FG dress from the high street, FG shoes, my tiara and a 'going away' outfit from eBay. Hair and make-up at a very cheap local salon found by word-of-mouth. Our day is certainly no smaller than we wanted.

Please don't despair. You can have the day you want. You just have to prioritise what you *need* and think outside the box a bit. For example, we were set on an all-in-one hotel venue, but reduced costs by having separate venues but avoided people getting lost in between by hiring a bus between them (still cheaper than an all-in-one).

We're similar. Having our two boys as pageboys & no bridesmaids. I'm doing my own cake & cakes /sweets for evening buffett. With help of two friends I'm doing the flowers & hoping to make my own favours (probably cookies or something like that). Going for a vintage/DIY feel so lots of ebay, charity shop & carboot purchases. We are getting married in Registry Office so it helps that I can say numbers are limited. There are a couple of people I would have liked to invite but got to draw the line somewhere & people will have to understand. It is hard to stick to a budget but I think it makes you look out for bargains & good ideas & hopefully we'll end up with lots of little personal touches that people will appreciate.

I'm sure it is very possible as we are hoping to spend not much more than between £7-8k. Our venue is coming in at just under £5k for about 35 day guests and up to 150 evening guests and that includes everything including DJ, all the food, drinks package and even a wedding cake!

Got my wedding dress in sample sale for £500 and hopefully only other massive spend will be TOG...plan to budget quite a bit for the rest of it and buy things as and when I see it as there are some bargains about

Sorry back again! cake lady reminded me, OH is growing our chilli plant favours so you don't have to 'bake' them if DIYing! (I had a 'Cake Lady' who taught me how to decorate my wedding cake, although I'm not expecting this to be any cheaper than a pro, after the course, all the equipment and ingredients..)

I know the feeling! We are hoping to bring ours in at around £5k. I've called in a lot of favours! I've friends making bridesmaid dresses, making the cake, making the invitations and doing hair and makeup... I'm really lucky I guess to have some very clever friends!

My OH likes a deal, so we negotiated an amazing package off a semi professional photographer and managed to get lots of cheap bits added to our wedding package at our venue, 25% off wine, promotional hotel rooms etc.

I really want my wedding to have a personal touch so i'm going to do my own favours buying in bulk on ebay. There are some great sites on facebook too where people sell unwanted wedding stuff. I'll be making my own table decorations and have enrolled on a flower course to make my own bouquets.

Don't worry about other people or magazines! Everyone should have the day they want. In my opinion £15,000 is crazy money, if I had that kind of budget it would be coming off my mortgage!!

x

Thanks for the advice, i have also done the same by having the ceremony and reception at the same place as was also told it saves a lot of money. i have started looking around charity shops and borrowing bits and pieces from friends and family as my wedding is quite vintage and shabby chic so easy to work with anything to make it look pretty. I'm making my own wedding favors as well so that will save a bit and my friend is making my wedding dress for me, i'm trying but things like the flowers, photographer and band are going to set me back a bit but i'm sure i cant work something out, just all so scary when you start adding everything up and realize that weddings really are not cheap lol! x

Just to add what I said above... Ive done flowers for my friends wedding- £50 did her bouquet and 4 bridesmaids... florists won't tell you this but bouquets are easy just watch a video on youtube or buy a book. Flowers that last for ages can be brought really cheap from supermarkets or see if there is a flower market in your area that will sell to non trade.

Our photographer advertised on facebook, he does it on the side I think and everyone wants business so we got him for £350!

Shop around and haggle!! x

Me again sorry, just remembered my bling-tastic WR (OH isn't having one, ker-ching lol) was second hand from a jewellery merchant on eBay...

Hi,

Don`t know what headwear your wedding party or Mum or guests will be looking for but I have started a website for fascinators. we found lots of accesories for weddings expensive when we were looking and so i set up a little business www.weddingfascinator.co.uk with affordable fascinators in various styles and colours. have a look and see what you think. hope this helps

Lynne

Thank you there really lovely head pieces, I've emailed your website to my mum to have a look at

If I can help you with flowers in anyway, I would be more than happy too. Check out my website and feel free to email me as I can tailor arrangements and bouquets to suit you.

We are working to a smaller budget that you, so dont panic it can be done!

We have gone for a Thursday wedding- we got a fab package at the venue, and we have saved with everything else too (photographer, cars etc etc). If you haven't already booked, think about a Thursday as it is a definite way to keep to a budget.

ALso try to think outside the box for everything, check ebay for eveything!!! Dont presume you have to spend as much money as it says in the magazines- your wedding will be special regardless of whether it costs £15,000 or £1500, because it is YOUR wedding!!!!!

Enjoy x

It annoys me when I pick up a wedding magazine that has 'budget' wedding ideas, then I open it up to find their idea of budget is £20,000 rather than £30,000! I want to see actual budget ideas like £5000max.

Can i just say that to me thats isnt a small budget lol

we spent just under 7500 and that was with everything we wanted . 3 bridesmaids, 7 suits hired, my dress, 4 tier cake, posh venue, meal for 55 then 120 to the evening . even including a acoustic guitarist to play/sing throughout the day and evening.

dont worry it can be done you just have to be realistic.. we had the orignal budget of £8000

^^^this, try under £500! there really is so much you can do with that amount you just have to shop around and do you research, you'll always find it cheeper somewhere else ? x

Totally agree, its ridiculous, no one actually spends that much these days do they? i am happy that i have this budget but its just difficult but i think i find a way to manage as we are also saving for our deposit to buy our first house so that is also very important to us as well!!

We were on a tight budget too - about £5k, my dad's paid for the reception which was a package which included a LOT of stuff, my mum bought my dress, and we're doing the rest ourselves. it can totally be done though, the thing i don't like about bridal magazines is the implied pressure of how much money you have to spend. we got 70 invitations (beautiful too!) for £45 on ebay, bought ivory hammered paper from same, and printed our own inserts, think we've spent a total of £70 on stationary including stamps! there's no reason to spend a fortune on stuff, you just have to be prepared to put the time in doing the research

We did ours on the same budget. Lots of brill ideas above which are similar to ours. 50 day guests, up to 120 for the vening (but only 70 came). MIL made the cake, friend dj'ed, friend's parents were band, made own invites, placecards and tableplan. BMs wore own shoes. got my dress in a closing down sale. did my own make up and had things picked out and requested them as presents Anyways, thought I might share my report which is basically showing off because I think we pulled off a special wedding on our budget

https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/t/305988.aspx

I'm doing my wedding for a budget of £5000 so your budget is def doable, esp as I'm in an expensive place. Just shop around, it takes time and effort, but will be worth it when you see that you can have your dream wedding on your budget. Start by getting an idea of prices in your area so you can map out your budget into areas e.g. reception, dress, flowers etc.

Lynsey you sound so like us lol , i think were the same age (going off your username) we also are saving for a house when we got married (2 weeks ago )

you can do it so dont worry

Hi, I am sure it can be done when you stick to your budget, haggle, are smart when it comes to reducing outgoings by not being afraid of auction sites, second hand, diy, etc. A friend of mine is organising a wedding abroad with a budget of £4-5k (including flights from the UK) and I have been suggesting ways to stay on budget and yet have a fabulous wedding. She now has my sewing machine on loan and is sewing some wedding related bits (probably a reception venue decoration is my guess! :-) ). Also she got her wedding dress for under £200 from BHS bridal current collection when it was on sale (1/3 off a couple of months ago).

To help you girls out, I could share an offer from our amazing photographer, who is doing free pre-wedding photo shoots in London this month. Check out his pages, there is an amazing promotion for destination weddings atm (including UK and abroad). http://tomasdolejsi.pen.io/ I have looked at our wedding pics over and over again and I just love 'em!

Good luck with the wedding planning! xx

Dont worry It can be done Our budget is similar but we have not given up what is important to us. My dress was 300 from preloved and BM dresses only 60-80 for my dream Coast dresses on ebay Invites from ebay, and we are set on a big wedding so in evening only doing bacon butties for 75% of guests If we save somewhere we are adding extras to day as we were 12 people short on package deal so far saved 100 on dress and 10 per BM dress Cake is fron Costo for 60 Its easy to keep budget down x x x

Don't panic, it can be done - our budget is a bit less than yours probably about £6k.

My advice would be:

* Check e-bay for everything

* Be wary of package deals - there are some good deals to be had out there but make sure you understand the full T&C's and there are no hidden extra's particurlarly when booking wedding venues. We looked at one where on paper they were advertising a wedding for £3000 but then when you looked at the terms and conditions you would be charged extra for compulsory linen hire, cutlery and crockery hire, room hire, under maximum capacity hire and the list went on and on.

* I am having one bridesmaid and our daughter is really flower girl but she thinks shes a bridesmaid haha - I was able to get a pink dress for bridesmaid and ivory dress (to match mine) for daughter brand new with tags from e-bay and because they didn't need to match I could get them cheaper.

* Ask around for people you can call in favours from or word of mouth recommendations for services you need - things like cake, hair, make up, flowers if you know someone or can find out someone who does it well and it may be cheaper if they don't have big businesses.

* Look at the highstreet - things like suits, bridesmaid accessories, shoes etc. can be just as nice and inexpensive when bought from the high street. Places like coast, BHS, debenhams, next, matalan, monsoon.

* Trawl the internet - I did this with our wedding cars and we were looking for place specific wedding car hire. When I broadened it to services that covered the north east I found a car at half the price I was quoted elsewhere that still covered our area.

Good Luck, you've had some great replies already ?

Set your budget and allocate it out, be strict with it, if you go over somewhere knock it off elsewhere. Make what you can yourself, shop around, use ebay. Ask for discounts if you don't ask you don't know if you would get one. Cut out the not necessary items. As a guest I don't care if the invite was out of a pack of 10 for £1.99 from the post office (yes I have seen some lovely ones) or loads more bespoke, all I care about is something that tells me when and where.