help needed on planning a lovely but very cheap wedding.

Hi and welcome to hitched! ?

I too have recently had to cut our budget due to some unexpected financial issues. There are loads of ways to save money though! Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head...

1. D.I.Y!! i.e making your own invitations and other items of stationery, making your own table centre pieces, buying silk flowers and making your own bouquets, making your own favours

2. Reception venue that lets you bring your own caterers and alcohol - invariably works out cheaper than venues that supply their own

3. Pre-loved wedding dress? I found my dream dress in a bridal shop and luckily for me my mum agreed to buy it (thank you mum!). If that hadn't have happened though I would looked for a second hand dress and probably would have been able to get it for at least half the price.

4, Cut the guest list!! I think this is one of the best ways to save the most money - you could always have a very small ceremony and wedding breakfast and then invite everyone else for the evening.

5. Later ceremonies. If you wanted a bigger guest list you could have a ceremony later on in the day so that you only have to feed guests once and therefore save money on food

6. Bridesmaid dresses on the high street - some people on here have got some gorgeous dresses at bargain prices! I would also have a discussion with your bridesmaids about what they would be willing to pay for themselves- i,e you buy the dresses, they buy the shoes and accessories etc.

7. Shop around and Negotiate - I have found that most suppliers will offer a discount if you ask or match the lowest price you have been quoted.

Hope that helps!

Whats your budget - anything is possible. We bought 3 marquees and put them up in order garden decorating them with velvet drapes. We got our centerpieces from Homebase / B&Q type place so they were sturdy and could be used again.

A friend made out cake, another acted as Master of Cermonies.

For the meal we had a lamb spit roast with accompaments rather than 3 course sit down, we also served our cupcake wedding cake as desert.

Car wise we hired an executive Merc and put ribbons on it for OH to drive - for 3 days hire it cost a fraction of the price of a wedding car.

We didn't bother with favours or presents for everyone under the sun (mums got spa goody bags - everyone else a heart felt thanks).

Our rings we actually used my late grandparents as the fitted us perfectly but i've seen lots of lovely ones that don't cost the earth.

Small supporting party BM, MOH (who were also our witnesses) and Master of Cermonies

Small (ish) guest list. We had 35 for the day and around 60 for the evening.

Make your own invites, OOD etc

Minimal flowers - I actually found pictures of what I wanted for me and MOH and emailled them to the lady doing the balloons (they were an events company) - she created them as well as buttonholes and corsarfes unseen and to budget - they were perfect. (NB. I had been to our local florist, mentioned wedding and almost fainted at the price)

Things we dind't scrimp on were

- Dress (mine and MOH), both were unintentionally expensive - just happened they were perfect.

- Disco (kept it pumping all night)

- Booze (had a 12 hour free bar and we found ppl were very respectful)

- TOG (although we spent a hell of a lot less than a lot of ppl) - we went for the photos on disc and a small selection printed. They are now in a lovely WHSmiths album (14.99 compared to 400!)

Hi, congratulations on your forth coming wedding and booking your church

I would like to say please do not think that to have a cheap or cheaper wedding you have to make everything yourself or find someone you know who knows someone who knows someone etc. If you know what your budget is, shop around, tell companies what your budget is for a particular item and stick to it, if they cannot help you there will always be someone that can, you may find that you have money saved from one item which can go towards another. It doesnt hurt to ask, the worst they can say is no, then all you do is go to the next one, their loss and someone elses gain.

By all means make items yourself if thats what you want to do but not everyone on a budget wants to make things themself and they still want to have the same as everyone else and why not have everything or almost everything you want, after all it is your day!

good luck with all your wedding planning and I do wish you all the best

Congratulations! Budget weddings let you get creative and do some DIY, so spend time instead of money. I'm making bouquets, buttonholes & corsages, invites, order of the day cards, table centrepieces, a sporran ? etc. I've also found that picking up bargains when I see them is useful - I have a big box of 'wedding stuff' just waiting to be crafted into something wonderful in my bedroom!

If it helps I know someone who hires out pre-loved wedding dresses in Croydon, I know a budget cake lady not a million miles away and a TOG who may do you a deal as he's just starting in weddings (although experienced in portraits & family photos)

Im planning a cheap as chips wedding but classy and nice too. So if you wanna swap ideas and money saving tips then just send me a DM

Hi

We too are on a budget.

I am making my own Invitations & thank you cards.

My mum makes cakes & decorates them/does sugarcraft so we've enlisted my mum to do that !!

My partner's sister & husband are taking photo's and filling a wedding album as their wedding present to us.

We are marrying at our local town hall, usual costs of notices and ceremony apply.

We are having a sit down meal, but only for approx 15.

Then in the evening we are hiring a function room at a local YMCA, which is costing £150. We are catering for 125 with a buffet for approx £1,000. And having a disco which is costing approx £150.

I've been looking at/buying items on ebay for invitations, silk flowers, table confetti, balloons, dresses, etc. Use the internet to look around for offers.

We aren't booking a honeymoon, but plan to ask those who want to buy us a gift to give us money or holiday vouchers.

Be open to what you want and have a serious chat about the maximum money you have to spend, then decide on what guides as to how to divide the money into areas such as food, dress, accessories, suit, flowers. Then get prices/quotes from venues, suppliers, look on ebay/other internet sites. Look out for sales at department/high street stores for anything that may be of use(ie. silk flowers, shoes, accessories).

If you have a large family do seriously consider having the ceremony as late as possible with the aim of only feeding guests once.

I'm not planning on doing wedding favours, they are a nice touch but having been to a few weddings this year, they are an expense that not all guests appreciate. Lucky dip lottery tickets can always be included with thank you cards as a nice touch if you feel the need.

Hope that helps !

Hi, welcome to Hitched

sorry to hear about your dad ☹️

there are ways to keep your budget down...start with things you don't really need

invitations - DIY can be cheap but depends on the materials you use, plus they're very time consuming. you can buy some very nice pre-packed invitations, usually in packs of 10, so you could mix n match the designs ? and you only need one per household

Order of Service - you don't really need one....the guests can sing from the church hymn books. If you do go with some, then you can use 1 per couple

RSVP cards - again you don't need them

Table plan - the reception venue will be able to provide one...if it's too plain you could add some stick on flowers/hearts/butterflies and ribbon to jazz it up

favours - not necessary

(blimey! I could be doing myself out of a job at this rate! ?

photographer - this can be a huge expense and not really necessary....you can give a trusted friend the job of taking snapshots of the day...plus you can use the photographs your guests took......these can make up an album of some really natural shots

the bridesmaids can wear their own shoes...nobody will really be looking at their feet anyway!

HTH

Jayne

Hi,

Don't panic!! I am also planning a wedding on a shoestring and have come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter - everybody is just as excited. At the end of the day, I'd rather have all my friends there and not such fancy food.

All the tips above are great, and also two more: I bought my wedding dress in a "last season" sale; it is big and white, who seriously knows the difference! And was reduced from £1,050 to £450.

I've also ordered all my champagne, wine and beer from www.shortersclub.co.uk, who specialise in wholesale shopping so much cheaper than normal. They were really helpful and gave me a further discount when I told them it was for my wedding. I've also just ordered loads of old fashioned sweets from them (lemon sherbets, cough candies and cola cubes) to scatter on the tables instead of favours.

Hope that helps xx

Don't worry, it's very easy to reduce money going out!

Have you booked a reception venue already? A lot of churches have church halls that you can have your reception in - our church doesn't, but we had a buffet meal in the church itself. (and some churches with "free-form" seating can do sit down meals). That's usually a lot cheaper.

Flowers - ask the flower ladies in the church if you can use the same flowers as for the sunday services - We paid £30, which basically paid for the flowers and we had 2 pedestals and a vase.

M&S wedding cake very popular and oftern have 3 for 2 on from June onwards.

Invitations I would rather have a hand written note than a fancy invite.

Ask your local wedding dress shop if they have any samples to sell, my friend throws perfectly good dresses away because no one wants them.