I am ENGAGED!!! Now with a PLAN!! lol

Congratulations! You can do everything on a low budget. Try sample sales or second hand websites like preloved or gumtree for your dress, make as much as you can yourself, ask a family member or friend who can bake to help out with your cake, and there's my favourite wedding shop in the world - ebay!! It's all perfectly do-able!

CONGRATULATIONS

Enjoy the whole process coz hopefully u wont be doing it again!

Do what u can afford and dont feel u have to do things to impress others, its ur wedding and the most important thing is to remember why u r getting married. (Im guessing coz u love each other and want to be together forever etc) and not for the big flashy day that leaves in with years of debt.

U need to start looking at venues, photographers, flowers, transport and entertainment if uz r having these things.

x

Congratulations!

The best advice I can offer is to seriously sit down and decide what you can afford. Ask family members if they're willing to help out (not necesarily financially but by making things & stuff). Search around for cheap venues. Village Halls are great, I got mine for £150. Opt for a later ceremony, so that you don't have to have a sit down meal. Perhaps you could have afternoon tea instead.

Lots of little things.

Oh, and I got my dress in a sample sale for £250

Congratulations!

There is lots you can do a on a smaller budget, you just have to think creatively and outside of the box and at the same time avoid all the commercialism.

If it was myself on a small budget, I'd endevour to find a really nice looking venue, it doesn't have to be one of the wedding venues, it can be anywhere, village hall, pub, resturant, as long as it has that nice feel you want, then do it.

Get outside caterers in, and supplement food, with lovely homely things made by your family (I'm sure someone can cook!)

Decorate yourself, or even better employ your bridesmaids to help. Get your OH to get the BM and Ushers to pitch in.

This way I think you can have a really wonderful, beautiful wedding, unique and personalised for less money.

A bit of bargain dress shopping and you are kind of there. Don't spend money on frivoulous items.

One of the most difficult things to find cheaply would be the photographer. Its just not worth skimping and getting an amateur. Far better if your budget is tight to hire a pro for a shorter amount of time and then reply on friends for the evening. At least that way you are guaranteed some great photos you'll remember.

Finally don't think about expensive favours, or even favours at all. I'm not sure how much people appreciate them. I'm only adding some very basic selfmade ones just as decoration.

Good luck!

Cheap weddings can easily be done.

I shot this wedding last year and it was fantastic. Well thought out wedding in a church then to the village hall a few doors down. They had a rounders match to keep people occupied, decorated the village hall, Got outside caterers. They made all their own table centre pieces, a family member made the cake, The bouquet was made by the bride using fake flowers and buttons.

You dont need to go overbudget on anything, just work to what ever budget you have.

http://www.greenleafphotography.co.uk/blog/?m=201111

Congratulations & Welcome to Hitched!?

Congratulations and welcome to hitched. ?

Your situation sounds very much like mine except it's my mum whos giving the extra and his mum and dad who can't and/or won't.

Where abouts do you live?

Where I live (near manc) it would have cost about 20K just for the basic stuff but we have gone to Cornwall to do ours and are managing to pretty much get everything done for 148 people for about 3K.

I am very lucky that my mum is a brilliant craft lady and has made my flowers and button holes and will be doing the bridesmaids dresses. Our friend is making the cake although my mum offered to do that too. We are making the invites ourselves, my uncle is doing the photographs and we are using my mums car with my cousin as chauffeur. As someone else said, make as much as you can yourself or ask members of family or friends to help with things and also as another hitcher said - ebay. You can get a brand new dress made to measure for about 80 quid! You could do it for 2k it depends what you would want

HTH

Emx

Congratulations!! I agree with everyone about it being perfectly doable.

However, I know you don't have much time to plan but don't go booking everything immediately. You will chnage your mind on things when you do more research and come across new ideas. Take a few weeks/a month to really research. It'll work out better in the long run.

Thanks for all of your replies. I must admit that trying to find a budget venue is proving to be actually quite difficult!!

I always said that I would rather not get married in the registry office (nothing against them generally, this one though looks like a small block of offices and has a conveyor belt feeling) but it costs £180 compared to the second favourite which is a Georgian mansion (the upstairs is a hospice but the downstairs is beautiful and can be used for ceremonies and gardens for photos). This one is £400 plus the registrar which is £400. Big difference.

This is what our reg office is like http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/files/comm-reg-tour.mov

SO. There is a place on the outskirts of Peterborough which is called Norman Cross Art Gallery. Its an art gallery on the site of the worlds oldest prisoner of war camp (romantic, lol) and it is £300 to hire the art gallery building (converted stables), the gardens for photos and a small field out back for outdoor things or I guess a marquee?

and these are the re-enactment soldiers we could have attending to greet guests if we want to

I guess it would be ceremony at the reg office and then everyone over to the art gallery where we would go off for photos while our families play games in the field ( I was thinking giant draughts, connect 4, snakes and ladders.. that sort of thing) and have cocktails and nibblings (I am thinking that we DIY these and hire some of my 21yr old brothers friends to serve them.

After photos I think we would like to join our families playing games for a little while. For food, I have checked with a couple of companies and we have been quoted £500 for catered fish and chips (or chicken and chips) which I would like served on plates on personalised greaseproof paper (found a company that will do a personalised newspaper sheet).. I think it would be quite fun and fitting with our informal style wedding but do you think it would just come off as cheap? My brother and sister both had DIY cold buffets and I would like to avoid those if I can.

Hopefully we can organise the room so that there will be room for a dance area, the building has a sound system wired up so I am hoping to hire/borrow disco lights to set the mood and have some dancing into the evening

I would like to put a pick and mix style buffet together (I have a whole load of vases and jars so just need sweets and scoops and bags) and have that instead of favours although my OH has had the idea that he will do a combined family tree rolled up and tied with ribbon for each family member to take away or look at while they are there.

My OH, myself and our children went to florida in 2006 and since then OH has been desperate for a real cowboy hat, I know its not usual wedding attire but I am thinking about having one for him as a gift on the day lol

What I am worried about is alcohol. I am not sure whether its better to get a mobile bar in or somehow organise the booze ourselves??

So, how can I improve on this? Does it sound really bad???

Congrats! Welcome to Hitched

I know what you mean about Boro Register Office, it's rubbish!

Maybe you could do the legal bit informally and then get a friend to hold a pretty (but non legal) ceremony at the venue (but in a "proper" way)? Does that make sense?

Funny you should say that! It was my first idea!!!

I thought that OH and I could pop to the reg office earlier in the day with our mums and do the legal bit and then go our seperate ways until later on in the afternoon when we could set up chairs and an aisle leading to a decorated arch in the field behind the gallery and exchange our vows in front of eeeverybody (and have the "official" side of the conversation conducted by OH's uncle who is great at that sort of thing)

Problems with this

1) it is weather dependant although I checked and it hasnt rained on that date here in 6yrs

2)its next to the A1 (there is a field in between) so what if our guests couldnt hear us!!

3) the extra cost of decorating the "ceremony" area

I think fish and chips sound like an amazing idea! Especially with the personalised newspaper (am big on all things personalised at the moment!) Would make a really relaxed atmosphere I think.

Just to say - we went to a wedding at Peterborough Registry office a few years ago (recognised the description even before I saw it was Peterborough!) and there was quite a nice place outside the doors you come out off where they had a few photos - think there was an arch way or something like that and some flowers. Wouldn't probably work for massive group shots but you'd be able to get some nice ones of you and OH. HTH.

Yeah THE arch - I think its the only place to get a decent photo there to be honest.. this is my sisters wedding shot (I got her the wedding dress for free! and I made the bouquet from clearance flowers at a local wholesaler) she looked absolutely stunning I also got the bm outfits and made the flower buckets for them too

The problem with Boro RO is that is as it is small, when you arrive there will be people outside having photos taken at the arch, random guests waiting inside for the next wedding so your party won't be able to go in, and your guests will see you arrive

*is scarred for life*

YES!!! thats absolutely my point! The room itself is fine, its all pretty neutral.. its the conveyor belt feel I dislike AND the let down of there being no entrance made by me.. lol