Please share Your Budget Saving Ideas!

Oooh a budget wedding, my favourite hehe.

• We have saved money on the church flowers because they have a ladies group who do them.
• We're using our own VW camper as transport so that's free!
• We've saved on the invites because we made our own and printed our own inserts
• Flowers wound up cheaper because we're getting them made in silk, which is a plus cos i get to keep them forever!
• We get a free top table arangement because the florist works with the otel often, take advantage of these kins of offers!
• Our cake is free becasue OH Mum is getting it as a gift.
• The reception venue is free because we are using their catering, the catering is set at 2009 prices because we ordered early.
• We took advantage of their package deal so we get a free honeymoon suite and use of the gym a month before.
• I bought favour bags off ebay, 100 for £5 from china, these are being filled with mini cadburys etc from tins of Roses!!
• Because we saved on everything else we were able to splash out on the dress, and suit hire.

Write a list of everything you need and prioritise it, if it's not importnt to you either cut it out or use a very budget option! If it is important to you then treat yourself

Ok , well my friends mum is making the cake

my maid of honor made the invites

i ordered my dress off ebay

asking guests for money to go towards the honeymoon bit cheeky but nevermind

were using guests to transport us to the venue

think thats it for now

Hi there I am buying silk flowers too, bought my dress in the sale (ex example) but its perfect!

book things early to get them cheaper ie I got alot held at '09 prices

Thinking of buying bm dresses from the internet as its sooo much cheaper!

I bought my dress from China (I couldn't bare to part with £1000 for a dress i'll wear for 8 hours!)

Invites were from Vistaprint (less than £40 for about 60 invitations and magnets)

Not having favours (don't see the point in them - waste of money IMO)

Cars belong to my OH and friend - old landrovers!

Not hiring suits - men will wear a dark suit they already own (we don't like the pengiun suit look and OH refuses to get married in a rental)

Not having a professional photographer - have a friend who is a very good amateur photographer

We haven't set our date yet but at the moment we'll be making savings on the following;

I'll be making my own invitiations, place cards, oos, menus etc.

I doubt I'll be having any bridesmaids - I have such a large selection of females to choose from I'd end up upsetting someone, so easier not to bother

There's only 5 1/2 men in the bridal party, so we'll be hiring suits (the 1/2 is my little boy)

We only have 6 buttonholes, 4 corsages and 1 small boquet to buy for flowers

OH's brother is in a band, who have agreed to play at a reduced cost for our reception

As I am leaning towards the idea of having a lightly coloured dress, I am thinking of having a fancy bridesmaid dress and customising it with some bling

We'e also toying with the idea of having a late wedding (4pm-ish), so that we only have one meal to provide - therefore cutting out chair covers, favours, fancy table decorations etc.

Our 3 cakes will cost a total of £50, and will probably be served as a pudding

Hope this helps ?

Lou xx

My dress was second hand from ebay and I had a local dressmaker alter it for me (saved about £900 than if I had bought from the shop new).

Invites were from Vistaprint (approx £70 for day invites, evening invites, thank you cards and rsvp cards).

The venue agreed to cap the price per head at £32 (about £4 per head less than the menu we chose).

Mens suits had an offer of "groom goes free" plus 15% (I think) off.

We have one car which is doing two 'runs' - first with the bridesmaids then me & my dad - its nothing special just a nice merc (£140 for two trips - home to church and one trip church to reception)

Bridesmaids' dresses were from ebay (paid £70 for two when they are £70 each new).

My shoes were £12 in the sale and the bridesmaids' shoes were £5 in the sale (all New Look).

My veil is borrowed from my friend (doubles as my something borrowed).

My MIL2B is doing all the flowers as she used to be a florist.

We got a quote from Hatton Garden for the rings we wanted and then found a local guy who was able to make mine for a cheaper price and talked H2B into a much nicer (£600 cheaper) one. I think this was excellent customer service because he knew what we'd chosen for H2B wouldn't be practical. He advised on one that was better for H2B but lost himself a sale of approx £700.

I've made my centrepieces up from second hand vases etc from ebay and other hitchers.

Have a photographer that has a package to suit our budget and is happy for us to go back as and when we can afford to for more pictures/cd.

I've found ebay great for bargains.

Aunt is making my cake...MIL is decorating it

Invites, Cake boxes and placecards all ordered extra early and in a 80% off sale so has cost me £120 rather than nearly £300!

My shoes were £6 from Ebay - brand new bargain

Table decs: Vases were £1.59 each from ikea, 4pk mirror tiles were £4.99, using these as alternative to mirror plates (to me they look loads better!!)

wedding car: i scoured an online jag owners club found a guy local to me with an ivory jag and asked a massive favour for transport (cheeky i know by paid off, car is costing me £200 rather than £400!!)

making my own favours using tulle netting and almonds - 100 pre cut circles were £3, ribbon was £2...almonds are priced up at approx. £7.99

photographer is booked - local trainee who is only charging £50 for 3 venues (my mums the church and reception) and packages of pics to suit starting from £30 for 10 pics in album up to £270 for 50 - any 10 more after this is only £10

looking at silk flowers not 100% sur on this yet!

We are also on quite a tight budget.

We used vistaprints for our save the dates (£25) and i personalised them with some stick on pearls from Hobbycraft.

Planning on serving wedding cake as dessert to cut on catering costs.

Also, late-ish wedding so only need nibbles in the evening rather than anything bigger (and more expensive!!)

Very tempted to order dress from yourbridalwear.com (as someone mentioned in an earlier post) they do copies and for around £150 i am thinking it will be worth the risk!

Hoping to have more than one 'something borrowed' - thinking jewellry, tiara, etc.

Dont need wedding transport as everyone is there for the week and it is all in one place.

Suits will be hired.

Probably asking bridesmaids to buy their own shoes and accessories.

Probably more but thats all i can think of at the moment!

Oh yeah, i forgot......

Tesco clubcard vouchers can be exchanged for 4 x their value in Goldsmiths vouchers and we (and MIL2B) have been saving them for ages so hoping that will cover the wedding rings!!!