What has been your biggest bargain so far? and how are you budgeting

Hi ?

I know what you mean, you want the best wedding you can have but when u think about what you have to sacrafice for it, it makes you rethink!!

So far my best bargain has been my flower girl dresses

When I first looked at them they were £32 I think. I was really chuffed with that because they look lovely and expensive. So I was really pleased when I went back online to buy them and they were on sale for £16! Very chuffed with myself lol.

Wow great find, im on the hunt for a pink flower girl dress too! i noticed your getting married the week after me

My dress was a massive bargin, i fell in love with it as soon as i saw it. I wasn't looking for a dress at the time, i was looking for BM dresses but came across my dress on the sale rail and it fit like a glove. Im such a great believer in fait so i had to have it.....It was £850 reduced to £395 ????

You have plenty time on your hands so dont rush into impulse buying. Wait till the sales and get as much as you can, hand make things to keep the costs down and personalise your day.

My bargain was my BM dress. £160 in monsoon then got it for £65 in the sale.

I got my dress cheaper as it either an ex sample or second hand, not sure as tthe shop sells both. Never even asked as i loved it so much i didnt care!

I made wine glass charms for everyone as a favour and bought all the things off ebay. Cost under £15 to make about 50-60 charms. This included buying the pliers (sp).

We're doing Goldsmith vouchers for our rings too, no problam in that (otherwise we'd only spend the vouchers on gin!)

I've only just booked our date so haven't got started with everything yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting my cake from M&S and I've got my eye on some dresses on ebay...

The ways we have cut costs are:

Sister making my make

My cousin is doing hair and make up

Other sister is doing jjewellry

Not having a dj, but having a playlist instead

No car hire

Borrowing tiara

Dress was a gift

Underwear in the sale

Shoes from ebay

Men are wearin their own suits

His has saved us a fortune overall, but having tried to work to an £8k budget we are struggling to get under £10k

Oooh forgot, friend sorting out make up artist and hairdresser (she's in the biz, hoorah I have at least one relevant contact!)

No cars needed as staying in the same place so will get ready in a room by the reception area

Thinking of doing my own boquet and table decs (bit scared about the bouquet but I want something really simply so will do some test runs)

Underwear?! Oh ok, that'll be when M&S have a sale on and I've got my M&S vouchers from my bosses eurostar points!

Wish I had someone who could make my cake but the only person I would want/trust to do it is in Australia

My biggest bargain has to be the free wedding invites which partypop.com are offering. We cheated a bit and designed them for our evening guest invites as they have set themes which didnt match enough for our main invites.

I'm hoping they are arriving tomorrow as I have a parcel to collect and havent ordered anything else so fingers crossed they are ok. They print you up to 55% og the guest number you are having (I added guests to mine to get a few spare lol and should end up with 100 invites) and also give you a free website which guests can RSVP on.

I'm making my own wedding favour coasters which turned out at 37p each so far, but obviously doesnt include the cost of time to engrave them myself or the pockets we will present them in.

Other bargains include my OH wedding ring which was half price for a platinum band and also mine actually again which was half price.

and thats about it for now. I have 17 months to go and just see it as a good while to bide my time and get things i want in sales

My best bargin so far has been my BM dresses (3),at £9 each in TK maxx sale. We are on a very tight budget of £800. Making my own dress.

Whats a budget?????

I'm footing the bill for my daughter. Best bargain were the six large vases for centre pieces at £1.89 each....bless you Ikea!

I cut costs by

Buying my dress off Ebay. Not traditional wedding dress, so I can wear it again and again, and only got £28.

My friend has started her own business making brooch bouquets, so she made me one, the cost? For her to be able to use my photos when she sets her website up.

The same friend and I made my wedding cake and cupcakes.

I had no guests, apart from my 2 sons and our witnesses. Massive money saver there ?

One of my witnesses is also a professional tog, so he did our photos for free.

My friend who did my bouquet and cake also arranged our transport as her family run a wedding car company. Totally free.

I did my own hair and make up.

I wore shoes and accesories i already owned.

Our wedding cost less than £500.

Our budget is very very tiny coming in at just £2.5K with a contingency fund lol! With 4 months to go, a lot of internet scouring and a couple of generous offers, we've been able to save a huge amount of money.

We booked a registry office wedding at 4pm; so we saved a huge whack by only having to serve one meal. Our hotel reception package has quite a few little bits, like a toastmaster and a free room for us, so we saved a few pounds there too.

I am making our wedding cakes; we are having a two tier cake to cut (3 if I have enough time) and I will also be making little individual cakes. As they will be iced with each guests name, they will triple up as place-settings, favours and pudding!

My dress is being made so is only costing me the material. Including the petticoat I'll need to buy, its coming in at c£100. My shoes were a bargain at £12.50 from ebay. They'd been reduced, but were only £25 full price. I've saved a little money on accessories (not having anything in my hair and using jewellery OH bought me for Christmas) so I can splurge a bit on my underwear; lets just say I'll be needing a lot of top support! I am having my hair done at work and will be doing my make up myself.

My bridesmaids outfits have come in at c£70 each for 2. I've bought dresses from next, shoes and bags from ebay (no flowers) and a bit of jewellery for them from Dotty P's. They are paying for their own hair and have said they'll do their own make up. My flowergirls (x2) are having dresses from ebay at £15 each. Their parents are buying shoes and will supply a little white cardi (both said they'd buy them one for party occassions anyway each summer, so they dont mind). My 2 pageboys suits are costing £25 each; they'll both wear school shoes.

The mens suits are costing £78 each and are on a pay for 4 get one free offer which covers all the men. Invites cost £20 from vistaprint. OH's brother is in a band who have offered to play for free as our wedding present. My Uncle is a p/t tog and he offered to do some photos as a present. I'm only having simple table decorations (tea-lights and holders from Ikea for £20)

My mum wants us to have a car, but to be honest, the two venues are only 5 minutes apart, so I'll be quite happy in a posh taxi.

I would thoroughly recommend scouring ebay/amazon/preloved.

Love all this ?

We're doing quite similar.

I've made my dress and button bouquet

I'll be making my cake

I made our invites.

We're having 26 people but saving money by not having a reception as such we're just going to the pub for drinkies after.

my 2 boys I got 2 page boy suits for £20 each on preloved, worn once!

H2b is wearing a suit he already has and has only been worn once too, juat getting a new shirt and tie

rings from jewlers (sp) on the web

I'll probably just wear shoes and jewellery I already have

Might make a birdcage veil but I'm not sure atm

honeymoon (more a short holiday for the 4 of us) a wedding gift from my mum and partner

We were aiming for under 1k but after changing my mind about my dress (didn't like the 1st) and under budget on everything else it's looking like it'll be under £500 ?

We were going to have a meal but the thought was just too cringy, I hate people watching me eat ? we could have fed everyone for under £500 in a restrant private hired

I think the best way to save money though is to know what you want and give yourself time to find it / make it very cheaply. don't be afraid to buy from the internet or form places like ebay or preloved. And if you intend to buy a lot on the internet then signup to somewhere like quidco ( /join-quidco/?ext&src=raf ) where you can get cashback for almost everywhere and they will have all the current offers on there too.

happy bargain hunting ? x

So far I managed to knock £200 off the ceremony venue hire (about 30% saving) and I got £500 off my wedding dress (about 25% saving). My cake is a gift from a friend, I'm doing my own make up (will get a free lesson from a department store counter), we're having sweet jar centerpieces to avoid expensive flowers & they'll double as favours with sweetie bags for guests to do their own pick & mix. I have arranged for children to have a kids menu for £12 instead of what was offered, that was a half portion of the adult meal (which no child would eat!) For £37!!!(approx 60% saving) So far so good!!! : )

We don't have a big budget - so we're doing what WE want and not letting tradition dictate.

Afternoon tea at 3pm saves a fortune and then everyone can go home afterwards, so we're only feeding them once.

Dress is my mum's old one - i'm jst modernising it.

Having the wedding at christmas to save on decorations.

Invites from vistaprint direct people to a website where they can find all the info

Table centre pieces will be the afternoon tea stands with the food on

Favours probably candycanes - cheap as chips!

Only inviting about 60 people....

Transport provided by a family friend with a vintage car.

Not having bridesmaids or any of that fuss, just costs money.

So far all I have done is sort venue, photographer and wedding dress. Oh managed to get £70 off photographer package if we paid him in cash, so doing that in bits. I managed to get 25% off my dress, as The original shop I was going to I had a 25% off voucher from a wedding fayre, so told them this and asked if they could match it. Hoping to get some more deals as I go along x

We decided on what was our priority (venue/food and good photographer) so that's where most of our money is going.

Savings made by:

• Mum making my dress and 4 bridesmaids dresses
• Other half bought a suit reduced from £200 to £69 (plenty of other weddings as guests he can wear it to!)
• Suit hire for other 3 men 25% off with O2 priority moments
• Making own brooch bouquet
• Making bridesmaids bouquets from foam flowers (4 for £48)
• Groom's mother growing all flowers for decorations
• Using venue's candlearbas - just had to buy candles (£7 from Country Baskets)
• No car - mum's friend taking me in his Jag.
• Making own invites - should come in under £20
• Making own table plan etc
• No DJ - using venue's PA and having playlist
• No canapes
• Late wedding (4:30pm) so only one meal - no eve buffet
• Sold a load of gold and jeweller ended up 'paying' me for my wedding ring! OH not having one.
• Undecided on favours yet - prob not having any
• Best friend/bridesmaid making cake as present
• Borrowing a veil
• bought shoes which weren't cheap but weren't "wedding shoes" so worked out cheaper than I might have paid
• Bridesmaids buying own shoes

Best bargains...

BM dresses - £30 each

Candle holders - IKEA ones, but bought by a company for an event that they they couldn't use due to H&S regs, so got exactly what we were planning on buying anyway for much less - £30 for 200 holders!

Biggest % saving - my beautiful fascinator - should have been over £200, but I paid £35 after putting in a cheeky offer when there was no price on it.

We've made loads of savings my friends helping, making things ourself andgood old ebay!

Mine has got to be my wedding ring

£75!!

Got my wedding dress in a sample sale (£1500 reduced to £600)

Hiring our village hall for £300

Having fish suppers and ice cream for the wedding breakfast (about £8 per head)

Made my own glass painted champagne flute favours

Graphic designer friend designing our stationery - all we pay for is the cost of the cartridges to print

Bringing our own wine in and having an outside bar serve it for us

DIY place settings

Lots of crockery and teacups from charity shops!

I have LOVED planning a wedding on a budget and last night my friend commented on how this wedding was 'truly us'. YAY!

My dress was a pretty good price, think it was because its a bit unusual. Its gone up £200 this year in the same shop!!

BM dresses were a bargain at £50 each; high street so much better than the typical BM dress shops.

Knocked the venue down by around £3000! And got free welcome drinks thrown in!

Family friend/DJ doing disco hopefully for £100... need to check.

Venue has nice centre pieces already so using them.

Not a fan of flowers so hoping they'll come in at less than £100 for all, and hopefully being done by a family friend.

OH's mum making cake.

My mum paying for outfits for us ladies so OH and I are saving there!!

Vistaprint invites will work out about £13.

Shoes on sale on asos for £35 that I'll wear again and again (they're gorgeous!!)

Mmm... think thats it for now!

THAT ring is gorgeous sparkly bride, where did you find such a great bargain!!

Ladies making brooch/button bouquets... where are you finding tutorials and were can I find supplies! i really love these

Its from Warren James! Its white gold and diamond as well. I went to H Samuel first as thats where I got my engagement ring from then stumbled across this and it looked perfect. Its so not what I wanted but just goes to show how things dont always suit. I am well chuffed with it ?

My best bargain so far:

The candelabras to decorate with my medieval theme: 5ft iron floor standing candelabra - 99p E.bay, 5ft iron floor standing candelabra - charity shop £10, 2 x smaller table candleabra's - £4 - charity shops

Not only would these have cost me much much more to hire, but the money I paid goes to good causes, and I can donate them back afterwards

Other bargains - H2B's niece is making the invites

Booked my reception venue as a "family event" instead of "wedding reception" and saved £800 - this is a good tip to use - as long as you aren't having the ceremony at the place, it doesn't make any difference what you book it as, and the word "wedding" makes costs double.

Picked up some mini bouquets for the flower girls in the january sales - £2 each - fabric flowers

And got lots of glasses for the sweet buffet in the dunelm mill sale at the start of the year

also - bought end of roll fabric to make our banners and bunting - perfect quality, at half the price of what you pay for it at the start of a roll.

Hmm ok not sure which has been the best bargain so far..

Venue is a victorian tank yard which looks amazing. We have use of it from the day before to set up and both ceremony and reception will be held there. £600.

Food is a hog roast for 120 for £350

Pro photographer is really great and is charging £170 from half hour before the ceremony until the evening do is underway

I am making my own bouquet using foam flowers and brooches which is so far coming in at 25p per brooch from car boots and £11 for 30 foam roses

My dress is brand new from ebay and is dessy 1004 and was £50 (made a cheeky offer)

Suit hire is £60 per suit inc waistcoats and cravats

Buttonholes I am making and they are coming in at around 60p each

Invites are gatefolds and include inserts from vistaprint and come in at 70p each ish

The car will be a 2011 jaguar xf and is £80 for 3 trips

Bridesmaid dresses are £33 each and are new

Veil is on loan from my aunt

Flowergirl dresses will come from ebay or tk maxx and won't be more than £17 each

Pageboys will wear a waistcoat and cravat with their own trousers and shirt £13

I would like individual cakes in boxes and a tier to cut and my best friends sister has offered to make it at cost

My sister is doing my make up and she does hair extensions professionally so has offered to put those in and style my hair too

I have seen a stunning side tiara on ebay for £34

Favours will be sweetie pick n mix. I have signed up to a cash n carry so it should be pretty well priced (£8 for 3kg bag of sweets)

Great tips and ideas ladies, thanks for sharing. I just came up with another after having a flick through a mag. We have a massive gorgeous vintage ivory framed mirror in our living room, i think we will use that to write our table plan on, its not even made it on the wall yet lol!

This is the prototype invite Ive made... (p.s ink is running out so didnt print the greatest, i think i might make 'Wedding Invitation' bigger too) Just need to work out the layout of text and figure out what to write

You have all done really well with cutting costs, I remember my own and how expensive it could have been.

This is how we saved some costs

My dress was "end of line" so was in the sale £300

Mum and Dad made the invites and order of services themselves on the computer.

Father in law made the cake, auntie iced it

Car was for a friend at church

flowers were made by mum and family friend

little BM dress made by another aunt

MOH wore a bridesmaid dress she had worn before.

Video was done by aunt

so, the only expensive things really were the reception, the church and the photographer

So far i've save:

£500 on my dress, as an ex-sample

£544 on photographer, had budgeted £600 but now my uncle (pro tog) is doing it for the cost of inviting him and his family to the entire day instead of just the evening.

£80 ish as i had a free veil with my dress

That's all we've got sorted so far but hoping to knock more money off as we go along!

Great thread Going2theChapel, I've really enjoyed reading about everyone's achievements. Your invitations look great - you wouldn't think they were DIY at all!

Sarah-March, I love your FG dresses they are too cute.

Dana good tip about partypop I might just have to take a wander over there...

Great ideas in here. I needed inspiration like this!

Only thing I've saved on so far is I have a friend doing photography; he does it in between his regular job and is doing it for the cost of a hotel stay. He'd have been invited to the wedding anyway!

Thanks saltyleave, I am really pleased with them and glad they don't look so DIY hehe. I need to find some examples of text, a possible poem and what needs to be included in wedding invites as a rule. I might print on the first page (the mulberry paper) our names and the date of the wedding. decisions decisions lol!

I went on to warren James last night and they are some really GREAT deals, pretty much all their rings are half price.

I am now on the hunt for my dress but cheaper and I think I have found one an hr away at a bridal shop in staffordshire in the sale for £699. I am wondering why it would be in the sale though as its a brand new dress by Benjamin Roberts. Its in the size I need too. Ive emailed to enquire about the price drop and hopefully its meant to be and then I will have saved £300 on my dress.