Crafty/ Budget Brides

Wow you've done amazing on that budget, I wish I was so creative! All sounds great! The only thing I am going to attempt to make myself is the invite and centrepieces but they won't be hard, just fishbowls and flowers!

That picture of Stacey (the beehive chef) is the picture that inspired my dress design. The same lady that made my wedding dress makes loads of Stacey's 60s inspired clothes. She also made Staceys bridemaids dress.

Angie at Carnaby Streak is fab.

Paper flowers are easy to make, albeit a bit time consumming. I flashed some on here the other week!

Aah Loveska, I know! She lives near me. Don't really know her but we have a lot of mutual friends. I think she used to drum in a band with one of my besties.

Mummymoo, can you reflash. I know, it's gonna take forever, but I just can't afford real flowers. I was thinking of getting someone to pop to Tesco the night before the wedding to get some cheap bunches of roses and then arranging them in glass jugs on the puddings table. A wedding without any flowers might be a step too far for the MiL!

And Debs12, creativity is borne from necessity! I've always been creative because I hate spending money! Haha, I think *I could make that for a quid*. It's my Scottish heritage!

We're having ours next weekend - Sat. 20th and Sun. 21st October..

Click here for more info...

Hiya

Love this post. You sound like you're doing really well and are so organised. Not to mention savvy with the costs!!

Well we have bought little organza bags for the favours that my mum and sis have cross stictched mine and OH's initials on to, my dad made the table names (wooden signs cut into the shape of the sweet they are called - by my design :o)). Erm, mum is making my wedding cake, she does this as a hobby and has always received so much thanks for what she does (she's amazing!). I'm making the centrepieces which are mirror plates, and fish bowls on top with those water bead things and a gerberah on top, I've bought some summer lanterns from poundland (little metal ones which are really lovely) which I will add some burgandy ribbon to and I'm making sweet trees for the tables.

I found the girls shoes and my shoes in the Alders closing down sale so were all reduced to £10.00 each. Mine are Benjamin Adams which should have been £180 and are still current on "sale" on the website for £100.00. The girls ones should have all be similar prices.

Got the flowers relatively low cost, all foam roses and mine are false gerberahs...lovely though.

Only thing is FMIL has gone a bit OTT and spent £70.00 on the post box for the cards (I wanted to make it but am grateful that she has done this) and is looking at chair covers. It's nice of her to do this but so far her stuff is coming in quite expensive.

I'd like my mum to knitt dolls of me and my H2B which we can leave on the cards table and I want to make some home made bunting. Felt type.

I have bought a 3 picture frame from BHS in the sale (it's quite "weddingy") that I'm going to put a pic of my mum and dad on their wedding day, a pic of H2B's mum and dad on theirs and then a hand drawn pic of me and H2B in the bottom of.

I think that's it so far. :o)

Love the idea of sweetie table names - are you going to have jars of the sweets on the table? Really cool idea. One idea I saw that I did like was on the sweetie table having pics of the bride and groom when they're kids (even better if you have pics of you eating sweets!) I also saw an idea I liked, that each table number had pics of the bride and groom at that age (so table 7 had pics of them when they were 7). I thought that was sweet and creative.

I love the idea of the photos in wedding frames of your parents, that's such a cool idea. Would love to do this, but my parents never married (hence why its so important to me to do so) and I was bought up in foster care, but OHs parents have been married for 40 years and I would love to have a pic of their 60s wedding there. I was thinking of collecting vintage postcards/ photos of weddings and making a display, then we could ask OHs parents and other people we know for their pictures to add to it. That way it wouldn't be glaringly obvious that my parents are missing. (my dad wont be at the wedding anyway).

I love knitted dolls idea too. It is very very easy to make stuffed dollies, I make them a lot. In fact, see my avatar, thats me and my Ca-Ca-Cavewoman Countdown dolly (I was on countdown dressed as a cavewoman). All you need is a bedsheet, some stuffing, some felt and some scraps of fabric. It's so much fun! She took me an evening to make.

You could try painting your own cake toppers too. I make kokeshi dolls as presents for friends and its not as hard as you think. Honestly, you can buy a kit from Argos for £7.99 so buy two and have a practise, its really easy. Here's some I made of me and my OH a couple of years ago, and if you look elsewhere on the forum there are some I made of the countdown presenters too! (as you can see, I am extremely stylish whilst my OH is a completely scruffy hippy) haha:

Oh and bunting is the easiest thing in the world but might turn out quite pricey if you use felt. As nobody really sees it closely, I think using cheap and cheerful fabric is fine. And if you cut the shapes with pinking shears then you don't have to hem them which is even quicker. Also its nice to use different fabrics and textures so perhaps you could make felt bunting but put it somewhere special, and paper bunting, and ohhh...I'm a bit obsessed with bunting aren't I? (my house has bunting all over it. I like every day to be a celebration, me)

I'm getting ridiculously excited. I think I better have a cup of tea and calm down.

Ooo good idea, to be honest I haven't looked into materials yet, this is my next project and was looking for something in-expensive so will scrap the felt and use cheaper materials. I might actually go to the charity shop and see if they have any clothes in our colours that I can cut up and stuff. Ooo good idea about pinking shears.

See this is why we needed this post, to swap ideas. Thanks for all your help xx

Haha, totally, knitting is the one thing I am dreadful at, I've just never been able to get the hang of it.

I think a cool thing to do is to start a weekly/ monthly craft group. You could make tea and cake, get a gang of your creative girly friends round and sit and stitch bunting, make favours, etc etc It will be a lovely thing to do in the run-up for the wedding. In fact, when I told friends we were making stuff, they were all offering to get involved so we decided on a craft stitch and *** group to do stuff. It will be like having a hen party every week! Yay!

Are you making your sweetie trees yourself? I love love love the idea of this, I want to have a go. My fear is by the time I've finished I'm going to have so much stuff in the room, there'll be no space for guests. This thread could be very dangerous indeed!?

Ha ha great idea but I'm slightly concerned it would turn into more of a wine and chatting evening than actually making stuff knowing my friends. Also, I'm slightly ashamed of saying this cause I love all my friends dearly, ands it's not got to be perfect but some of my friends are a little rubbish at making things. I know, they've shown me!

Yes I know what you mean, everytime some comes up with an idea I think OOOOOOooooo I could do that....

Ha ha x

We had a retro 60s/70s/80s vibe at our wedding. Our balloon weights where rubik cubes, we made our table names and our sweetie buffet bowls out of old vinyl records. Our invites were cd's that looked like records and contained our wedding songs, the guest could play them. Our card box just had loads of our favourite album covers stuck on,,,,,, well, , we loved i
t

And we had trolls are our cake toppers

This is true. I think it takes a lot of looking around and trying to use up things you already have. My house is crammed full of craft stuff so it's not like I have to start from scratch. I already have a sewing machine, tons of fabric etc etc, but I imagine if you didn't already have these things it would be cheaper to buy

One cheaper idea is to cut paper shapes from nice pattern paper - say butterflies or hearts and but some mini pegs and pin them to a length of string. Very quick, very easy and very cheap and very pretty

LOVESKA, Why did you do this to me?! NOW I WANT TO MAKE THESE THINGS! Haha

Love the table centrepieces - I'm guessing you didn't use actual specials singles? Did you just buy rubbishy records from a charity shop and make your own labels? I likey very much.

I make bowls out of vinyl, and I love the idea of making a cakestand. Did you make these yourself. Please do tell all, I really want to make some of these. I have a load of rubbish prog records (I like prog a lot but went through a phase of buying every terrible record I found) so use these as my craft projects!

Trolls are super cool! Love your invites too, but do you mind me asking how much they cost in all? I imagine they weren't cheap. Very cool tho, I actually saw some invites that were a flexi-disc! Ahh, if only!

Record player also lovely - are those Russ Meyer girls? I would love to incorporate my love of Russ Meyer at the wedding but I think it may kill off some of the older guests if I were to do that

OH MY GOD I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA!

I have a battered red dansette record player. How about if I made dollies of us, glued them to a record and then they could spin round and round on the player! Haha, OK maybe its not such a great idea!

Haha, I live in Edgbaston but I work all over Sandwell/ the black country. Where are your family from?

I love making stuff, I really do. I know what you mean though, I have the same thing with knitting. I know exactly what I need to do, my hands just won't do it.

Anyone can be crafty but I guess it's the difference between it looking quirky/cute or like a 5 year old made it (I fail on this often!). You can buy paper shapes and stuff, you can buy craft kits. You could also have a bask at making chocolate or soap (very easy) for favours. Just go with your strengths.

Right, that's it, I'm now making bunting (was originally), records bowls, chocolates, soaps, etc etc....oooo I should stop but I can't. MORE IDEAS PLEASE!

Crashing from BT but I have to say rubyfirecracker I LOVE all of your ideas, really fun and creative and for the budget as well that's amazing! People probably spend thousands to just try and get that homemade and vintage look. It looks like it will be a brilliant day.

Ooh Dudley reg office is lush! We wanted to do there but it's expensive for more than 24 people so we;re going with the soul-less office block that is Birmingham. Even West Brom reg is quite nice, but it is next to the job centre so swings and roundabouts

Teacup candles are lovely. Kits are pricey though - could you not buy loads of teacups from charity shops and buy the ingredients yourself? I'm sure it would be very cheap and easy. Some of the kits I have seen are about £10 each!

Here's some for £1.99 https://makingyourowncandles.co.uk/cup-of-tea-candlemaking-micro-kit/ if im honest, they look a bit cheap though.

or you can buy the kit to make 20 candles with your own teacups/jars etc https://makingyourowncandles.co.uk/make-up-to-20-container-candles-bring-your-own-containers/

I'm sure if you shop around you can find it a bit cheaper too.

? thanks so much!

Someone ban her from this thread, she's becoming obsessed ? heehee

We;re like bridezillas but armed with scissors, glue and thread instead of diamonds and pearls, haha.

Rubyfirecracker - I will find the thread and bump it for you. I think its called weekend flash or something?

Love this thread! there a lot of creative a different approaches here! i like the record table place holders! i think it all comes over a lot more personal when you invest much of your own style into it.

Our biggest splurge is the venue; Groomzilla wants to be waited on, and a stickler for traditional (something I've tried beating out of him for 10 years! I'm getting there ...) so it goes like this;

• £5000 on Venue, 3 course meal, evening buffet, drinks, bridal suite, DJ plus numerous small extras. Unfortunately i have a HUGE family, 10 aunties and uncles to be precise so its a big party!
• £356 legal civil paperwork bits
• £100 (max!) cake! either M&S and i'll decorate it or i'll bake a lot of cupcakes! Cake tops we'll make either with wooden peg doll, sclupie OR use our DnD minis!! OH is a good model painter. I'll flash his work later.
• £150 not a jewellery person, BUT i found and his and hers One Ring wedding set ...
• £400 Suit hire, at Moss Bros groom goes free ... still trying to pursuade OH that we could BUY classic suit cheaper, but whats his tails ...
• £600 photography ... not my favorite subject, i hate photos of me ... gonna see if we can find a willing friend to help out here. Maybe enlist OH brother in law.

Stationary is free because OH is a printer, flowers free as gift my auntie who's a florist, no cars, hotel has underground parking and civil ceremony is already there so no point. no venue dressing, it looks fab! table decor yet to decided but most likely homemade i know were making papercraft chests for favors

Haha, try again, you'll get the hang of it or just get your friend to make them all!

Well, if we went with the 57, we'd still be leaving loads of people out so we're going with Bham with 100 people which is just normal costs. In total we have about 130 guests and I'd prefer them all to be there if I could. I don't want phased/evening guests, so we'll have 100 at the ceremony then the other few coming to the reception straight away so they can still be involved in food and speeches etc. The extra 30 will be made up of the massive ukulele band who I've said can come to the after party and eat food, join in the fun (that's all they're getting paid so they will want to fill their boots!) and people from work who I like but am not really really close to. I work with autistic children, and at one point was thinking I wanted them all there. My OH has to rein me in quite a lot! Creativity and madness are closely linked!

I know £260 isn't loads but as you've gathered, we are super stingy so don't want to spend that much on the ceremony. It's a lovely place though, best local reg office by far, you'll get splendid pics by the ruins

you should of seen my cake pop trail baking! its was disastrous! i think i'll stick to cupcakes ...

Wowee, where on earth is your reception?! I thought mine was cheap, that's incredible!

Bham is £70 notice and £80 registrar fees. I think that's it. Meeting with them in 2 weeks so will get all final costs etc then.

Love the tea party idea, this was originally what I wanted to do, but with so many it would be ridiculously difficult.

I'm not sure a hog roast is viable for only 70. Ours is £500 from Castleford Farm. He is so lovely, he breeds his own pigs and it has freshly baked bread. He really cares about what he does, and it serves 200 big portions so there will be plenty left. This is by far the best deal I've seen. I've seen cheaper but to be honest they all look like some chancers with a van and an oven, not people who care about the food etc. BiL will be making veggie and vegan quiches and lot of yummy salads to go alongside. And a retro party buffet for the kids which we are letting our 2 6 year old nephews choose and 'coordinate' so they feel very very important - expect lots of miniature pork products and jam sarnies!

If you are doing a tea party, I highly recommend buying the Vintage Patisserie book by Angel Adoree, full of fabulous quirky ideas. Here are her jam sandwich lollipops. Too adorable. They are just slices of bread with crusts cut off, rolled out flat, spread with jam, rolled into a swiss roll shape and cut into rounds. I think they look fab!

LOL!! My goodness, yeah i do that sometimes but if i'm passionate enough i'm like a dog with a bone, i wont stop!

I'm only in Wednesbury

These are our invites,all made by H, we even won an award in the 2011 Hitched WP awards?

we put the 5 songs on from our ceremony,

Blatantly, midlands brides are most creative *ducks*

Loveska, I wouldn't be surprised if we knew some mutual people, I was a teenage mod, I guess as I've got older I have developed into more of a mothabilly (part mod, part goth, part rockabilly) hehe.

A lot of my friends are from the midlands mod scene still, and my friend Jodie who is DJing is a well-known northern soul DJ.

Hey you, some of us southern brides aren't that bad either. ?

rubyfirecracker! your pinterent is awesome! *follows*

Yes, my OH bought it me for Xmas. It's lush. You are wise. I think of all the stupid little details first and worry about the big stuff later! Haha

Blackheath is ace, it's like time has still still since the 1970s. Be sure to pop into Wendy's Salt and Pepper Pot for one of her fabulous Wendy's Whopper breakfasts. Its such a chintzy place with her collection of cruet sets everywhere. It's like going to your nan's house for tea

Also Loveska, I work all across Sandwell. I run activities for kids with autism so work with loads of the schools and stuff