Help & inspiration

Haha, I was going to say - we planned a wedding in 4 months and you are panicking that 400 YEARS isn't enough time?

Seriously - take a long slow breath and CALM DOWN! You have plenty of time.

When you say you have the 'main elements' booked, I assume you mean ceremony, reception venue plus any registrar/officiant needed? That's great.

I would dress shop next - you don't want to have to pay extra for a rush order, and dresses can take months to arrive. But if you want to cut costs, I would suggest looking at high street options and mail order as well as bridal boutiques. You can also look for second hand. And if you don't want anything too fancy, a lot of bridesmaids dresses can be ordered in shades of white and ivory and are much cheaper than wedding dresses!

You don't need to worry about invites for a few months - just make sure that your key people (bridal party, witnesses etc) have the date in their diaries.

For flowers, look at using bunches of supermarket flowers for bouquets (just wrap a ribbon round them) and supermarket or homegrown flowers for the reception. Or, if you have a little more money, look at getting your bouquet done professionally and the cheaper options for the rest.

Skip car hire - get a reliable fried or family member to drive you. Even if you have to pay for the car to be cleaned, it will still be cheaper than hiring transport. Get a cake from a supermarket - you can always dress it up with a cake topper or other decoration. Look at hiring instead of buying suits for the groomsmen, or if they're the kind of guys who already own suits, just get them to wear what they have. You can always specify a colour range if you want a more cohesive look, and maybe buy them all matching ties to pull it together. And ditch favours, printed menus etc to save a bit of money.

Keep an eye on jewellers - they often do sales around Christmas, Valentines Day etc. We got a buy one get one half price deal on our wedding rings this way!

There are loads of useful articles on Hitched about budget weddings which I found helpful when planning ours, so check them out.

Thank You!!

We have our venue booked, photographer, Singer, DJ, Videographer and registrar booked.

My mam has offered to buy me my dress so that cost is covered thankfully.

I have started creating my invites so its just a quick order to complete, I have made them using canva and have an idea of what I want them to be.

Luckily everything is happening at our venue so walking is even an option for transport, hopefully it won't be raining but we both have nice cars so thats a benefit lol.

Next door neighbour has offered to do our cake, and doesn't want anything for it but we will be giving her something.

Unfortunately they are not the kind of men to own suits, We don't mind buying them as grooms party will be cheaper than the bridal as i have a lot of bridesmaids/flower girls, hair and makeup I am going to have to ask them to pay for there own if they want it done as its all extra cost but i do not want to sound cheeky.

ooh where did you get your rings from? I have looked at Glamira and theyre decently priced. Its all the little things like decorations that worries me incase i miss key details! I need to start collecting old tea pots from the charity shop as going to use those for my table decorations.

Thank You!!

I am going to book some appointments at botiques for the next few months, although I am trying to loose a lot of weight before the wedding which is what is stressing me a bit.

I will have a look on facebook as well for second hand items! x

Our rings came from F Hinds (high street retailer) We searched online for what we wanted (plain gold bands) and they and another place came up as the two cheapest options. We went in to try on and order, and the sales lady very helpfully told us how long it took for wedding rings to come in and suggested we wait until they had a sale! So we did.

Charity shops are a great idea. Ebay is also great as long as you are specific about what you search for (any time I have to buy anything, I do an Ebay search for it first!) I set a search for UK only (avoiding postage & customs from overseas) and specify a price limit so I don't get tempted by anything too expensive.

I wouldn't stress about having too many of the 'little' things - guests are mostly going to remember the basics, so pick one or two small details that don't cost much but make a big impact.

I've seen lovely wedding decorations using old jam jars as flower holders - the bride just kept any nice ones back out of recycling!