New bride- low budget- feeling sad :(

Firstly, welcome to hitched.

Please dont worry about a thing. The lovely ladies and gents on here will help you with all the advice and help planning that you need.

£1500 is still a very doable budget. Most important things to sort out first is venue and church/registrar as these get booked up sometimes years in advance.

Next is to decide what elements of your wedding are the most important to you. For example, is your catering more important than flowers. Or photographer more important than a dj?

Decide these first then you know where to allocate your budget. There are fabulous ideas on here for a budget wedding.

Could you get a friend to take photographs, make the cake, arrange flowers? Buy your dress off ebay, or a factory outlet.

Just few ideas. I hope you find all the help you need on here x

Ebay and facebook are about to become your best friends! I am getting married on a budget of £2000 so I know it can be stretched - how much do you mind second-hand? I bought my dress on facebook for £100 and it's beautiful. My bridesmaid dress cost £20 and my flowergirls are having brand new dresses that I got on ebay for £19.50 for two of them.

Ask friends and relatives to help you out - we asked a friend to make the cake, another friend to be our photographer (although that went down the tubes due to a bad break-up). Another friend is making my bouquets for me and every single guest is bringing a dish for the buffet.

We aren't having a sit down meal as such, but all those coming to the ceremony are coming back to my mums for a dinner so could anyone in your family help there?

If you really don't feel you can ask people to help, then get used to looking for things online - there is even a freecycle wedding site on facebook that could really be of use to you.

the disco can be done with a set of speakers and an ipod and a registry office wedding can be beautiful without having to spend a fortune on a venue.

Make as much as you can yourself - invitations etc... and look for bargains wherever you can - just type wedding into ebay and see what comes up - you may be surprised how little some things can cost second-hand xxx

Good luck!! It can be done, with persistence and determination xxxx

Firstly, welcome to wedding planning! You are definately in the right place for support and ideas on how to plan your wedding, regardless of budget!

As long as you have the legal ceremony part, it's a wedding - everything else is just extras so don't feel like it's not a wedding.

Perhaps write some lists, splitting things into three categories: Essential, Important and Extras and allocate what the essentails cost, and then look at what you can allocate to extras following everthing being paid for.

There are lots of things you can do to save money, like buying a preloved dress and your OH perhaps wearing a suit he already owns but new shirt tie etc. Look at what you already own and consider using things from you home as decor if you want your hobbies and interests to be reflected in the day. Photography students may be happy to take your pictures for expenses only, in order to gain experience, as well as friends perhaps using their skills to help you (baking cake perhaps?) as a wedding gift to you.

LOTS of ways you can do this and make it a great day!

The uni/mum/newlywed/extension friend is making the cake as a gift. She has a 3 tier stand and has offered a white and milk chocolate marbel cake covered in dark choc ganache with cadburys fingers around the ourside for the top tier and square cupcakes- half white choc sponge with milk choc icing and half milk choc sponge with white choc icing. It is INCREDIBLE and tastes so yum! And yet she claims she's just an amechure baker! She also suggested that should could put up a notice on the photography notice board at her uni to see if any 3rd year students (the more experienced ones) wanted wedding experience and would charge a low price/do it for free. So those bits are hopefully sorted quite easyly.

Date and registrar we will get booked asap but we wanted an idea of other costs before we booked the official stuff/ We're really flexible about date which I hope will help.

Just feel so......confused I think is the best word.

Thanks for the advise.

There you go - you're on the right track already!

Sounds like a challenge!

Here's my best advice: ask friends and family to help. They might be be people in the wedding trade (or similar too) that can donate, help or discount. Another, don't chose a restrict colour scheme, the broader your range the easier it easy to pick up bargains.

for flowers either get silk ones from hobbycraft and the like, supermarket ones or go for something completely alternative and non floral aka felt flowers, brooch bouquet, balloons, pom poms etc.

'wedding' dresses can be found on the high street for as low as £30, even just a white dress and pretty it up with jewellery, belts and other accessories. Or if you know a talented seamstress ask them to make it for you.

Venue and ceremony will be your biggest expense. The registry office could could up to £400 depending on your county. and as for the wedding reception if you know someone with a big house who's willing to let you use it you could host it at zero rental cost (just food). Alternatively look at funtion rooms, cricket clubs, golf clubs, football club or local pubs and bars. DJ could be opted out for an IPod on shuffle or self created playlist.

It is confusing at first! Just make a list of everything you want and then take each item in turn, make a note of the cost and whether it's fixed (like the registrar/minister) or negotiable (like table favours). Then adapt your ideas to something that will fit your budget. I'm lucky in that I had always dreamed of eloping so it was naturally gonna be a relatively low cost thing - but I initially wanted to go to Vegas, and we just couldn't afford it without burdening ourselves with a crippling loan. I was worried that I'd be disappointed with our second choice, but I'm not at all - I'm just as happy and excited as I would have been if it was Vegas. And I'm sure you will be too! Once plans start coming together, you'll be so excited that you won't worry about the fact that it's on a budget.

A lot of people have a small budget.

Despite the wedding industry telling you all about the things you need to have in order for it to be a "proper" wedding , the truth is, all you need is love ( and an appt at the local registry office).

Due to budget I am not having any bridesmaids, floristry, DJ, wedding jewlery, flower girls, groomsmen, special cars, fancy wine...and on and on...and guess what? I am having a proper wedding! ( it helps that I chose to do it on a Wendsday - everything is cheaper).

I'm close to you georgraphically and have looked at a lot of venues in the area, if you go for the traditional wedding venue you will be spoiled for choice, it didnt' work for us in the end because of pricing. We are getting married at Aldershot Registry Office ( yep...THAT one..lol)( on a reduced rate) then we are driving to Elstead for our party, which is a meal, akward dancing, and some Kroneneburgs...

Don't let websites,magazines, or TV shows influence you - a proper wedding is two people who love each other, saying so formally, end of.

Debbie

Thanks everyone for the advise so far. It's really helpful and making me feel a bit less stupid thinking I cold have a wedding for so little!

Though as I said- family help is out. I don't see my mum or dad at all and I don't have aunts and uncles. H2B's family don't like me so I don't think they will want to help out. The two good friends I mentioned are the only real friends I have other than H2B as my illness makes it hard to keep friendships.

Which is why I have been feeling so alone with all of this planning stuff. But it is clear coming to hitched was a smart move- I'm brand new here and you girls are being so friendly- thanks!! ?

Is anyone from around my area at all? Just wondering if anyone knows of suitable cheap reception venues? With one friend moving and one extending I don't think their houses will be possibltys and our flat is tiny and really ugly so I don't want guests here.

Thanks again for being so nice everyone ?

I felt really gutted about our budget, which is £2k but even that's a massive stretch for us, when I looked around for prices of things and looked at wedding mags and the average budgets they talk about. Think much of the wedding industry is designed to make you feel like you deserve nothing but the best so you HAVE to pay a certain amount when it's not actually true. I started working out how much to budget for everything and, based on wedding industry prices, at first I couldn't see any way to get it below £4k and felt rubbish that we wouldn't be able to afford anything nice.

The things that really helped me was thinking about why we didn't have more budget (ie, any money on top was needed for our rent or to save for a decent holiday or a house deposit one day etc), which made me more determined to stick to the budget, and thinking about how the wedding fit into our lifestyle rather than the idealised 'wedding industry' picture, which put it more in perspective for me. In the wedding world a £500 dress is a cheap option, in my world I'd only spend £50 on a special event dress so spending 10 times that on my wedding dress only to be 'told' I was scrimping took some of the 'desire' out of it for me. So I looked for a high street option and found one I was happy with but then happened to find a 'proper' wedding dress in a charity shop for £25 anyway so am going with that, but I would have been ok with the high street one and spending £100 or so on my entire outfit.

Same with everything else - I wouldn't hire a hotel for a party because it'd be WAY too expensive for me so I'm not going to hire one for my wedding, even though many people do and the wedding industry says you 'should'. I found thinking about the wedding as something we're organising our way, to match our normal life and celebrate the people we are rather than would like to be if we had the money, rather than comparing it to the 'ideal' way helped a lot. I'd still love the 'wedding mag' style wedding where we'd hire out a whole hotel, I'd have a £1500 dress and we'd have everything we could want, and I still lust over pics of weddings that fit that bill, but I lust over millionaire's mansions and designer clothes in the same way but I'm not going to go into massive debt to get them.

I'd start with your budget, allocate money to each thing you'll need to pay for and then see what you like that you can get for that rather than what you 'should have' that you can get.

Hi, sorry to hear you have been feeling like this but good to see Hitched is already helping :-)

Have you any nice Village Halls nearby? They can be fairly cheap to hire.

Village hall is a good thought- but how would we decorate and do food? Can you hire people cheaply does anyone know? With my illness I will need to be as inactive and calm as possibly for at least the week before the wedding. H2B is going to have to beg to get time off for the wedding and next day (uni/mum friend is sending us away for night after wedding as a treat) so getting more will be almost impossible and I can't leave it all to friends can I? Fell like I'd be asking too much.

Sometimes I think we should just go to registry office in jeans and t-shirt and they go striaght home home again. Just get married and not bother with a wedding! But then I remember how much I've always wanted a proper wedding and so has H2B even if he doesn't want to help plan it! Typical man!

If you're thinking along village/ church hall lines, why not have a sort of picnic where all your guests bring a dish? If they're your friends, they will know your circumstances and if they want to celebrate with you they won't mind in the least (I've done this for a friend's birthday in the past). Or depending on the time of year you get married, you could co to a park, or riverside, or somewhere else nice, outdoors and free and have a real picnic?

Otherwise, all the advice you've been getting so far sounds along the right lines. Focus on what's really important to you, and make compromises elsewhere. And keep coming on here - lots of people are on budgets and DIY bits of their weddings and I'm sure you will pick up tips all over the place!

Good luck!

Bring a dish sounds clever- then there is sure to be something everyone will eat! Thanks for that idea! ?

Village hall decorations on a budget:

Can you (or someone you know) sew? You can make lots of bunting from old quilt covers/pillowcases (charity shop buys). Also, although it splits people on here, balloons are a very cheap way of decorating. If you pick some classy matt colours and keep it toned nicely, three or four on each table, filled with helium and strung to different heights will work wonders to fill space and add interest. This would be something you could organise yourself (you can buy helium canisters), and get a friend to sort out on the day.

You've already got loads of great advice so just wanted to say hello and welcome to hitched ?

Love the idea of a village hall with a pot luck meal, but if you're concerned it'll affect your health to organise it all either make sure you delegate (write lists of jobs for H2B to do if he's not taking charge) or have you thought about a pub reception? If you find a small friendly pub that does nice but reasonably priced food they may be willing to do a nice meal & decorate a bit for you at much lower than a hotel would be so that they can make money on people buying drinks. They'd probably let you use your wedding cake for pudding too to keep the cost down.

Him welcome to hitched and congratulations. I had a friend who had her reception in her garden had a BBQ. One of the best weddings I've been to. Getting married is about the commitment not a ass party so work with what you have. You could go for 2 for 1 meals or at our local Italian if you book a party on a Sunday it's really cheap. It all depends on how many people you will have coming.

Im sure you will get some fantastic ideas on htiched, it will become your best. Friend during your wedding planning

good luck be sure to tell us what you decided on doing, because we're nosy like that. ?

Sounds like all the lovely ladies have had loads of ideas and fab advise so I don;t have anything new to offer really except to jsut remember (as one WP-er said) don't get sucked into thinking you need all the stuff the wedding mag and "society" twll you yo need. You really don't. The only thing you really need is a fiance (check!) and a wedding licence (registrar will cost about £454 plus £35 each to give notice. Consider buying you wedding dress second hand (I know we all want new, but....) you can get some lovely ones on ebay or try your lcoal charity shop or one in a city near you - they are bound to have a department full of pre-loved ones

Village halls can be cheap, or have you thought of having a small weding party and then all going to a nice restaurant for a lovely private meal rather than a disco? There are lots of different ideas and things you can do - you just need to sort out which one is the best option for you on your limited funds

xx

I wanna go to an ass party!

I'm liking the pot luck idea and small restaurant one too, sounds cozy and intimate. Another thought, if you need calm to help with your health could you nominate a friend to be your wedding planner? I'm actually excited to see how your plans progress, I think its possible for you to have a lovely and intimate wedding with a lot of love

Haha think I forgot to put the big in. Big ass party. I blame the tippy tiappy (I pad) not my fingers. My excuse and I'm sticking to it. Haha.

I really shouldn't being bring up typos, i'm the worst! sure you hitcher have plenty of dirt on me! and yeah my tablet has a nasty way of fluffing up my posts

I'm overwelmed by the kindness and great suggestions from you all! Thank you all so much! I love hitched! It's my new favourite forum! ?

Haha I'm not bothered but I'll sure be looking out for some now Elixia. (Jokes)

Hello - I'm from your area! Although I live in London now, I'm from Aldershot and my family are still there so I am down quite a lot.

Here is where you will find a list of the church / community halls for hire in Aldershot and Farnborough: https://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/hallsforhire

I had my 30th birthday at Aldershot Cricket Club and it wasn't extortionate (can't remember exactly how much though) and included a staffed bar, use of kitchen, and we could do what we wanted in terms of decorations and food.

Also this might be a bit leftfield for a wedding but if you really want to keep costs right down, I happen to know that the community hall in Bourne Court (sheltered accommodation) is only £10 to hire for the whole day / night! As long as you are considerate to the residents you can have it for parties etc - my dad recently had a party there and he also had a very cool acoustic band that only charged £80 too!

I might have a few decoration bits from my wedding that I could drop off next time I'm down if you can make use of them and I also have extra bridesmaid dresses (in navy) that never got used that I would be happy to sell very cheaply to save the hassle of listing them online. Let me know if you're interested.

I can't add to the advice but wanted to welcome you to Hitched! Your day will be fabulous no matter your budget. ?

Hi Lisa,

like others have said I think your first step needs to be deciding on the marriage part of the day and once you know what that is going to cost, you will have more of an idea what you have left to work with for the extras. Everything aside from your legal (and religious if that's important to you) marriage is an optional extra! I can understand the sadness of maybe not having things the way you would ideally want them, but getting stuck on the thoughts of what you can't do is going to hamper your creativity which is what you will really need to plan an amazing day that you will love!

I don't think its enough for your fiance to say just tell me when and where! It's a celebration of you as a couple and you will need his help, he needs to know that from the outset! Especially with having MS, you want to minimise stress leves as much as possible so you need to know you won't be on your own with this. I'd be having a very frank discussion with him if I was you!

I haven't really explored the site very much but have you looked at the Broke Ass Bride site? Not sure if I love or hate the name but it could be helpful?

Good luck xx

Just to note that my registrar cost closer to £600, plus the fee to give notice. The cheapest way to have your ceremony is to book into a register office.

I would agree that the cheapest ceremony would be within the registry office. You've had some fab advice

Yeah the bring a dish idea is great instead of a gift. Perhaps u could marry in registry office and then have the do in a village hall. There are loads of tutorials online for decorations, something for u and bridesmaids to do together! Not sure what your theme is, but pick some flowers in season or plant you own amd pick them just before your wedding. Seeds are super cheap, and you can grow as many as your property can handle! That will save massive cost with bouquets and centrepieces. Depending on the amount of guests, favours could be a scratchcard at a pound each! dj costs can saved by creating ur own playlists, perhaps get the guests to suggest a song in their rsvp to keep a happy mix! Are u a regular at a particular pub? Ask to borrow their cutlery or even their chef at a discounted rate! Bbq is a fab and cheap option! Hope this helps!!

First cost out your ceremony. remember to include the cost of giving notice. In our county it depends on day of the week so you need to have some idea of that at least before oyu set your budget.

Then find your reception venue and provisionally book, but do not pay the deposit until you have booked this date with the registrar.

You will keep costs low if you get married in the afternoon and then you won't need to feed everyone/organise them feeding themselves twice! If you aren't teetotal and don't want the hassle of buying in lots of booze/organising a bar then consider taking over a venue with a bar or an area of a pub where the amount they make at the bar will offset the room charge.

Otherwise go for the least expensive (though alas not the least hassle if you aren't well) option of totally DIY and ask everyone to bring something for the buffet and their own booze: you just provide soft drinks, a cake and crockery/cutlery.

Congratulations on your engagement. You didn't tell us...when is the big day approximately?

You could for a weekday wedding at the registry office, it's normally a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than a weekend. For the reception, try your local pubs. My friend had her reception at a pub and they didn't charge her anything to hire it (she had one side of the pub rather than a private room) and as they had an in house DJ already she didn't have to pay for entertainment. They also decorated the place for her, she just dropped in the decorations the day before and she brought them all off ebay for about £50 for swagging etc.

In regards to favours, we weren't going to bother with them (we're on a max of 3k budget). I personally wouldn't be offended to attend a wedding and not get a favour.

In terms of food, I would just go for a pot luck buffet, as others have suggested.

You can pick up some really cheap wedding dresses on ebay, new from China if you are willing to take the risk or second hand.

Basically ebay will be your friend in getting bargains. I have got some fabs ones so far!