Theme change from 'village fete' to 'cheap'?!!

I know what you mean - it can be so easy to get bogged down in the detail. But ultimately, I think you need to step back and say will having X at my wedding make it a better day and is it really worth the money, or would that money be better spent...on doing up your house for example.

It is hard, but I've refrained myself from buying lots of tiny little things, by keeping a spreadsheet with my budget in - that's really helped put me off when I tally it up and realise am about to spend over £50 on candle holders, for example, when can just get some from IKEA for £10 and will do the same job.

To be honest, yes, the weddings in magazines, etc. look amazing, but ultimately you'll remember your day because you enjoyed yourself and because of what it symbolises, as opposed to looking back on all the tiny details.

Basically, what I'm saying is the little things don't really matter. What you have planned sounds amazing!

Hey there, I've been feeling a little bit like this lately, so I can definitely relate, but have just read thread on here where someone was trying to organise a wedding quickly because their OH is dying of cancer. This has made me realise what's important and now I'm going to try and focus on this instead of chair covers and seating plans. Hope you have a fantastic wedding day x

I personally love budget informal weddings or the fancy posh ones, it's the inbetweeners that don't work for me....so what your planning sounds awesome, don't push yourself and try to make it any more then it is and it will be just perfect!

One thing I will say is that most blogs have awesome pics from a decent pro TOG who just have a way of making things look amazing, if you viewed the same wedding through a non pro pics you probably wouldn't have the same envy. Not to say any of the weddings were not awesome but decent TOGs just have a knack of making things look more polished.

Yep know how you feel, we had this big budget planned, backed out, ha a small wedding and meal and a big party at night. We did it two years earlier than we would of afforded, ha everything we wanted and more importantly we got married, sometimes you need to compromise a bit. Focus on the most important thing. The ceremony.

This!! TOGS are very good at making things look a lot better than they really are. I've stopped reading wedding magazines because 95% of the people featured in them are extremely wealthy with massive budgets and they don't live in the real world.

Your theme sounds great! I want a bouncy castle at our wedding to entertain the kids but OH won't have it

There's loads of clever ways to make your wedding look really pretty without spending thousands of pounds. here's some ides:

Beg, borrow and steal props to use at your wedding - e.g. old teapots and jugs for flower displays - you can also get away with doing your own flowers if you do this as they will have that freshly picked country look. This will save you a fortune.

Perhaps you could get your best mates / adult bridesmaids to make some bunting for you? If your wedding is indoors you can make them from paper - doilies make great bunting (and are really cheap!)

Good luck x x x

The doily bunting looks fab you could also collect jars and use doilys or lace to make vases as your table centre's. Depending what time of year you are getting married, you could collect wild flowers or flowers from someone's garden. (If you have time you could plant loads of seeds from the pound shop and use the flowers the following year).

In all honest, I think it will be amazing. We had a fairly traditional day and looking at the pics you'd think it cost a lot more than it actually did. I love the idea of just having fun and bunting, you could even go rusticy with garden type flowers in jugs and watering cans?? There are lots of hitchers here who can help ou find bargains, trust me, whatever the budget, you can have a fantastic wedding day.

We bought our balloons from Ebay and I got a cannister of helium from a local warehouse which is open to the public (worth checking if you have similar near you) At work we did a balloon race and they hired a large cannister as they had lots more balloons.

I totally agree, take everything you see on the blogs with a pinch of salt. They may look like a nice family wedding in someones back garden but really they have spent an absolute fortune to make it look that way. Yours sounds perfect and people will be having so much fun they wont notice that you have a little less bunting, or a few less flowers, no one will care anyway.

You said it yourself, you just want to marry the guy. Stay true to that, if you have your personal stamp on it it will be beautiful. Get all your friends and family to muck in and have the party you imagine.

I feel EXACTLY like you at the moment! we bought a house in august and are doing that up but dont have funds for that just yet. we are therefore saving while we go with the house but also have the wedding to think about (we have put the wedding fund to one side because we have saved that up already).

Our theme is like yours really. We are having a adult bouncy castle, OH's sister is paying for this for us because we will have over 30 children at our day and then more in the evening too ?

Our hog roast is being done by a OH's work friend's partner (if you follow! i confused myself writing that!). He does this on the side as a hobby but we have been recommended that he is great. He is doing this for free, we just have to buy the meat - we will buy some alcoholic beverage he likes to pay him.

We arent having a bar, its in the middle of no where so we are doing a "bring your own" drink. we will provide a certain amount of alcohol though but arent telling our guests this - this is as long as the buying in tesco's, morrisons, etc. over the next few months works well - obviously checking dates as we go so they wont be out of date when we need them!

something i read which i thought sounded cool....ask some of your guests if they could make a cake (maybe 10), you can then do a judge the best cake competition and use this cake as your cutting cake for your day ? you then have lots of cake for dessert too!

Alternatively you could ask lots of your guests to make a dessert and then they can bring this, or maybe even ask people to do different things. i'm going to ask my BIL if he will make the salads for us and some pasta dishes. im going to ask my auntie if she can make some quiches for us too.

These are a few ideas i liked from a blog i found through google...

If your guests will have to walk from the ceremony to the reception, consider providing them each with a single coloured helium filled balloon that matches your colour scheme. The vision of dozens of balloons all 'walking' their way through a country lane or a town centre (great way to make sure your guests don’t get lost!) is fantastic and makes for great photos. Once all of your guests have arrived at the reception, you could have someone ready to arrange them into two rows for you to walk through and as you reach each guest, they release the balloon into the sky, again fantastic for your photo album

Choose a signature cocktail and give it a memorable name

Ask your guests to circle words in a dictionary to remind you of your wedding day. Then ask them to write a message on a bookmark to explain why they picked each word. You'll always need a dictionary in your home, and you'll cherish this one forever.

Decorate your venue with hundreds of paper lanterns. They're cheap and cheerful, and you can always sell them on after your wedding. If you tie in tiny LED lights, they'll even glow after dark.

If you're getting married on a farm or in the countryside, use straw bales as seats. If you cover them with old tablecloths, it'll fit in with a vintage-themed wedding

Children's blackboards are a great way to communicate with your guests. Write little messages like 'Love is Sweet' or 'All You Need is Love'. You could also use a large one for the menu

Cocktails are actually cheaper than straight champagne. So choose a Bellini as your signature cocktail, and mix it with prosecco. No one will ever know the difference

I'M SO GRATEFUL!!!

I am really glad I posted because I felt a bit grinchy, and it seemed wrong to post. But I am glad I did.

Reading your wonderful posts, some things I've taken from them/realised:

a) I expect to have all the ideas and do all the work myself, on my own. Not possible, or even a good approach!

b) I have ages to do all the 'extras', now the basics are (almost) in place

c) I can include on my wedding gift list some of the little bits I want (some homemade cakes, some flowers from own garden) as we plan to have a low-key, cheap and cheerful gift list so chances are there will be contributions that are meaningful and helpful

d) Our guests will love the day, even if the plans don't move forward from where they are

e) The ceremony is everything to me, and having my son give me away, is the absolute icing on the cake

f) The blogs and pics look so marvellous, in part because they're fantastic pics or because they spent enough to buy a small jet

g) He n' me made the choice to keep the budget smaller because having a house ready to (hopefully) bring our kids up in asap meant more to us than 'that one day'

I feel so much better now, and am really pleased with all the replies. I think I just let myself get a little bogged down because we started planning quite late compared to many and I was feeling a bit panicky.

Thank you, all of you!!! xx

I too was getting serious wedding envy over other weddings. Our budget had gone abit skewy, but then my dog got ill & I had to be realistic with what I could afford.

I then thought about all the weddings I'd been to. All very different styles, but I loved them all for one reason only, the people getting married were the ones I was there to see.

Some were more extravagant than others but all were fantastic regardless of whether they 'released doves' or 'had a 4 tier posh cake'. I dont really remember the details for any of them either & couldn't say what the themes were in hindsight ?.I think that mine will be the most basic, but I don't care really. So long as everyone has fun, eats well & drinks lots, all is good.

Party on dudes!

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say, pleasure to help ?

glad you feel happier now. It doesn't matter how long you have to plan, as long as you know roughly what you want someone on here is always here to help you and will hopefully get you/find you what you want

Is it an option to marry in private, just the two of you and then have the house wedding and decorate the garden and the house?

Exactly this. They have usually been shot very well too x

I have got to sell my house. It's taken 3 yrs but finally I have a settlement with my weirdo ex and it's a court order that I sell, and the place we want won't be ready. The hall is £200, I'm spending more than twice that for decorations and tat which I'd need even if it were at home, so not must off a saving.

I'm probably spending unnecessarily because we're having a legal ceremony, 3 guests and cream tea, and then a week later the ceremony proper on the day, but I REALLY had my heart set on a humanist ceremony.

I can see why you'd want a Humanist wedding. I shot a London couple getting married on land in Scotland and it was amazing. Your wedding will be just as amazing!!!