Wedding fund problems!?

Question

My partner and I are desperate to get married, but are worried about affording it all. Both sets of parents have offered £500 each, but this will no go far!
Have you any tips on keeping the cost low but still having some of the wedding esentials?
Ideas on cheap but not tacky invites, table decs, suits, wedding dresses etc.

Answer 1

These are the tips I used on my day. I spent about £2000 on the wedding - a church wedding with a sit down meal for 40 guests.

Cake - you can buy a 3 tiered cake from Marks and Spencers for about £40. Buy some flowers or similar from eBay and assemble yourself - or ask the reception place to put it together.

Dress - seriously consider second hand - eBay and local buy&sell magazine have some real bargains. If not, buy from Debenhams or similar, they are much cheaper than wedding dress shops. Look in your favourite shops too, you don't need to actually have a wedding dress.

Invitations - contact small, local stationers. Look under 'printers' in the yellow pages. I had 40 invitations printed for about £15. They will be able to advise you on the cheapest way of doing it, and they look really good. Much cheaper than confetti or similar.

Table decorations - eBay! I picked up some gorgeous confetti and silk roses for a bargain price. Ikea or tescos for candles and it doesn't cost the earth.

Suits - consider hiring them, and ask around for prices. Ask any other family members if they will be hiring suits - it works out cheaper if you rent them together. We hired from a place called 'Simply Suits' and the full grooms outfit was about £70.

Wedding favours - you don't need them, so consider not bothering - it just adds to the cost.

Drinks - the reception place may try and get you to fork out on a big drinks package, but think carefully. We just went with a very basic package - a glass of wine for the toast. My father had plenty of cash to buy family members drinks as he wanted, but we didn't put any money behind the bar. These days you aren't expected to.

Photographer - this was the biggest expense - £700 for a 40 shot album. Really shop around and get recommendations - make sure you see lots of their work. You can ask someone you know to take the photographs, but it means they miss out on being a guest, and things are more likely to go wrong.

Guests - think carefully about who you invite. Do you really want them to be there? Don't worry about offending people, if you keep it small people will understand. I didn't invite cousins etc as I wanted a small, low key day. Also, make sure you think about what sort of a recpetion you want. Will anyone dance? Most of my family are older, so we just went for a quiet hotel for the reception - we didn't have a dance floor or a DJ.

Venue - they are often cheaper during the day, but if you guests work full time this could cause a problem.

Wedding list - instead of a usual wedding list, you could consider listing 'items' for your honeymoon - day trips, a night at a hotel etc.

Answer 2

Make the invitations yourself- you can get stuff from Staples to do it on your own computer so would still look professional
Look in high street shops e.g. Monsoon, BHS for bridal wear, if you don't limit yourself to white you will find you can get something beautiful for around £200- my dress in deep pink!
table decs- candle holders from 9p from Ikea, you may be able to get a friend on the day to go to the florist and buy your flowers for you if you are not too fussed about quite what you have- I know of brides who have got their bouquet straight from the florist, and this would definately work for table decs.
Check out ebay for great accessories- only worn once.
Also check out
www.hitched.co.uk
www.youandyourwedding.co.uk
for ideas and forums where you can ask other questions.
Keep the ceremony small and you may be able to have the reception at your own or a parents house, or consider having a small wedding and a reception for all your friends and family at a later date when you can hire a hall or something and have the time to see to all the details you want.
Don't worry about favours- they're not essential at all, and often unwanted by the recipient.
Congratulations and good luck, the main thing is the vows that you and your partner make to each other, the rest of the stuff is so much less important try not to worry yourself to much. I'm getting married in August, and every mag you look at suggests that you have personalised labels for your wine bottles, extravagant favours, exotic honeymoons, huge bouquets, etc, etc, etc, it seems like you could never spend enough money, but it all pales in comparison to the real meaning behind the day- don't let that pass you by.
One thing I would say , it get a photographer you really trust, as you will have the photos up and look at them for the next 60yrs plus.

Answer 3

Marks & spencers have now gone into the wedding range they do the dresses, suits, page boy outfits etc and they are really really nice but affordable you can check them out on www.marksandspencers.com they also do wedding invitations etc too there are also alot of internet companys that do invites for you just google it, for the table decs well that depends on where you want to get married a family member of mine got married in the local hotel they decorated the tables for her and she just had a buffet meal rather than a sit down meal which was brilliant she also had her wedding later in the day so it meant only getting to the hotel at the time the food was just ready.
you could also try a local florist ask them to make you up some flowers or something for the big day or if you knew anyone who could do it as a wedding gift.
it can be done its a bit extra work looking for the things and cheaper but it can be done.
good luck for the big day x

Answer 4

Quiet and simple - invite as few people as possible for the reception part. Have the ceremony at a Registry Office (you can have lots of guests there as it won't cost anything per person). Buy a second hand dress or borrow one from a friend. Lots of shops in the UK do cheaper wedding range outfits (M&S, ASDA, BHS etc.) Make your own invitations or go to M&S and other high street shops - lots do their own ranges. Get friends and family to help with as much as possible. How about a simple BBQ at home for the reception? Flowers can be from someone's garden or cheaper flowers (carnations are cheaper than roses for example). Have a frien do all the photographs. How about asking guests to contribute rather than buying gifts (eg. one does the photos, one makes or buys the cake, one providers the drinks for the reception - don't know if that's something you could do with your family and friends). A wedding is what YOU make it - it doesn't have to cost the earth. Remember why you are doing it and who you are marrying - that really is the main thing. Good luck.

Answer 5

Make the invites yourself, thats what we did. The flowers we got silk from a car boot sale, but not tacky looking. Wedding dress was brand new but from the bargain pages of the local paper and the mens suits, they all bought their own but all the same colour! The page boy suits were bought from asda with a £5 pair of school trousers! The table decs we did ourselves, Helium balloons, and as wedding favours we just put assorted coloured marshmallows, lovehearts etc in a bowl on each table.

It can be done dirt cheap and to look great!! If you want any further help just let me know as I will give some ideas.

Good luck chick, thinking of you xx

Answer 6

Unfortunately a total of 1,000 pounds is not going to get you far, you are right in the respect. Although you may be "desperate" to get married, maybe you should think about marriage again. You both may love each other very much, but now just might not be the right time for you to wed. Also, there is nothing saying you can't get married in a private ceremony and wait a few years to renew your vows and have a huge reception at that time ... a lot of military couples decide to go in that direction when money and time are just not in the cards.

Answer 7

Have an evening wedding instead of all day and just have a finger buffet with a DJ no need for bands etc...

debenhams or asda for your wedding dress, gorgeous without the pricey price tag

get married in a registry office, saves cost of church/chapel, its more expensive to get married on a saturday

check ebay.co.uk for everything

make your own invitations and inserts, really simple to do!!

have 1 bridesmaid only and 1 best man no grooms man

ask for money instead of presents from your family

ask immediate family only, no cousins, no children

ask close friends only and explain to other friends your tryin to keep the budget down

Get hair and makeup done in training salon in your local tech by almost qualified trainers

check your local tech for newly qualified photographers, they will probably do your wedding photography cheap to get their name out there

If you put your mind to it you really can cut costs, weddings dont have to be expensive, invitations can be made for as little as £60 if you shop around

Hope this helps, good luck

Answer 8

It is possible, keep the guest list really small (and I mean small, like 20-25 guests) and take them out for dinner to a local hotel or restaurant that has a private room. BHS do very reasonably priced gowns, see here:

http://www.bhs.co.uk/wedding/bridal_2.htm

This dress is £65!!!!! Bargain and elegant as well, well I think it is.

Plain cakes from Marks and Spencer are cheap, they do various sizes.

Have friends take the pictures, borrow a car from a friend for transport.

Cheap ideas for table decorations could be tea lights, IKEA do a bag for just a couple of pounds, you could set them on plates, but if you hire a private room in a restaurant they should be able to decorate it for you.

Answer 9

I would look at it sensibly. If you don't already have a house etc I would save every penny towards a mortgage. I don't want to sound cheap but honestly to spends thousands on a wedding to me seems ridiculous. Unless I was seriously loaded them maybe that would be fine if I was into it...to borrow money to fund ONE DAY is madness. Save your money, get an 'off the hook' dress, buffet, loads of booze, hire a barn for a barn dance, call/email people to invite them, don't ask for a wedding list (although traditional I think highly pretentious and kind of rude!) Get everyone you know to take pictures to get that 'reportage feel' for the day. You will be surprised at how special it can be without spending thousands! We had a young daughter to raise when we got married and were just buying our first house If I had been offered £1000 to put towards our wedding I would have banked it not spent it so that other people could enjoy your special day...after all it is about you and your partner not about how flash everything looks or how much money you throw at it. I know you will only hopefully do it once..maybe down the line you could reaffirm your vows once the mortgage is paid off!! HAVING SAID ALL THIS....if you ARE that way inclined then 'YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE' go for it, splash out and have a ball!

Answer 10

I'm just going to give you a breakdown of our wedding as it's exactly to your budget...just remember all the time that you're having the wedding to show your committment to your partner, not to show the guests how rich you are! :-0

Registry Office and Certificates- £110 (includes facilities for up to 50 guests at no extra cost.

Invitations-Make your own! It adds a personal touch and it can be so simple and cheap. We made 50 and it cost £15...all the guests commented on how nice they were :-)

Suits-I hate to sound naff but if you go in M&S atm, you can get lovely suits for £50, if you get a matching waistcoat/tie then add another £50. If you're REALLY stuck for money, then go to Primark! :-)

Dresses-Monsoon, Monsoon, Monsoon...you can order online and they do lovely wedding dresses in a variety of sizes :-)-max £200

Table Decorations-Again, make them-do them in the same design as the invitations and it adds consistancy. Go to somewhere like Hobbycraft if you have one locally...I fell in love with some of the stuff there! It's really reasonably priced and the products are such high quality, you can also get balloons, balloon weights, flowers and oasis so you can colour co ordinate everything and choose your own designs-£50

As far as the reception is concerned, try to build up a good relationship with a local pub owner, a nice country one that's not smokey or tacky :-) Put on a buffet! It's cheap, and you don't have to worry about vegetarians or what people do and don't like :-).-£400 for 50 guests

If you want to give out wedding favours, we were lucky as we chose to have an easter wedding so we put easter eggs at everybody's tables. Just put out, say minstrels in a bowl in the middle of the table.-£25

If you have any money left, we took ourselves off to see a west end show in London in the evening as we wanted to spend some of our wedding day to ourselves :-)-max £100

You have to bear in mind it's YOUR wedding, don't let people try to persuade you to invite people you've never met, don't take any notice of people if they get arsey if you don't invite them. It is so difficult, the number of arguments we had were unbelievable and we did upset people but they were being incredibly selfish in making assumptions all the time.

Hope it helps and try to have a lovely day, it should be one to remember!

TOTAL COST-£1000...it can be done!!!