Hello fellow brides!
I'm super excited to be getting married to my wonderful fella and I want to share all my plans, thoughts and ideas here - would love some input too :)

We both work in low paid retail jobs and parents helping out with the cost is a no go, so we have decided to do pretty much everything ourselves for as little as possible which suits me just fine as I like everything to be how I want it.
We got engaged in June this year and here are my plans so far:

☆Instead of a hotel or similar we are looking to hire a large holiday cottage sleeping 35 for our reception (still waiting for a reply to know if we can actually get married there)
★Small ceremony with close friends and family - no more than 25
☆afternoon tea reception in the venue with about 40 people which will hopefully be catered by my friend who is training to be a chef. I am going to ask my guests to bake something or bring a bottle (if they don't mind) just to add a bit of variety.
★Evening drinks and dancing with around 70 people. Hopefully there wil be leftover bsked things. I will find out closer to the time who is bringing what.

♥I have decided on my dress (£75 - omg wow) but I sm holding off ordering it for health reasons as my weight is likely to change.
♡ivory and dark red vintage theme
♥place settings will be teacups from cash and carry ( white catering ones) and I will be decorating them with names and patterns to go with theme
♡buying a giant canvas and some paints instead of a guestbook
♥disposable cameras for guests to use
♡all table decs etc I will be making
♥ invites, save the dates and thankyous I have pretty much designed already

There are some lovely ideas there. Asking guests to bring food and drink is a particularly effective way of reducing costs. If you're having bridesmaids you could see if they're willing to buy their dresses. If you can't get married at the venue, you could consider having a small registry office ceremony to cover the legal requirements and then redo it at the venue, with a friend leading and personalised vows.

My bridesmaids have been great already - they both offered to buy their dresses if I gave them a colour to get which I am so greatful for. When I saw how much it costs to simply become a married couple in Kent (sussex is a little cheaper) my jaw was on the floor. Registry office is certainly something to think about - thanks :)

It is do-ale, thats about what our budget is. The biggest splurge was my dress at 850, but at the time we could afford to spend that much, now we cant, so just made cut backs :) x

Really intresting ideas to keep costs down. Just what I needed to read, Cheers ladies x

My sister did her wedding, including EVERYTHING for £3100. She made everything (with the help of me and my mum!) and had afternoon tea instead of a sit down meal. The venue was 2mins walk from reg office so got married there then we all walked to the hotel. Everyone was shocked at how little she spent (and after we found out Myleen Klass got married there!!). It can be a cheap or as expensive as you want. Making your own stationary and favours is an excellent idea. I'll be doing the same!

sounds like you have some fab ideas here Maria, ill keep my fingers crossed for your venue x

Okay ladies, help me out...I wanna put a picture of the dress I'm gonna get up here but I have no idea how...?

Maria you have to be a power user to post pictures , however if there is one in your albums i`ll post it for you

wont let me write on your wall, so i have posted the link on my own wall for you x