I have a small but reasonable budget for my wedding and we've worked out that with the money I don't spend from my wages each month and the extra shifts I'm doing in between should cover the costs but I'm eager to save where I can. I'm having my brother doing the DJing as he's been doing it for 10 years and it makes it more personal so as a thankyou to him etc we're paying for a years liability insurance for him so I figured we've saved alot of money there as I'm sure DJs are expensive. My BMs are helping to pay for their dresses which is great because they're £170 each and that's with 10% discount on them. Has anyone else made their own invitations? I'm planning on doing this and going to a craft centre on thursday to have a look at their things, is it any cheaper? And instead of having favours on the table as most people end up leaving them anyway, we're having a sweetie bar which I'm organising myself instead of having a professional one. that way people can help themselves and take things home if they want to. I think the cake is the next major spend really and I don't know what to do with it. there are going to be about 100 people in total and I don't really want to be having a cake just so everyone gets a piece?!? Anyone have any ideas where I can cut my costs down? my original budget was 6k but has since increased to 8k
I must be crazy giving myself only 6 months!
Engaged 17th Octobr 2011
Wedding 21st April 2012
CommentAuthorjennywren
Well first of all congratulations and second well done you. Our butget keeps goin up everytime I try to save some money.
As for the cake are you any good at cooking? I can't make cakes for the life of me as they either burn on the outside or don't cook on the inside, but buns I seem to be able to do with my eyes shut. I also cheat by buying the mix sometimes (tesco value is the cheapest we've found and they taste great, you can change the mix by adding things, I generally add lemon juice and raisins) and if you want buttercream frosting etc there easy to make and can work out a lot cheaper making your own.
If your the same what about making a load of buns in stead of a cake and you could ask your maids to help decorate them, or anyone else for thst matter.
As for stationery I think it depends on how much you spend on each card for the bits as to weather it's cheeper or not. There are so many suppliers now that you just need to shop around and see what works.
Good Luck & Remember to Enjoy :)
CommentAuthorLesleys1
Firstly, you seem to be well on your way to cutting costs!
I'm trying to work on a very tight budget too, and have started my own diary on here, so feel free to have a look. The internet really has been my friend as far as budget is concerned, I bought my dress for £200 (it was originally £800 in the shop that I tried it on in), I found brand new BM dresses on an auction site for £15 for TWO, and I bought a crystal bouquet for £160.
Having looked into florists I discovered that for a standard floral bridal bouquet it would work out the same price as the crystal. I've opted oout of flowers completely, as I couldn't justify spending all that money on something that would die a couple of days later... so the church windows are going to be decorated with lily vases filled with crystal stems, which a relative is then going to collect and bring to the reception venue, for twelve of these it will cost less than £100. The sweets are a very good idea, but with my tiffany theme I decided to have little favour boxes in tiffany blue filled with sweetie rings. They're working out at around £1 per person.
I'm having a friend take my photographs as our wedding present to us, another friends girlfriend will be making our cake (and she's brilliant)!
I am going to try to make my own invitations with the help of my friend. It turns out I have very expensive taste, and the invitations that I've set my heart on are £8 EACH!! I searched the interwebnet and found the same broach and card, so they'll work out at around £2 each plus printing, and I'm not going to bother with order of services.
There are so many different things you can do that will save money, you just have to have the patience to trawl for cheaper alternatives.
CommentAuthorBridezilla
I've been to two weddings this year and saw a few great ideas for saving money. At the first wedding, the bride had made all her own name cards for the table. They looked amazing. She had bought a little craft paper cutter, and nipped off the corners. Then with a small craft embossing press she had embossed a design on the corner. On the front, she had hand lettered the names using a fountain pen, or calligraphy pen. I think she had made the invitations as well.
At the second wedding, instead of an expensive wedding cake, they had a tier of cupcakes in colours to match the wedding theme. Each person got a cupcake in a box to take home. There was no cutting the cake ceremony, but nobody seemed to miss it. A friend of the bride had made the cupcakes, and they looked and tasted excellent.
CommentAuthorzowie
Hi Lesleys I found out when I started planning the wedding that I too have expensive taste and the invites I wanted were going to work out very expensive, especially when I'm going to be posting around 70 out. Luckily a friend of mine has decided to start her own business making them and offered to make mine for cost (she is also a self conffessed ferrit and loves to find good quality products for bargain prices) and it has come to less than £100 for 80 invites (just incase).
I also found a great website for brooches also. I wanted some for my bridesmaids bouquets and the ones I was finding in shops were £15 + each. Doesn't sound much but for three of them thats £45 for one day use. The website I found I bought them all for less than £8 including postage-fab bargain.
Do you have all yours and bridesmaids accessories yet? Debenhams is fantastic for accessories and lately they always seem to have 20% off days-I got all three bridesmaids hair combs for £16.
The other thing H2b and I do is have a change pot. Most people do this but we also both put £1 a day into the jar as you don't actively miss that on a daily basis but if both do it that's £60 a month. We're using it to pay for my dress and have paid nearly half of since september xx
If you know somebody who has a nice car, you can ask if you can use that as your wedding car instead of hiring an expensive one with a chauffeur. Most people would be very proud to have their own car as the official one - it also helps if the person is on the guest list :)
CommentAuthorBridezilla
When I went to my cousin's wedding, all the bridesmaids were busy the night before making table decorations. She had bought coloured net the same colour as the BM underskirts, and we made bundles of sugared almonds. The next day, the groomsmen were busy blowing up helium balloons and tying them to the bundles of sugared almonds for each table. It looked great and did not cost a packet.
CommentAuthorBridezilla
If you know somebody who is quite handy with flowers, you also don't need to pay top dollar having all the bouquets, buttonholes etc made by an expensive florist. If you can source good quality flowers and have a friend make them up into what you need you can also save money like that. It would be a nice thing for the friend to do instead of buying a gift for example.
CommentAuthorBridezilla
Someone I know got married a few years ago and gave herself just 2 weeks to arrange the whole wedding. She bought a ready made plain white iced cake from Tesco or M&S, and borrowed the flower decorations from a friend who had got married a few months earlier. It looked the part, and nobody was any the wiser (until she spilled the beans, that is!)
