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| Clockwise from Top Left: Mini Chalkboard Place Settings, Wedding Makeup time!, Instagram Signs, Amazing Wedding Cake made by our friend |
One of the best ways to keep the cost down is to have a small(ish) wedding. We initially decided on under 50 but in reality it ended up a little over that. As the main cost of the wedding is the reception/food/drink you can save a huge amount of money by pruning your guest list! The average cost per guest at a UK wedding is said to be around £200 so think how much you can save by having a more intimate wedding!
Be ruthless as to who you invite
Be ruthless as to who you invite
When we say ruthless what we really mean is only invite who YOU really want to be there! The guest list can quickly get out of hand if you buckle under pressure to invite all of your aunts, uncles, cousins, parents friends, neighbours, their dogs...etc...etc..(we were joking about the dogs!) Sit down with your other half and really think about each person you are thinking of inviting. When did you last see them? Is it really important to you that they are there? Are they an important person in your life? If the answer is no then the chances are you will not miss them and by leaving them off the guest list you could save hundreds of pounds! (see above!)
Remember that it is YOUR wedding
This is not your parents/grandparents/siblings wedding. It is your wedding. The day is all about you both and you should have the day that you envisage. We have seen many a wedding vision completely changed by families railroading the bride and groom into having a totally different day to the one they actually wanted. Of course, if your parents are paying for your wedding then you will want them to have some say, but do try not to be pushed into something totally different from what you dreamed.
Have your ceremony and reception at the same place to save on cars
When choosing your venue you can save on transport by having your ceremony and reception in the same location. We booked a country hotel, golf club and spa and stayed the night before the wedding meaning that we didn't need any transportation to get to the ceremony. We simply walked from our rooms! With the cost of one car being somewhere between £350-£500 this is a huge saving!
We have a whole post about DIY wedding flowers here. We really enjoyed creating bouquets and buttonholes and it was so much easier than we thought! The average cost of wedding flowers in 2015 in the UK was over £600 and we created our hand made flowers for under £150. As well as saving us money they were unique and personal to us and we really loved them.
Call on handy family and friends for help  |
| Our handmade wedding bouquet |
We really can't stress enough the importance of the support of family and friends when preparing for your big day. We utilised the skills of our nearest and dearest and ended up saving a huge amount in the process. One of our friends in an amateur baker. She went to night classes and has created many amazing cakes for many different occasions and when we needed a beautiful wedding cake she was the first person we thought of. She created a bespoke 4 tier wedding cake plus a grooms cake, delivered it to the venue and set it up for half of the cost of the average wedding cake. We absolutely loved it! Don't forget that many of your friends and family will have hobbies and skills that you can utilise in order to make your wedding unique and save money too!.
Make your invitations on a printing website
A beautiful wedding invitation is a lovely thing but when it comes to invites there are so many DIY printing sites where you can create a bespoke invitation that can hold its own next to a more expensive option. We chose Vistaprint and ordered invitations for the day and evening as well as menus to stand on the tables. We also printed some matching business style cards to pop into the invitations directing guests to the following....
Create a website for RSVP's
...To save on RSVP's we created a wedding website and using the business cards we directed our guests to log onto the site and RSVP there. We also had details of the venue, hotels nearby and for our USA guests flights to the nearest airports. There are many specialist sites where you can create your own wedding site for your guests to view and see information regarding your wedding prior to the big day. It's totally free and very handy!
Be creative with favours
Pinterest is your best friend when planning a wedding and there are so many amazing ideas for favours there. We settled on tiny coffee jars filled with coffee beans and stickers that said 'Thanks for Bean Here' with the bride and grooms names and wedding date printed on it. For the children we gave small puzzle/colouring books and pencils tied on ribbon to keep them occupied during the speeches.
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| Table plan and decorations |
Before purchasing a wedding dress we literally scoured every bridal shop in the region. If you are a dress up junkie like us our tip would be to try on as many dresses as you can find in every style imaginable just for the fun of it! You'll only do it once so why not enjoy it while you can. After visiting all of the bridal stores and being resigned to spending £1000-£1500 on a dress we randomly visited an outlet at the recommendation of a colleague. There in the back of the rails (found by Nanna) was the perfect dress! Whats more the dress and cathedral length veil was UNDER £500.
Buy outfits in advance in the sales
We had 11 months to plan the wedding and that meant a couple of seasons worth of sales. It is worth scouring the sales for both bridesmaids and mother of the bride outfits as these can be purchased for under half price at certain times of the year. Keep checking the large department stores such and Debenhams and House of Fraser as they have amazing sales on designer brands. Its also worth noting that the high street also sell fabulous bridesmaids dresses at a fraction of the cost of the bridal stores.
Ask your bridesmaids to purchase their own outfits that can be worn again
We had two child and two adult bridesmaids and the adult bridesmaids purchased their dresses from Biba at House of Fraser. The style was more of a modern maxi dress/evening dress than a traditional bridesmaids dress and the girls looked beautiful in them. As they do not scream 'bridesmaid' they can be worn again and again.
Get your priorities right!
Its easy to be blinkered by the glossy magazines showing pages full of beautiful brides getting married in castles and stately homes. Not to mention OK! and Hello magazine and their celebrity weddings that would probably set most of us back 10 years salary but that's not real life for most of us. What is important is that you prioritise what means the most to you and try not to lose sight of that. Our main priority was that we didn't spent an outrageous amount of money on what is essentially ONE DAY when we also had to set up home and that money would be needed for more long-term investments.
Its easy to be blinkered by the glossy magazines showing pages full of beautiful brides getting married in castles and stately homes. Not to mention OK! and Hello magazine and their celebrity weddings that would probably set most of us back 10 years salary but that's not real life for most of us. What is important is that you prioritise what means the most to you and try not to lose sight of that. Our main priority was that we didn't spent an outrageous amount of money on what is essentially ONE DAY when we also had to set up home and that money would be needed for more long-term investments.
Raise money by purging and selling
Unless you were raised by millionaires any wedding will be a strain on finances so if you can raise funds to put towards the big day there are many ways to do so. Lots of people take on additional hours at work and overtime to save but we decided that we would have a clear out and sell some of our excess clothing, handbags and shoes to raise some extra funds. Ebay was a lifesaver! We had a huge clear out (long overdue!) and listed a ton of things on Ebay for sale. We managed to raise a healthy amount of money to put towards the wedding. One mans trash is another mans treasure!
Shop around for the best deals
When you start to gather quotes for your wedding you will quickly learn that once you mention the magic word 'wedding' the price increases! This is why it is so important to shop around and never take the first price you are quoted. The wedding industry is very competitive and suppliers need your business therefore make sure that you shop around and gather quotes before you decide who to chose. That leads us to our next point..
Haggle!
Don't assume that you are quoted the final price first! As mentioned above, suppliers need your business and most are prepared to negotiate with you to secure your custom. If you are booking a wedding package and want something removed, get the cost of that item deducted! We did not want to use the chairs and chair covers our venue offered so we asked for the marquee chairs which fit our theme more closely. To our delight they not only made a special trip to the warehouse to provide the chairs we wanted they also deducted the cost of the chair covers from our bill!
Get married midweek and in winter..
..or one of the above! There are times of the year that almost everyone wants to get married. Summer, Bank Holiday Weekends, Saturdays etc. On the basis of supply and demand those dates are always more expensive. We realise that a lot of people want to get married in summer as the weather is warmer. However, lets face it, if you live in the UK you can never guarantee the weather! We have known July and August brides facing torrential downpours on their special day and mid winter weddings that were very mild with bright sunshine, its pot luck. We decided to choose a mid week December wedding and it was beautiful. The weather was bright and sunny (although cold) and the cost was much lower than the exact same wedding in July or August.
Do your own hair and make up or ask a talented friend
Our theory is this, you know your face, you probably put makeup on it most days of the week, so why get someone who doesn't know you to make you up on your wedding day? Lots of us have talented friends who are great with hair and makeup who would be delighted to help you and think of the savings you can make! We appreciate that not everyone is a makeup junkie and some brides like to have help with their makeup however our one tip to you would be, make sure that you still look like yourself on your wedding day. If you don't usually wear a lot of makeup don't be tempted to trowel it on at your wedding. Your fiance wont recognise you and you'll be self conscious all day! The same goes for your hair. If you always wear your hair down don't be tempted to totally change the style for your wedding day. On your wedding day be you, just be the best you that you can be.
Ask for cash to set up home together
Finally, the wedding gifts. Some may think it cheeky to ask for cash however in this day and age lots of couples have already set up home together and the last thing they need is another kettle or toaster! Have a google at some wording to put onto your wedding website that is tasteful but will alert people to the fact that you would greatly appreciate money as a wedding gift. If you are saving for a big purchase let your guests know what you are saving for so that they really feel that they are making a contribution towards a particular item.
We hope you have enjoyed our hints and tips! If you have more to share we would love to hear them!
Love Elle and Mimi x
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