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Hey!

How many of you out there have a low budget and are having a 'cheap wedding'?

Our budget is £2000! Peanuts compared to most peoples i've spoken to but we are getting most things we wanted, church, sit down meal etc etc. Obviously having cheper versions of some things and are cutting some things out but hey, life goes on after the wedding!!!!! Stll gotta live!!

So is there anyone else out there on a silmilar budget to me?? Want to share idea's/tips and ways to cut down cost? Got most things done now, but id like to hear how others have managed it!!
What are your budgets?

Rachael xx

Rachael,

Having arranged all that for £2000 is incredible! We really want a sit down meal, but I am struggling to find anything for less than 3500! Where in the UK are you and how have you managed it?

Toni

hi for me the cheaper the better has long as its nice and me and h2b are happy i don't care my dress was only £55 the reception is £500 that's for food tables and little bit and bob to do with party and wedding is £150 so it going to be cheap lol i don't I'm happy do it that way. Iv got three kids so i really cant have a big one.

janine xxxx

Hi Toni
Im from Suffolk, you? Basically i have managed it by asking favours from friends and family! I am a chef and have a few fellow chefs i used to work for who are doing the cooking for us, all we have to do is go to macros to buy the food in bulk! You dont necessarily need chefs mind, just anyone you know who knows what they are doing! You can save so much from the catering by not using a company to do it. We originally looked at having the reception in a hotel and to feed 80 guests it was going to cost £4500!!!! crazy money for all we want is a soup, a chicken dish then a hot pudding and custard lol!!!! You mean £3500 for just the food? or the entire thing?
We arent having a pro photographer, we know of someone who happens to be doing a photography course at college and she has agreed to do them for us but we also have other family members who are good with a lens taking soem for us, the cheapest we could find for a pro was £350 that was for 30 photos and an album and only at the church!!! we are now having photos all day and as many as want and it isnt costing a penny! And i bet they will be just as nice!
I have a friend doing makeup, she always does her own nicely and she enjoys doing it, so why pay a pro just to put on a bit of slap!
An old friend is a hairdresser and she is going to do mine and my 5 b.m's and flowergirl's hair, and only charge me for mine!
I have a pastry chef friend who is making our 4tier cake and only charging us for the ingredients. But before this we were going to buy plain iced cakes in 3 different sizes (from tesco-or the likes) and decorate myself, saving a good couple of hundred pounds!
Another good tip is EBAY EBAY EBAY!!!!
We got so much from there, all b.m's dresses for just £35 each!
Decorations for reception came to around £50
You can even get fab brides dresses on there for about £100!!!
Invites we got from studio catalogue and paid £50 got all personalised invites, day and evening, serviettes, place cards!

The idea is just to get people involved, you'd be suprised by how many people are just more than happy and feel touched that you trust them to help out!
There's so much to put on here, if you want to know anything else just ask, and tell me about your budgetting too!!

Rachael xx

[Modified by: rachaelm1 on June 23, 2008 03:56 PM]

were doing ours for £2000, not bad considering the fact that the church is costing £550 alone......ebay has turned into my best friend ive got loads of stuff for the wedding from there
-fg shoes
-fg baskets and artificial petals
-centrepiece bowls
-favour bags
-3 bm dresses (on lookout for fg's)
-memorial candle (in memory of my mum)
-artificial flowers, ribbon and pretty pins for bm bouquets
-save the dates and invitations
-table confetti
-h2b's wedding gift
-cake bags
and veil
and it all cost about £150 cant complain

our budget including honeymoon is £3000! making own stationary which helps plus just cutting back on lots of things and finding things when they are in the sale. Also having some things as presents - mum has brought dress, nanny and mum are making cake and inlaws paying for car! pennies saved!

Hiya... i also love ebay too! our budget is £4k but we're hoping to take £1k of that on honeymoon so we can have a blast on our 2 weeks in nice, south france and so far, we're well under budget. this is due to the same way rachel m does it, friends and ebay!! friends mum is making cake, lady from church arranging my ebay flowers, vicars son doing our photography and hes trained, bridesmaids bought their own dresses and more people to the ceremony than reception as the getting married bit is most important. our biggest expense was the hotel for our reception venue but they'r doing a buffet for us too and i know theres much more but cant think of it at the mo! oh yeh, our church was free as my h2b used to go there and you just have to give a donation to registrar they have whos a deacon of the church... it's totally possible and we're both extrememly happy tho i think thats just cus we're getting married too 47 days apparently, eek! xx

Hey !

what was the studio catalogue!? been searching for ages for decents naffordable inviteS! thanks x

Hey !

what was the studio catalogue!? been searching for ages for decents naffordable inviteS! thanks x[/quote]

Hi shell0301


If you type Studio Catalogue Online in your search bar then you should find their site. Then when you get on to it just type in Weddings into their catalogue search bar then it should come up with quite a few pages of wedding things, invites, place cards, albums and even gifts all to personalise. The invites are nothing too fancy but do the job and have your names and the date of the wedding on and you can always spruce them up a bit if wanted with some artificial flowers or something if you're into crafts that is!!!! But we are using them as they are, we have the silver heart ones, simple but nice.
I hope you find some you like!!!!
Rachael xx

:\)

Hi yeah tell me about the church!!!! When we first started planning we really wanted to get married in a church till we found out how much it was! So we then looked into having it at a registry office as its a fraction of the price, but then H2B's god father offered to pay for us to get married in a church as a wedding present, as he really wanted us to have it in a church, so that was good because i always wanted a church wedding lol.
You did well on ebay!! We have had so much stuff from there too, dont think we could afford if it wasnt for ebay lol.

We're having ebay weddings lol x

Star!! looked and found my invitations!! for less than £50.... h2b is going to be pleased!! hehe!! thank you x

Our budget is 2.5k to 3k we are trying to do it as cheap as poss as H2b is training to be a plumber so had to take on less wages to fit the training in, plus we have a dd and ds on the way.
We have only just started planning but church is probably going to be the most costly thing!
The other thing thats quite hard is i have three neices and three nephews all within a year in age and i couldnt pick one of each for bridesmaid and page boy so we are having them all, which is working out quite expensive but we have agreed to just buy the dresses and bros and sis' are buying shoes and jewls ect.

I wanted DF to wear a morning suit and my bros and his dad ect but he has told me he wouldnt be comfortable in one so thats saved a bit as we are just having matching ties for them.

Thats about as far as i have got for planning so far so am hoping i can do all i want to on my budget!
x

Wow - the ideas are fab! We wanted a cheap-ish wedding, but still find ourselves budgeting around the12k mark! We're getting married on a thursday, which has saved around 10k on its own, and means we can have the bigger rooms for our reception (which we wouldnt have got if it was on a sat!). invites are stupidly expensive - thanks for the link to studio catalogues - the gold ones look really nice and soo cheap!!x

Hehe, glad you're all finding this topic useful!! lol.

My h2b, my dad, his dad, usher, best man are all wearing morning suits (my idea, love them!!) and we found a shop called greenwoods and they are hiring them from there, the whole suit, cravat etc, including shoes, cufflinks the lot, for £80 a suit!!! Whats more if you get 5 you get he fifth one free. h2b's nan is paying for usher and best mans suit hire as a gift and h2b's dad is paying for his own, we are paying for my dad's suit and we get the grooms free! five suits for the price of 1! hahaha. i thought it was great that you got the shoes and cufflinks in there, all he needs to worry about now is underwear! haha.

xx :\)