Bridezilla..on a budget?!

Hello everybody

I've never joined a forum before so just wanted to say hello - getting married Dec 2012 and we have a budget of around 6k for the whole thing. Which is fine, we've just bought a house. But I am a bit of a stickler for detail and don't want to compromise on quality! I've noticed a thread for 'bigger budget' brides but not for smaller budget brides and wondered..

a) if anybody has any good tips for keeping costs down

b) if anyone would reply to this!

Hi, 6k is a pretty decent budget. The big budget thread is for all sorts of budgets, what may seem like a small budget to you can be huge to someone else, it's all relative.

Obviously one way to keep costs down is to have a smaller guest list, if that's possible, and to DIY a lot of stuff.

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/community/forums/thread/1516271

check out Hannikins wedding report for how to do a beautiful wedding with a lot of diy stuff. She achieved perfection with a bit of hard work and a lot of planning!

Good luck, and welcome to YAYW!

Hiya! Firstly congratulations!! Its really weird as you've got the same budget as me, you're getting married in the same month and year as me and you are similar in that you want everything to be perfect!

I write a blog about getting your dream wedding on a budget and strangely enough my tagline on my blog is 'bridezillas on a budget'!!

If you want to ever chat about anything weddingy then please get in contact - it'd be nice to have someone to talk wedding things with!!

Lauren xx

Ooh thanks Lauren, would be nice to swap ideas! Have you got anything booked yet? we're going for a church wedding at about 2,3ish then going to the venue (not yet booked) for canapes and champagne (actually, will be sparkling wine!) and then straight into an evening do with a buffet. I'm concerned at the moment because I still want name places for the tables as I still want speeches/toasts etc, but as we are just having a buffet not sure how this would work. Maybe speeches before and then get each table up for a buffet you think? What's your blog address?
Haha I never though I'd be posting on any bridal forums, I can see this getting quite addictive!

We've booked our venue and have reserved the date with the registrar - that's something you want to do ASAP as when we booked ours they only had two time slots available! What date do you want?

I think you can still have your name places! A buffet doesn't have to be really casual anymore, you have have specified seats for your guests! If I was just having a buffet that's what I'd do!

My blog address is itsabridesworld.wordpress.com!

Wedding forums are soooo addictive! And really useful as you pick up loads of good ideas and recommendations from people are in the same position as you are! Xx

Its a very realistic budget, and my advice is to just google EVERYTHING!!! don't accept a price on anything until you've put in the groundwork to find it cheaper

Thanks, and good advice! Most of our budget is going on the food at the reception (around 4k) leaving 2k for everything else...eeek! But my mum is buying my dress so thats a relief. I'll try and get an auntie to make a cake
Lauren, we have the church booked for the 28th!
I can't believe i'm getting married, it feels so surreal!

xxx

OMG. I'm getting married on the 28th too! We are date and budget twins!!! But as long as you're not marrying my husband thats fine!

We are spending around £4k on food and drink too! How many people will you be having for the meal etc? We're looking at around 50 day guests and a further 60 or 70 evening guests!

We're getting our cake from M&S I think as none of my family are particularly good at baking and there are some lovely designs!

I literally cannot believe we are the same on so many things!! Crazy!! xx

My advice for a budget wedding:

1) Think about your guest list..... you'll be able to have more people in a more relaxed pub / buffet style reception, but if you want something more formal, you will have to invite less people. A small guest list will keep the price down drastically.

2) DIY - there are some things that can be so much cheaper if you have the patience to make things yourself. Invitations - you could be looking at £400!! Pop down to your local craft store and get some cards and other bits and bobs and you can make some gorgeous invites yourself. Favours - why spend £200 on things that people may not appreciate. Bake some cookies or cakes and wrap them in some clear plastic. Tie on personal name tags and you have homemade favours!

3) Call in favours from everyone else - do you know someone who is good at make up?! Hair? Baking? Photography? If you can get someone to do all the things that add up, you notice a massive difference.

4) Bridesmaids - have one or two. The more bridesmaids, the more expense on dress / shoes / make up / presents etc. Or, if you want more, ask them if they mind buying their own outfits. However, then you can't really dictate what dresses they will wear.

5) With the food, have 2 courses. Replace your dessert with your cake! Ask the venue if they will do one reception drink instead of two, or limit the amount of wine on the tables. Every little helps.

6) Weekday wedding - most places will be significantly cheaper on Monday - Thursday. This includes suppliers who might offer midweek discounts.

7) In season flowers - if you love a flower, but they are out of season, you may have to have them imported. And this can triple the price! Talk to your florist about it!

7) This is the best one..... HAGGLE!!!!! A lot of places will help you out with prices to get your business. Research and find out where you can get things cheaper - if you like a supplier more than another, tell them that you can get it cheaper elsewhere and they might budge!

Good luck!!!!!

(Edit... sorry, just realised how long this is!!!)

Just added your blog to favourites Lauren xxx

ooo, Welcome Amy.

I joined my first forum in 2006 and have never looked back. I'm on Youandyourwedding and Cosmopolitan.co.uk (which you can use your same log in details for as they are part of the same company!).

I'm getting married on a 6k budget too

Quoted:

Just added your blog to favourites Lauren xxx

Awww thank you!!!

Hi
firstly welcome and congratulations!

We are on a 6k budget and most of ours is on venue/food - I have blown 1K on my dress but that is not included in the budget as we didn't buy an engagement ring I inherited one so the dress is my ring if that makes sense - actually thats one of my ways of doing it on 6k - hide costs only joking that is not a good idea!

Can't really add anything as agree with all the above, I am making invites and other stationery and favours. Friend is a makeup artist and so is doing it as a wedding present, another friend lives in US and is giving us one of her appartments that she runs for a honeymoon etc. We are not hiring wedding cars as I refuse to pay nearly £300 for a 5 min drive between church and venue - apparently they could drive us around for a while to make it a longer journey

Anyway, enjoy the planning and no doubt see you on YAYW quite abit from now on!

We got married for 5k last year, it was very do-able.
There's the don't haves e.g. cake and car (these ended up being bought for us as gifts actually) no canapes, only one meal, cash bar, only one BM.
Ebay will be your best friend e.g. I spent about a tenner on invites, less on my shoes.
Small guest list, for example we didn't invite anyone extra to an evening do. We spent about 2k on food and drink.
Also definitely haggle.
Good luck!

Quoted:

We got married for 5k last year

Can't believe it was last year you got married!! Your wedding report was one of the first I read!! And now you are having a little bubba! Congrats!

Lol thanks! Yep it's nearly our anniversary (a week away) and I'm still lurking about (so you see amy wedding forums do become addictive!) I love reading reports and looking at all the pretty things And Bubba took us a bit by surprise! We're hoping to have our anniversary and then he can make his appearance any time Good luck with your weddings xx

Shop around for your venue, 4k sounds quite expensive for what you're getting. We paid 3.5k and for that we got:

Room hire for ceremony inc. red carpet down the aisle
Bucks fizz for 47 people
3 course meal for 47 people
Corkage for 20 bottles of wine and 12 bottles of champagne/cava
Master of ceremonies
Menus
Tea/coffee and mints for 47 people
Hot buffet 7 dishes + sandwiches for 110 people
Bridal suite for the wedding night

They also would have done our table plan and place cards but MrFSM wanted them to match our colour scheme, silly man.

Hi

My best tip for a bugdet is eBay, I have literally spent hours on there, looking for and buying bits for wedding! But its worth it when you get a good bargain.

Also getting married on a Thursday is saving us a fortune (and was only way we could afford our dream venue) so worth considering.

Other things:
Look at sample sales for your dress. Mine wasn't even a sample, it had the wrong size label sewn into it so it couldn't be sold at full price. I paid £500 for mine.

Pay corkage for your wine and provide your own. Tesco Wines do some awesome deals.

I got the bridesmaids dresses from the Debenhams sale. We got loads of compliments about them

Make your own invitations. If you like pocketfolds, look at PDA card and craft

Ebay!

Look at the Swap and Sale forum here. If you do buy something though, pay by Paypal!

Have a long hard think about favours, are they worth it?

Don't dismiss getting a cake straight away, if you shop around, you might get a bargain. If you're in the north west, Cake Chester are very very reasonable and their cakes are amazing.

Definitely do your own invitations if you are crafty, or someone you know is crafty We made about 80 invitations in a couple of days for about 40 quid. My mum had lots of stamps and embossing powder and we improvised. She also got fabric flowers from the market, and everything was great

My dress was also a sample, and I paid 30% of it's price! It was a beautiful dress I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.

Shoes? Go creative If you like coloured shoes, there is a WIDE variety out there for better prices than 'bridal' shoes.

Rethink what you REALLY need. Don't get stuff just because 'it's cute', but really consider HOW it will fit with the rest.

Remember... in many cases, less is more