Wedding on a shoe-string budget, can you help?

Question

Hi, we are wanting to get married but we dont have a very big budget at all and this is where I become stuck. I have spoken with my Vicar as well as the towns registrar and we have decided on our local church as it is a little cheaper, it is beautiful and can hold all of our guests. Also, the Vicar has said he will help us with costs, which is so good of him to do. I dont have a clue what to do from here though, I was wanting a wedding planner but they are just too expensive, so i was wondering if anyone could offer me any tips or if anyone knows of a free website that basically does what a planner would do and tells you step by step what needs to be done next etc, sort of like an organiser. Did any of you get married on a tight budget? How did it go? If you had to re-do it again this time with lots of money, would you change it or would you do it cheaply again?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Try OffbeatBride.com -- they have a bunch of British brides on their "tribe" who have their own group - I am sure they can help you with some great ideas... good luck. It's a nice site for people doing different weddings!

Answer 2

Perhaps have your reception in the Church Hall and get your family to help pay to decorate it. Find a local caterer. Congrats!

Answer 3

We had a relatively small budget and what we did is enlist the help of friends. For example, my husband's great-aunt makes wedding cakes, so she made ours as a wedding gift. Another friend of ours is a graphic artist and she made our wedding invitations for us as a gift to us. Musician friends played in our wedding for free, etc. We found that our friends and family were more than willing to share their talents with us to help us out! Good luck!

Answer 4

Have the reception at a McDonald's playplace.

Answer 5

Right hire the local village hall and get someone in to do a hog roast. You supply the salads Pots etc and pay someone to help serve.

Answer 6

Wedding ceremony is not that important, I believe. It has nothing to do with happiness. Don't take it so seriously. Have you made the right choice? That is important.

Answer 7

The knot.com will help you with reminders of what you should be doing. Also, where you have the reception, the even coordinator does a lot of the same things a planner does. I'm getting ready to get married in 5 wks and we've been very tight on cash, so using all of these things helps. What's important is that your fam and friends are with you and that you're happy.

Answer 8

freeweddingclassifieds.com it has tons of cheap stuff I got a $395 vail for $19. It matched my dress beutifully. Also I got my dress from a previous year so it was discontinued and I got $800 off the original price. Also look up stephie Stewart I'll try and find the site and get back to you she e-mails you everyday on what you need to do and tips on how to save money. I saved $11,000 on my wedding by going through her website and freewedding classified. I had my dream wedding and it was beutiful for way cheap! Good luck and congrats!

Source(s):

Its fireyourweddingplanner.com Her book is good but you get her e-mails and the website you dont really need the book. Its awesome!

Answer 9

we have a small budget of 5k and i refuse to go over it as i think the money is more imprtant else where in our lives.

we will be doing a lot of the work ourselves including decorating and food

i would not have it any other way

do a bbq in a garden, do finger foods in a hall, do a picnic on a beach

keep it simple

Answer 10

you dont need a wedding planner - these are for people with more money than sense and too many guests. the most important thing is the two of you. my husband and i got married in jamaica - so our wedding was free, we just paid for the honeymoon.

Keep it simple: limit your guest list to special people.
Wash the car and tie some ribbon round it and then you dont need to hire the cars. keep the flowers simple. hire an outfit for your hubby from a gentleman's outfitters, or just wear a smart suit. instead of a big reception, why not just have your meal in a favourite restaurant? you can get some really good second hand dresses if you look carefully, then just get a seamstress (or handy relative) to make any adjustments. my grandma bought my shoes, my mum bought my headress and my mother in law bought my underwear.

far too many people worry unecessarily over weddings - it is far too much money to waste on one day. the most important thing is the two of you.

good luck.

Answer 11

My budget was about $750 which didn't include the ring but DID include everything else... even the dress!!! If I had to redo it.. I would do it just the same as the first time. It was wonderful. If you have any questions just e-mail me at [e-mail].

Answer 12

http://www.hitched.co.uk/
I found this website extremely useful. Good luck.

Answer 13

Definitely sign up at theknot.com or weddingbells.ca

They have free wedding planning tools like a budgeter and lists of local vendors in most major cities. They also have checklists that take you through planning month-by-month. You put your wedding date in and it shows you what you have to do for the month, and then as you check stuff off, it disappears from the list.

Good Luck!

Answer 14

We did our wedding on a budget.

make the wedding invitations yourselves, you have a computer so it's easy.

make the wedding cake or ask a friend to do it. Cupcakes are all the rage and even kids can make them. You can hire stands for about £30

get the flowers from a wholesalers day before for the church pews and do them yourselves the night before, ask ladies who normally do the church flowers to do some for your wedding or get a simple arrangement made for bouquet with seasonal flowers at local florist.

get a friend to make the bridesmaids dresses ( we made ours from blue floral sheeting- very Laura Ashley...was 1981)

We had a friend take the photographs in black and white they were superb

hire the wedding dress, and get the most expensive you can afford. Don't bother buying one it never see's the light of day ever again so why not hire a better one. This is the one thing my wife would have changed.

Get married late in the afternoon then you only need one reception.

Hire the village hall ( don't say it's for a wedding they'll put the price up) or pub function room, or even a friends garden if it's in the summer. I'm sure family will bring plates of food...a ploughmans is easy to organise. Followed by cake.

We didn't have an evening do for ours because all the weddings we'd been to were dire.
However if we did it again, we'd have a Kayleigh band or square dance which are great fun for all ages.

There are loads of websites now with hints and tips, many of which is totally unnecessary. Just have fun

Answer 15

I can help you make your invites.. I've seen brides shell out $500 on invites alone! INSANE! You can buy home invite kits that look just like the expensive ones.

Have you thought about making allot of your stuff on your own rather then buying it. That alone can save you a lot of money in the long run!

By your dress off Ebay.com! Use caution here and make sure you use pay-pal incase something odd happens.. You can even get your veil and other bridal items there too.

Wedding are TOTALLY doable on a budget! Just keep an open mind!

The Knot.com is a great place to start!

Answer 16

We had a relatively small budget too (6K). There are really only two really important things you have to do immediately, secure your ceremony site, which you've done already and then the reception site. If you church has a hall where you can have your reception, that will help. Next you need to:

Find out if your church will provide a piano or organ player for your ceremony, if not make arrangements elsewhere.

Book a photographer

Determine whether you want a sit down dinner or buffet and what kind of food you want to serve your guests.

Call caterers and get quotes

Find a baker and discuss your wedding cake (Publix makes good wedding cakes at a reasonable price)

Find a florist

Determine whether you will have favors for your guests (Not very important - they hardly ever take them)

Find out if your reception site provides tables and chairs and if not, find a local rental company and get quotes.

Find a band or load songs on an ipod for the reception and find out what kind of sound system the reception site has.

Hope this helps. Congratulations!

Answer 17

I got 2 free wedding planner books, one from my local newspaper and one from Jc Penney's. Lots of good lists in there to help you remember everything you need. Shop around. I bought a beautiful dress at a church rummage sale for $20. Paid $100. for my cake and $40 for my flowers both at my local grocery store. My wedding was beautiful for right at $2000 altogether. Only thing I would change is get more pictures.....Good Luck.

Answer 18

Do the reception yourself. We had ours at home, and it was a really happy event. We got my brothers to do fireworks in the garden... and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg.
I bought a gorgeous wedding dress on ebay.
Flowers cost a lot, so ask the Vicar if the ladies who do them for normal sundays would be willing to help for a small donation. How about using all the great wildflowers that are in the hedgerows at this time of year. They could look fantastic in pots and on the window sills.

Answer 19

dear angelcakes

i too am getting married in sept me and my partner dont work at present so we too are on a 'shoe-string' budget

the main thing is to get your liecence to marry from the registary office (£30 each) YOU MUST TAKE PROOF OF AGE NAME & NATIONALITY (eg passport/birth cert.) as well as proof of address eg (utility bill or letter from social fund or concil)

then set aside money for church hire. steward fee. vicar fee, organist(unless a friend is willing)

i got my dress for £100 brand new last of the line rail at my local bridal shop THIS is the big thing THE DRESS
lingere- sex shop/ebay
shoes - anywhere
jewlerry- borrow/ cas convertors/ charityshop
viel/garter- ebay (my veil was £3 inc postage)

if you are having a meal between ceremony and evening due use church hall(i got it for free) and ask you nan or mum or a friend to help do a small meal eg salad and make your wedding cake

flowers- market its cheaper than florist a LOT cheaper

for your evening due ask your local social club what they charge for a room and background music (mine is charging me £20 and coz its on a sat nite i get 2hr live entertainment FREE)

bridesmaids are expensive i found mine today £30 each in a charity shop!! if you look around you'll find some cheap (ebay google search - second hand bridesmaid dress)

for the men white shirts black trousers & tie(tescos really cheep) and jacket -charity shops

for the boys same as men (tescos back to school range) but leave out the jacket

invites do them on your computer - look on google for a design you like then copy using micrsoft front page!!!

gifts of thanks for the bridesmaids and flowers girls - avon i got earings at £2 each!!!!
for mother of bride and groom flowers
for best man booze!!!! (they love it!!!)

REMEMBER bridesmaid and ushers are meant to pay for the outfits themselves

Family and Friends will be more than happy to help with cost and if you explain they will help more

if you need any help email me or visit weddingtips_uk in yahoo groups

Kelly

Source(s):

Personal Knowledge-

Answer 20

as everyone keeps saying...ask your friends for help
i'm sure they'd be happy to help you on your day...you'd be surprised what people can help you with when you start looking.
if you don't have any cake making friends then i'm pretty sure there must be training schools around that might able to make you up a wedding cake for cheap (the cost of materials) or free.

figure out what you want to do for a reception and that should delegate where some of your money goes...catering the most expensive part
do it at home in the backyard (garden) (or if someone has a really nice garden they don't mind 'lending' you for the night) do finger food and some drinks and as long as you are having fun thats all that matters.

make all your menus, placecards etc yourself...some you know who is creative on a computer can do a template for you

Answer 21

Hi, I write about cheap wedding solutions and help brides save money on their wedding plans.

We spent £1000 on our wedding and I would have it just the same even if I won the lottery!

Source(s):

http://www.cheap-wedding-solutions.com

Answer 22

Hi,

I think it is unfair of all these wedding magazines to promote such expensive lavish weddings, we got married on a Budget, you just have to be creative.

I brought my dress new, however, you can get gorgeous dresses on Ebay, made to measure for a few hundred pounds.

Instead of paying Hundreds for wedding transport, I asked my boss, who has a nice car to drive me and my dad to the church and then my husband and i to the reception. This was lovely as it involved my boss, who was honoured, and was a nice personal touch, our driver wasn't a stranger.

We had a family friend make our cake.

We got an uncle to take our photographs. this again was, I think an excellent idea as i find photographers very intrusive, having someone you know do the job put everyone at ease, rather than having some stranger boss our friends and family about!

we had our reception at a beautiful country hotel, however we only had family and a couple of friends and the day time reception, then invited all our other friends to the evening reception, and to keep costs down at that instead of having a buffet (most of which usually is wasted) we had bacon sandwiches and chips at about half 9. Everyone commented on it being a fab idea. and just what they were all fancing!

I would love to do it again, simply because it's an amazing day, but i wouldn't necesarily spend that much more money.....as at the end of the day it is only ONE day of your LIFE.

Good luck with planning the wedding....If you give me your email address i'll email you a "cheat sheet" which a wedding planner gave me! xxx