Getting married

[Missb25]

Hi everyone, So as it says above I'm getting married My partner of 9yrs proposed to me on Christmas Day and we've finally decided to set a date! The thing is theres only my partner that works,I'm currently trying to set up my own mobile beauty business. This means we don't have a very big budget unfortunately so I was wondering have any of you lovely ladies got married and had a perfect day with £1,000 before? If so I'd love any advice of how u did it please? Thanks x

 

[lydia c]

I am not married but wanted to say congratulations , hopefully someone can tell you though XxXx

 

[PixieBeauty]

Congrats!!!! I am getting married in 3 weeks for a budget of 3k but I bet I could do it with 1k. Our budget breakdown is:

Rings £1k (you don't have to have platinum rings that's our biggest indulgence!)
Buffet £500 ish
Bar / starter rounds £500 see you could cut that £1k out right there

The rest:
Dress £100 (Monsoon)
Shoes £50 (Debenhams)
Flowers £50 local florist - just told her that's my budget stick to it!
Wedding approx £100 local registry office
Groom wearing a suit he has with a new shirt @ £50
Lunch: everyone to our local pub for lunch, pay for yourselves guys sorry we're skint - everyone is more than happy to do that.
Evening do - our local pub has given us the room free as we are bringing 50 or so drinkers in that evening!! Optional buffet & drinks as above
Photographer - his brother, DSLR camera = free!
Invites £20 made my own & printed off & a bit artsy used some craft shop cards.
Miscellaneous table decorations approx £100 (unnecessary)
Cake - £50 for two from our local cake shop. Cake topper to make them look a bit fancy, £20 Etsy.

The way we did it was to not go OTT on anything, & remember you do not need HALF the crap you see in magazines! In fact save money, dont buy magazines & use Pinterest instead for ideas! It will not make your day any happier, the more stuff you have to pay for the more there is to organise. Let everyone chip in & offer something. Register for gifts you need or ask for donations towards the wedding costs or a honeymoon (that's what we're asking for-cash!)

And most importantly - do everything the way you want to do it. Don't get carried along with everyone else. Bless my mum she really thought I needed a fancy car to drive me round @£300 for two hours - I simply said I'm not spending 10% of my budget on stuff I don't need. You both need to be strict and that way it'll be easier. Don't worry what people think either. Chris & I could afford to spend the average £12k on a wedding but we would be so unhappy to spend that cash unnecessarily. A few of our friends thought it was odd being so tightfisted it now it's a really simple day I think they get it!

A few more things:
Get bridesmaids & groomsmen to pay for themselves/outfits.I've been to plenty of weddings & had to do that in spite of the thousands being spent elsewhere.

And have fun!!!! You can still bring in loads of personal touches to the day without spending money xxx

 

[Leely]

Congrats

I am married and got married on a budget of £400

I was 7 months pregnant when we got married. I found eBay helped a lot for little things like, ties, socks. We only had close family there. They all paid for their own meals after and I had my flowers brought for me by my dad.
You can do it on a small budget and it can be brilliant my sister in law done my hair on the day FOC I did my own make up c

 

[skankinchar]

Brilliant thread! I've recently got engaged and have just started wedding planning but I want to keep the costs right down!

Going to do as much as I can myself, and have already started looking on eBay for bits and pieces.
Congratulations to the OP, hope you have fun planning

 

[skankinchar]

Sorry posted twice!

 

[mrsd88]

I got married on a budget didn't set one but had a bridesmaids dress for £135 for me as I wanted a pink dress, register office & suits which were quite expensive £50 on flowers, basic rings from Argos. we bought the large plain white fruit cake from asda & put flowers on the top from the florist, that's all we paid for we had the car for free from a friend the room after for free as my mum worked there, my dad paid for the buffet & my mum paid for the photographer

 

[Rhiannon1408]

Congratulations!

I am not married myself but my friend is getting married in September and has a similar budget. She has literally called in favours from everyone that she knows. I am doing her nails and make-up, one of our friends is doing her flowers, the grooms friend is doing photos, her aunt is making the cake, and the bridesmaid is paying for her own dress. They are planning on a very simple wedding, and want everyone to enjoy the party afterwards.

I think getting a plain cake from asda as a previous geek said is a great idea, you could then pop to a cake shop and just purchase something pretty to put on top.

If you like making things I'm sure you'll enjoy doing homemade invites and things like that.

How exciting!

 

[Dnx]

Congratulations to you both!

To get you in the wedding spirit, take a look at this wedding showcase I did...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uNi7ub-7mM

Enjoy! Xx

 

[Lady Murasaki]

My advice is if you are looking to call in favours from friends and family to donate services or their time for your wedding, please don't get offended if they say no.

Some may not have the spare time or they might not have the spare money etc, this does not mean in any way that don't care about your big day

My OH's niece got married a couple of years ago and she asked my partner to do provide FREE music (he was a DJ in his spare time) and the catering (he was a qualified chef before he was fireman) AND MY WEDDING DRESS!

We said yes to music, but no the food as my other half had just retired from the fire service as we couldn't afford it along with traveling up north to the wedding and forking out for a B&B and def no to the dress.

my OH was 'forgiven' for not being able to do the catering however I was banned from the wedding and other weddings of his sisters children, for not letting his niece have my wedding dress lol

 

[Papillion]

Congrats! I'm not married but my friend recently got hitched on a small budget. It was lovely and very personal. She had her dress made by this local company in green 50's style, around £100 I believe - she's actually in their photos!

Miss Silver: Dresses inspired by the 1940's/50's/60's

My bro and sis both just did registry office and country pub afterwards. I did a bit of decorating to the room, and dad made the cake. Everyone took photos and uploaded them online collectively.
My personal opinion is that having a smaller budget makes for a nicer wedding. I'm not keen on all the money spending and grandiose extravagance, most important thing is getting married.

Maybe offer to swap treatments for favours?

 

[sarahlou09]

Congratulations on your engagement.
I get married 3 months today

 

[Papillion]

My advice is if you are looking to call in favours from friends and family to donate services or their time for your wedding, please don't get offended if they say no.

Some may not have the spare time or they might not have the spare money etc, this does not mean in any way that don't care about your big day

My OH's niece got married a couple of years ago and she asked my partner to do provide FREE music (he was a DJ in his spare time) and the catering (he was a qualified chef before he was fireman) AND MY WEDDING DRESS!

We said yes to music, but no the food as my other half had just retired from the fire service as we couldn't afford it along with traveling up north to the wedding and forking out for a B&B and def no to the dress.

my OH was 'forgiven' for not being able to do the catering however I was banned from the wedding and other weddings of his sisters children, for not letting his niece have my wedding dress lol

Good grief, some people have a nerve. Good bit of advice though!

 

[Steph86]

Aww congrats! Check ebay for dresses... I was a bridesmaid & our dresses were £42.00 each, lovely too! Brides dress inc veil approx £135! All from China. Il upload a pic of bridesmaid dress. Xx

 

[AcidPerm]

Congrats to the OP and the other posters who are getting married soon. I hope you have the sort of wedding you want and not what others feel you should have.

I'm getting married in 2 weeks time in a Registry Office. Talk about a budget wedding!
Bought myself a summery maxi dress from Monsoon, having an Afternoon Tea for the 10 guests (family) and that's it. No wedding ring, cake, cars, bridesmaids, flowers etc.

I did agree to an engagement ring though. :o

We're hosting a simple party in our garden a few days afterwards for friends and I've written on the invites (bought on eBay) 'No Presents Please' as we really don't need more 'stuff'.

I do think it's a real shame when family and friends fall out over wedding arrangements.

 

[Bespoke_eyelash]

Hello,

I'm getting married in 5 weeks and had 7month to plan my wedding - while moveing from london to the middle-east and organising a wedding in Trinidad..... i have little hair left!!

I managed to buy all of this for 952 pound (sorry my arabic keyboard doesnt have the pound sign!!)

4 bridesmaid dresses in French Connection: 100
4 NineWest shoes: 152
Wedding dress & Veil : 720

(see wedding dresses bridal shop Wiveliscombe Somerset - Aisle Altar Hymn new and pre-owned wedding dresses and wedding accessories for your wedding dress needs, price ranges from 300 - 700)

Food is going to be cooked by family and wedding cake is going to be made by a school friend who makes cakes professionally.

For name places and favours (which I think is a waste of money, but I was told we had to get them!) I bought from aliexpress.com. Everything is cheap becuase it comes from China, and alot of the tenders offer free shipping to the UK, which can take up to 1 month. We spent about 90 on favours, cake boxes and name places.

Flowers - we bought from ebay and they are artificial, the only ones which are real are the brides and bridesmaids, groom and groomsmen - the rest: table, church are all artificial.

Make up will be done by an artist as she charges 20 pounds (200 TT$) and entertainment is music on one of our ipods - we've made playlists: pop, soca, slow dance etc which we will play during the evening.

I hope i have given you some ideas, just enjoy it all while you can! It's hard not to stress over things when you are on a budget, but it can be fun hand making things too such as invites and name places.

H&M had some really nice dresses which were very bridal and cost 15! if you have a colour theme then just buy a white one and dye it to the colour you want

good luck xx

 

[Ashley Blakemore]

Congratulations! We got married in vegas! Just me my husband and our little girl. I think the whole thing cost 1,500 and we got a honeymoon included lol. Our ceremony cost $400 and my dress was from isme at £150. It was at the hilton hotel in the outside gazebo and was perfect! Sometimes i do wish id had the big wedding but i just hated the thought of being centre of attention all day! Great thread though!