So I'm kind of getting married! Tips or ideas welcome

[cheekychick]

Long story short we were hoping to buy a house this year.
But
I saw a fab groupon last night and my partner of 10 years and I decided what the heck now or probably never as we probably would never be able to afford it otherwise so we bought it.

It includes venue hire for day and evening. Buck's Fizz reception, 3 course wedding breakfast with wine, evening buffet, dj etc, chair covers, centre pieces etc. so we just need to sort the other important stuff.

HELP!! I don't know where to start, it's all such a whirlwind. And we need to keep costs as low as possible. I'm stressing already.
I don't have a clue about weddings! Is there anything that I don't know that I probably should? Lol

Does anyone have any tips or things that helped you out or little ways you saved yourselves money?

I would really appreciate any advice.
Sam xx

 

[Noodle]

Congratulations!

You may find this social group helpful for starters:

Salon Geek - THE Wedding Group 2012/2013/2014 and beyond !!

 

[virtues2011]

Firstly you need to decide if you are actually going to get married as the title says 'kind of' getting married...so either you are or you aren't....

Best of luck.

 

[nicole333]

The first thing I would do is hope to God that not many people bought the same deal and you don't end up waiting to actually use the venue!

So getting the date sorted would be a priority for me and then taking it from there. Be aware that the price of things triple when the word wedding is involved.

 

[cheekychick]

Firstly you need to decide if you are actually going to get married as the title says 'kind of' getting married...so either you are or you aren't....

Best of luck.

Thanks.
Haha we definitely are! We have to meet at the venue at the weekend to discuss an actual date. That's why I said kind of because I don't know a date yet 😄 I feel like such a div even saying that. x

 

[cheekychick]

Congratulations!

You may find this social group helpful for starters:

Salon Geek - THE Wedding Group 2012/2013/2014 and beyond !!

Thank you! I'll take a look now

 

[cheekychick]

The first thing I would do is hope to God that not many people bought the same deal and you don't end up waiting to actually use the venue!

So getting the date sorted would be a priority for me and then taking it from there. Be aware that the price of things triple when the word wedding is involved.

I thought exactly the same! (I know how groupon can be &#128516 but there was only an offer for 2. One for a weekday wedding and one for a Saturday. (Which we purchased) x

 

[cheekychick]

Congratulations!

You may find this social group helpful for starters:

Salon Geek - THE Wedding Group 2012/2013/2014 and beyond !!

This takes me to creative- where to buy? 😄

 

[nicole333]

Make a list of what is important to you both that you don't want to compromise on and also have a list of the things you would be willing to compromise on.

We didn't feel the need to spend a grand on a cake (and I love cake!), so we had a 3 tier chocolate one made by Waitrose for a couple of hundred I think it was, anyway my lovely mother in law ended up buying it. We also had a friend who was really into photography take our wedding photo's so just paid for the costs involved. He has made this into a business now. Not everyone would compromise on this but it was important to us that our wedding was relaxed even though it was in a church etc. and the pics are lovely and natural.

I don't like fuss and wedding dress shopping was a stressful thought for me. I went into a couple of wedding dress shops and just didn't appreciate all the fussing around me and all these fancy dresses just didn't seem like me. So I went into Monsoon with my sister and went to their Wedding dress section and found my perfect dress with no fuss. It was £350 and more importantly it was me.

My wedding car was a convertible Beetle and belonged to a friend of a friend who agreed to do this for us for the day even though we didn't even know him. It was meant to be a surprise for me, but my husband couldn't keep the secret!

The only things we didn't want to compromise on was the honeymoon and our rings, we both have platinum.

Everything adds up no matter how big or small your wedding will be, so an idea of what you really want is important and remember that spending loads of money will not leave you with the best memories of the day. Hearing my Husband tell me it was the best day of his life and how he felt when he saw me walk up the aisle is my best memory and a thousand pound cake does not make that any better. :Love:

 

[Meira]

A tip I got from a cake maker was if you want a tiered cake but need to cut costs then they can usually make it with 'fake' show cake and only use real cake inside one or two tiers!

With wedding dresses look for stores that are selling the sample dresses. It just means they may have been tried on by other brides or used once in a catwalk show but they are usually about a quarter of the price.

Hope that helps. Will let you know if I think of anything else.

Congrats and hope it doesn't cause you too much stress. xxx

 

[ColourGirly]

Invest the money on things that will be there after the day - photos and rings.

We ran out of money towards the end so were going down the route of cheaper stuff when my mum gave me this advice. Why spend £2k on a dress and £50 on a ring when you won't where the dress again, but the ring will have to live with everyday.

Highly recommend Alba Rose for rings.

 

[nicole333]

How could I forget to talk about shoes?!

My automatic thought was how important the shoes were going to be and it was simple, I'm female and I love shoes so they were obviously going to be important. Wrong!

My shoes were beautiful but with a long dress they ended up being less significant because nobody saw them! Also, because I was only concerned about what the toe end and the top looked like I got some sling back style and I never wear sling backs, so have never worn them since my wedding day. My thought was that I would have these special shoes that I would wear and feel beautiful in them again. It's never happened and in a way I wish I had gone ahead with what I was saying at the time and getting some Nike's commissioned!

 

[lila22]

Congratulations what a lovely thread xx

 

[Mobile Manicure]

I saved a tonne on the bouquet. I dint say it was for a wedding, I said I wanted it for my aunt and got a bouquet which I could tie up myself with ribbon. From being quoted something like £160 I got exactly what I wanted for only £30.

 

['bea beautiful']

I'm getting married in a few months and for our bouquets and centre pieces we went to dunelm and got a load of the 'home' fake flowers and are putting them together ourselves. Sounds horrible but they're actually really lovely!
Got all the colours I want plus extra little bits and bobs for £50!

Also for photography we're having disposable cameras on each table. And a couple of family members are bringing there professional cameras along too

We're having mini cakes for each guest with their name on. Which counts for name places, favours and their bit of cake!

Saving an absolute fortune!
Hope this helps xx

 

[carlyema]

We are getting married next may... saving everywhere we can except on 3 things:
-rings
-photos
-honeymoon (disney!)
Willing to spend as much as it takes on these!!

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[Holly Byers]

I got some beautiful shoes of ebay (brand new) and the brand rainbow! Super comftable!
Only £15 - £20 each when on the website there £70-£100!!!!!! Look on ebay I will send links if needed.
Got loads of items to decorate off ebay! And even other people selling there items for super cheap.. As it all adds up..
My dress from pronovious a lovely brand. Was €3000 and reduced to £600! Don't regret as did a lot of searching for a dress and found ones that felt cheap for the same price! Then had to pay extra for sizing! But the pronovious brand they included three sizings!
You have to ask for the onces in the back on sale
We got an amazing photographa who lives in Manchester if that's close to you? She's worth it and wasn't the price of the moon!
About £600 all the pictures included (not all do this) and she sends you a gift. An she stayed practically for the whole thing!! Some only offer 3-4 hours....... She was amazing and her photos were so beautiful.




Gumtree was a big help! I found a cake maker there! Delivered and did three tear for £150
Photographer from there Monica (will get more details)

Like Nail Karma today

 

[loulou86]

How could I forget to talk about shoes?!

My automatic thought was how important the shoes were going to be and it was simple, I'm female and I love shoes so they were obviously going to be important. Wrong!

My shoes were beautiful but with a long dress they ended up being less significant because nobody saw them! Also, because I was only concerned about what the toe end and the top looked like I got some sling back style and I never wear sling backs, so have never worn them since my wedding day. My thought was that I would have these special shoes that I would wear and feel beautiful in them again. It's never happened and in a way I wish I had gone ahead with what I was saying at the time and getting some Nike's commissioned!

I'm getting married this year too (in September) and definitely agree you need to be really careful where you spend the money.

It seems to be that whatever you look at if its for a wedding, they add a couple of zeros on the end!

I'm planning on getting some plain satin heels that I can get dyed black or something after the wedding so I will wear them again such a waste to buy a lovely pair of wedding shoes and leave them sitting in a box somewhere!

 

[cheekychick]

I'm getting married in a few months and for our bouquets and centre pieces we went to dunelm and got a load of the 'home' fake flowers and are putting them together ourselves. Sounds horrible but they're actually really lovely!
Got all the colours I want plus extra little bits and bobs for £50!

Also for photography we're having disposable cameras on each table. And a couple of family members are bringing there professional cameras along too

We're having mini cakes for each guest with their name on. Which counts for name places, favours and their bit of cake!

Saving an absolute fortune!
Hope this helps xx

That's a really good idea with the cakes! Love it! x

 

[hewitd01]

We got married 8 years ago and the best thing we did was hire someone to dvd the day! It was a last minute decision but we've watched it over and over and now our children are getting older, they love to see it too. Lovely to see relatives and friends who are no longer with us and bits that you didn't see on the day. I also spent nearly 2k on my dream dress which has been in a box for 8 years (apart from one drunken night when I tried it on) and I've ended up with 2 sons! Hire/buy dress carefully and wisely so as not to waste money! X

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