Budget Wedding Tips!
 

Hi, after posting a reply to a request in the "wanted" section from a JT user looking for wedding stuff, I received a message from another JT user suggesting that I start a thread in this section. Due to the recession, quite a few couples are now trying to cut-down on the huge, ridiculous costs relating to getting married. This thread is proposed to suggest ideas on how couples can get married, with out spending an absolute fortune, yet without compromising on the attention to detail. I know that there are other wedding-related forums on the web, however I want this thread to be more about what couples can DIY using recycled materials, repurposed items, kind donations of items from JT users, etc

Any suggestions/contributions welcome!

That was me!!!
 

I noticed the threads you had left for other people who were getting married and I thought I could pick your brains about all your wonderful money saving ideas.

Some you have given me already are brilliant. I'm sure lots of other people could really benefit from them also.

And I thought that there would be loads of DIYers on here who could add in their ideas.

Weddings are so rediculously expensive and they needn't be. There is so much that can be done for cheaper.

A really nice idea I heard of for favours was a little envelope filled with flower seeds with a poem about love growing like a flower on the front. It would be really cheap to do also :o)

REALLY looking forward to all your DIY ideas.

weddings
 

What a great idea!

Oxfam in Dublin city centre have new samples of wedding dresses for a fraction of the normal price. I think you have to book in advance as it is upstairs in a proper wedding salon.

I've heard of the Oxfam shop alright.

I'll definitely be checking it out. You do need to make an appointment though :o)

flowers on a budget
 

hi all,

if ur getting married on a budget, why dont u make paper flowers....it should cost less than 70e

my aunt used to make these long before the fresh flowers came into fashion, and i must say, they were beautiful!!!!

i bought fresh flowers which cost 400e...money that could have been spent on other things.
and stressed myself out to bits worrying about money

all u need is crepe paper in whatever colour u need.
tin foil
paper doilies
and wire.
and a bit of time to do these

sounds like it would look awful, but they truely lovely and look just as nice in the photos.

if i find my sis's wedding photo i will post it and show u what they look like.

all the best,

tas

hi all, i've been meaning to do these as i said i would.
anyway i did a rough idea of the paper flowers, now dont judge just by these as with rippon,and fern, and more flowers of course these can look fab.

tas

I believe Barnardos also have a similar set-up in Dun Laoghaire; again you have to make an appointment.

A cheaper way to do the invitations is to buy the pieces and put them together yourself. You get a template, the paper and ribbon required, you do the printing yourself. Much cheaper than getting someone else to put them together for you. Same with the mass booklet, if you're having one. An example of a website that has invitations, booklets and more (car ribbon, flowers, place cards, ring cushions...) is here - diyweddings.ie.

Cost saving ideas
 

At a wedding I was invited to recently the couple provided a disposable camera on each table and the guests then took photos of the guests at their table. I thought it was really lovely as they would be original and not as posed looking like you get with professional photographers (not meaning to insult any professional photographers out there) but you know what I mean.

im really looking forward to pics of paper flowers, getting married next year and saving is becoming impossible!

Tips I have gained from my last few months as a member of various wedding forums:

Venue/Meal:
- Midweek weddings are generally cheaper and most venues will throw in extras for free to get the business.
- Off peak weddings (Early Spring, Autumn) are cheaper.
- Try to find a venue that will allow to bring in your own wine, ie charge low corkage fees. This allows you to purchase your own alcohol in Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Northern Ireland and make huge savings
-Haggle as much as possible to get the best deal you can - if you are booking your wedding way in advance - try to get the hotel to agree to a price when you are booking as hotels tend to put prices up each year
- Buffet meals work out cheaper per head
- Perhaps serve your wedding cake/dessert as the one course, ie cut out the need for both

Invitations:
- DIY all the way...bulk buy cheap card blanks. Ebay is great for ribbon (I have both from two really good suppliers so far, one in Co. Louth and the other in Malaysia - both great sellers) and other bits and pieces.
- Personalise the invitations to suit your personalities as your guests will excuse an amateur crafting attempts if they are personal to you both.
- Christmas wedding - use xmas cards as invites

FLOWERS:
- If you're getting a florist, get them to do the bare minimum as you can always add to it with your own arrangements or candles
- Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, etc stock nice flowers that can be easily turned into nice arrangements. Find someone with a shrub addiction (like my mum has) and arrange with them to let you give their shrubs a good haircut - this will act as greenery (and its free) - you can fill in with flowers - keep the colour theme simple if you're an amateur like me!
- www.flowersforflorists.com - if you decide to go for it and do all your flowers yourself. Minimum order of €150 (I think) but flowers delivered to your door from wholesalers in Holland. Otherwise, Smithfield Market in Dublin is apparently the place to go, but go early. Two visits advisable - one to suss out what you want and place your order, second visit to collect. - www.youtube.com for videos giving you instructions for how to make your bouquets, arrangements, etc
- Ebay for your flower arranging essentials - oasis, trays, ribbon, diamante pins for the centre of your roses (if you want to go all fancy)

CAKE:
- If you want a wedding cake, they can work out quite expensive - get baker to make a smaller cake and then a separate cutting cake that can be cut and served in the kitchen out of guests view - works out cheaper
- Add some fake tiers - polystyrene as far as I know that are iced as normal - used to make your cake look bigger
- Make your own - enrol the help of any family members or friends that have any baking skills - remember a xmas fruit cake that mammy makes every year is basically a wedding cake tier!!!
- If going the DIY route and short of baking skills - the answer is a "cupcake tower" - get some pretty cupcake cases off Ebay or there is a shop off Grafton St. in Dublin - bake some cupcakes (buns/queen cakes/etc)...loads of recipes on the web - ice them and you can get a cupcake tower stand off Ebay or make your own using old plates and a metal rod (instructions on the web....cant remember the exact website, but should be easy to find)
- Marks & Spencers apparently do ready to eat, reasonably-priced wedding cakes!

PHOTOGRAPHY:
- Shop around to get a good quote - remember most photographers offer different packages at different prices - you might be able to get them to just take the shots you feel are essential
- Get a photography student - go for one that is nearly finished their course or newly graduated that is interested in doing a nixer.
- Get a family member/friend with a good camera to take the pics for you
- Provide disposable cameras as previous poster suggested - remember quality of some disposable cameras can be a bit dodgy though
- Get some cheap blank cd's - put 1-2 in envelopes on each table with your address and a stamp on the envelope - ask your guests to take the cd home, put the pics from their digital cameras onto the cd and pop them in the post back to you.
- Provide a website address for one of those photo-sharing websites where guests can upload the pics they take of the wedding for you to access

VIDEOGRAPHY
- Although it is an extra cost, I personally feel that it is essential as the day will fly by soooo quickly and the photos will only capture particular moments in time
- Hire a videographer to capture certain parts of the day - vows, cutting the cake, first dance, etc
- Get family members/friends with camcorders to capture the day for you - get a few different people to do this and you can make your own entire video of the day by editing the best bits of the different camcorder tapes
- Get a film student to do a nixer!

HAIR/MAKEUP:
- DIY
- Family member/friend to do it for you
- Trainee hairdresser/beautician to do it

ENTERTAINMENT:
- Get a DJ to cover the entire reception instead of a band and a DJ - this will save you money
- Get a band that is not known specifically as a wedding band - you should be able to get a good band without paying "wedding" prices
- Church/ceremony music - get family/friends/work colleagues...anyone that can play an instrument or sing (actually sing when sober, not the ones that will be singing by the end of the night!!)

DRESSES:

Bridesmaid:
- Ebay
- Buy and sell on wedding forum websites
- Choose a colour theme and allow bridesmaids to wear dresses they already have in this colour...for example, a lot of women have little black dresses - you could always add a coloured ribbon to co-ordinate them all.
- High street shops
- January sales....particularly in Monsoon, Debenhams, TK Maxx - a lot of shops have cocktail dresses in stock for xmas and might still have some left over!
- Order from the US - if necessary try on the dresses in shops here at home and then order the same style off the web.

Bride:
- Buy a preloved gown from Ebay, buy and sell on wedding forums, charity bridal shops.
- If you really want a new dress - go to sample sales, order from the US
- Get your mum's or grandmother's wedding dress and get it altered - if its a nice vintage style, just alter it to fit. If its really out of date, see if you can find someone that will alter is cheaply to give it a nice modern twist.
- January sales!

Try http://www.easycraft.com/ for invitation card making, ribbon etc. Delivers from Malaysia but cheaper than anywhere around. Sells in € too.

My sister was at a wedding last week where the mother of the bride made the cake, it was 3 seperate tiers of chocolate biscuit cake (the bride's favourite!) the cake was decorated with flakes all around the side and tied with a ribbon, it looked (and tasted) amazing and cost nothing compared to traditional cakes. I will try and get a photo but if you google image search "chocolate flake cake" you'll see what it looked like.

KITTING OUT DA MEN!!

- If the groom and his posse own nice suits themselves, let them wear them as it will save you rental money - just get fabric and make cravats/ties (or whatever you call them) that co-ordinate with the colour theme/bridesmaids
- Get cheap suits in sales at one of those mens suit shops you always find in shopping centres that are offering cheaper suit options - at least the guys will have something that they can wear afterwards.


TRANSPORT:
- Check with family and friends to see if anyone owns a nice car that you would be happy to use and that is owned by someone willing to drive you in it.


WEDDING FAVOURS (not necessary but always a nice touch!)
- Make a donation to charity on behalf of your guest - most charities will allow you to provide written notes on the table to tell guests about the donation.
- Download free favour box templates off the web - google "free favour box templates" and you will find sites giving you a few different options - a bit time-consuming but you can then use whatever paper/materials you want - fill with sweets or whatever you want
- Christmas weddings - use christmas crackers
- Make you own bookmarks - all you need is card/or my favourite: watercolour paper purchased cheaply in pound/euro shop and some ribbon - you can print your names, wedding date, a thank you message, a love poem, quote from someone famous regarding love/marriage, pic of the two of you.
- Google this one as there are sooooo many ideas online of stuff you can make from soaps, bath bombs, personalised candles, notebooks, seed packs (as OP mentioned), etc....the list is really endless!

Try http://www.mx2.co.uk/prodpage.asp?type=sub&sub=CMF for cheap disposable cameras. Currently £4 each which works out at €4.91 - p&p free

Also good for cheap rewritable CD's
http://www.mx2.co.uk/prodpage.asp?type=sub&sub=STG

Try http://photobucket.com/ to collect all those photos. Allows up to 10,000 photos and hours of video! For free.

Wow!!
 

You guys are going to save me sooooo much money :o)

The access in work sucks but I cannot wait to get home and check out all the sites you mentioned.

I also found a brilliant website with really cheap dresses and accessories. I haven't ordered anything yet so I can't recommend them for reliability but I'm hoping to order something small soon and I'll let you all know what it is like.

www.lightinthebox.com

A friend of mine did this at her wedding and it was a massive waste of money. It sounds nice in theory but what happened was that she got 12 disposeable cameras filled with photos of the table, beer bottles, drunk people's thumbs, and grainy photos of the dance floor. Disposeable cameras don't work well in the subdued lighting conditions at a wedding, and drunk people most definitely do not take good photos.

I thought it was a fabulous idea when I was at the wedding but having seen the outcome I think its a waste of money. Sorry to rain on the parade but it is a thread about saving money. =)


At our wedding my wife and I decided that there were two things we weren't willing to cut back on - our rings (because you have to look at them everyday) and the photos (because they are the memory of the day). Everything else could be cut back on. We didn't get a videographer because they tend to be more intrusive than a photographer and really who watches their wedding videos more than a couple of times? I've had to suffer through a few and they are painful if you aren't the bride or groom. Spend the money on a good photographer who will take casual shots of the day rather than the more traditional staged everybody-against-this-tree and pretend-like-you-are-walking-away-and-i'll-take-a-casual-shot photos which look crap IMO.

Our photographer cost a little more than the others but he cost a lot less than a photographer+videographer would have done. I remember him taking just two photos all day, even though there are 120 in the album. He was extremely unobtrusive and took lots of casual shots so the photos are of how it happened, hence no need for a videographer.

videographer
 

Hi all. I would have to disagree with cianer on this one. A really good videographer who knows what they're doing will not be obtrusive at all. On our wedding day we hired a guy that came recommended by word of mouth, the best sort of advertising imo, and I can honestly say the only time we were aware of his presence was during the meal when we had a chance to talk to him, and of course he wasn't using the camera then until the speeches started. And I have to say that my wedding video is one of my ost treasured possessions, because of how it captured things on the day that I and my hubby were too busy to have noticed, and also it's lovely to watch deceased members of the family looking and acting so happy, which can never be captured in a photo, professional or otherwise.
Anyway back to the matter in hand, a good way to save money is to ask your videographer if he would be willing to sell you some stills off the film, some might just give them to you included in the price. We got some beautiful shots from ours, and made a lovely album with them.
Cheers, gillo

wedding dress
 

I know someone who went into all the wedding dress shops, tried on the dresses till she found the dress and size she wanted, 1800 euros, she noted down the size and stock number and went on the internet ,found the same dress and got it for 650 euros. As for wedding cars everyone knows someone or has a neighbour that has a merc or bmw or some type of large car. Give it a clean put few flowers in back window and ribbon on front and you save yourself a fortune.

We got married 2 years ago on Halloween. We decided to go up north as it was far less hassle and so much cheaper to book a registry wedding.
I borrowed my dress from a friends niece who was a goth, so that was suitable for our Halloween wedding!
The flowers were 'wooden roses' in Black and burnt orange, there was a bouquet, 2 corsages and numerous button holes all for £38 inc. delivery!

I bought some boots in the sale at Penny's for €12, hubby wore a suit he had bought a few years before.
We had a buffet that cost €100 at a local pub, so everyone had to buy their own drinks! lol

The best man took all the photo's with our camera so he is not in that many of them! we put the photos on a disc and had them printed out at the chemist. The photo's cost €12 all in!!

So, a very cheap and fantastic wedding we all had. Everyone said it was the best they had been to because it was so much fun.

At the end of the day, we were married like everyone else apart from the fact we probably spent €200 rather than the thousands that some people can spend!

wedding
 

hiya and first many congratulations to you both
i hope you both have a lovely day ( even though the weather will be porbably terrible...)

i had to make my own contribution to this thread, as i goty marraied recently and got lots of help from jumbletowners.

i agree completely with the invitations. there is no need to have them done, i done them myself and save myself a fortune, if you want to save on stamps, just drop them in the ltterboxes if the family lives near you ( every cent helps). i personnaly got some nice cream paper from easons at 2euro a ream and i only needed a ream and a half, i then used some of the leftover paper for my thank you cards
there is no need to print a wedding menu or names for the tables the hotel will probably do it for you ( they did for me). the names also is a personal choice some poeple refer to having seat assigned to them, if you just assign 10 people to a table of ten, you can let them decided where they seat and not have to worry about, swho should i put beside uncle smith who says dirty jokes all the time... he he he
ask the photographer to give you a cd with all the pictures and then print them in work or at home and send some with the thank you cards, i done this also and everyone thought it was a lovely thing.
do not get an album for the parents, if you have the cd of the pictures just print some nice ones, buy some nice albums in tescos and do your own.
print the wedding guest book ( i did that also) and it saved me 50 quid right there.

dress :
i got mine of a second hand shop in England and it was very cheap, get a bridesmaid or mother to get it for you and its even cheaper ( and they are happy to help -- i did not even see my one, but the bridesmaid knew exactly what i was after !)
limit the number of bridemaids, to one if at all possible ( the less number of bridesmaids, less dresses you have to buy). i got one from debenhams a cocktail dress in the sales for 80 quid and the bridemaid is actually happy she can wear it again...

cake, i spent a fir bit of money one the cake, but hey it was the first thing i got, so i was a bit naive...
only buy two or three tiers or else you ll be eating cake the same time next year !
print some cake boxes, done that too but forgot them on the day ( so poeple can help you eating the cake ). that went reaaly well, we gave away most of our cake ! and people really liked that... ( give some to the neighbours if you have some left, they will enjoy that too, while you are on honeymoon).

honeymoon. if at all possible get the guests to cover the honeymoon, we thought about that but the destination we went to wasn t the easiest, if your destination is usual enough, then it will work wonders on your budget and you will appreciate the guests presents even more .

get baskets for the favours in jumbletown and decorate them, it works really well for the favours.
for the favours i had maltesers ( you should have seen the face of the guy in tesco when i bought 60 megapacks of maltesers...), which worked out a lot cheaper than having them done. and some champagne bottles a kind jumbeltowner gave me and they worked wonders... thanks again lislaw for those everyone enjoyed them.

car
i got my father in law to pick me up and we decorated his car. i had no church as it was a civil ceremony and it works out that no one even saw the car as everyone was already seated when i arrived to the venue. another few hundred saved there.

i hope that helps a little,
all the best
hope you have a lovely time,

cascais

from Admin
 

Hi cascais,

I remember well your thread in the Wanted forum -- you were the first "JumbleTown bride" :) in that you were determined to have an environmentally-friendly wedding that didn't bankrupt you! You set the example for all future green brides-to-be. Well done again!

Regards
Chris P
Admin

My brother had a chocolate biscuit cake at his wedding a few years back and it had loads of coconut in it. My mammy told me it wasn't as nice as mine (which started out as hers but I hijacked it when I got older!). I have a recipe if anyone wants it. I make it for birthday parties for my kids/nieces/nephews and they love it (as do the adults). I always have to make an extra one to bring in to the tea club at work! No cooking involved and easy to make. If you have any kids in the family they'll love helping out because it's very messy, full of chocolate and they eat half of it before it hits the tins! Will upload photographic evidence of this later!!!

Here goes!
 

I've included mars bar squares as well. These would do as favours for anyone with a sweet tooth!


GORGEOUS CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE
(For 2lb loaf tin)

Ingredients

½ lb margarine breakfast cup of sugar
1 – 2 pkts Marietta biscuits Tablespoon cocoa
2 eggs

Method

1. Melt margarine and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat.

2. Break biscuits into bite size pieces.

3. When margarine and sugar have completely melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4. Beat eggs and add to margarine mixture when almost cool. Mix in cocoa at this stage also.

5. Stir in the biscuits until they are all completely covered with the chocolate mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into a greased tin and leave to set overnight in the fridge (if you can wait that long).

7. Throw everybody out of the house, put on a good movie and eat as much of the cake as you can stomach all by yourself!!!!!


GORGEOUS MARS BAR SQUARES

Ingredients

3 oz marshmallows 3 oz butter 3 mars bars
Cooking chocolate (milk) Rice Krispies

Method

1. Melt marshmallows, butter and chopped up mars bars in bowl over saucepan of hot water.

2. Stir in Rice Krispies.

3. Spoon into greased tin and leave in fridge to set.

4. When set, melt cooking chocolate in bowl over saucepan of hot water and pour over the rice krispie mixture.

5. Allow to set and cut into squares with a hot knife.

Enjoy!

Yes she's literally ladeling it into her!!!

Wow, bluecurlygirl, your little girl is so adorable!!! Sorry this comment is so short............I'm off to the shops to buy marshmallows, mars bars, chocolate etc. Can't wait to try out your fab recipe xxx

jewellery
 

Hi all,

I was able to save some money on my wedding on the jewells as well. One of my friends is very crafty and as a wedding gift she made my earrings, necklace and bracelet. They were made of small white beads and wire and the outcome was faboulus!

Regards,
p

Thanks Dave for adding the pic!

The bracelet is not on pic as it broke, and just sent it off to you Elnr, that's the white beads;)
I had two necklaces, as I changed dress at midnight and jewellery also.

That is so weird
 

I was only thinking of making my own today!!

Beautiful
 

They look stunning!!!

Thanks for sending me the beads :)

I'll have to start my research on how to bead like that rather than the straight line that I'm doing at the moment ha ha!

wedding tips
 

hi. i work in a hotel dealing wedding is my job. i get the room ready from start to finish. iv seen sum nice ideas people do to save money. Make your own wedding invites. its very personal and you get to put what you like on the invite. eg, photo of your selfs. i saw sum lovely table decorations that are simple one that was lovely was sea shells collected from beaches, filled with sand and a tea light in it. looks great. others include flower heads like (Daisys) sprinkled on table, or flower pettels (Available from florist quiet cheep if you get them when they few days old.)

Make your own cake, or have few friends each make a tier, or sum lovely wedding cakes pre made and quiet cheep in the likes of M&S'

Use fresh ivory around your top table (Pinned to the table cloth) looks fantastic and cost nuting.

hotels offer special rates for week day weddings saving a lot of money.

Buy your wine in the likes of tesco or aldi, much cheaper than geting from hotel.

instead of favours for guests, make a small donation to your favourite charity and put note on table for guests to let them know. (much better than silly chocolates or that)

Hire all clothing, dress and suits. much much cheaper.

No need to have a band and a dj, go with either or.

No need for a phototographer as now adays photos can be taken from dvd, so if you have a dvd guy to make a dvd, after wedding sit down and pick clips you like, have them printer and make your own album. then you get to see ecactly what photos go in.

instead of a big traditional meal , why not do a self service buffet, hot and cold dishes. its a big thing these days in hotels

ask sum friends sum close friends or family instead of buying gifts to go together to pay for sumthing like the car, i did this at my wedding with a few bills and my family were delighted as then they dident have to go and try buy me a present.

if there a local dance school around (irish dancing) ask would they mind cuming to your wedding after the dinner and doing a bit of a show. its all the rage at the moment and they be only to happy to.

Hope some of this helps you. if i can help any more just leave me a message and il get back to you. gud luck

Enjoy... love messy stuff like this - always good fun with chocolate!! & no cooking so easy for mammy and safe for kids to go the whole way through the process. Mmmm, scraping the bowl.. Buying ingredients tomorrow myself now. Cheers!

Great idea with the asking family to pay for stuff. We did that for my sister's wedding instead of buying a kitchen appliance together or something we paid for the band and car as it turned out which really helped them out and the wedding ended up hardly costing them anything. My brother got his wedding entirely as a wedding present - so before the day started everything was paid for and not by them! All for giving them a good start. Also if any of your mates are decent singers and they're going to be there anyway ask them if they would sing at the church as your present. That's how I got started as a wedding singer!! I love it - usually cry!!! Plus, it'd be lovely to have one of your best friends playing a key part in the ceremony.

Love the beads
 

They jewellry is absolutely gorgeous. Bet it looks even more stunning on. Seriously well-made - I wouldn't have the patience I'm afraid. Fair play.

All the best ideas have been covered already, but I too work in a wedding venue (I work lots of places, but this is one of my favourites)
There are great deals for weddings on Monday/Tuesday, up to 15% off the main course and free champagne reception, etc.
IMO, favours are a complete waste of time. I have seen people splash out on expensive belleek, sterling silver, or just sweeties and the guests left them behind, dropped them and were generally unimpressed. Its quite disgusting how little regard people have for the generous intention of their hosts.
I made my own wedding invitations and delivered some by hand too. I printed a little picture on the envelopes to match the cards too. I didn't bother with place names and in hindsight, shouldn't have bothered with a table plan either. Plenty of people wander off to sit with friends or arrived late and slipped into the first available seat. And it wasn't just my guests, I regularly answer the phone at work on wedding days to the question 'What time are you serving the meal?'. Wedding guests don't seem to want to bother with all that hanging around???
My aunt did my flowers and she was fantastically green! She used cans (peaches I think) as the base and folded serviettes and florist sheeting around them. She had to eat a lot of peaches. She then used copper pipes that her plumber had left behind. She cut them as she needed them and used limes in the decoration. She got the flowers from Smithfield.
Good luck with the big day!

bumping again
 

..... you never know!

Where I can find some new and different designs for wedding invitations?
 

I haven't any experience with Weddings but for my 21st last year I looked up websites that had free downloadable templates.

I went and bought nice water marked card.

Then i went to an internet cafe, arranged the template to fit 4 invitations on one a4 card, then typed into print format screen how many i wanted to print, for example for 100 invitations I entered 25 copies.

I cost me 0.08c 1 print a coloured A4 sheet (4 invitations)

Buy some pretty envelopes, write in names of guest etc and ta-dah!

i was at a wedding in westport a few years ago and they had lego men on the invatations, very trendy: here is something like it:
http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgur...3Dcxa%26sa%3DN

also lego wedding cake!!! :
http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgur...3DYya%26sa%3DN