Budget Wedding Tips!

[waterwave]

For our table decorations we collected shells from the beach and spray painted them silver - but you could use any colour - we scattered them all around the table.

We got the hotel to make a punch, bought white wine boxes in lidl and mixed with sparkling water and added berries, eg blue berries and strawberries etc, went down very well as people entered the hotel.

We also had a buffet, we live by the sea so took advantage of the local fishing boats!!

Got our rings locally made - cost 500 euro and they are unique - only two in the world!!

Hope this helps!

Oh and sent thank you cards as Christmas cards!!

[kaydarragh]

After reading posts in this thread I notice ppl talking about the marks an spensers cake. I used it and was very pleased with the result. My florist gave me cut roses to theme in but any flowers would do.. Also I used an Avon ornament for my cake topper as I loved bears. In total it cost € 120 as opposed to the €300- €400 quotes I'd been given

[heart]

hi just thought i would tell u about my wedding. the money was very low and we didnt want to cancel it so we had the reception in our local pub. we had a hot and cold buffet. we still had the band followed by the dj. it was an amazing nite and because we had more money to spend on it we were able to ask all our family and friends for the whole day. we both really enjoyed it and didnt cost half of what a hotel would have cost us. if i could i would do it again tomorrow.

[Tribesman06]

Cheap wedding:

Meal: Get everbody to go to a drive through fast food joint and buy their own.
Music: Get all cars to tune into the same radio station and you are sorted.
Photos: Let the local papers know in advance (preferably the local free paper). Pick up your free paper and cut out the photos.
Video: Let your local RTE, TV3 and TG4 reporters know and have someone video the news that night.........it will surely be on.
Total Cost: Approx €15 for meal deals for the two of ye.


I proposed the above to my fiance 11 years ago. Surprisingly she didn't go for it and even more surprisingly we are still happily married.

[Sarah Traynor]

Hello everyone, I stumbled across this thread doing some wedding research. I just wanted to stick my head in to the discussion and say hi! I wrote a book about saving money for your big day, 'How to have a Champagne Wedding on a Buck's Fizz Budget'. Recently I partnered up with Aisling Mackey of www.diywedding.ie (stationery, favours, decorations) to put together www.budgetwedding.ie We are happy with it so far, it is evolving with publicity which is bringing in lots of new suggestions.

I really like your suggestions and would love if you would contribute some of them to our site! Or just have a look and tell me what you think?!

All the best,
Sarah

[Moeby]

Hi I will be married 22 years in August, I know weddings these days cost a fortune and one wedding has to be better than the next. I have been to a number of weddings in the last few years an cannot believe the amount of money wasted just for one day. I know of someone in England that borrowed £50,000 for his wedding went to all the rounds and a year later was getting divorced and was still paying the bill!!!

I don't want to sound like an old fogie, but I think weddings are really getting out of hand, I think nowadays when there is a recession you will be respected more for saving money rather than wasting it. (The new trend now, and the bragging seems to be OH I SAVE MONEY BY GOING HERE, OR I'M CUTTING DOWN BY?)so you will actually be more trendy by cutting down on costs.

When we got married we were living in England and came to get back to Ireland to get married, we had the expense of staying in Ireland for 2 weeks and 2 weeks honeymoon in Spain (I know Spain wouldn't be good enough by today's standards but it was an achievement for us).

My sister did the flowers, my sister-in-law made a fabulous cake, the dresses were hired (on the Monday and we were getting married on the Thursday), my cousin drove me to the wedding and to the reception and we had the best time ever. Both families were down to earth and there was no pretense at trying to live a high life, we had an ordinary band with lots of singers from the family including myself and everyone had a ball. We had invited just family with an open invitation to the evening celebrations and we were told that it was the best wedding that they had been at in years. A few weddings that I attended were so well organised and there was no sing song etc. and everyone complained that they were boring.

Oh, by the way I did everyone's hair, including my own, (I'm a hairdresser) and at 10 to 2 (the wedding was at 2) I was asking where everyone was gone, I was still in a track suit with rollers in my hair, only to be told everyone was gone to the church!!

Just a thought, be yourselves and have the craic, don't try to be too fancy nobody appreciates it, everyone just wants to let their hair down at a wedding not watching their Ps and Qs as what seems to happen at weddings now.

At the end of the day, we are still married after 22 years and have 4 fabulous kids. We still live simply and it works, that's the important thing. Kind regards.

[kila2008]

Hey Sarah, had a look at the site...looks good...was actually considering setting up a similar site a few months back with another girl I know off the wedding forums but to focus more on DIY projects from scratch rather than buying DIY kits. Personally I think if you are going to make your own invites, favours, wedding stuff....a huge part of the experience is actually designing the stuff yourself, whereas if you buy one of the DIY kits that you refer to, then the designs are usually more or less set out beforehand and you are just assembling rather than designing.

I actually started this thread to share some of the ideas/tips that I had gathered through posting & reading posts on a variety of wedding forums and because there are soooo many talented, creative people on here that I wanted to hear the views of.

I have just set up a blog a few days ago instead of a website (www.iscratchyourbackyouscratchmine.blogspot.com) as I would like to offer whatever skills I have to help people out on a voluntary basis. I feel that during the Recession, people need to help each other out as much as possible and having seen the excellent generosity and spirit demonstrated here on this site and other recycling/freecycling sites, I'm sure that there are other people that share my views on this.

I'm on a year out from studying architecture myself (after 3 completing 3yrs of a 5yr course) and instead of finding architectural work experience as I thought I would during this year, I have discovered that my chosen profession is now in danger due to the Recession.

I'm currently making favour boxes for my friend from scratch....cutting out the actual boxes using a free template I found online....printing little personalised labels...as I can source the materials close to home and hand them to my friend in person and its nice to be able to help out.

I also helped my other friend out with DIY projects for her wedding last summer and I'm hoping to do a few for my sister who is getting married this summer as well.

I enjoy crafting and I'm more than happy to lend a hand to anyone that wants an extra set of hands to make stuff for their wedding (for free of course!)

Not sure if you have looked at this site already Sarah, but I love reading the posts on www.projectwedding.com - forum section - do-it-yourself - loads of excellent ideas on there for very achievable diy projects with fantastic results.

Best of luck with the site!

[Ocker]

Cheap weddings, never in my family. Advice from generations back, "Son, be like yer ancestors, stay sober and single and bring yer kids up the same way"
I'm not breaking that chain !

[lopats]

Hi folks, i was married in december 2006 and know how expensive weddings and all the related things can be.

In relation to budget wedding tips, we got a friend to make the cake, but the M & S cakes are lovely just add fresh flowers, or if any one knows some one who would make cake for you (we just had a normal fruit type ike christmas cake) and then you could just pay for some one to ice it
Wedding dress: Ebay is where i bought mine, and only needed small alterations, we were married on a thursday so had the use of the whole venue for the entire day and night free of charge (they charge for friday and saturdays).

PS Those paper flowers sound lovely.

[Sarah Traynor]

Kila2008 - I am sorry i am only returing to this thread today, I didn't realise you had replied. Well done on the blog, it is a great idea! I love that site projectwedding, I hadn't come across it.

Making invitations from absolute scratch, design etc sounds fantastic. I had mine designed by a girl in London for my wedding! (cheaper in England to get them designed!) I'd love to see your handywork! Aisling Mackey (who set up the site) runs a craft supplies company as well as www.diywedding.ie so there are lots of from scratch items there too. A lot of people would be afraid to go completely DIY on invites (me! - all thumbs) so I think the kits fit for them.

I must PM you.

Sarah

[kingo]

I'm sure some of these have been mentioned before but if it helps anyone then I have one or two tips...
Flowers - Pick your own from your garden and tie them the day before and stick them in the fridge. If you want some different ones then plant them in time and grow your own.
Wine - Check out German Wine and get the names of some local importers/restaurants. The wine is cheap and amazing (Organic in most cases so no hangover!)
Shoes - They only hurt so get a cheap pairt of runners and stick on a few frills. You can get actual wedding runners on line from America for about $40 or so which is still cheaper than uncomfortable shoes. I wore them and you couldn't see them and when I lifted the dress to show people they loved them!
Cake - Anyone got an Auntie, Neighbour etc. that makes a good Christmas cake? It will be perfect. You can decorate it or get some one who is good at Art to do it!
Invites and Favors - Cara Craft Supplies... Google them. SOOOOO Cheap
Car's - Nobody really looks at the car. Borrow a nice Merc or Jag of someone. Some hotels will include it in their package.
Video - Get a friend to do it.
Photo's - Everyone has a digital camera. Put your email address on a nice card where everyone is sitting and ask them to send them to you. Can also put your thank you cards here and it will save you the price of a stamp! It can add up with 100 guests!!
Band - No avoiding... Good band = Good wedding. Barter with them and see if you can get them to drop the price.
DJ - Get your gadget obsessed mate to down load all your fav disco tunes to an ipod and plug it in. Most hotels have disco lights already!
Good Luck!!!

[dublinseven]

hi, I'm getting married in july, my aunt is making the wedding cake. The hotel don't have a cake stand to suit the cake she's making. Does anyone know of where you can buy or rent a cake stand at a reasonable price? I need a two tier stand.
appreciate any suggestions

[keep-it-tidy]

Bump^

...there might be a few more helpful ideas for couples who want a wedding but cannot afford the expense most ppl get into debt for!

[bluecurlygirl]

Originally Posted by dublinseven

hi, I'm getting married in july, my aunt is making the wedding cake. The hotel don't have a cake stand to suit the cake she's making. Does anyone know of where you can buy or rent a cake stand at a reasonable price? I need a two tier stand.
appreciate any suggestions

Here's a link with cake stands on sale but it's in uk so check postage. Still looking for ya.

http://www.sugarshack.co.uk/category/250/2_tier

[sparkwell]

Have a look at ebay. I just googled cake stands and found some there.