Keeping Costs of a Wedding down

blue banana

Sis is just after getting engaged, getting married next year. Yesterday we were discussing some ideas on how to keep the costs of a wedding down - especially on the things people don't even notice. I thought it would be interesting to see if anybody had some new ideas. It will still be a fairly traditional wedding with sit down reception in a hotel etc

No need to hire cars - Use nice cars belong to friends/relations

Make your own invitations/ mass booklets (my job)

Mom is making and icing the cake, she may also do the flowers if she has time!

Uncle will do the video

Any other ideas?

newwifey

Hi
As the name suggests, we went through the marriage 'ordeal' this June. We got married on a shoe string and had a great day. The only thing we spent the money on was the photographer and the wedding rings as we reasoned that these were the things that would remain long after the 24 hours of the wedding day itself.

Our money saving ideas were

Hired a 5 series BMW from enterprise rent a car for the weekend - since it was a bank holiday we got to hold onto it from the Friday morning to the Tuesday morning for about 300 quid. A bloody bargain that looked fab in the photos.

Tried on all the wedding dress styles in the boutiques and when I had settled on the 'ONE' I looked it up on the internet and could have purchased it for $560 from USA versus €1300 here. Beware the import tax on this idea though. One way around it is to have it delivered to a friend or relative in the States, get them to put happy birthday paper on the dox and post it here. No tax on gifts. As it turned out I got the dress second hand from a lady in Galway www.dreambridal.ie. Only worn once for about 12 hours, fitted like a glove and cost €600! You can also do this with most of the bridesmaids dresses too.

Buy the flowers in the smithfield market in Dublin. Even though we live in Sligo, we made the trip early on the wednesday morning, collected a massive heap of flowers and were home again by lunch time. Total cost of flowers about 200 quid. That included all the boquets, church flowers, display on every table in the reception and buttonholes. Was a very time consuming job though. Took the guts of 2 days for my mum and her friends to finish which didnt leave her much time to prepare herself.

Bought the wine up north. Bought wolfblass that retails for about 10-11 quid here for 5 quid per bottle up there.

When dealing with the hotel haggle, haggle, haggle. Squeezed a great rate outta the hotel for corkage, parents rooms free, kiddies meals free, and the evening reception.

Got a friend to make the cake

Made our own invitations and mass booklets.

Forget the band - have a DJ that will play all the old stuff to suit the parents before the disco kicks off.

Aunty did the table decorations and balloons. Bottle of helium costs about 100 quid and ordered baloons from internet. Bought table favours from america via internet too and used a lotto quick pick as a favour. They went down really well (we could afford this cause we only had 60 guests).

Have a look at www.weddingsonline.ie. A great slource of information if you can get over the continuous bitching that goes on between the brides.

Cant think of any more at the moment. Good luck with the planning. Anything that your sister can buy now and put away will reduce the costs closer to the big day.

SueL

blue banana, most people are cutting out the wedding favours these days, they are a waste of money. Most guests forget to take them off the table before theyre cleared, and the lads simply dont want them! Same often goes with male wedding guests with the Mass booklets, Ive noticed that there is often now "one per couple" (as the girls always want them) which will cut down on your stationary costs and your time in making them.

Is your sister friendly with any Hairdressers or Beauticians? They can offer their services for free, or as part of their present to the Bride and Groom.

SparkyLarks

Elope

Seriously not that expensive to have a wedding in the carribean for about 20 people and they do everything for you so no pressure.

Then have a massive party for every one who couldn't make it

blue banana

I like the idea of getting the flowers in Smithfield, but I reckon it would be very time consuming so close to the wedding. Will definetly look into that closer to the time.

SueL I have to agree the Wedding Favours are a waste of time. I heard of someone who put a box of After Eights on each table, I think that's not a bad idea. Sis is a beautician so that side of things won't be a problem.

SparkyLarks - Wonderful and all as heading of to the Carribbean sounds, it's just not an option in this case.

Thanks for the useful ideas so far.

trotter_inc

newwifey wrote:

Bought the wine up north. Bought wolfblass that retails for about 10-11 quid here for 5 quid per bottle up there.

Can you remember where in the North you got that?

Cheers

blocparty

to be honest i dont know how i even ended up on this thread let alone posting on it! not sure if this is even relevant advice but it might help someone!

last christmas my dad bought my mom a necklace from http://www.thepearlshop.net

she had been looking in those expensive antique jewelers and this was a fraction of the cost. she got them valued by the same jewelers she was going to buy them off and it was worth way more than what she paid. it just goes to show that the internet is a great source of products at very cheap prices once you know some reliable sites.

not sure if brides even wear pearls on their wedding days! hope thats of some help!

newwifey

Got the Wolfblass in Morrissons in Enniskillen in the Erne side shopping centre.

The store has been taken over by Asda now I think and didn't notice any deals on that particular bottle last time I was up. You can check their website though to keep an eye on it. There is always a deal on some well known wines and sometimes they give an extra 10% off when you buy 6 bottles or more.

Always end up buying loads of different bottles each time im up - and unfortunately drinking them all too!!!
Im an ould lush really:p

mambo

A few ideas...

Instead of starting with a plan for the big traditional all-frills wedding and trying to cut things out to reduce costs, start with a blank sheet of paper and only include something if it really makes sense. Think "less is more". I mean do you REALLY need €100s/€1000s worth of flowers? Try having no flowers and decorate the church/reception some other (cheaper) way. Do you really need a big meringue wedding dress for €1000?

Think different. Use your imagination. Don't worry that people might think you "cheap" if you don't splash out on everything (such people are probably a bit shallow and not worth worrying about). I'm sure many people would love a wedding with a difference, some imagination, surprises.

Take the view that the hotel/jewellers/florist/etc. all see "€€€€" when they hear the word "wedding" and try to give them as little as possible of your hard-earned cash.

As someone said, don't hire a band, just get a good DJ. A one-man DJ will be a hell of a lot cheaper than a 5 person band.

Have the wedding YOU want, not what you think other people expect you to have.

Bards

have the speeches before dinner, that way everyone will have wine in their glass and those that don't drink just ask the hotel to offer minerals...

will save a lot of money on the toast/round of drinks:D

trotter_inc

Serve sparkling wine instead of champagne... "most" ppl wont know the difference... and those who do wont mind...

scuby

also if you get the person that usually arranges the flowers in the church, she will just order extra flowers from her supplier and get them at her usual price, and as the flowers stay in the church after the wedding everyone is happy, you give a few bob towards them ... hoping to do this for mine in april

Benny-c

SparkyLarks wrote:

Elope

Seriously not that expensive to have a wedding in the carribean for about 20 people and they do everything for you so no pressure.

Then have a massive party for every one who couldn't make it

My sentiments exactly or if (not necessarily)RC go to Rome with a few friends & Family, why have the hassle & end up paying for dickhead Uncle Johnny to get hammered.

glitter-bug

ive just got engaged,, soooo excited.. but havent a clue where to start!!
I know where i want the venue and its nearly booked, im soooo excited i dont know what to do first?
can someone give me some help with irish traditions and customs, i really havent been to a wedding since i was young and i dont know whats expected!

Id realllllly appreciate some help guys

lilrayosunshine

Instead of favours.. print a poem you like and make little scrolls for each place.

buy shoes you will wear again.
Only have one bridesmaid and one best man. hire the suits.
Don't buy a "going away" outfit as you'll want to stay in your dress as long as possible.

Zambia

Im getting married in August and came across the below saving ideas

No -guest is getting favours lets all agree this is a waste of time ..but i like the lotto ticket idea...

Flowers in the church , not going to happen - picked a pretty church no need

Hotel is throwing in flowers for the table (no flower costs)

Cars - Missus wants a fancy car so no savings there(I like the 5 series idea)

Gifts for wedding party , 20 quid a pop max

Photos - ask around for a friend who uses a photgrapher get him to ask the guy then his repeat business is your discount

Church use your local as other churchs charge a small fee

Toasts - Buy extra wine , see no need to buy everyone a drink when they normally have one or two in front of them

My biggest saving idea is dont tell your mother your getting married till the day before (and even then dont give her access to the wedding list) Im looking at a extra 50 mouths due to this error so any above savings are scrapped .

professore

Zambia232 wrote:

My biggest saving idea is dont tell your mother your getting married till the day before (and even then dont give her access to the wedding list) Im looking at a extra 50 mouths due to this error so any above savings are scrapped .

Make her pay for her guests - or otherwise say sorry Mam!!! All those long lost relatives and friends who you will never see again anyway. That's what I did

Sleepy

Zambia - if the missus wants the fancy car, try scouting some of your local classic car clubs on-line. Many of their members will have beautiful cars they don't usually hire out for weddings and most tend to be so proud of their babies that they'll be flattered you want to use their car for your wedding. Should be quite a bit cheaper than someone who's set up to handle weddings (no advertising costs/tax etc.)

CathyMoran

We recently had a very small wedding but as a result it was also low cost, how we saved on money is below:

• have a dress that is not white (mine was pale pink), I still got a very nice dress but at much reduced prices even though it was still designer.
• only have a floral bouquet and get a relative to do it for you - even though I could not have many flowers for medical reasons it still saved us a lot of money - our flowers in total cost €100
• get a relative to drive you to the church
• forget wedding favours
• get married at lunch, you can get some great deals in resteraunts, just do not mention that it is a wedding, not having a white dress helps! Also do not have a band, just go to a pub afterwards.
• have a shorter veil - mine cost just €20 as against €150-200 I was quoted for a full length veil
• do your makeup and nails yourself
• do have one thing that you still splash out on, in our case it was the cake
• get a relative/friend to do the photography/video
• do not have bridesmaids/best man
• have a joint stag/hen if you have one and have it at home.
• do not waste your money on bridal lingerie
• buy a simple wedding band, you do not need something to compete with your engagement ring in any case plus the man may be more likely to wear it (that was the case with my husband).

In our case we really wanted to spend our money on travelling as I have been through/am going through a rough year health wise and want something to look forward to. We did have a lovely wedding, everyone who was at it had a really good time, we did not deliberatly set out to reduce costs, our wedding was arranged in a hurry but we did not want to waste money either.

DJ_Spider

Blue Banana, Glitter Bug and Zambia 232, I am a experienced DJ who has moved here from the UK. I have all my own kit, and song as well as a very good selection of karaoke songs. I would like to offer my services to you at an extremely good rate. (less than 95% of Irish DJs) I actually believe that if you charge less then more people are likely to tell thier friends.

If you get people to spread the word that you did a good job, that is the best form of advertising. I.E. FREE! I would like to offer my congratulations and wish you the all the best for the future. Please feel free to pm me if you think I could help you.