10 creative tips for keeping down the cost of your dream wedding

Today, I thought I'd share some of my top tips for keeping down the cost of your wedding without taking away the fun. Our guests clearly had a fabulous time at our wedding as we've since been to four weddings where our guests have used some of these ideas themselves! 

1. Purchase sweets from a wholesaler and display them in bowls. Far cheaper than hiring a sweetie cart and guests can take as many as they like!

2. Make your own stationery. Even the least crafty bride and groom can follow the many YouTube crafting tutorials to make simple yet effective stunning stationery. To check out how the hearts are made, here's the tutorial.

3. Instead of hiring a venue, think about a back garden wedding. If you're lucky enough to have space, a marquee or large party tent is a great alternative and gives a relaxed feel for your guests. As a bonus we could also invite the most important members of the family!

4. Scrap the traditional wedding breakfast. For our wedding, we had afternoon tea instead of a wedding breakfast, the sandwiches and cakes were provided by Marks and Spencer. Waitress also offer this service, or for an even cheaper option you could make your own the day before with the help of your guests. Later in the evening we had a hog roast which everyone commented on!

5. Think about doing your own hair and make-up. I did my own make-up on the day as I wanted a natural look and didn't feel that a make-up artist would provide that. With my hair, I had a trial a few weeks before and my hair was lovely, then on the day the hairdresser didn't quite get it the same and I was a little disappointed. 

6. We made all our own photo booth props in the weeks leading up to the wedding and had a macbook on a table with only the Photo Booth accessible... No need to hire out a professional Photo Booth!

7. We purchased a job lot of disposable cameras on eBay too and made I-spy cards for guests to play games. In hindsight this could have been improved with guests using their own smartphones to play the games which can then be uploaded to a social media site.

8. We had the bouquets and buttonholes made but for the flowers in the marquee, we went to a supermarket the day before the wedding and bought bunches of flowers then transferred these into vases and added a few paper flowers of our own. These also made great table name cards too!

9. Think about purchasing suits for the groomsmen. Sometimes hiring the outfits can cost the same as purchasing a good suit which can be worn again. We made the suits into gifts for the groomsmen too as a reminder of the day!

10. Do you need a fancy wedding car? Nowadays, everyone is having a new car, I went to church in my father -in-law's BMW Series 6 convertible, and myself and the hubby left the church in his LandRover Defender. We were contemplating getting out my hubby's restored classic Mini but I wasn't sure I would fit in it with my dress!

Let me know, do you have any similar tips on saving for your big day? Drop me a comment! 

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