From finding the perfect dress to making sure your guests are well-fed, watered and entertained, having the wedding of your dreams can seriously damage your savings account. But having the most beautiful day imaginable (on a super-tight budget) just got a little bit easier. These free finishing touches and money-saving secrets will ensure your wedding is the most talked-about day of the year (without destroying your bank account).
The art of free
Don’t underestimate what you can get on a blag. Sainsbury’s will lend you hundreds of wine and water glasses out of the goodness of their hearts, and you can pick up anything from dinner services to bridesmaid dresses (yes, really) on sites like Freecycle and local sell and swap Facebook pages.
Don’t discount the high street
Check out the evening section of your nearest department store and you’ll be surprised at how many bridal options there are. We love Ghost’s classic satin floor-length gowns (available in John Lewis), while BHS and Monsoon have some really pretty budget bridal options, too. Zara and Marks and Spencer have some fantastic white evening gowns that can easily double as a wedding dress.
Make your own cake
Turn your wedding into a mini Great British Bake Off by asking your most Mary Berry-esque buddies to make their wedding present to you a cake. Whether they all make 20 cupcakes which can be served in a pretty tower or things get a little competitive and you end up with a multi-tiered cake in every flavour, not only will you have enough cakes to go around, it’ll add a lovely personal touch, too.
Food trucks
Why not consider turning your nuptials into a festival of love with one or more food trucks serving your favourite fast foods or BBQ delights. While a three-course meal can set you back upwards of £30 a head, food trucks such as hog roast or pizza vans have a much lower cost-per-serving at roughly £5 to £10.
Spreadsheet it
Not to try and take the fun out of your planning, but getting reacquainted with your old friend Excel isn’t such a bad idea. Costing and logging everything you plan on paying out is the best way to keep your spending under control; and when you see your rising costs you’ll be surprised how cut-throat you can be with unnecessary extras, and how much better your negotiating skills become.
Ditch the photo booth
Since people will spend much of the day with their phones out photographing every inch of your beautiful budget wedding, do away with the expense of a photobooth and invest in one or two budget Polaroid-style cameras (we love these Fujifilm Instax Mini 8, for £64.99) and hang a couple of pin boards where your guests can pin their photos, with some heart-shaped Post-its and a Sharpie or two for their well-wishes. If it’s the booth props that float your boat, approach local theatre companies and see if they’d be willing to lend a selection of their fancy dress department for a small fee. Your dance floor snaps will be oh-so-fun. Set up an Instagram hashtag so you can track down the best pics afterwards.
Do your own makeup and hair
Makeup wise, ensure you look picture perfect by making a couple of appointments at your local beauty hall counters where the artists will give you free make-up trials and be able to advise exactly which products will last all day and look great in photographs. We’d particularly recommend Bobbi Brown for this service – you can find your nearest counter here.
If you’ve got your heart set on a flower-embellished halo braid with face-framing curls, you may be best off relying on a professional. But if you’re planning on opting for a simple down-do or your signature loose bun that you know looks great in photos, just allow yourself an extra hour and do your thing. Award-winning celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford says: “Just make sure you opt for a simple style and practise at least twice before the big day to make sure you’ve got it down. Two bridal styles which are simple yet beautiful are loose glossy waves and a messy chignon.”
Be sparing with the truth
When you’re approaching vendors for quotes, use the word "party" as opposed to "wedding" in the first instance. It’s amazing how much the W word can up prices on everything from venues to taxi rides. If you’re hiring a marquee or a DJ it shouldn't matter whether they are providing the service to newlyweds or Aunty Muriel’s 50th birthday party – and you can remind them of this if they try to up their asking price at a later date.
Afternoon tea?
A pretty garden party afternoon tea is a great alternative to a formal three-course wedding breakfast, especially if you want to keep things fairly relaxed. There are dozens of local-run companies set up to rent out vintage tea sets, or better still you can pick up mismatched china for next to nothing at car boot sales and in charity shops. Swap Champagne for Prosecco and stack each table with plenty of cakes, sandwiches and pastries. Your guests will love the informal but super-stylish dinner alternative.
Make your own favours
Or better still, have a family member do it for you. Bag up salted popcorn in cute striped paper bags to give out at the end of the night as favours; your guests will appreciate the salty treat as they make their way home with heads full of love (and Champagne). Or if you’ve scouted out 80 vintage floral tea cups at 20p each for your afternoon tea, why not let your guests keep theirs as their wedding favour? Just tie a little ‘Take me home’ tag to the handle of each cup – they’ll remember your wedding every time they put the kettle on.
Go all Kirsty Allsop on your decorations
You may have laughed at your mum for putting ‘Kirsty’s Vintage Home’ on series link, but when she’s teaching you how to make pretty paper pom-poms to hang all over the dancefloor or showing you how to upcycle old tin cans into flower vases for your centre-pieces, you’ll be grateful.
Print your own invites
Sending out your invitations is the first official wedding duty after the initial planning stages, and it’s easy to get carried away with custom-made four-page personalised papercuts. But there are some great print-your-own options out there. Marks & Spencer offer a personalised invite service with a wide range of designs. Or if you have a creative friend who’s handy on Photoshop, consider asking them to create your design and then find a local printer who will give you a good rate. Remember you can always opt for a high-grade paper for the actual invite and bulk buy affordable envelopes to house them in. And consider an online RSVP service to save you including an extra card. You can set up a free wedding website at gettingmarried.co.uk and Paperless Post to house all the need-to-know information for your guests and where they can let you know they’re coming.
Scrap the DJ
How many weddings have you been to where the DJ is really, really great? Didn’t think so. And the handful of excellent event DJs charge big bucks. Dodge the cheese and avoid an end of night conga by hiring a good sound-system (many venues include this in their price – ask when you book) and make your own playlist. Make an evening of going through your music collection together and pick songs you both love for every stage of the day. Then ask a friend to play MC for the day and announce the speeches, first dance, cake cutting etc and keep an eye on the music. Spotify allows you to crossfade tracks so you won’t miss that pro DJ at all.
Karaoke is king
If you can’t afford (or agree on) a decent wedding band, consider having an hour set aside for karaoke to kick off the evening entertainment. Prep a couple of your friends to get up on the mic first and once everyone’s had a turn onstage you’ll find spirits will be high and the dancefloor will be packed all night. You can hire equipment at reasonable rates from sites such as Hire Karaoke and Popstarz Parties.
Make your lighting go further
If you’re having a multiple location wedding, lighting each venue can get expensive. Consider keeping the costs low by using tea lights in jars down the aisle and on your tables as centre-pieces. The enclosed flames are pretty and romantic and much safer than the open flames on grand silver candelabras. If you’re lighting a large space like a marquee, renting lighting can work out just as expensive as buying your own. Get a quote from your marquee company and several lighting-only competitors and check their rates against a site like Lights4Fun. They stock a great range of indoor and outdoor lighting options that you’ll be able to use in the home or garden after the wedding if you decide to invest.
It’s all about the accessories
If you’re keeping your wedding dress simple to save money, make sure you really sparkle by choosing stunning bridal accessories. A couture bridal headpiece is way more affordable that a couture dress but will have just as much wow-factor. Copenhagen-based designer Jannie Baltzar designs and makes the most stunning bridal veils and headpieces. There are some great budget bling options at Glitzy Secrets too, from pearly sparkling hair grips to statement bridal necklaces.
Thursday is the new Saturday
When you’ve decided on your venue, ask to hear their prices for weekdays and off-peak seasons. Is your venue mostly indoors? Then perhaps you could swap your July date for a cheaper November wedding. And Thursday weddings are becoming increasingly popular. Who doesn’t love an excuse to start the weekend two days early?
Sample sales
There are dozens of bridal sample sales nationwide every year, where end of season designs get marked down by 50% or more. But you don’t have to brave the crowds at big ticketed events to pick up brilliant savings. Many bridal boutiques sell their sample dresses at massive discounts – they don’t necessarily advertise this service or show the sale samples on the shop floor, so if you know which designers you love, ask around to see which retailers offer this service. There are also a lot of stand-alone sample dress sellers; search your local area before committing to a big budget dress – if you’ve got your heart set on a big name designer buying a sample is a great way to save thousands.
Booze
If you’re booking a venue where you can bring your own alcohol, check if they charge a corkage fee, as this can add up to £500 for your bill. This is a good negotiation point; so suggest you’ll sign on the dotted line if they waive this fee or absorb it into other costs. Once you’ve got the green light to stock up on your own booze, remember that at weddings, there’s no such thing as too much wine. It’s highly unlikely your guests will choose this moment to be fussy about which vintage of Merlot they are guzzling, so forgo your favourite grape for an extra couple of bottles for each table, and consider a booze cruise to France to stock up. When it comes to welcome drinks, Prosecco is more affordable than Champers, and cocktails are more affordable than both (if homemade) so consider cooking up a personalised wedding drink that can be served from pretty glass drinks dispensers on arrival.
Honeymoon
Do you really need 16 wine glasses, a cutlery canteen, and a silver-plated salt and pepper shaker? Consider doing away with the wedding list and asking people to contribute to the cost of your honeymoon – a lot of holiday companies will allow you to set up a fund with them that can be paid into directly, as some people prefer not to give you cash. If you’re opting for a beach-based break, go for an all-inclusive stay so that the total cost of your honeymoon is budgeted for and you won’t find yourself on a luxurious Caribbean beach with no spending money for a celebratory rum punch.
…PS. Don’t forget that the most important thing of all when it comes to wedding planning is free; the reason you’re doing it all – love. Don’t stress about whether or not your friends and family will be impressed by your four-tier wedding cake and the da Vinci-esque ice sculpture. Ditch the bits you can’t afford and just focus on making the day as special as you can for you and the love of your life. Enjoy!
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