How I Saved Thousands On My Wedding

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Wedding money saving tips

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Right from the beginning of my wedding planning eighteen months ago, I was determined that I would do my absolute best to keep the costs as low as possible. Of course, I wanted the day to be beautiful, but our budget was small and I didn’t want us to still be paying it off for years after it was over.

Essentially, I wanted it to be as cheap as possible, but I didn’t want it to LOOK cheap.

The problem is, the minute the word ‘wedding’ is mentioned, the prices of everything are automatically increased and there are numerous places that aren’t always upfront about their total prices – we discovered that there were lots of hidden costs in all sorts of different areas.

The key to saving money lies in forward planning, lots of research, asking for help, being patient and shopping around. It also helped that we had a long engagement, giving us sufficient time to work out what we wanted and how much we were prepared to budget for it.

Here’s how I have saved THOUSANDS on my wedding.

I didn’t have a hen party. Many of my friends and family were incensed, I still think it’s the best decision I made! Saved me a fortune and I’ve not had to organise anything extra…

We didn’t send out ‘Save the Dates.’ Those who were invited got a Facebook or text message informing them of the date. Not particularly classy, but saved a lot of money on pointless cards and postage.

I got the invitations from an independent company – Confetti Designs – in the UK that I found online. As a result I paid a lot less, I could speak to the company owner directly and the results were stunning. Rather than sending all of the invitations out via post, we ordered the invitations 6 months in advance and only posted the ones who lived outside of Birmingham. With ordering them so early, it meant that we had time to give the invitations out as and when we saw family, friends and colleagues over the following few months. With the standard Second Class stamp now costing 56p each, we saved about £30 by doing this.

We have kept the guest list as small as possible. If there was a bigger budget then more people would have been invited, but as the food is the biggest cost for the day I had to work to what we could afford and we have had to be ruthless. There are 40 invited for the ceremony and meal, and a further 20 invited for the evening, and we predominantly followed the rule of no children, no partners. I worked out that there are 35 kids between all of my friends, and with long-term colleagues I also realised that my relationship was with them – in some cases I had known them for years but had only met their husbands and partners once (if that). I also didn’t add a +1 to my single friends invitations, and this saved about a hundred spaces overall, thus saving thousands on the food bill. I felt awkward, but I explained the situation to my friends and not a single person complained – most have stated that they are grateful for the child-free time and only a few were slightly put out that they couldn’t bring their partner, but they accepted it all the same and have been supportive.

I have done the centrepieces myself. I asked all of my friends to save me their glass jars from food items they have bought over the last year – preserves, sauces etc – and I went to the Rag Market in Birmingham and purchased materials such as lace, ribbon and burlap for about £20. I also bought some mason jars from a local store for about £15. Consequently, I now have about a hundred jars for the centrepieces and decoration for about £35, but I haven’t needed to use half of the materials I bought, so I could have actually spent a lot less – I worked out that I could probably have done the whole lot for about £25.

For inexpensive matching Mason Jarsyou can find some here…

It is also possible to find some beautiful lacehere for a ridiculously reasonable price…

We are having a hot knife and fork buffet instead of a three-course set meal saving £26 per person (although, if we wanted to go for the top package they offer it would have cost us an extra £47.50 per person!!) With the hot buffet, the guests are still in a seating plan, but they have a choice of three different dishes for the main meal – two meat and a vegetarian – and a dessert, which means that all dietary requirements are covered, I haven’t had to mess about with lots of different orders for different people and our food cost has been half that of a standard wedding breakfast. In the evening, we are having a hog roast, which is much cheaper than a separate buffet and canapés etc.

Our photographer is a blogger and friend, and he is very kindly covering the whole day for a fraction of the price that most wedding photographers charge, saving us hundreds of pounds.

Instead of spending a fortune on a wedding cake, we have bought a Marks and Spencers single tier cake for £35 that we can use for the ceremonial cutting of the cake bit, and our friend is making us a cupcake tower for free as a wedding present (and she makes the best cupcakes ever – it’s a win-win situation!).

The bridesmaids dresses were bought in the end-of-season sale for £90 each, and my dress was purchased from Wed2Be – brand new but last season and off-the-rack – for less than £600. I am not wearing a veil, instead using a large silver clip at the back of my hair instead. The bridesmaids are supplying their own shoes and accessories. Since then, I have discovered that there are whole host of absolutely stunning dresses to be found on eBay from the same designer as my dress for only a few hundred pounds, and many of them haven’t been worn.

I have also made the seating cards myself – The Bloke managed to get about 300 old keys from a business that was throwing them away for free. I cleaned the keys and bought card luggage labels and some bows from Hobbycraft, meaning that I have a set of gorgeous seating cards for less than £7.

You can find some gorgeous Vintage Keyshere…

We have purchased an enormous amount of flowers for the venue and centrepieces from a wholesale warehouse in Birmingham for less than £80. I worked out that if we had ordered the same amount from a florist we would have been charged almost three times the price.

You can also find some beautiful Artificial Flowershere – I love this 10 pcs tulip set

The bridesmaids and I are doing our own make-up – both my youngest sister and I are make-up addicts and have quite an extensive collection of products between us, so we are going to do each other’s make-up and my mum’s too!

We haven’t hired a DJ or any musicians for the ceremony and reception. Instead, we have done a playlist on an iPod and we’re using that instead. This means that we can guarantee the music that we dance to is music that we like, and we’ve saved about £400.

For my something borrowed, my friend offered to lend me her wedding shoes (which fit beautifully and match my dress perfectly) and I’m wearing a necklace that belongs to my mum. This means I haven’t had to buy shoes or extra jewellery.

eBay has become my friend. My sister found a brilliant set of photobooth props and a lovely sign with an easel for a total of £12. I also found a stunning blue garter that was half the price of numerous high street stores.

Instead of doing individual favours for everyone, I have created a sweet table. My sister found a company on eBay that does printed small paper bags with our names on them, so they will be placed on the tables. I am using the sweet jars that my friend had for her wedding, and then I will sell them afterwards and give her the money back. I am buying sweets in bulk at a cost of about £3 a box, totalling about £18.

The biggest expense by far has been from the venue and we have managed to cut small things that have saved hundreds from the final bill. We are paying corkage instead of using the wine from the venue. Would you believe that our venue charges nearly £20 for a standard bottle of wine? Even for corkage they are charging £9.00 + VAT PER BOTTLE, but we can buy nice wine in bulk and still pay less. The venue also attempted to charge us several hundred pounds to give everyone a glass of Bucks Fizz, so instead we are just opening the bar as soon as the ceremony ends. We are also not having chair covers, and aren’t serving canapés – the wedding starts later in the afternoon and the food is served an hour after the ceremony so nobody is going to be waiting around for hours.

For the extra decorations, my friend who has recently got married very generously gave me a crate of her left-over craft supplies containing things like scrabble tiles, photo frames, natural confetti etc. We are now using the crate for wedding cards and I worked out that they had saved me about £50 in things that I would have purchased in the last few weeks leading up to the wedding.

You can find some lovely Wooden Tiles that can be used for crafty ideas here…

After totalling everything up, we have managed to create a (hopefully) beautiful wedding for 60 people and I worked out that we have managed to save more than £5,000 for a standard wedding of this size based on prices I have seen on numerous websites and across high street stores. However, if I’d have known then what I know now I probably could have saved several thousand more… More on that at a later date.

And here’s the thing that most people don’t consider when planning their wedding – I am going to sell as much as possible on eBay afterwards!

What about you guys? Have you got any money saving tips when planning a wedding?

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to follow my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks

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95 thoughts on “How I Saved Thousands On My Wedding”

  3. Sounds wonderful! Cannot wait to hear all about your beautiful day. Our daughter had 30 people at her wedding and still people say it was the most romantic wedding they have ever been to. Well done you!
    Cathi

  5. Yay for your money saving tips! I felt the same way when we got hitched.

    – We wrangled a venue for free. It is an awesome old working barn in our village. The owners said we could use it if we cleaned it out. It took four weekends to clear out the rubbish and cover it in fairy lights but i LOVED it. In the end we bought the owners new patio furniture to say thank you, and gave them loads of wine.

    – Dad went to France to visit my sister and buy looooads of wine. We also bought tonnes of pimms, and alcohol for cocktails whenever there were sales on booze. Then we bought a keg of beer and one for old rosie cider. This meant we managed a free bar for everyone…and we didn’t have to buy wine or prosecco for a year after the wedding!

    – I didn’t send out save the dates or invitations(!)
    We made a website, then e-mailed invites to everyone. Then I could check up with people on facebook and over e-mail to see if they’d received them.

    • That’s amazing that you were able to negotiate that did you know the farm/barn owners ahead of time?! Haha did you have to help any technology challenged relatives with RSVPing or checking the website? We had to call people up on the phone to track down their meal options.

      • Yep, the owners used to use the barn more often before it slowly filled up with junk. I played the violin in concerts there when I was younger. It was my mum that was cheeky enough to ask them though!

        OMG, I just thought of another cheeky saving. My mum saw one of the blokes in the village had a really beautiful car, so she asked him if he’d be up for driving me to the wedding. He was really chuffed to be asked, and did it for free.

        A year later he set up a new business driving people to their weddings as he has a couple of pretty cars.

      • Wow your mom is awesome! That’s great she asked! Haha it kickstarted a side business for him. We did something similar where my husband’s father loves tinkering and restoring vintage cars so we used a beautiful green Monte Carlo for our getaway car.

  9. Congrats Suzie! The invitations look really pretty. Was the one you have pictured the design you guys chose? Haha I’m assuming that’s just the preview/default text from the random names. I’ve never actually used Ebay to resell anything but what items were you thinking of reselling aside from the dress? I hear you about doing your own makeup (haha all those years of makeup addiction paid off) that’s what I did for mine. Would love to see some pics as well if that’s not too much of an invasion. You can e-mail me if that’s easier?

    For mine:
    – We skipped the open bar (GASP), but let everyone know ahead of time on our FAQ page. It was on a Sunday afternoon anyway.
    – Venue package included invitations, cake and floral centerpieces
    – Haggled with wedding coordinators at venue to receive complimentary ceremony on site (saved $900+tax)
    – Uncle officiated wedding
    – Cousin offered to DJ for a nominal fee for equipment rental
    – Went to bridal show and won engagement package so we received a discount on total wedding photo & videography cost
    – Purchased dress online and got a great deal when combined with a coupon code
    – Skipped veil and opted for fascinator on sale, shoes also on sale
    – Skipped bouquets & boutonnieres, or wedding favors (our floral centerpieces weren’t looking too good after Day 2 anyway)
    – Bridal shower was hosted at Mother in Law’s house

  10. My money saving tip means you have to live a few hours driving time from Las Vegas or Reno, Nevada. Then you invite any friends you want to be witnesses to join you in Las Vegas hoping they show up on their own dime for a fast wedding followed by a show, a buffet, and some gambling.

  14. Well done Suzie! We’re just back from my daughter’s wedding in Fiji, it was spectacular but very small and intimate. We also made lots of concessions to reduce the costs and it was all great fun. Enjoy yourself it goes by too quickly!

  15. My entire outfit, top to toe, and that of my bridesmaids, came from a charity shop. l sold my dress afterwards for more than I’d paid for the whole lot. The wine came unbottled and by the gallon, we made oll the floral arrangements and bouquets with bulk flowers from the market and grandad baked and iced the cake while me and my mother did the food. The car was a huge, white, American classic a friend filled with flowers and made road-legal for the day as his gift, while another did all the photography. We did the music ourselves too and decorated the venue with fresh flowers. In today’s tems, the total cost, including the church, was around £500. I never saw the point of spending a huge amount on a wedding when it is the marriage that should matter, not a single day.

  17. These are great tips. We used man of these tips when we got married last year. The only big expense was that I hired an Elvis impersonator to sing in the evening but it was worth it to see the look on my husband’s face. Your centrepieces and seating cards look beautiful. I was I was that creative!

  18. Both myself and my partner have been married before, when we eventually get round to it (hopefully next year) we have already made the decision to go to the registry office with 2 witness and both boys and its done, then hire out a hall, with a friend DJ doing the set (he is unaware of this as yet, but I am sure my subtle hints are going well) and some sort of fish and chip meal, no mention of weddings to anyone and have a massive party, to also make it as cheap as possible we are going to buy x amount of wine and suggest people bring their own bottles as well. I literally have no shame in doing this

  19. Excellent. We did so much of this for our wedding too. I mean do chair covers really make a difference to how one enjoys their wedding day? It’s ridiculous how much people spend on their weddings these days.

  22. It’s amazing how many of these Kirsty and I have already looked into… Things like “Save the Date” cards make me wonder who on earth still even needs them? They’re a useless expense!

    The one thing we’re current in two minds about is the DJ… It’d be so nice to have all the lights, and have someone in charge of the music, but it’s an extra £1200ish and, well, that’s money!

    • Every couple is different, but I’m absolutely telling you that most of what you want is 1. not necessary and 2. can be done in a ridiculously cheap way. If you need any names of good companies i used let me know! I certainly know you can find a DJ for a third of that!

  24. Well done you way too much is spent on weddings these days. Your wedding sounds like ours… We even swept up after ours. Anyhow it is the rest of your lives that matters not just on day.💜💜

  26. You’ve done a wonderful job, Suzie. I can’t wait for the photos. We also did some of what you did, but my daughter’s wedding was still a budget buster- we had 180 guests. The flowers we could not get on the cheap because the wedding site insisted on using their florist, so we did a ton of baby’s breath. Can’t wait!

  27. My money saving tip includes an elopement– it was the second marriage for both of us. But with my first wedding, I only paid 300.00 for my brand new wedding dress from a bridal shop (no veil, no beads, no lace and no train really reduces the price of a gown.) We had the reception at a local hall, my father (who was a chef) made the meal and hired two waitresses who worked with him to ensure the buffet ran smoothly. We stocked a bar with top-shelf liquors but didn’t hire a bartender, it was “serve your own.” My cousin hired the DJ as a wedding gift. And my reception was so fun, no one wanted to leave the party. Luckily, we had the hall all night. We did have flowers and bouquets done by a florist, but I grew up next door to the florist and they were friends of my parents so we got them at a steep discount. All of that was for a wedding with 200 invited guests who all received the old-fashioned traditional wedding invitation. My total came in around 5000.

    • Wow that sounds incredible! Looking back now it’s over, I could have easily got away with inviting another 20-30 people as there was more than enough food to go around and that was the biggest problem for our guest list

  28. Probably the biggest benefit of having a Chef for a father was that he was used to putting on banquets for 200 or more. He had the food down to a T. There was some left over, but not much.

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  30. This blog post is a must read for all bride to be as weddings are now becoming more and more expensive. Being creative and practical helps lower the spending cost. I will need to go back to this when the right moment comes. Will be looking forward for more wedding saving tips.

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  33. We did a lot of similar things we designed our own invitations save the dates and order of service. My parents made our favours and we worked together with my inlaws to put together the order of service.

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