5* Med Wed For Less Than £3000

by Nicole Cooper
(Wolverhampton)

I got married in Malta two weeks ago and it was a fantastic and truly memorable occasion! it involved a ceremony in a historic location followed by a champagne and canapes and a michelen starred meal!

From the start I decided that I wanted to make the invitations myself and in each package I included a luggage tag with the details of where we were staying.

We didn't intend on having so many guests but we chose Malta as my husbands family live in cyprus and all my friends are cabin crew so we wanted a destination accessable to everyone. We saved money here too as in Malta you don't have to pay for documents to be translated and you only have to be resident for two days. We told friends we didn't want presents just presence! and their photos would be a great gift as we didn't want to pay a photographer.

We booked the cheapest package we could through a tour operator. Upgraded the venue and the biggest extravagance was a vintage bus to take us to the ceremony with our guests so no wedding cars!

I negotiated drinks packages, canapes and a menu with the hotel itself and found this to be very reasonable. I actually chose the cheapest menu option and nobody noticed. My husband wore an M&S linen suit and I wore a dress and matching shoes from Boden that I bought when they were on offer for £180 - the whole outfit! I boosted the bouquet by "borrowing" flowers from the hotel garden! I also did my own hair and make up.
* Outfits £400.00
* Venue, registrar & paperwork, flowers and cake £200
* Bus hire £200.00
* Room hire for reception including candles & petals on table £150.
* 3 course meal for 25 including drinks £575.00
* Favours and gifts £60
* Bride & Groom flights and accommodation £1200
* Stationery and postage £25.00

My friends booked cheap flights and found hotels for £20.00 a night. Making the costs of attending the wedding similar to what they would have been here. We made guests feel very welcome. My parents met all the guests at the airport and left welcome cards in the hotel rooms. I work in a shopping centre and negotiated discount from one of our tenants on the favours. The hotel were great and we got all sorts of extras.

My best friends clubbed together to fund champagne and canapes (£300) as a gift which was lovely and instead of confetti my sister in-law bought fake flower leis from a local shop which was a bit of a giggle and added a lot of colour to the day!