Caroline's Budget Wedding
Caroline got married in Sheffield a few years ago now, but managed to keep her budget wedding under £5,500. One of her best tips is to think creatively and do as much as possible as you can yourself.
Caroline's story
We organized our budget wedding in around five weeks – and it was awesome! Truly the best day of my life. We had so much fun and in a way it was made all the better for knowing it didn't cost the earth - around £5,500 for a church wedding, 6 bridesmaids, 2 best men, 4 ushers, sit down meal for 120 guests, live band and dancing until early morning. My best advice for a budget wedding would be try making as much yourself in the time you’ve got available. You’ve got to be creative and I tried making tiaras out of twisted wire and beads, and creating confetti with a shaped hole punch (we had a butterfly shape). We even used Oxfam for our attendants gifts - we actually found some Sheffield pewter tankards for the boys and got them engraved. The venue and church
 We got married in a church and then later went on to our venue. We had a three course meal and wine for 26 people – the wedding party and close family only – at £840. Then we had a further 75 guests arrive for the evening do, so had a buffet for 100 people which cost £1,300. A good tip here is to under-cater if you’re having a buffet in the evening. Most people won’t have a full meal as they’ve already eaten! We still had loads of food left over, even under-catering by 20! Best of all, we got the venue free as the food bill was so high. So try negotiating that with your venue if they're doing the catering too! It's always worth asking. We had a Ceildh band (£360) which I’d highly recommend. It was so much fun and if you have a band, it doesn't feel a budget wedding! Then we made our own mix CD on our computer at home. It was played using the bar’s PA system and it worked brilliantly. We put it together using software called Nero, which allows you to blend and fade tracks into one another. The dresses and other outfits
My dress was from TK Maxx in the sale and a bargain at £25. The bridesmaid dresses were only £10 and also from TK Maxx. We had to go to 3 stores to find them all! The flower girl had a cute and fluffy little dress from Debenhams for £20 which we co-ordinated with the other bridesmaids using coloured ribbon. We hired the men’s suits from Debenhams as well. They were £385 and a bit of a splurge, but they looked great. Stationery and favours
We printed the orders of service, place cards etc at home on our printer. We just did an A4 sheet for the order of service and rolled it up like a scroll. It cost £5 for the ribbon, card, paper and ink. We bought the invites from Dunelm Mill and they were only £5. They were in fact a Marks and Spencer design, but Dunelm had them on offer. The thank you cards were a photo of us from the day with a message on the back. The favours for our budget wedding were only £10. We bought voile and sugary sweets, love hearts, candy letters etc from the local market. We wrapped the sweets in the voile for the girls and gave the boys chocolate cigarettes (25p/pack) – these were a big hit! Accessories and hair
We both bought new shoes. I had cute little sandals which cost me £7.50 and he spent £35 on a pair of shoes that would be used for work afterwards. My hair was paid for by a friend and I topped it off with a friend’s old wedding tiara as I needed something ‘borrowed’. For the bridesmaids, we made their tiaras and they turned out really well. For my underwear, I just spent £15 on something pretty and white from BHS. It made him smile. Flowers, cake and table decorations
The flowers in the church were done by the ladies from the church. A friend of a friend did the rest of the flowers for the venue, me and our mums. We spent £140 in total. Our table decorations were pretty little silk flowers from candle holders. These were then bunched together with voile to make our table decorations. We bought the cake from Marks and Spencer for £65. We decorated it with ready made sugar paste icing for about £10. We rolled out the icing and then used a stamp to make lilac butterflies. We borrowed the cake stand and then decorated it with the same silk flowers as tables. Gifts, transport and photography
For gifts we bought cheap gift baskets of smellies in the sales. For my maid of honour and sister I did something a bit more special – a photo album of us over the years. It was a really nice gift for my ‘best’ girls. We hired a car from a local funeral home for the day. They provided an excellent service and we had the car and driver for two hours for £100. They kindly decorated the car as well - free of charge. We used a recent graduate for the photos and gave him £60 to cover his costs. This was probably not the best idea as he took lots of out of focus shots and so it was a little disappointing. There are some good ones though and we ended up with 250 shots and he was there all day. My best hints and tips:
Talk to other brides about their budget weddings. Forums are a great way to get useful suppliers, especially for stationery, photographers and venues. I even got my veil from a bride on a forum! More importantly, think a bit creatively. Don’t just settle for what you first see – try and find a better or cheaper alternative. Try making your own things and doing as much yourself as possible. All in all our budget wedding was a truly fabulous day! I hope you enjoy yours too! Read about other bride's real budget weddings:
Amy's Lancashire Wedding On A Budget
Hayley's Budget Beach Wedding in Australia
My Wedding Under £5000
Melanie's Budget Wedding Under £5,000
Harriet's Cheap Wedding Under £1,000
If you'd like to feature as a case study on this site, why not contact me.
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