Harriet's Cheap Wedding Under £1,000

Harriet got married in April 2007 and had a cheap wedding for under £1,000. She had 65 guests at her reception and worked hard to keep her wedding on budget. Here's how she did it:

Harriet's cheap wedding tale

Deciding what's important

We did without the things we felt were unimportant. So we decided to save money by not having a professional photographer, flowers and wedding car. We also felt that anything we could do ourselves, we'd do. Presents and gifts from our guests were also not important; instead, we asked them to help out.

The two big tasks we gave to others were the catering, which my sister organised and a couple of friends who use photography in their job, did our wedding photos. Then we had loads of people help out with decorating the venue and laying out the buffet.

Our venue

We used our local village hall for our cheap wedding reception which cost us £18 for the evening! The morning of the wedding was fraught as we spent it decorating the hall. In retrospect, I would have liked to get some additional help and been a bit more organised with a proper 'to do' list. There were too few of us for to decorate the hall and set up the tables. Spending an extra £50 for 3 of the girls at my son's nursery would have been money well spent here.

We put up paper Chinese lanterns and some balloons and used table lamps as lighting with a couple of uplighters - all from home. The lighting in the village hall was harsh so you need some kind of softer lighting. The only downside was that the lighting can be dim for indoor home videos. Ours was truly grainy.

We bought banquet roll (£20 off eBay) to cover the scruffy tables. We then hired plain white crockery and nice cutlery (£100). Sainsbury's do free glass hire too - so that saved us a bit.

All in all when everyone arrived in their posh frocks they made the place look better. The plain, but classy laid out tables looked like a posh restaurant which was great as it detracted from the beige panels on the wall!

The food and drinks

Photo courtesy of Clare Jephott

We had a buffet which my sister looked after. It was pizzas, quiches, salads, garlic bread, dips, crisps, etc and roughly cost £350. My sister also made a 3 tier chocolate cake as pudding. We had the ceremony at 3pm to fit round the food storage/cooking needs and used friend's fridges so no food poisoning happened.

I would say an afternoon wedding is best because you don't have to lay on a lunch as well as evening meal.

Our drinks were bought on special offer from Sainsbury's. We got champagne at £10 a bottle in the run up to New Year and looked out for other supermarket deals on the wine we liked. We ended up with a £10 bottle of wine, reduced to £5. It was delicious and we spent about £200-£300 in total on our drinks.

If I had been really brave I would have said 'bring a bottle!' but so many people travelled a long way and were helping us out, it didn't seem right.

My wedding outfit

I got a wedding outfit in the January sales for £120. It was bought from several stores (Monsoon, Coast etc) and consisted of a bustier, shrug and silk skirt. I had to get it altered for £60. So if you find something you like that's cheaper in the sales and it's a size too big, buy it anyway and get it altered!

The music

We didn't have a DJ. Instead we made compilation CDs and my hubby used his own audio equipment. Friends also loved making us compilations of their best party music too.

All in all we had the wedding we wanted and invited everyone we wanted. The best aspect of the reception was we had the space to ourselves, which you don't get in a hotel as there will always be other guests milling around. I would also have felt constrained with waiters and fancy table settings.

The downside to our type of cheap wedding is you need to set the hall up yourself and tidy up the next day but if you plan ahead and get help it will minimise stress on the day.

Other cheap wedding stories:

Lindsay's Real Budget Wedding
Amy's Northern Wedding On A Budget
Hayley's Budget Beach Wedding Under £6,000
Caroline's Budget Wedding Under £5,500
My Wedding Under £5,000
Melanie's Budget Wedding Under £5,000
Lisa's Wedding On A Budget In The North East
Jane's DIY Wedding
Heather's Budget Wedding Under £500
Nicole's Maltese Wedding For Under £3,500
Sharon's Budget Wedding Under £2,000
Tracey's £600 DIY Wedding
Liz and Anthony's £4,000 Wedding
Sarahs Wedding Under £1,500
Sharzilla's 1940s Themed Cheap Wedding

Why not tell other readers how you managed on your budget? Contact me.

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