Lisa's Wedding On A Budget

Lisa wrote to me a while ago telling me about her wedding on a budget. She’s getting married in August this year and is having her ceremony in a registry office with a reception to follow for 130 guests. Her total budget, including her honeymoon is a staggering £3,400!

We live in Marske-by-the-Sea, just past Redcar in the North East. The registry office is in Guisborough and we’re having the reception and evening do at Marske Leisure Centre. It’s only cost £144 to hire all day and night and is decent size which holds approximately 150 people.

We’re having a buffet which is going to be normal buffet food of sliced cold meats, breads, salads and a fruit salad. A family friend is also providing a dressed salmon and the cake has been made by another friend.

We’ve decided not to have a toast as the venue was going to charge too much. So when after the ceremony we’re going to a spot called Cheshire Home to have some photos taken. We’ll be joined by some of the guests and have some champagne there. Later on there will be a disco and the DJ will be my old friend.

We saved loads on my wedding dress. I went around A LOT of wedding dress shops looking through the sale rail. I eventually found a dress I liked that should have been £675 and was reduced to £120 just because the pulley thing on the zip was missing. Can you believe it!?

In fact, my dress was from a fancy wedding dress boutique and I had always been put off by going in there. One day, I thought ‘oh, what the heck’ and I’m so glad I did. It saved me a fortune! It’s really worth looking in the sale rail!

My fiancé and his best man have hired their suits from Psyche in Middlesbrough for a total of £230. That includes everything from cufflinks to shoes!!! My little girl Holly is my bridesmaid and we found her dress in TK Maxx for £15.

I got virtually all my accessories from eBay. My shoes (£3.99) and tiara (£9) were amongst some of the purchases. eBay was also great for my favour boxes – I got little tuxedos for the men’s favour boxes. I have a friend that does made to order jewellery, so she charged me £15 for whatever I wanted.

We’re getting friends and family to help out a lot as well. My dad and brother are doing our photos and all the girls are getting together to make the favours. A few glasses of wine and should get most them done in an evening. We’ve bought some organza material and ribbon for £13 and the almonds are from the market!

I’m only having a bouquet for me and my maid of honour. I’m having cream and yellow roses with diamante strings for £13 and my maid of honour is having just cream roses with a diamante pins for £10. The buttonholes were only 99p each (see picture). Both have been bought off eBay. It’s amazing what you can do if you keep looking!

I got my stationery from Webbivory.co.uk. The invites were really cheap and 25% of the value of your order goes to charity as well. We got more invites from eBay which were £12 for 50 personalised post card invites.

Finally, our honeymoon will be in Zante, Greece. It’s an all-inclusive deal at the Hotel Margarita and I can’t wait!

Our one splurge was on a wedding car (£200) as we had saved so much on everything else.

Lisa’s best tips for a wedding on a budget are to keep searching for what you want – you’ll find it cheaper if you keep looking and get friends and family to help out too.

Read about other bride's real budget weddings:
Amy's Lancashire Wedding On A Budget
Caroline's Budget Wedding
My Wedding Under £5000
Melanie's Budget Wedding Under £5,000
Harriet's Cheap Wedding For Under £1,000
Hayley's Budget Beach Wedding For Under £6,000
Jane's DIY Wedding

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