I'm not usually known to be frugal, but when a part-time marketing consultant/copywriter and a full-time heating engineer decide to tie the knot they have to take into account a distinct lack of funds. For J and I, you can also include a distinct lack of willing benefactors.
A little internet resarch revealed the fact that my dream wedding - a marquee on Temple Island for 150 guests, free flowing booze, fine dining, loads of flowers etc would only be a reality for me if I robbed a bank, sold a kidney or reconciled myself to 5-10 years worth of paying off a loan. For just one day (albeit a very special one)? No way, Jose.
Our limited resources haven't been too restrictive though. We've just had to focus more on what's really important for us. Which is: a fab honeymoon and a great party. Oh, and I expanded that criteria recently to include a Red-Carpet-Oscar-Winner-Dress. A girl has got to be a goddess on her wedding day, naturellement.
My dress is a Mireia Bisbe (Spanish designer) raspberry red and was way over my budget. That is, until I bargained the Back Room Girls down by £200 and my lovely friend, Anton offered to put £250 towards it as a wedding present. Bless his cotton socks.
Did I mention my sweet, silver shoes were on sale at New Look? I spend per week more on cappucinnos than I did on them. They look great.
My lovely flower girls will be in Monsoon dresses. So pretty. Their posies are from Ebay.
My arty friend is doing my make-up, both for the ceremony and for the party. I'm eschewing the Aston Martin for my clapped out Golf.
The wedding invitations were free to do - we set up a Facebook event page and invited everyone via that. Our guests can use the page to upload photos and videos after the event. For those resisting signing up to Facebook, we just emailed them the info.
We have no official photographer, but have invited the Henley Standard photographer to come - they've agreed.
Our ceremony will be just one witness each plus Els and my niece, Sulis, at Henley Registry Office. We'll then all go to Michelin-starred The Hand In Flowers for lunch which we'll go dutch on. J and I will spend our wedding night in their Angus Suite. Our night of decadence.
As for the party. Well, the Village Hall at Nettlebed is a real find. Yes it is a Village Hall but no it isn't lacking in atmosphere. It's wood panelled and has a bar. Better still, it's only £200 to hire for the evening. Bargain.
Instead of a wedding present, we're asking friends to bring a 'pot luck' buffet dish and money to spend on themselves at the bar. Sarada, who is a wonderful cook, has offered to make the cake. I've asked for carrot cake. Not a traditional choice, but then I'm not really a traditional kinda gal.
For decorations, I'm planning on red and white helium balloon clusters - bunched together with ribbon and weighted a bit like the ones here. We'll get a kit and create them ourselves. Candleson the tables for a twinkly effect, but these ones so we don't burn the place down.
Music will either be our friends DJ-ing (one of them is happy to lend us her decks, another has some booming speakers, and at least 3 of our friends are fairly good DJs), or playlists we'll line up on J's Ipod.
Entertainment? Well, that's the best bit.
My good friend does a Burlesque Fire Hoola-Hooping show (for festivals and corporate gigs) and she's willing to perform for free on the huge, secluded lawn at the back of the venue. We're keeping that one a secret - apart from warning friends with kids in case they want to shield the little dears from nipple tassles and suspenders - so shhh..don't tell ;-)
I also fancy getting some of these and asking guests to launch them after the Hoola-Hoop show, as a nice finale.
Total cost? Way, way, way less than the traditional wedding. With rings, excluding honeymoon, I reckon about £1,500. Good eh?
This post was written by Anna Colette, a Thames Valley Mum of one who is getting married in March. You can read more at her blog, Part Mummy, Part Me.
Photo credit: Thomas Hawk
A total cost of £1500 is brilliant. And I love the idea of using a Facebook events page. Ingenious! Good luck with your preparations although it sounds as if you have most angles covered.
Posted by: Rosie Scribble | 28 February 2009 at 21:17
Sounds fantastic! Think we spent about that, too, and had a perfect day with a great party. I also spent more on my dress than any of the other components. And, even though I've only worn it twice (had a second reception up in Scotland for hubby's relatives), it was definitely worth it and exactly the dress I wanted which happened to be on sale with £400 off. We did all the food ourselves, with the help of various relatives and their ovens. And we only spent about £200 on the honeymoon as we got almost £1000 in money gifts from our guests (requested money towards honeymoon, or nothing, as we'd been living together for 7 years already and had everything we needed).
Your friend's Burlesque Fire Hoola-Hooping show sounds amazing.
I think it's very possible to have a wonderful day and not break the bank and am always quite shocked at the £20,000 average wedding price tag that I see bandied about the press.
Posted by: Coding Mamma | 01 March 2009 at 07:49
what a great idea - have you worked out cost of paying full price for everything? it would be quite a big sum. my favourite weddings are always the ones with a personal touch an not a sniff of the bridezilla about them. I hope it goes well
Posted by: nixdminx | 04 March 2009 at 21:22
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Posted by: Maui Weddings | 28 July 2009 at 07:45