Here are more great tips for keeping the wedding day budget manageable:
Dress – the flowing white gown is still popular today but many have started to vary it with a suit or dress that can be worn on other occasions. If you are still steadfastly traditional then hire your dress instead and get the bridesmaids to pay for their dress. Children’s outfits can be reasonably priced at around £20.00.
The magazines are full of all the glitz, glamour and decadence of celebrity weddings and the shocking price tags that go with it. However if you are a couple saving up to get married in the UK the thought of clocking up a £10,000 bill by the time the big day is over might be enough to put you off.
It’s always one of the more stressful parts of arranging a wedding. I’m not talking about the flowers or the dresses and suits. I’m talking about the food. There’s just so much to think about, varying diets, who’s going to cook the food, any catering equipment that has to be rented and much more.
Following on from our previous article and looking great for the big day we focused on diet and exercise but this isn’t the full picture. According to beauty therapist Joanne Leah:
“It’s important to cleanse, tone and moisturise every day to get rid of any impurities.”
No matter where you are up to in the planning of your wedding there are steps you can put in place to improve how radiant you will look on the big day. These include general improvements to diet, skin cleansing and your lifestyle. With a few tweaks you can make sure you really are the centre of attention that day!
When organising your wedding there are a multitude of things to consider and the entertainment for your guests is a major one. If you want to create a focal point for your guests to meet and relax at then a chocolate fountain is a great choice.
Brides and grooms across the nation are following a new craze in which they and their wedding party perform their wedding song for the camera.
The trend dubbed ‘Marryoke’ is currently livening up wedding videos and DVD’s all over the country.
One couple who have taken part in it are newly weds Andrew and Caroline Caotes. Hey performed to ‘That’s How You Know ‘ from the hit movie Enchanted at their recent wedding in their home town of Dewsbury, Yorkshire.
33 year old Andrew said:-
“When we were planning the wedding I really didn’t want to go for all the traditional stuff like the photos and music and the cheesy, staged video.
Originally we wanted to get married in Disneyland but we realised that wasn’t going to work because some of the elderly guests would struggle to get there.
But we still wanted to do something a bit more fun and a bit different.”
The unique wedding production features the newly weds as the main characters but also includes the remainder of the wedding party as the supporting players.
Caroline aged 26 said:-
“It was fantastic and really made the day.
We put notes on the seats at the wedding ceremony explaining what everyone would be doing in the video.
It went brilliantly because everyone felt involved. My grandpa picked up his trumpet for the first time in years and plays it in the film.
I teach four to five year olds and after the wedding I took the video into school. My pupils loved it - and for a while they thought I was a real Princess!”
In order to recession proof their nuptials, many couples are choosing to design and create their own wedding invitations.
One craft shop in Morningside in Edinburgh revealed that the dramatic upturn in demand for materials to create DIY wedding invitation had facilitated an increase in sales of almost one third over the past three months.
The company, Daintree Paper offers a wide range of materials and even offers over the counter advice on making wedding invitations.
Daintree Papers Manager Stephen McMahon commented:-
“You can cut costs in half, or even less on top of that if you want to want to make them the cheapest possible way.
In the last six months in particular there has been a definite swing in the level of business we are getting. Saving money is one of the biggest reasons for people making their invitations themselves.
We have had quite a few customers saying they want to cut back on costs and they are always delighted at how much they can save. Weddings are notoriously expensive so if people can cut back on some of that then they will, especially now.”
One local bride to be, Laura Calder revealed that she had saved somewhere in the region of £500 by making her own wedding invitations. She said:-
“It’s a fair saving and it means we can make it a bit more personal as well.”
One of the focal points of any wedding reception is the wedding cake.
Before you decide on which vendor you are going to use, there are a number of questions that a bride to be should have answered in order to make an informed decision regarding which cake designer will get her business.
Here is a short list of questions to ask any vendor before making your decision.
The worldwide credit crunch doesn’t yet appear to have deterred couples in the UK from tying the knot, but as global predictions for the 2009 economy hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, many couples are sure to be asking themselves if it makes financial sense to marry at the moment.
But even in a struggling economy it is possible to have a wedding without sending your finances into a cold sweat, and the good news is that a stylish wedding needn’t necessarily be a hideously expensive one.
A simple tip is to make sure that the bride and groom look good, making sure that the focus of the day is on them, and keep the remainder of the wedding clean and simple. Remember the old adage less is more? Well now is a great time to apply that proverb and an uncomplicated and simple ceremony will likely be remembered as elegant.
Planning your wedding during a recession might even save you money! As others prepare to extend their engagements and postpone their nuptials, it is likely that wedding vendors will be more open to negotiations in order to secure your business, and there will be deals to be had. Venues are likely to be more flexible where dates are concerned, and again some will even reduce their prices in order to fill their calendars.