A Credit Crunch Buster Wedding in France
How to beat the credit crunch when it comes to your wedding
Where there is a will there is a way. Every bride can be a princess bride in the dress of her dreams. There are lots of tips on saving money on your wedding if you really want that an impressive wedding.
With weddings being so notoriously expensive, finding a bargain or two can really lighten the financial load. Some brides believe
‘To spend thousands of pounds or end up in debt for a wedding which lasts a few hours is ridiculous.’
Negotiate with venues, change the day from a weekend to a weekday this will make a substantial saving. Use one supplier to do your venue and church decoration this can result in a saving as well. Look at suppliers websites see what they do, some companies only do one thing, use a company that does more than one thing and get a wedding package price. In these tough financial times a destination wedding package can be incredible value. Make sure you pick a venue that can offer flexible options with their wedding package.
When selecting your wedding location – for savings think destination wedding, weekday wedding, off season. Get married later in the day so you have less catering to provide to your guests.This will save you a bundle.
Brides can be quite clever when it comes to getting the look they want at the price they can afford. The whole idea is to keep things affordable without ever looking cheap. These are some ways that real brides have found to do just that.
Wedding dresses unless you are using a designer and having one specially made look in the wedding gown shops if you check the labels 90% of them are made in China so cut the cost go direct to there web site and order direct saving up to 70%. Yes it does work we had a friend of ours order her daughters prom dress and saved a fortune and it was the same dress they looked at in an expensive dress shop.
You can pick up a dress for next to nothing on eBay. Recently, one well publicised bride found an antique dress for only 5p.
Have a look on eBay for your wedding and bridesmaid dresses. You may think that the gowns will all be second hand and that you don’t want to fork out a few hundred quid on something you’ve not even tried on yet… BUT.. theire are brides out there who have managed to pick up their new wedding dress up on eBay from as low as £15 plus postage and packing.
One resourceful bride won the auction, and the seller sent her a form to send back all her measurements and any special requirements. Some have even bought lovely bridesmaid dress on eBay for her sister for £30. As it was an eBay shop, the seller has various dress sizes of the same style.
It may appear to be risky buying from an unknown seller, but check out their feedback… the more they have got the more you know how reliable the seller is. Check negative feedback before bidding.
Another bride had found the perfect dress on the internet – an ivory satin gown with diamante beading on the bodice – apart from the small matter of the £1,500 price tag.
Undaunted she managed to get her hands on it for a mere £2.50 courtesy of ebay.
She placed a rock-bottom bid for the Chinese-made gown on auction website eBay and was astounded when she won it.
As that was out of reach, she found an exact copy of it on eBay with no reserve price, and waited until the last moment to put in her bid.
‘There were no other bids so I thought I had nothing to lose by typing in £2.50,’ she said yesterday.
‘I got an e-mail back from a man in Shanghai who said he would make my dress for me, and asked for all my measurements. I thought that if the dress didn’t arrive within six weeks, I would have enough time to get another.’
Five weeks later she had heard nothing and began to get worried, however.
‘I was a bit nervous because I’m not very good with computers and thought I’d done something wrong,’ she said.
‘So I emailed to ask what was going on, and immediately received an apology – he was really busy with Chinese New Year celebrations.
‘He told me the dress was on its way and wished me luck with the wedding. He was very kind and helpful.’
Bargain hunter: Emma Dunn, who bought her brand new dress on eBay for £2.50
If you are good on a computer make your invites and wedding stationary yourself there are plenty of free programs you can use just buy some nice expensive paper and envelopes. Use the same program to do your order of service for the church and seating plans and place settings for your venue.
Flowers can be one of the most costly design elements for both your ceremony and reception. One way to cut back on the ceremony expenses is to forgo the traditional bouquets for the entire wedding party. That does not mean that your bridesmaids will have to walk down the aisle empty handed. A very elegant alternative is to have each attendant carry one single perfect flower instead of the big costly bouquets. Choose a flower that has a strong presence, such as a long stemmed rose or a fabulous lily.
Cakes are another place that a creative bride can save a little money. One thing that brides have been doing for years is to have the baker create a fairly small wedding cake to display, and then to make a large sheet cake in the same flavor. This way the bride and groom can still have the traditional cake cutting moment, but you will save an enormous amount on the price per person.
With wedding photography negotiate a price for digital images and arrange the printing and compilation of the wedding album yourself. Have disposable cameras left on your guests’ tables. You never know you might get some attractive shots that you can use.
