Fabulous freebies: magazines

Fabulous freebies: magazines.

Alternatives to a veil

Whilst a veil may be traditional they are certainly not compulsory. It all depends on the style of your dress and how formal/informal your wedding is.

Just because you dont go for a veil, doesn’t mean you need to miss out on headgear all together though. There are some great alternative (and budget!) options

Dahlia fashion in london have some gorgeous vintage headbands that would set off an informal boho/retro dress beautifully

gorgeous headbands from http://www.dahliafashion.co.uk

Or, for a more informal trendy wedding, why not try a birdcage veil, like these from Lily Bella (starting at a very reasonable £14.99)

gorgeously stylish- from http://www.lilybella.co.uk

Personally, my dress had enough detail, so I just went for a combination of flowers

Sometimes a few flowers or a clip is just right

False economies- when DIY blows the budget

It’s really easy when planning a big event like a wedding to get caught up in the whirlwind of amazing DIY ideas. I check out new stuff on stumbleupon (great site if you like inspiration) all the time and often post ideas up on my blog.

BUT, since I’m all about budgets- a key piece of advice is not to forget to ‘cost’ your DIY projects. Some things may seem cute, and because you’re making stuff yourself you think it’s somehow ‘cheap’ or ‘free’. Not so. You are also only human and can’t do everything.

The cost of DIY projects can soon mount up

Here are two of the top ‘homemade bank-breakers’:

Invitations:

I was very tempted to get arty crafty with ours- but then I added up the costs. Blank Cards and envelopes for 150 invites + embellishments to go on top would come to at least £50-£100, maybe more depending on what kinds of cards/ patterns/materials you use (and that’s before you factor in the time taken to stick everything together). Our Vistaprint invites were free + P&P.

The same can be said for other stationery (service sheets/name tags) There may be cheaper options than getting tied up with ribbon and covered in glitter.

Homemade favours- Pots of jam/chutneys etc

There’s been a recent trend in giving home made treats as favours- which I think is both lovely and admirable. However- before you plan to slave over a preserve pan, don’t kid yourself that you are saving money. Sure- this will be a thoughtful and cute gift for your guests, but once you factor in the money for sugar, fruit, preserving kits and most importantly the jam pots themselves- this is not a budget option and it will take TIME. You are potentially looking at more than £2.50 per guest, which if you’re having lots of people really starts to add up. (Our favours were around £1.20 per guest, and included a £1 charity donation)

Don’t get me wrong here- I absolutely love crafty touches- and have saved lots of money on a few, like making my bouquet for example. I also really enjoy the process, so if you are one of those people who loves jam making, maybe you’ll relish (pardon the pun!) the chance to make up a mega batch to bless your guests.

Just be aware of what the real costs are before you get knee deep in sugar, chutney and glue.

More delightful craftiness- A bit of Doily love!

I am sorely tempted to have a go at this wonderful idea from ‘more design please’. Its a variation on old school balloon papier mache but with a delicate twist- using doilies!

From http://www.moredesignplease.com

Instant cheap shades- with a cute vintage look! you could do them in different sizes and maybe even colours. I LOVE the possibilities here and if I’d have seen this before my wedding it would have been high on the ‘must try’ list.

I discovered recently that doilies can also be used to make very effective and pretty bunting. Here seen on greentreegoods, but having made some (slightly more traditional looking) myself recently- watch this space for a step by step bunting ‘how to’.

Doily-bunting from greentreegoods.blogspot.com

Beautiful birds nests and other such crafty things

Beautiful birds nests for beautiful bridesmaids maybe?

I adore these gorgeous necklaces featured on Sarah Ortega’s fabulous blog. Some DIY jewellry seems overly complicated and I can’t contemplate trying- but these are both simple and delightful!

The raw materials are really cheap too- so the final pieces should literally cost pence not pounds- fitting in with any budget. The value in these is the look and the thought that goes behind it. They are unique and thoughtful gifts that people will treasure.

Check out her blog for a full how to and maybe make your bridesmaids/friends smile with a little bit of classy homemade bling.

Lovely locks by ‘hair romance’

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how to look a million dollars on a budget. I mentioned there that I had a talented friend to do my hair- but, bride or not, what if you want  to get a stunning look yourself for free?

I’ve found this fabulous blog for any girls (brides or otherwise) wanting to get the perfect twist and pin look for a special occasion.

From http://www.hairromance.com

Aussie, Christina takes you through hundreds of chic styles step by step in her easy to access ‘hairromance’ blog. Even if you dont fancy doing it yourself there is tonnes to inspire any bride to be- especially as it doesn’t major on ‘wedding hair’ and just covers simple, beautiful styles.

I can’t wait to try some of them out!

Getting the look- clown style

I know lots of people have gorgeous delicate decor at their weddings, and in lots of ways, it would have suited me too- but when we came up with the ‘theme’ for our wedding, it was our joint love of fun and laughter that drew us to a colour scheme that would reflect BOTH our personalities.

Taking inspiration from the primary colours in Michael’s froggle suit and my ‘clown and bride’ cake toppers we went for a bright and joyful feel. As one person on the day put it- ‘This is just the essence of fun!’

The 'essence of fun' colour scheme

The service was in our church St Helen’s, a lovely traditional building that needed minimal decorating. We just used the wooden roses to wind around pillars and some paper flowers made by a friend at the end of the pews.

At the reception, we had 150+ guests for a sit down meal, in tables of 10-12 with one very large ‘top table’ (something I will blog about at a later date). We were in another large old church building, but couldn’t fix anything to the  walls or pillars due to venue regulations.

Our decorating solutions?

1. Bright bold colours (using florestry spiders web as table runners) toned down with neutrals and cream

2. Home grown flowers- My auntie’s friend grew tulips in her allotment that flowered around the time of the wedding and she kindly made table decorations for us with these

3. We also used the left over wooden flowers (in 50p vases from Ikea), and helium balloons in blue red and yellow to complete the colourful feel.

4.Homemade paper flowers for the church pews

Total decoration costs for both church and reception? Under £100!

Eco- wedding food?

How can we help you?

Can you be green on a budget? Often it feels like the ethical options come at a premium, so we were delighted to find a wonderful catering company who manage to combine eco with value.

“How can we help you” is run by a lovely man called Darren, and we were attracted to them because

a) They were offering very good value paella options

b) They were (unlike many catering companies) very upfront on their website about their costs and exactly what those costs included (no hidden extras)

c) When Darren came to cook for us it tasted AMAZING

d) They donate 10% of your bill to your chosen charity (added to our red nose day donations, this meant hundreds of pounds of our wedding costs went to good causes)

e) They have a gold eco-award, meaning they’ve been audited and go the extra mile to recycle, use local produce and to invest back into the community.

With all this going for them and for a cut price deal (we got a discount due to our high numbers) per head, we started to wonder what to catch was. Would something go terribly wrong??? Surely this was too good to be true?!

They were, it has to be said, late setting up the night before, but on the day the food and the service were faultless. We’d HIGHLY recommend!

Looking back at the photos even now makes me ravenous!!

Fabulous food!

 

…and noses are red too

which isn’t a comment about colds or alcoholics!

We decided that rather than go for sugared almonds or other kinds of overpriced table favours, we wanted to do something charity related. But a little piece of paper saying “a donation has been made in your name” whilst commendable,  somehow didn’t feel majorly fun.

The solution?

we did something ‘funny for money’ and raided our local Sainsburys for 150 red nose day noses (bought before the March deadline).

We put them into stylish balloon weight boxes (cheaper than ‘official’ favour boxes) along with some colourful pots of bubbles and the all important map to the boat.

On the outside- a nicely presented wedding favour. On the inside- a little box of fun! They provided much laughter and photo opportunities as well as being a charity donation towards a good cause.

Easier to pull off when your other half is a clown- but it could work at any circus themed/carnival wedding.

"something funny for money"

Roses are red…

And if you’re on a budget, and a little bit crafty- they can be wooden too!

Whilst I do adore fresh flowers, I’m also a little bit allergic and asthmatic, and we were on a tight budget, so, as I blogged about before the wedding, I decided to make my own floral decorations/bouquets from wooden roses.

The roses can be bought from numerous suppliers on ebay in a whole range of crazy colours. Unless you are after thousands, they tend to average at around £10-£15 for 100-200 stems.

I bought 100 red, 50 ivory/cream, 50 yellow and 50 blue stems, along with some grasses, ribbon, floristry pins and tape.

I started off making my bouquet and found the wire stems of the wooden roses very easy to manipulate into shape. I went for a small tear-drop shape, and worked on the principle of 3s (which is something I’d read about in flower arranging articles- basically putting three roses at the centre, and working out from there, adding three of each colour as I went.)

I added some curled grasses, secured it with green floristry tape and covered the handle in organza ribbon before adding some pearl headed pins to the centre of some of the roses for added ‘bridal’ effect.  The resulting flowers were bright, fun and looked really nice in photos 🙂

I almost wish I hadn’t thrown them to the single ladies at the end of the night!!

I made button holes using the same flowers, and combined colours to make a bunch for the lectern in church. The remaining stems were wound around archways or put into vases for the reception.

One of the best buys of the whole wedding I think!

Photograph taken by Jonathan Self; all rights reserved 2011. http://www.jonathanself.co.uk