Even a small wedding can cost a lot of money if you let the expenses run away with you. You need to decide on what your budget will be and stick to it, even if that means making cutbacks in some areas.
Consider Renting A Dress
This would not suit all brides but for some, it is the perfect answer. Renting a dress is far cheaper than buying one and no one need know that it does not belong to you. They are all thoroughly cleaned when they are returned from the previous renter, and you could even rent your bridesmaid dresses too.
The practical brides will be thinking about how much they will save by doing this, which could be spent on other aspects of the wedding.
Imitation Sandals
If you want sandals or shoes with diamonds or pearls on, they do not have to be the real thing. Unlike diamond engagement rings, where they usually are the real thing, shoes and sandals with imitation stones are very common. With your feet, the stones are going to be hidden under the dress for a large part of the day, and no one is going a get out a magnifying glass to see in the stones on your feet are real.
A Dessert Bar Like No Other
Ask your aunty Mabel and grandma Sue, and anyone else you know if they have a special dessert recipe they would like to be on your dessert bar. Get them to make is for the special day and you can have small cards showing who made each dessert.
You could offer to pay for the ingredients if you know someone is short of cash, but even this would be cheaper than buying the desserts from a caterer. You do not need to ask them to make enough for all the wedding guests, just a few of each item will do the trick.
Then you can buy a small single tier cake for the cutting, and have it in pride of place in the centre of the unique dessert bar.
Look For Used Items
There are so many things that are only used once for a wedding that often you will find perfectly good things on sites such as eBay and Etsy. Often people are just trying to recover some of their costs, and that is not surprising when you realise a wedding can cost many thousands of pounds. Look at for things such as table decorations, lanterns and vases, as the cost of these new can soon amount to a sizeable sum.
Forget The Favours
Wedding favors are not an English tradition, and it is one that could cost you a lot of pounds. Instead of sending everyone home with a small gift, let them take a doughnut for their journey home. You will find that many favours get left behind anyway so they can prove to be a waste of money.
There are always ways to cut costs, with spoiling your special day. You just have to be sensible about some things and not waste money on items that really do not matter.
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