The stitoneryI wasn’t going to do save the dates, butthen I found some boxes of vintage Vanity Fair postcards (£14.99). Afer adding a save-the-date stamp from Paperchase, plus white stickers on which we printed the details, we had our cards for just £30. We wanted our invitations to set thetone for the day, so decided to spend abit more on them. We found an illustrator on etsy.com, and got her todesign a picture of me and Simon, which cost £120. We got it printed on thick card (£150 for 100).
Best Holiday Village for Honeymoon Photo Gallery
The venue We had our ceremony at Sudbury Town Hall, which is a gorgeous, grand building – and much cheaper than having a registrar come to a wedding venue. For our reception, I stumbled on website sufolkvillagehalls.co.uk and found Harkstead Village Hall. Itcost £650 to hire from midday on Friday (meaning we could decorate it ourselves) until midday on Sunday.The caTeringWe didn’t want a formal dinner and a hog roast suited the vibe of the day.
Porkyshogroasts.co.uk ofers catering packages for £1,800, which include tapas when guests arrive, a whole hog roast, turkey roast and vegetable paella with various types of saladsbreads and sauces for dinner, followed by a barbecue at night. We shopped around for a catererbecause we didn’t want one who supplied drinks. Instead, we boughtPimm’s and all our wine and prosecco from Majestic Wine.
The flowers
We went for local Ipswich forist Twigby Michael Pooley (twigfowers.co.ukHe asked for our budget and coloursand told me how he could make themost of it. Instead of getting bloomswe wanted that were out of season, headvised us on alternatives that weregrown locally and in season, savingus £1 per stem. We could supply ourown vases, saving us another £200.Our family and friends started collecting jars and donating vases, pots and jugs.
We spent £700 and weren’t short of fowers.The enTerTainMenTSimon proposed at Latitude Festival while my favourite band, Admiral Fallow, was playing my favourite song, so music was always going to be a big part of the day. Instead of a ‘wedding band’, we found Dr Bluegrass And Te Illbilly 8 at a local folk festival. Tey had another wedding to play that evening, but became our ‘frst act’, during our drinks reception. Our second banddropped out nine days before the wedding so I took to Twitter to fnd a replacement – and singer-songwriter Big Finn was booked within hours. Afer dinner we had a ceilidh band – made up of musicians that a colleague of Simon’s put together for free – and a friend of a friend DJ’d (model Izzy Lawrence).
We had four ‘acts’ for £1,000 – a big part of our budget, but it really made the wedding for us.The dressesI found the dress I loved – a tea-length lace number – at Berketex Bride in Glasgow with my mum. I knew it was the one as soon as I put it on, but we went for lunch to mull it over. When we went back, they ofered 25 per cent of if we bought it there and then – I was sold! My Upper Street shoes were actually a press gif (bonus), and I did my own make-up afer a lesson at a Bobbi Brown counter in Fenwick.
My veil was another etsy.com fnd and cost £50. I bought the bridesmaid dresses at asos.com (£35 each), and then my mum made sashes out of our family tartan – paired withtheir own nude shoes. Te fower girl dresses were from bhs.com (£30 each).The decorEveryone pitched in to decorate the hall on the Friday afernoon. We made one string of bunting using my family tartan, but it was cheaper to buy plain bunting from amazon.co.uk (£4 per string). I made place names using luggage labels and glitter. We also made mix CDs for everyone as favours – they cost about £8 in total.The cakeTis was made by a colleague of Simon’s – a two-tiered chocolate cake as a wedding present.
She was up for 36 hours straight making it!
The photographer used to work for the East Anglian Daily Times, so I asked one of their photographers to take our pictures. My Top TipKnow your budget and stick to it. I went to a wedding fair and was told I couldn’t organise a wedding with our budget or time frame (10 months). Find suppliers who’ll work creatively with the money you have.
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