Wouldn't it be fantastic to have an unlimited wedding budget to afford everything you dreamt of for your big day? Sadly most if us have to try and keep our budgets on track so here to make life simpler is a way to save you almost five grand in five minutes.

1) Swap day for night and move 10 guests onto the evening guest list. The best way to keep
A budget in check is to keep numbers small. Taking 10 people off your day list could save you £500 in food and drink costs alone plus one less floral centrepiece and 10 less favours and you could add another £100 saving.


  

Total saved £600

2) Swap Denby for Dubai. If you've already lived together for years, you probably have most things you need for your home. Ask your guests to contribute towards your honeymoon instead and you may not have a matching 32 piece dinner service to admire, but you'll have much more cash to play with.

Total Saved £2500

3) Swap a tiered cake for a dessert table. A multi tiered wedding cake may look beautiful but if you want to save some money and offer more choice to your guests go for a fun dessert table instead. Ask your friends and family to bring cakes, cupcakes and desserts and lay them out on pretty plates or cake stands. Serve them as dessert and you save twice as you can knock a whole course off your food budget.


   

Total Saved £1000


5) Swap cars for accommodation. If you are having your ceremony and reception in one venue the chances are that no one except your photogrpher will even see you arrive in your expensive wedding car. You will probably not choose to frame a photo of you and your wedding car as you will have so many beautiful shots to choose from with much prettier backdrops. If your venue has accommodation, stay there the night before or head over in the morning and get ready there instead. Make your big entrance on foot for big savings.

Total saved £400

4) Swap large florals for fun centrepieces. You don't have to pay £50 per table for floral displays. Swap them for hired birdcages, lanterns or candelabras for big savings. You could always add small floral displays around the centrepiece if you want flowers as part of your look or buy realistic foam roses from craft suppliers or floral wholesalers and arrange them in jar jars wrapped in lace or in pretty tea cups for a vintage feel or use hessian and twine wraped jars for a rustic look.



Total Saved £300

6) Swap Champage for Cava. Most guests at your wedding will be enjoying the free wine or buying beers from the bar so they will often only have a few sips of your toast drink. try sparkling wine, prosecco or cava instead or go for something different like a shot or sparkling rose.

Total Saved £200

So there's £5000 saved with just a few simple swaps. If you need any help managing your budget or more great ideas for planning your big day, contact Steph from Sweet and Pretty Weddings for a free consultation.

Did you know that Matalan sell a range of bargain clothing for weddings? The men's range includes morning suits from £55 and single breasted lounge suits for just £85.00. They also have coordinating waistcoats and ties and a boys range available in early May. The tie shown below is just £3.00.

                                                     
           
                                                     


                                                     
For little bridesmaids there are pretty dresses from £25.00 and for the guests a great range of shoes, fascinators and hand bags. Check out their website or selected stores now.

Planning a wedding can be stressful and time consuming so planning a romantic and relaxing honeymoon to unwind after the big day can be one thing that keeps you going through all of the hectic times.

However if your budget is already stretched a luxurious honeymoon can be extremely expensive. Voyage Prive is a site that brings you reductions of lots of luxury breaks and could mean that your honeymoon budget stretches a bit further.

                            

They have breaks available in Europe and more long haul areas like the Caribbean and USA. They currently have 33% of breaks to the Hilton Hotel in Sharm El Sheikh and The Crane in Barbados (show above) and 54% off a holiday to Sicily. As all of the resorts are named you can check out reviews independently on sites like Trip Advisor before booking.

 

You can sign up to Voyage Prive here.

Image Credit: The Crane Residential Resort Barbados

Today, Bristol Wedding Planner Steph Allison of How 2 I Do Wedding & Event Planning looks at ways to keep to a smaller wedding budget and focusing on the tricky subject of the all important guest list.

When you get married it's great to share your wedding day with all of your friends and family, but before you draw up a mammoth list, remember, you will need to allow approximately £50.00 per head for a day guest at your wedding. This should cover welcome drinks, food, wine, toast drinks and evening food. However, some upmarket venues may charge closer to this sum just for a three course sit down dinner.

Once your guests lists reaches 150 people, that's £7500 just on food and drink alone and if your total budget is £10,000 it's not going to stretch to cover venue hire, entertainment, wedding clothing, ceremony fees, transportation, rings, accommodation and all of the other endless costs related to your wedding.


So how do you keep numbers in check? Firstly make a list of everyone you would like to invite and see what figure you reach. To have a wedding with a budget below £10000, you ideally want to keep to 50-60 day guests, with another 20 or so guests arriving for the disco.


                           


Evening guests will only cost you the price of any evening food you arrange, normally around £10-15 per head and you can often only cater for 80% of guests for evening food as many will have eaten a big evening meal before they arrive.

If your list is on the larger side, you may have to be a bit ruthless to keep your budget on track. A good way to cut guests is to create some simple rules such as only inviting people that you have seen in the last year prior to getting engaged or only inviting work colleagues that you have socialised with outside of work.  Perhaps stick to immediate family and close friends only.

If you can't cut numbers due to having a large family or circle of friends, then you will need to look at some creative ways to reduce your food and drink costs to keep a smaller budget on track. Consider buffets, hog roasts, afternoon tea or fish and chips as cheaper alternatives to a three course meal. You can also buy your own alcohol if your venue allows and their corkage charge isn't too high.


For more useful help planning your wedding, visit  How 2 I Do Wedding & Event Planning

Image Credit Sidney Diongzon

January is a long month following the excesses of Christmas when we all have to tighten our belts slightly. If you are planning a wedding you are probably looking for ways to reduce your budget without compromising on style.

There are lots of ways to knock thousands of a wedding budget with a few clever DIY tips and by using the talents of friends. Here's some top budget busting tips from How 2 I Do.

• Keep the day guest list down to close friends and family only
• Look at prices for mid week or Sunday weddings as they are often far cheaper
• Serve processo or sparkling wine instead of champagne
• Swap a 3 course meal for a hog roast, cream tea or fish and chips
• Use candles, lanterns and rose petals instead of large floral displays

                                

• Get ready at the venue instead of having expensive wedding cars
• If you have a friends who can sing, ask them to perform during the ceremony
• Buy cake tiers from M&S, stack them and add fresh flowers to decorate
• Make your own stationary on your PC and print onto good quality card
• Look in Ikea or The Range for reasonably priced venue decorations
• Keep floral displays small in tea cups, jam jars of bottles and display in clusters of 3

                                    

Areas where you should never scrimp are,

• Wedding insurance is crucial and could save you thousands if things go wrong
• Good photography is essential as you will be never have the chance to retake those key shots
• Don't scrimp on food quality but it's fine to make clever substitutions as above
• Make sure you have a good DJ or band in the evening as this will create a great atmosphere

Floral Image courtesy of Splendid Stems Floral Design and The Knot

Budget Tips courtesy of How 2 I Do Wedding Planning

Bristol Wedding Planner, Stephanie Allison is on hand to answer any of your planning questions. If you have a question that you would like answered and published on Bristol Wedding News, please

Q. I have a Wedding Budget of around £10,000 and I'm worried how to afford everything for my Wedding. Where can I save money without making my Wedding seem cheap? Sarah from Brislington

A. Weddings are very expensive these days but that doesn't mean that you need a huge budget to have an amazing day. However with a budget of around £10,000 you may need to be careful where you spend. My first tip is to be very careful when choosing your venue as this will be your biggest expense. To make sure that your budget stretches you ideally don't want to pay more than £1500 to hire a venue. This doesn't mean that pricier venues are totally ruled out.

A lot of the large venues have cheaper rates for last minute availability, mid-week and out of season Weddings so you may have to rule out a Summer Saturday to get the right price. Village Halls can be a great option too as their hire prices are really competitive and you have free reign with catering and decorations.

Westbury on Trym Village Hall styled by the Little Wedding Helper

                              
My final tip would be to use the talents of friends to keep your budget down. If a family member is a great baker ask them to make your cake or perhaps you have someone who can sing or play instruments during your ceremony. One word of warning though, don't scrimp on your evening entertainment as it makes such as difference to the Wedding atmosphere and always get the best photographer you can afford.

Steph is a Wedding Planner and owns How 2 I Do Wedding Planning.