Top Tips for Wedding planning and keeping costs down

As you are probably aware, I’ve had a busy and expensive year to date with weddings. Child 2 got married in June, my husband is best man at a wedding this Saturday, his niece is getting married in October and child 4 is getting married next September.

As a guest alone the costs are mounting. I can hardly wear the same dress to all 4 weddings can I? Other than a cash donation to child 2, we’ve not had any input with the other 2 weddings we’re attending this year, but we do know how much they’ve spent and the lengths they’ve gone to, to make sure everything is in place for their special day. 

We’ve also made a cash donation to child 4 and have already been involved in helping them to plan their special day. 

Peter and I eloped in 2002, we’d both been married before and had recently bought a new home for us and our 5 kids to live in and so we kept our wedding as simple and cheap as possible. I’m a believer in keeping things simple and costs down, but if you do want the full wedding experience there are plenty of ways to keep the costs down.

The confetti shop offers a wide range of ideas to plan your big day, choose by theme, colour or season. This is a great idea for weddings that are in the planning for 12 months or more; you can see the current and predicted trends, help inform your colour scheme and more importantly give you an idea of the costs involved from save the date cards, invites, table decorations, wedding favours to planning the hen night and stag do. 

With child 4s wedding there are a lot of people involved in the planning, we have a face book group message titled ‘Wedding’ where we can pop suggestions on anything that we come across from web searches and attending other peoples weddings. 

My top 6 tips:

Invitations -  Can you do save the date and invitations online? Only printing out a handful of cards for those not on social media. It will also reduce the amount of stress chasing up replies.

Photography – Disposable cameras on tables for guests to snap away more personal shots, especially for the evening do after the photographer has captured the first dance and departed.

Bridal Party Gifts – If you’re giving your best man cuff links as a thank you gift, then give them to him in the morning so at least he’ll get some wear out of them. Personalise gifts for the bridesmaids and groomsman; consider something they can actually use. 

Wedding favours – Consider making a charity donation. Purchase a charity pin or band for each guest on the table.

Hen and Stag do’s – Do you really need to go abroad for a week before the wedding? A meal in a local restaurant or even a party at home, this way you can accommodate all budgets and invite all ages.

Food – Not for the reception but between the wedding and the meal. It’s common now for the bride and groom to spend up to 90 minutes having photo’s taken, guests can often be left hanging around, they will be catered for but if you’re part of the wedding party you may not get a chance to eat or drink from breakfast time till 4pm. I always pack drinks and snacks in a small cool bag to hand out to keep us going through the day.

This post is in collaboration with the Confetti Shop.

A positive review of Easy Jet - Luton to Munich.

This is the first time I've flown with a low cost airline and to be honest I was a bit concerned there would be problems. I never see or hear anything positive about low cost airlines and I hear all the time about the additional charges that people complain are a rip off, like booking seats together and paying for boarding passes and in general the mass melee to get on the plane before departure.

I however was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at Luton airport to board my flight to Munich in July.

I was however, also very confused when I arrived at Luton while I waited for check in to open, to realise that I could just show my boarding pass and passport at departures and go straight through as I was travelling with hand luggage only.

There was no pushing and shoving as we lined up to board the plane, my only complaint would be that there was no where to sit while we waited to board, but other than that it was fine.

A few people had paid for priority boarding, I've no idea how much that cost them, but at the end of the day, the plane wasn't going anywhere until we were all on it, so in my opinion, it was a bit of a waste of money.

My luggage weighed 15kg, it fitted in the over head compartment and I was able to lift it easily. The luggage allowance for the cabin was very generous, most of the weight was magazines and gifts.

I was allocated a seat and after years of long haul flying I was surprised at just how much leg room there was and how clean the plane was also.

I purchased a G&T at £5.50 which was £2.50 cheaper than the price I'd paid in a St Alban's pub the night before.

The flight both ways was uneventful and I spent it reading a book and looking out the window.

Peter informed me on my return I had actually flown with Easy Jet in the past to Berlin on two occasions in 2006, that had obviously been excellent flights also or I'd have remembered it.

I'm not sure if people just complain for the sake of complaining these days. My expectations of Easy Jet were very low, considering I'd paid half of what the flight with other airlines would've cost me.

I'll certainly fly with them again when I'm next in Europe, it's just a shame they don't offer flights from Dubai, as at their prices I'd be more than prepared to put up with some of the horror stories I've read about online, in exchange for lower prices.

(Tongue in cheek) Disclaimer:
I was not paid in anyway to write this article, however if Easy Jet would like me on board as an ambassador I'd be more than happy to oblige.

Free things to do in Dubai - Wedding Fayre

Flicking through Time Out Dubai as I do daily I discovered BRIDE DUBAI  is on for the next 3 days. Ok it wasn't free but entry was only 25DHs, the same price as a coffee in a fancy coffee shop and as my niece is getting married next month in the UK and my mum and sister are doing the catering and wedding organisation and I've volunteered to make some decorations and the wedding favours, I thought I should pop along and see what goes on in these places.

Despite being married twice, I've never been to a wedding fayre and often wondered what I'd missed out on, but it didn't excite me and even before I could go in they wanted my address, email, salary and phone number and again inside when I enquired about anything.

Very little was priced and despite looking quite intently at items on some stand, the only time the staff approached me was to offer me a cup cake, sweets or give me a demo on 3D technology, which I found fascinating, but I'm still unsure how it relates to a wedding.

I entered a competition with Al Rais tours and travel, wandered round, took photo's, was told off for taking photo's at one stand, yet they gave me their web address when I asked how was I supposed to remember the services they offer and checking out the website, if my intention was to copy their ideas step by step, they had quite detailed photo's that would have enabled me to do so far more effectively than my own photo's would've done.

If you have an unlimited budget and were aiming at the top end of the wedding market than this was just the place to go, but for weddings on a realistic budget, I found it disappointing and if I'd have been the bride, I'm sure I would have found my dream dress there which I probably never could've afforded.

However you could find everything you needed for planning a wedding. There were jewellery stands, but no wedding and engagement ring displays that leapt out at me. Wedding invites, albums, photography, make up demo's, teeth whitening, instant face lift sessions, Chelsea eyebrows?

Outfits for Mother of bride and bridesmaids, but I didn't see any information for the groom which I felt was bad as the bridal party would need to know the prices as part of their wedding budget.

It was however a fun way to spend an afternoon and I had the chance to visit the World Trade Centre and was impressed with their venue and facilities and easy access from the train.

Oh and the cakes, don't forget the cakes.

Bride Dubai is on till March 28th