How do you make a Wedding memorable?,with little money as dp said this is his

[memorableme]

only wish ,and me of course.

[squeakytoy]

eh?

[IAmBooyhoo]

it isn't difficult really. have the people that love and support you there. regardless of what you spend on your dress or venue etc, a good time will be had if you are with people you enjoy being around.

[Trills]

If you are getting married then it will be memorable for you, because you just got married.

It doesn't especially matter if it is memorable for anyone else, as long as it is pleasant.

[aldiwhore]

You're getting married, that in itself is memorable. If you want to do something unique and 'crazy' you can do it with very little cash but it has to be something personal that means something else you'll look a bit of a knob. What that would be, no one but you and your DP can decide.

[fatlazymummy]

How do you mean memorable?
The important part of your wedding is the legal aspect of making your vows. Surely you wouldn't forget that? Everything else is extra and can be as much or as little as you can afford. Try googling 'budget weddings' or 'frugal weddings' to get some ideas of how to spend your money wisely, and remember your wedding is personal to you.
Best of luck!

[fatlazymummy]

PS And try and stay away from the 'wedding industry'.

[squeakytoy]

The only "necessary" bit of getting married is the registry office or the church. RO being the cheapest. Anything else is down to budget. A memorable wedding doesnt have to be an extravagant show that puts you into debt for years.

We had a "budget" wedding, and it was brilliant.. everyone enjoyed it, and still comment on how memorable it was.....

[worldgonecrazy]

Have a handfasting and just do the legal bit in the Registry Office.

[diamondsonthesolesofhershoes]

Sit down and decide the parts of a wedding that are most important to you... for example, my cousin has just had to bring his wedding forward because of changes to dates of an Afghan tour. To him and his fiance, having a sit down meal is really important, so they are cutting down on the party to make sure they can afford that.
For us, the party is more important than a sit down meal so we're just not having one.
Your wedding is just that, yours! So don't be constrained by tradition and do what's important to you and your DP.
Congratulations and hope you have a wonderful day!

[SmileItsSunny]

Make it personal to you both. Congratulations!

[Clytaemnestra]

If you want to make it truly memorable, have a massive punch up and then get caught having sex with the best man under a table.

People will be talking about it for YEARS.

[poutintrout]

We just got married on a shoe string and what made it special was the fact that DH was there. Of course it was nice to share it with others but at the end of the day the getting married was the important bit & it wouldn't have mattered if we were the only ones there.

We just had the registry office followed by a meal at home with parents and siblings. I didn't feel like we missed out and still tried to add some special/traditional touches to the day like making the table extra pretty. Ebay was a Godsend for things like table confetti, table runner and name places. I even got my dress off ebay and nobody would have guessed it was second hand.

We got really cheap and unusual invitations from zazzle.co.uk that we were able to personalise. The choice was huge. I also did our own cake. We bought plainish birthday cakes from Asda and once I had hacked off the garish icing I titivated them with ribbon and bits I'd bought from ebay.

We still had flowers from a florist but to save money I only ordered buttonholes for DH and the best man and made the rest myself. There are guides on the internet on how to do it. I also saved money by not having a bouquet but a hand corsage instead. Because it was much smaller than a bouquet it didn't cost as much and the upside was it's size mean't that I could wear it all day.

Another big plus of a cheap wedding is that we don't lay in bed worrying about how we are going to pay the wedding off. The day was over so quickly that I'm not sure I would have been comfortable if we had blown loads of money on just one day.

Congratulations and good luck!

[RVF400]

Why don't you ask guests to contribute an item for the wedding rather than giving a traditional wedding present? That can be a good way to keep costs down. For our wedding, my mum paid for the flowers, my dad paid for the wine at the reception (biggest spend!), ILs made a lot of the food for the buffet etc., my brother provided the music, uncle took some lovely photos. Also we used a church hall for the reception, which added to the "everyone pitch in" atmosphere that I love (maybe that's just me?)

[ScaredyCate]

Do you mean memorable to you or memorable to your guests?

[RosieBooBoo]

The two of you (no one else!) sit down and think about whats really important to you.. good food? music? flowers? etc and go from there. IME the nicest weddings i've been to have all been about the small touches that were personal to the bride and groom.

[2rebecca]

Stay sober? I think I drank too much at both of my weddings. I had a good time but the details are al little hazy. People enjoying themselves at the time was more important to me than it being "memorable". Disasters are good from making events memorable!

[Anonymumous]

My friend got married in a registry office with a few close friends and family and, instead of asking for wedding presents, they asked everyone to join them for a meal in the local Beefeater afterwards and to pay for their own share themselves. She had a second-hand dress and made all the invitations herself. Their daughter was a flower girl, but there were no bridesmaids. It was a lovely, memorable day, as it should have been, and the whole thing cost less than £1000. Whereas BIL and his wife went completely over the top - 100+ guests, married in posh hotel, sit down dinner, disco, chocolate fountains, posh invitations - everything. To be honest, it felt like we were attending a corporate 'do' - the only memorable thing about it was the service itself which was sweet. That's the only bit that matters - the rest is just fluff.

[grumblinalong]

2rebecca - you made me with your wordsof wisdom.

I obsessed tried to make my wedding memorable, doing little vintage details down to a tee. All the guests said they loved it but I didn't have that great a time tbh because I was so stressed out about my plans going right (and ds threw up all over my wedding dress). I loved the getting married bit, the ceremony felt like just me & dh in the room and that was the part I'd had least input in but enjoyed the most. Focus on the marriage part and not the whole wedding farce and you'll remember it.

[peeriebear]

We got married on a very small budget too- I think we spent about £1000 all in!
Registry office in and out job for the ceremony- we just wanted the legal bit done with. I did my own flowers (sweet williams from the market), my dress was from Ebay, sandals £5 from bargain shop. DH's fantastic jacket was part of an unwanted fancy dress costume on Ebay.
We had the reception in a pub (free!) with a huge beer garden full of children's play equipment including a bouncy castle. Suggested guests bring a plate of food rather than a present as well as putting on a buffet from a lovely local small cafe. The most money we spent was on the band, who were friends of ours but had to be transported from miles away with all their equipment. They were fantastic and even my grandparents bought a CD :) we also said that people could come to the party in fancy dress, so we had a geisha, a gaggle of drunk pirates, some flappers, some showgirls and a lot of hawaiian shirts.
Everybody said they had a brilliant day, it was much more fun than a starchy sit-down do with everything in its place. Even my dog got to come :)

[TheRhubarb]

I wrote this budget wedding blog a while ago so hopefully you'll find a few tips in there.

Some basic stuff: Don't buy flowers from a florist, you can get some gorgeous bunches from a supermarket, including carnations for button holes, which can be up to 80% cheaper than what you'd pay in a florist.

Print out the invites yourself on some embossed card that you can get from any stationery shop. Not only will they be cheaper but more personal too.

Oxfam have a dedicated bridal gown shop with some designer bargains or shop on ebay for pre-loved dresses.

Ask bridesmaids to provide their own dresses and point them in the way of the Tesco range.

Retro pick and mix sweets wrapped in little organza bags tied with a ribbon make wonderful wedding favours.

Buy plain beer and wine glasses, get some glass pens and personalise them as Best Man gifts, bridesmaid gifts etc.

If you google for budget wedding ideas there are loads more. We had a budget wedding and everyone loved it because it was informal, relaxed and cheerful and it actually meant more to us because the whole day was not centred around how much it had all cost, but how much we loved each other.

[IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll]

I think every wedding is memorable in its own way. Apart from the marrying dh part of course, the most memorable thing for me was that it's probably the only time I will ever have everyone I care about in the same room all at th esame time. That felt amazing, having all our friends and family from all the different aspects of our lives all together because they wanted to be happy for us.
Our guests tell me it was memorable for them because they felt like they had been considered, we wanted to make sure we had thought of everything to make them have as good a time as possible without any stress, andit showed.

[iwantbrie]

We got married on a shoestring budget but people still say how lovely it was 12 years later. We didn't actually do anything special particularly, just little things like party bags for the children, bowls of jellybeans on the tables, had a carvery for the meal (DH's family were able to sort it cheaply) and just made it as informal as possible. We also called in every favour we could possibly think of and refused to bow to pressure from certain people who didn't stop going on about how things should be done.
Just do what you want to do, remember it's your day, and don't get bogged down in unimportant little things. Oh, and don'y get pissed!!
Good luck x

[blackeyedsusan]

when is your wedding?

I made the invitations/orders of service/thankyou cards quite cheaply (computer, photocopier, silver spray)

raided friends gardens for flowers

it as memorable for having 3 aunts and an uncle and a cousin and second cousin there who all have since died. but a good way to remember them.

[Cherriesarelovely]

Agree with everyone else. Making it memorable has nothing to do with how much money you spend. We had a fabulous civil partnership ceremony on a budget but to be honest I wouldn't have even wanted to spend a fortune.

Make your own invitations.
Have the reception at yours or a village hall where you can bring your own food (or have friends help you do so.)
Get a friend to do the flowers.
Make your own cake or get a family member or friend to do so.
There are so many ways to do it yourself which actually makes it much more personal. I hope it goes really well!