Our Winter Wedding on a Budget

We had a winter wedding and next week it will be our fifth anniversary. This is our Wooden anniversary, and I have some ideas for my gift for my husband. But I haven’t really spoken much about our wedding on Raisie Bay Before and today I just wanted to let you know how I planned a winter wedding in just eight months and on a very tight budget.

Of course if you are not on a budget you might even consider a Vegas Wedding. Just make sure you plan it right.

The Proposal

It was on February 29th and I didn’t really plan it, but Graham had asked me to marry him several times. I’d always said I didn’t want to get married again. I was already divorced from my ex husband and I just didn’t see the point. I gave it some thought and wanted to make it official after all, so on February 29th I proposed to him and he said yes.

We decided it would be a small affair and popped off to the Registry Office to sort it out. When they said they had November 26th available we jumped at the chance as it was my birthday.

Dressing Up

I was new to being in a wheelchair and I thought that a long flowing dress wouldn’t be ideal. I bought a few to try at home as being disabled getting dressed and undressed is no mean feat. A few just didn’t work, but then I found one that was perfect, it felt and looked like a wedding dress but it didn’t have the long length that would cause problems in my wheelchair. Looking back at the wedding photos I don’t like the full length ones but I do have my favourite ones.

The girls chose their own Bridesmaid Dresses. Boo went for blue and Star went for Pink. We bought the Little Man a lovely little suit in grey to match his Dad.

When you don’t have much time it’s hard to get the right clothes, plus we had to factor in that it would be really cold and the dresses available for weddings are quite flimsy. I bought a faux fur stole and the girl’s wore faux fur jackets. We had a bit of a panic as I’d ordered them from an unreliable online site and they didn’t arrive in time, but I managed to get other ones just in time. The original ones finally turned up in January, three months too late! Be careful where you buy from online.

The Venue

When planning a wedding in a hurry it’s always a bit tricky finding a venue but when your wedding is a month before Christmas it’s even harder. We should have started trying to book straight away but it was a steep learning curve. After much ringing around we finally found three venues to choose from that were not already fully booked for Christmas events. We visited them and two of them were totally inaccessible for wheelchairs. So we had no choice but to go for the third. It still wasn’t the best as I had to go up steps to get to the ladies room. I tried not to drink too much.

The Cake and Food

I did not want to make my own cake, it seemed like too much work for my own wedding. But the cost of buying one was way above our means. We hadn’t had time to save and everything had to be done as cheaply as possible. So, I ordered three white iced cakes from a Supermarket in three sizes. I then purchased some pillars to separate the cakes and a bride and groom wedding topper. It was all quite plain but it looked nice when I set it up and put our wedding flowers around it.

The venue offered to provide the buffet for the evening meal. We got married in the afternoon so only had an evening reception party. We did, however, take most of our guests to a local pub in-between, no booking, we just turned up! We had a lot of say in the food for the buffet and we ended up buying a lot more than we actually needed, but it was a really good spread. (And we got to take a lot of extra food home with us.)

Tips For Planning a Quick Wedding on a Budget

If you want a big fancy wedding then you will need a lot of cash to plan it in a short period. We did not have a huge amount of cash so we cut corners where we could but still had the best day ever. I don’t think I stopped smiling all day.

• Be prepared to cut corners where you can
• Buy your wedding attire from regular shops rather than wedding shops, or look at charity shops (I saw some amazing, affordable dresses, but nothing that would fit me.)
• Book your venue as soon as possible, don’t wait
• Haggle for the best deal on food and drink for your guests
• Buying plain cakes and adding a few bought decorations can cut your cake budget in half
• It might not feel as special, but cutting out the wedding breakfast and just going for the evening buffet will save a lot of money

Have you ever had to plan a wedding on a tight budget? Do you have any tips to share.

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