Bride spent just £400 on her wedding – by sewing her skirt, getting decorations from charity shops and baking her own cake
A SAVVY woman has revealed she did her entire wedding for just £420 after deciding to make everything herself.
Rosie Scott, 29, from London, said she saved a fortune by making a cake herself and sewing her outfit, and saw keeping costs down as a “bit of a challenge”.
With the average wedding in the UK now costing £30,355, Rosie was spurred on to get creative after both she and husband Aaron were post-graduate students at the time and short of cash.
The blogger took inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram to help create the affordable wedding of her dreams.
To keep costs low, she opted for their local village hall, which cost £100 for the day, and decorated it with handmade paper flowers in jam jars and paper pom poms on the walls.
She even created her own invites for her August made from pressed flower paper, tied up with a string and a button.
HOW DID ROSIE SPEND £420 ON HER WEDDING?
Registry office ceremony: £130
Village Hall hire: £100
Cake: £40
Food: £50
Dress: £20
Decorations: £20
Crockery from charity shops: £30
Fabric for skirt I wore at the official ceremony: £30
TOTAL: £420
Rosie said: “I'd just started a craft blog at the time so was really inspired by lots of other crafters and online tutorials that I'd seen.”
Instead of splashing out thousands on a fancy dress, she sewed herself a skirt made from fabric her fiancé had bought her – and made him a matching tie.
And she used her staff discount at Monsoon to get a floral dress for after the ceremony.
She said: “I was working as a sales assistant at Monsoon at the time so used my 70 per cent discount to get one of their dresses.
“It wasn't a wedding dress but was white with a floral print so semi-bridal.”
While many couples shell out around £523 on a wedding cake, Rosie watched tutorials on YouTube to create her own three-tier cake costing £40.
She said: “I asked my sister because she's great at baking, but she'd never made a multi-tiered cake so we watched tutorial videos together to work out how to do it.
“We decided to just put colourful roses around the base of each tier - they hid any imperfections and were also a super simple way to make a big visual impact.
“The roses were made just with icing and food colouring then each petal was pressed out with a finger and thumb.
“Nothing fancy needed at all! Everyone loved how colourful and pretty the cake was and they couldn't believe my sister had made it herself.”
Rosie’s top tips for other couples looking to keep costs down are to choose a non-traditional venue which isn’t advertised as a wedding spot.
She also said you can send invites electronically instead of by post, and ask guests to contribute songs instead of getting a DJ.
Rosie added: “If anyone's going to France before the wedding, ask them to stock up on some cheap booze for you. My parents found us bottles of 1.40 euro sparkling wine that actually tasted great.
“I'd also suggest scouring charity shops for crockery or decorations. We used loads of old tea sets which we found in local charity shops for hardly any money.'
“But just don't get stressed out over small details! The little things all add up to loads of money and people mostly won't even notice them. Just focus on the main things and on enjoying your day.”
- Stork 'Bake by Numbers' Wedding Cake Kit, amazon, £49 –
In order to help couples have a more affordable day, bride and grooms-to-be who fancy their skills in the kitchen can create a three-tiered showstopper for the big day, which will feed 70 people.
Stork is selling limited edition ‘bake by numbers’ wedding cake kits for £49, which come with everything you’ll need to create a masterpiece.
All the ingredients come pre-measured, and the kit comes with all the equipment you’ll need to whip up the showstopper - although you’ll need to find your own oven.
The finished product should be a triple tiered Victoria sponge cake, with pastel icing and faux flowers.
The bake works out to just 70p per head - a bargain when compared to other wedding cake - which can cost hundreds of pounds.
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