As an interior designer and stylist, other than being asked on a daily basis about how to save up money by jazzing up your room, I am often being asked about how to save money by doing your wedding. I have never been married or assisted in any wedding, but I often see beautiful inspirations online and decided to share some more inspirations with you. I have previously written you a little masterclass in styling for a wedding so check this post for more information. Below you will find tips but also story from my good friend Kylie, who saved loads of money on her wedding day by being creative and she done her own DIY decorations.

“instead of having a “bridal bouquet” I had the same simple but beautiful bouquet as the bridesmaids and just used coloured ribbon to differentiate which saved me €100″

Before we go into decorations, lets chat about music and photography for your wedding. We all know how expensive can a photographer can be but at the same time, we all know how bad it can go down if you hire the wrong photographer. Many people often tend to go for a family member with a good camera, and it can cause loads of drama after, especially if that family member get a little merry and you end up with no pictures.

The wedding is so important day and you want these moments captured in the best possible way. My advice is to research your area and check local adverts. Also, ask everyone around who recently got married and check their wedding photos and videos first. Nothing worse than end up with a totally wrong style of photos to what you originally expected. Check each photographer portfolio and negotiate your price. if you don´t feel the need of a video then font get yourself a force to it or go for a short 2min video instead of 30min one, then the photographer spends less time editing which means less cost for you.

As much as important is photography, think of A music for your wedding. Try to tie the music to your wedding theme. The last thing you want is to hire a band that music style is completely not matching your chic wedding and you will end up with 90s rock style songs with your very Scandi theme. The perfect way is for you to meet the band beforehand and agree on many aspects rather let them do their own thing. You don´t want the band lead singer making saucy jokes to your grandma who may think is very inappropriate or the opposite-get the boring one who just sing-break-home. The Alive Network can help you chose a band and for example, they have some of the best Lancashire wedding bands but also you can check your local area as well. They focus on entertainment from all over the UK and you can also hire comedians, not just wedding bands.

This time to give you some decorations inspirations, I have asked my friend  Kylie  who  did a wonderful job while getting married in Tuscany. Without any further from me, read her inspirational story below.

´´As I was getting married in Italy I knew full on DIY wasn’t going to be feasible for my decorations, however, I knew it was something I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on because wedding costs can seriously get out of hand. But being a bridesmaid a few times and helping the bride the following day clear her venue to find favours left at tables and extravagant flowers already slightly wilting, I felt it was important to cut back on these little things that don’t really matter when all people care about is how good the party is. At one point I wasn’t going to have flowers because the venue was so pretty I wanted that to speak for itself but in the end I listened to my wedding planner and the flowers ended up being my favourite thing. She helped me source a local supplier, ensured I chose flowers in season (my dream of peonies for a July wedding would have cost double so I opted for lower cost hydrangea which now is one of my favourite flowers.) instead of having a “bridal bouquet” I had the same simple but beautiful bouquet as the bridesmaids and just used coloured ribbon to differentiate which saved me €100. Like every bride Pinterest became my go to place for money saving ideas; here I got the idea to use lemons as table decorations as this was cost effective and also how very Italian, right? I bought striped ribbon from the UK to make napkin rings and fashion them into pretty bows and when the wedding venue wanted €400 for tea lights I knew I could find this better priced in the UK. I previously worked in the restaurant industry so knew just the candle that was low cost -50p per candle. I call it the Manchester candle because you see them so many places in Manchester, thanks to local restaurant supplier ´”Stephenson’s” supplying them so cheaply and with really great burn time and little maintenance, I bet now I’ve said it you will also see them everywhere. It looked funny on the airport scanner with 20 candles in our hand luggage but these cheeky ways of saving meant we could have an open bar and a DJ that knew how to bring the party, and party we did! ´´ Kylie