Bride’s tips to save £21K on dream wedding include being brutal with guest list

Ashley Waugh was told her wedding would cost £30,000 but she didn’t have that much money, so she got creative and cut the price down to under £10,000 – and with her tips you can too

A bride has shared her top tips on how to save money on your wedding – as she managed to trim £21,000 off the cost of her big day with these simple steps.

Ashley Waugh, 25, was quoted £30,000 for the wedding of her dreams, set in a castle, in summer, and with bus loads of guests – but that price was far too high.

She decided to find ways to budget without sacrificing on having a stunning location in Langley Castle, Hexham, and in the end, she cut the price down to just £9,000.

Now, Ashley has shared her tips so that other cash-strapped brides can still have the wedding they dreamed of – if they are willing to budget hard enough.

What do you think about Ashley’s tips? Let us know in the comments

Ashley and Luke, her husband, saved money wherever they could – including buying fake flowers, using 40p table runners, and hiring suits from high street stores.

For the happy couple, a handful of decisions helped them cut back costs – but not all of them were popular, and here they share their top tips for others with smaller wedding budgets.

One – Be brutal with the guest list

With keeping costs down a top priority, Ashley and Luke were quick to cut stragglers from the guest list.

“We were really harsh with our guest list, which upset a lot of people – but we were paying for it ourselves and we wanted our closest friends and families there, not someone who felt they had a right to come because they were dating someone who was invited,” Ashley, a legal cashier, said.

“We cut a lot of people’s partners purely to save money. Most people were really nice about it, some were not, but then you learn who your real friends are when you’re planning a wedding.

“Luke has a larger family and is originally from Peterborough. He chose not to invite distant cousins and nieces so we could have an intimate day with our nearest and dearest.

“Our original guest list was 140 people and we changed that to 64-day guests and 15 evening, so cut 60 people.”

Two – Be calendar cautious

With a summer wedding date raising the cost of a wedding exponentially, Ashley and Luke opted for a February date.

Ashley said: “Originally we wanted to get married on a Saturday in the height of summer with 140 guests, and that would’ve cost us around £10,000 just for the venue.

“The steepest quote we had was £30,000 all in, so we booked a midweek date, which instantly saved us a lot of money, and went for February which was off-season and cheaper.

“We struck gold with Covid when they had to reschedule to July and honoured the original price.”

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Three – DIY wherever possible

For Ashley and Luke, getting crafty with the decorations was vital to keeping their day budget-friendly.

Ashley said: “We did every aspect of the décor ourselves – myself, Luke, my brother, my mum, and my friend Katie spent the day before dressing the wedding breakfast room.

We bought centrepieces from Home Bargains, chair sashes and covers from Wish or AliExpress for 40p a pop and favours from B&M, but it looked as if it had been professionally dressed.

“We also didn’t have a DJ just a playlist we made together and controlled from our phones.”

Four – It’s all about who you know

Ashley advises not being shy when it comes to milking your contacts – and hit up all of her friends to see what connections they had that could benefit her.

She said: “No-one in my friendship group is a make-up artist, a photographer or a florist – but they knew people or had recommendations and I was lucky enough to get some friends’ discounts.

“I found a woman based in my hometown who I had never heard of but then it turned out she knew one of my bridesmaids – it’s all who you know, not what you know.”

Ashley shared her money-saving tips through Think Money, for more information please visit them here.

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