Mr + Mrs Wignall
Saturday 25th May 2019 │ Crosby Hall Educational Trust, Liverpool
Instagram: @cheapweddingstuff
Alice was the founder of @cheapweddingstuff on Instagram, the original budget saving wedding account which now has over 30K followers! Read all about Alice + Robert's colourful wedding day, featuring afternoon tea and lots of DIYs; including a wedding video filmed by guests on pro cameras and a photobooth camera sent in the post. We've also rounded up some top planning tips from the budget wedding queen herself.
How did you choose your wedding theme?
I knew I wanted a bright wedding with colourful, bright flowers as I’d seen similar ones online, but the rest kind of evolved over time with a lot of help from Pinterest and wedding blogs! I had moments where I was like, is this going to look completely insane? Should I have gone for something more traditional? But actually it all came together and I loved how it turned out.
We had a civil ceremony at our venue which was perfect for us. We had two readings - my mum read a reading called ‘These Hands’ which is lovely, and one of my close friends read a reading called ‘Advice on Marriage from Your Dogs’ which was lovely as we’re big dog lovers and so were lots of the guests! We also had our niece as a ring bearer so she brought the rings up when it was time to exchange the rings which was lovely.
Music
Walking In: Florence and the Machine - Stand By Me (I’m a HUGE Florence fan and loved the lyrics!)
Walking Out: You Make My Dreams Come True - Daryl Hall and John Oats
First Dance: Flowers in the Window - Travis
First Song After First Dance: Come on Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners (make sure this is a banger so the dance floor doesn’t empty!)
Was there anything unusual about your wedding?
We got married a bit later (3pm) and had afternoon tea instead of a wedding breakfast and it was perfect! We then had a big hog roast and buffet in the evening. This was fab as we had loads of time to get ready (mind you we still managed to run out of time…)
Did you make any Wedding DIYs?
My favourite DIY was probably my photo pallete. I got the pallete for free locally, varnished it and then stuck on Polaroids of us through the years which I bought online. I also loved my ribbon wall which I made by tying lots of ribbon to a photography stand.
Some other DIYs...
- The doggie goodie bad - treats were provided in perfect little bags by Mia’s Doggy Tuck Shop and the boards were from Amazon
- A-frame board was from eBay and I used chalk pens to decorate
- The circle was a covered hoola hoop with garlands from Ali express and the little sign thing was a make your own banner kit for £1.50 from Asda (although I’ve seen similar in the range)
- Invitations we printed using our normal printer (thanks HP instant ink!) and backed on card from the range.
- Sweetie favour jars were 59p each from Home bargain I think . We fillled then ourselves and tied ribbon round.
- I made the NSPCC cards on Canva, printed and backed onto card, then added the charity pins
- I made wedding programmes using Canva and the ‘pop yourself’ website to make us all as cartoon. I’ll send a picture
- Invites were made using a free template from Greetings Island
Top Tip for Brides to Be:
After the day is over it can be a big come down as it’s something you’ve looked forward to for so long and now it’s been and gone. Someone said to me, ‘don’t think of it as being all over, think of it as being the first day of your marriage, with so much to look forward to’ and that really helped me.
Biggest wedding splurge…
Probably the venue, but it was so perfect for what we wanted and the package included a lot of little extras like the evening DJ and all food so that made things really easy. They were also the most lovely people who made our day perfect so I’d totally recommend it to any North West brides!
Is there anything you wish you’d done differently?
The only thing was probably to walk a bit more slowly down the aisle and take in that moment. I was so nervous by that point that I just rushed it and I barely remember actually walking down the aisle. I fully planned to take my time and walk slowly but that went out the window in the moment! Oh also, controversially, I kind of wish I’d hired chairs. I hate chair covers but they came free, and I persuaded myself I wouldn’t care on the day and it would be a waste of money to hire chairs. On the day I didn’t care at all, but looking back at photos I still do wish I had pretty chairs…
Wedding must-have:
I’m really glad we have a video. It goes by so quickly that you feel like you’ve forgotten bits. We couldn’t afford a videographer so we used Edit My Wedding as a cheaper option. It was around £200 and they sent out three cameras and our friends and family (mostly my fab brother Cameron) filmed it. We sent the cameras back and they edited it into a gorgeous full length video and a shorter film too. It was perfect for us as it felt really personal and relaxed and captured our day. My bridesmaids also went round and got messages from our guests so that was lovely too.
You can watch Alice + Robert’s wedding video, filmed by guests on pro cameras, here - what an amazing idea!
What was your favourite wedding purchase?
Probably the biggest bargain was my hair vine, which was £3 from Ali express. I’m also glad I bought proper fluffy embroidered dressing gowns (£10 each, personalised, from Studio.co.uk) as I know they still use them and are really cosy. I’m also glad I went for artificial flowers as I get to look at my wedding flowers every day!
Who was your bride and groom squad?
Bridesmaids I had my sister, who is also a wedding coordinator as her profession so that was handy! I also had my two best friends, Paloma and Emily. We’ve been best friends for like 15 years so it would always be them! They had gorgeous navy dresses from Chi Chi London. Rob’s best man was his best friend Martin, who he’s known since he was a teenager, and my brother Cameron’s was an usher. We had our niece, Olivia, as flower girl, and Emily’s little boy, Jensen, as a page boy as well as our gorgeous 8 week old nephew, Theo!
How did you celebrate your hen do?
Confession time… I hate hen dos! I find that in a big group with lots of different friendship groups it can get awkward, so instead I wanted to do things separately with my different groups of friends. I spent a night in Liverpool at a fab hotel and had a lovely meal and night out with my bridesmaids and sister, and also had a weekend away in the Lakes with another group of friends. We also had a meal the week before the wedding with both families. I’m so happy I did it this way as I just felt so relaxed and didn’t feel responsible for helping groups of friends to get to know each other.
Some advice from Alice to future brides…
- When packing stuff up for your venue, put the name cards, favours, table name or whatever in one box together for each table so that whoever is setting it up can just get everything they need for one table out of that box. I also included a drawing of how I wanted it laid out.
- I spent ages thinking of an alternative guest book and got a normal bog standard traditional guest book as an after thought really. I LOVE the traditional one and shouldn’t have bothered with the quirky one. Lots of quirky ones you can only fit your name or initials on, but the traditional one has lots of gorgeous messages from our guests that I love to read back. Our bridesmaids sent it round during the meal to make sure it was filled in.
- We organised transport back from the venue which guests paid for a space on. This worked out cheap for them and meant everyone stayed late and had a good time as they knew getting home was all sorted.
- Don’t buy expensive invites or save the dates. I know it’s so tempting and it feels so important at the time but please, I beg you, have a look at Greetings Island for free templates or vista print or similar as they really do ultimately go in the bin.
- Save money by DIYing what you can or getting things on a budget so you can splurge on other bits if you want to.
- It is your day but also consider your guests. Hungry, bored, cold guests makes for a sh*t atmosphere. I’d prioritise keeping your guests fed and happy with a few free drinks over other extras like decor as ultimately the atmosphere makes the day. I loved that the dance floor was full and guests where having a good time!
- I wore flats, I was comfy all day, literally not one person asked to see my shoes. Defo no regrets.
- Let yourself indulge in it. It’s okay to be excited, to spend hours looking at things online or thinking about your day, it’s normal!! Enjoy it! If you feel like making your invites, make them, no it’s not too early. Who cares if you’ve got two years to go and you’re spending the day deciding on a full on wedding play list? It’s EXCITING - embrace every second! I was so grateful I’d got some jobs done early so that I had less to be stressed about as the day approached.
- Most importantly look after your mental health. I didn’t realise at the time how stressed I’d become in the run up, and I had a pretty straightforward day! Make sure you’re kind to yourself, have time to relax and don’t expect to do everything yourself - ask for help when you need it and accept help when its offered. My sister came round a few weeks before the wedding and we got loads done and treated ourselves to pizza, and that really helped me feel on top of things.
Photographer: Rachel Clarke Wedding PhotographyVideographer: Edit My WeddingPhoto Booth: Hire My Selfie + DIY BackdropFlorist: Nina’s FlowersCake: Trish’s Cakes (my fab Auntie Trish)Wooden Place Names + Post Box: Confetti PrintStationery: DIY (Canva + Greetings Island)MUA: Jeanette FlynnHair: Hair by KathleenHair Vine: £3 From AliExpressBridesmaid Dresses: Chi Chi LondonFlower Girl Dress: Facebook MarketplaceSuits: SlatersPage Boy Outfit: NextWedding Rings: Groom: H Samuel + Bride: Rebecca’s Jewellers in Southport
From Brides, With Love xo
Post a Comment