Shopping News: How couple tied knot for under £3k
Oct 25 2010 By Emma McKinney
With the average wedding costing more than £19,000, Consumer Editor Emma McKinney meets one Midland couple whose dream day cost £2,500 and reveals top tips to save cash.
WHEN Rowenna Skidmore and James Williams decided they wanted to share their future together, they also knew they didn’t want to start their married life saddled with the debt of funding an elaborate wedding.
The average wedding costs £19,265, according to magazine You and Your Wedding – but Rowenna and James were determined to tie the knot on a budget of less than £3,000.
“Of course all girls want a big white wedding and it’s one of the biggest days of your life, but it really is just one day,” says Rowenna, aged 25, of Malvern, Worcestershire.
“I wanted to make it special but I knew we could find ways to save money and still have an amazing day.”
In fact the couple’s wedding and honeymoon combined cost just over £2,500, thanks to the couple’s ingenuity, such as opting to wed at All Saints Church in Malvern, costing just £400.
“The church was in a beautiful setting and the vicar was very kind in telling us that some of his parishioners regularly do flower arrangements in the church so we didn’t need to pay for any extra, which was an instant saving straight away,” says Rowenna.
Setting a date for August 15 last year, Rowenna ditched ordering expensive invitations, instead creating her own using card and accessories from shop HobbyCraft, costing less than £40.
Having seen her dream dress for £800, Rowenna scoured shops across the Midlands until she found one selling almost an identical version and she haggled the price down to £250.
“I found my shoes for £10 on Ebay,” she adds. “I had seen some beautiful hand-made ones for several hundred pounds but I thought there was little point in spending a fortune on them as my dress covered them anyway.”
Rowenna saved more money by potting plants she had grown to give to guests as favours, which also doubled up as table decorations.
And it wasn’t just cash PR worker James, 26, originally from Kings Heath, Birmingham, and Rowenna, were wanting to save.
“James and I are both keen to be as environmentally friendly as we possibly can in all aspects of our life, and our wedding day was no exception,” says Rowenna, a sustainability and marketing officer at Worcestershire County Council, who also runs an online magazine promoting local produce in her spare time.
“We wanted to incorporate our passion for organic food and environmental sustainability into our wedding day,” explains Rowenna.
The pair approached eco-cafe The Fold in Bransford, Worcestershire, to see if they could stage their reception there.
“They had never done a wedding before and I think they were almost as excited as we were about it,” says Rowenna.
Together they planned a slap-up meal for their 75 guests, with the menu full of organic produce including pork, lamb, nut roast, salads and bread, as well as locally-produced sparkling perry to toast the happy couple.
Instead of splashing out hundreds of pounds on a traditional wedding cake, they asked The Fold’s chef to produce a special version of their favourite dessert Pavlova – which they served up as pudding to their guests.
And family and friends were eager to help their plight, with the couple asking them to dry petals from their gardens to use as confetti.
Best men Rob Bassett and Leo Hughes wore their own suits, and James’s brother Alex was joined by his band to provide entertainment, with the couple’s friend Emma White also singing during the reception.
Rowenna’s cousin Richard Dunn, a professional photographer, did their pictures as their wedding gift, while friends and family also took snaps to remember the day.
Rowenna’s step-dad Martyn Oliver even dressed up as a chauffeur and decorated his car to provide their transport for the day.
