I´ve just watched an article on tv saying that more and more couples are postponing or cancelling their wedding due to the massive expense they cause.

Granted I had a big wedding for my first one, but the second one I did on a budget (I´m trying to beat Liz Taylor in the marriage stakes).

It´s nice to have that big dress and the lovely venue with the gorgeous food, expensive wedding car, fireworks maybe?

But if you are determined you want to get married and you love each other you should be able to have a lovely wedding whatever your budget.

This is what I did:

Wedding dress: 30 pounds - British Home Stores, this was a cream lace silk shift dress, not a fairytale princess but if you want something more outlandish try eBay, there´s always wedding dresses for sale, they´ve hopefully only been worn once so why not?

Suits for the men, either just wear a suit that you have in your wardrobe or hunt around for reasonable hire shops. Ask your best man to pay for his, most of them will because they will be honored that you asked them, the same for Bridesmaids, same for the little Bridesmaids there are more and more department stores stocking fairly cheap dresses.

Wedding cake:  This was my favourite, there is something called a Festival Gateau sold at Morrisons supermarket, it´s a large round dome shaped green marzipan covered sponge, cream and custard cake, it´s my favourite cake, why should I pay a fortune for a cake I don´t like and most of it get´s left anyway?  I went to a local cake decorating shop and bought a little statue of two frogs getting married and put it on top of the cake, everyone loved it!  Cost?  Altogether 5 pounds.

We got married at a registry office, so that worked out to be cheaper than a church venue, I thought it might not be as nice, but having done both it didn´t matter, the staff were lovely and we laughed all the way through, it was more relaxing and we had a great time.

Reception - This was at our local pub, the Landlord put a spread on free due to extra customers we generated, the food was lovely with the big green frog cake taking centre stage.

We had Karaoke during the day and a disco in the evening, everybody had a ball, the kids were entertained with the singing and some were still up and dancing in the evening. Cost 70 pounds

We then had enough money to spend on ourselves to go to Florida from England for 2 weeks with believe it or not my in-laws and my son, oh and of course my new husband.  I´d prefer to get married the cheap way, it´s alot more informal, it´s fun to find new ways to enjoy a big day and you don´t end yourself up in debt for the next 5 years, which can put a big stress on your new marriage - one thing you really don´t need!