Article - Unique Home Stays

Real life
Weddings with
a DIY difference
(and all for under £10,000)
You don’t need lots of cash for a dream wedding, says Kim Sullivan
– just bags of creativity and a little help from your friends…
very bride- and groom-to-be
wants their wedding day to be
a truly special occasion – a day
they will remember for the rest
of their lives together. Many couples
choose to push the boat out and spend a
small fortune, with the average UK
wedding costing an eye-watering £20,000.
But there is also a growing trend for
people taking a more DIY approach –
finding ways to make their day unique
while helping to keep costs down.
‘Many couples want something that’s
quirky, organising their wedding in their
own way and putting their special stamp
on the event. They enjoy exploring the
ways they can do this, thinking creatively
about what suits their personality and
style and prioritising this within their
budget,’ says Gaynor Holt of leading
wedding website confetti.co.uk.
Involving family and friends in
preparations can be a huge help. From
flower growing and table styling to
making glam cupcakes instead of the
traditional cake, we talk to three couples
whose weddings all had the wow factor
– and didn’t break the bank.
sainsburysmagazine.co.uk
35
Vikki Lafford Garside, 33
and John Garside, 43
Married August 2013, Gloucestershire
Married April 2012, Dorset
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Honeymoon hideaways for less
36
L
THE U K
EUROPE
LONG -H AU
Unique Home Stays has so many desirable
boltholes for two. For sheer cutesy cosiness
though, Gilly Cottage is hard to beat. It has a rural
location in Cornwall, south-east of Bodmin Moor,
and comes with wood-burning stove, lovely
orchard gardens and pretty blue and white decor.
From £350 per week (uniquehomestays.com)
Grab a Ryanair flight to Palermo in Sicily (from £90
return; ryanair.com) then treat yourself to a lovely
little tower for two near Marsala. The 16th-century
Badia Tower is near bars and restaurants and has
a secluded garden setting on a large estate,
surrounded by palm trees and oleanders, with a
private terrace. From €795 a week (solosicily.com)
Flying halfway round the world bumps up the budget
– but there are bargains. Turquoise Holidays
features the beachfront resort of Quinci Villas on
Lombok in Indonesia. You can explore the island,
with its jungle and spice plantations, and snorkel
in the clear waters. From £1,230 per person for 10
nights including flights (turquoiseholidays.co.uk)
sainsburysmagazine.co.uk
FASHION COMPILED BY FRANCESCA ZEDDA
an amazing cake which he
decorated with fruit, edible
flowers and a huge sunflower.
‘One of my bridesmaids is a
photographer, so she took our
pictures as a wedding gift.’
On the morning of the wedding Vikki
arrived at the school in a hired van
driven by her mum and laden with
flowers to decorate the venue, helped by
friends. By 1.45pm she and John were
tying the knot, literally, in the woodland
glade, nipping back into the venue for a
quick legal ceremony, then a meal, and
dancing later that evening.
‘Everything went like a dream, and
we felt that all the creative touches
everyone contributed made it a unique
wedding that truly reflected us.’
Emily Gifford, 30
and Mike Gifford, 27
TRAVEL COMPILED BY SUZANNE KING. PHOTOGRAPH: ASSASSYNATION.
CO.UK. VIKKI’S WEBSITE IS LILIIA.CO.UK
‘We didn’t have any fixed ideas about
our wedding initially, but we both felt it
was important that it should represent
us as a couple, so we were very involved
in creating every aspect of the day,’ says
Vikki, a dress and accessories designer.
The couple didn’t start planning
seriously until January for their August
wedding. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by
nature and folklore and fairytales – but it
wasn’t until we found a beautiful old
Victorian school with gorgeous grounds
and a magical woodland area that we
decided to have the key part outdoors
with a “handfasting” ceremony in a glade.
It’s where the saying “tying the knot”
comes from, when you wrap a cloth
around each other’s hands, and
it was so special and romantic.’
Although there was a fixed budget for
the venue and catering, many of Vikki’s
friends who work in creative industries
volunteered to help, which kept costs
down while ensuring the wedding had an
original style. ‘My family were involved,
too. My granddad has always grown
dahlias on his allotment, so in early spring
we had a family allotment day and planted
tons of tubers for the wedding flowers,
which bloomed amazingly for August.’
Vikki made her own wedding dress,
five bridesmaids’ dresses and
nature-inspired accessories, including
the handfasting cloth, which she
embroidered with their initials.
John planned the menu for the 76 guests
with the venue’s caterers. ‘John’s a vegan
so it was 99% vegan food – a delicious
Mediterranean buffet. And we bought
‘We knew from the start that we wanted
a small wedding. We were living apart and,
as Mike was still in the army, we only
saw each other on occasional weekends.
We didn’t want to use the time together
being stressed about organising a big do.
We also wanted to put our savings
towards buying a house, not blowing it
all on one day,’ says Emily, a PA.
‘I had been to lots of friends’ weddings,
which was great research for knowing
what I liked. We wanted to avoid
anything formulaic. We love dancing
and having fun, so that was top priority.’
The date was quite flexible and the
location simple: the couple and their
families are both from Bridport in
Dorset. ‘I started organising six months
beforehand, and did all the research
and booking because Mike was
away – although we checked out the
reception venue together,’ says Emily.
‘There was lots of availability on
Friday 13 April at the registry office
because nobody wanted to get married
that day. It didn’t bother us, so we went
for it,’ says Emily.
‘We had a stroke of luck with our
reception, finding a beautiful Georgian
boat warehouse that had been converted
into an art gallery just by the harbour in
nearby West Bay. We were their first
wedding reception so they let us have it
at an excellent rate. It’s such a lovely
building it didn’t need much decoration.
I personalised the tables by making
place names from slabs of chocolate,
writing everyone’s
names on with icing.
‘I bought my dress in
a sale for £70, and a
hairdresser friend did
my hair in a fantastic
vintage 1940s style my
granny used to have.
Mum grew most of
the flowers and she
and my sister and
I made up the posies
with a few additional
stems from our local
supermarket. Mike’s
parents have a
beautiful open-top
car which they lent
to us for our short
wedding journey. I felt a
million dollars once I was ready.
‘We had 25 family and very close
friends to the wedding, and a lovely
traditional Dorset cream tea afterwards
at the venue. Everyone was stuffed for
about a fiver a head! Later, before the
evening do when everyone was peckish
again, we had tapas and then at 8pm
about 100 friends came for the party.
We wrote on the evening invitation to
‘come with full tummies and your
dancing shoes’ so people would eat
beforehand. We also said that it would
be a paying bar because of our tight
budget, although we negotiated some
good prices with the venue.
‘I found doing it all on a tight budget
was a great way to be more creative. I
enjoyed organising it all and got a buzz
out of it. Everyone said it was the best
wedding they’d been to, and I don’t
think I’d have changed anything about
the day even if I’d had lots to spend.’
Great-value
guest chic
UNDER £100
Dress, £22, Sainsbury’s
(0800 636262;
sainsburys.co.uk); blazer,
£22, Sainsbury’s (as
before); shoes, £35, Ben
de Lisi at Debenhams
(debenhams.com)
TOTAL COST = £79
UNDER £120
Dress, £36, Next (next.
co.uk); shoes, £45, Ben
de Lisi at Debenhams
(as before); clutch,
£35, Accessorize (uk.
accessorize.com)
TOTAL = £116
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and dr
inks)
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Mike’
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.£70
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(taxi
200
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owers
, etc £300
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tal:
£1,49
0
UNDER £150
Dress, £95, Fenn
Wright Manson
(fennwrightmanson.
com); necklace,
£19.99, Zara (zara.
com/uk); shoes, £30,
Next (as before)
TOTAL = £144.99
sainsburysmagazine.co.uk
37