Eco friendly and under budget – how we made our two day Brinkburn Northumberland wedding work for us.
I knew as soon as we visited Brinkburn Northumberland that I wanted to get married there. Luckily, so did Dave. It’s set upon beautiful ancient woodland and the room we chose to get married in is a converted stables. (There are three options of ceremony spaces)
I’ve written this blog to share some of our processes of keeping costs down and being ‘Creatively Conscious’ and eco friendly in all of our decisions. We set out to have a magical feel to our wedding that didn’t break the bank.
We had around 45 guests during the day and around 25 in the evening. Being strict about our guest list really helped with costs and managing dynamics too!
Planning and lead in…
We decided to get married in February and booked the wedding for Bonfire Night – 5th November. So we had eight months to save and pay for the wedding and to plan for everything.
Luckily, despite the short notice, there were only a few people who couldn’t come either work commitments or because they live abroad.
I decided on the theme of ‘A Splash of PINK AND GOLD’ to wrap all of my design ideas around… they are two of my fave colours and I just thought it would be fun if guests wore some pink and or gold too.
Homemade flower confetti
BUDGET how it broke down…
Save the dates/ Invites; £0
I designed them on canva and emailed them to everyone. I looked at Paperless post but I couldn’t make it look good so stuck with what I knew.
Legal ceremony; £520
Light sign – ‘The Joy Eclectic’
Our celebrant is my bessie Paul.
Venue & Food – £6021
- Brinkburn Northumberland including two nights accommodation for us and 5 other guests in our cottage and an extra cottage for our photographer. The rest of our guests paid for their own accommodation.
- Wilkins Fine Dining – they were incredible, we opted for canapes and two courses which kept costs down…
- The teepee was part of the hire fee and we had our wedding breakfast in there – it was just lush.
- We also did a big ASDA online shop for our cottage – £200.
My lovely friend delivering flowers she made, I dried some of them to keep.
Photographer; £0
Sean Elliot Photography – Sean is a close friend and took our photos as a wedding present – what a super star! They are just stunning!!!
Decor; £60 plus…
Table settings, place names origami envelopes £0 (just the cost of the paper), pot plants – £40, pots – ikea £1.50 each, pheasant feathers £0, Love Heart Sweets (favours); £7, gold spray paint (for frames); £10
- Extra long sparklers – x 50; £20 from amazon
- Light Sign Hire; £60 – Coco Lumiere – they kindly discounted this for me as the sign was already at the venue.
- Flowers; My flowers and the boys button holes and Flower girl flowers were a gift from my friend. Our venue kindly gifted flowers left over from the weekend wedding fayre.
- Glitter itinerary sign and FOREVER sign; gifted from my artist friend ‘The Joy Eclectic’ and our itinerary is now up on our bathroom wall.
Wedding guest book; a gift from my sister
Music; £0
Amazon Prime playlist, sheet music for GOLD for everyone to sing – I printed at home on coloured paper.
My Outfits; £498
- Dressing Gown – £15, Dress 1 – £25 (ebay), £85 alterations. Dress 2 – £300 – Paris Dress House, didn’t need alterations just a little bit of fixing which I did. Shoes – Linea £23, Blue Boots – M&S – £35. Jewellery – mostly borrowed. Jackets – one was my Grandmas, one I borrowed from my mum. New underwear – didn’t wear a bra so just new pants from M&S.
Wedding rings; £120
We made at Drywater Arts for £120 and I wore my Grandmas wedding ring too.
Beautiful cakes by my mum
Kids Outfits; £70
Flower girls parents got theirs and I bought hair accessories and shoes for some – £15, Boys suits, M&S – £55, shoes my sister bought.
Hair; £150
Cake; £0
My mum made us our cakes – isn’t it stunning!
Make-up; My mum did my make-up which I bought from Bare Minerals for £135 on a 10% off day.
Childcare – we were incredibly lucky that our friend offered to hang out with the kids all day and entertain them as a gift to us.
Thank-yous – we printed photo cards from Sean’s website and send in the post to everyone in January as a nice pick me up after Christmas…I think they were around £50
Things we put in the f&&k it bucket…
My friend who’d already got married told me about the ‘f&&k it bucket’ and just letting go of stuff that seemed like ‘too much…’
- Poleroid cameras and films – would have been a nice touch but friends said they didn’t end up using theirs as much as they wanted as they got jammed.
- Drinking games/ bingo – I couldn’t wrap my head round how to do it.
- A new suit for Dave for the Monday (legal part)
- Bridesmaids – I just had flower girls but I do kind of wish I had Bridesmaids as I did need more looking after than I thought I might in the lead up and on the actual day.
- A mini -moon – I really just wanted to be home, go to the spa and eat cheese and chocolate.
So there you have it, that’s how it all broke down for our budget and our approach. It was a beautiful couple of days and if I could have changed anything at all, I would have just had a better disco!
Are you planning a wedding or does reading this make you day dream about it?
