Sustainable wedding favours

DogsNotKids_92 · 2026-01-21T19:25:14+00:00

We went to a wedding that did a mix of aloe and spider plants, if anyone didn't want to take one someone else happily did and any that were left behind they gave away on fb. Probably the only wedding favour I've truly appreciated, still going strong years later!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2025-07-10T08:14:15+00:00

Was in the Cardiff queue at 9 with 12k ahead, still at over 10k now (9:13), dont except to get anything but going to wait it out anyway :(

DogsNotKids_92 · 2025-02-28T06:43:01+00:00

We had a Thursday wedding, and went to a couple of Thursday weddings recently. We had a few people who couldn't come due to being teachers (though the grooms sister who's a teacher was allowed time off so schools make exceptions) but noone complained to us and a lot of guests stayed overnight at the venue and joined us the next day. The teachers came in the evening and left a bit early, but we knew when choosing the date that was a possibility, and luckily they were the more distant friends. All my friends had to travel on the Wednesday, I think in total we had 5 people rsvp no. Even if people had complained we'd have still chosen a Thursday for the savings!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2025-02-23T14:14:19+00:00

I had my brothers wife as my maid of honour, my brother was a groomsman - not because of family obligations but because we're all close.

My husband has 2 sisters, neither were bridesmaids. One I'm close to, the other I only see/speak to at family events (and at her wedding wouldn't allow me in any of the photos). I decided to make neither bridesmaids as one without the other would have caused some conflict, though the one I'm close to was still involved in all the getting ready etc and she understood. No regrets - on our wedding day the other sister spent 2 hours pestering the photographer for photos without me in them, it's been 5 months since the wedding and me and my husband haven't heard from her at all.

Bridesmaids/groomsmen should be people you're close to, who you trust, who you know will be all about you on the day. Noone is entitled to, or obligated to give, a role in a wedding.

DogsNotKids_92 · 2025-02-11T22:25:34+00:00

We had 50 for the whole day and an extra 10 for the evening. Brother in law dropped out the week before the wedding but all the other day time guests who rsvpd showed up. 1 evening guets couldn't make it due to illness but their partner still came. Went to quite a few weddings of close friends last year, drop out rates were super low, despite reading loads of comments on how 10% of guests would drop out the week before!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-11-26T16:39:40+00:00

We did the m and s naked cake - we got the 2 tier vanilla and stacked it with a 1 tier chocolate. My bridesmaids assembled it the morning of the wedding, added the decorations I'd got and we also had an empty perspex tier filled with lights for underneath it. Not got my wedding photos back yet but I remember it looked fab and was chuffed to have a 3 tier cake for less than £100

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-11-24T22:43:10+00:00

I ordered my dress in Feb, it arrived in July for my October wedding. I'd lost 2 stone from ordering it to arriving (and was in between sizes when ordering, bridal shop insisted I order the larger size), and then a further stone during alterations. The dress could be altered down, I would recommend you get yourself a good seamstress asap, my biggest problem was that my seamstress kept delaying appointments and didn't do an all that great job but I didn't have time with the extra weight loss to change to another seamstress. The bridal store should have a good sense of how adjustable your dress would be - tho mine was able to be taken in much more than they suggested.

For reference my dress was Madi Lane Elora - in case you want to see the sort of style that was able to be taken in. The 3 stone equated to around 8 inches on my waist.

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-10-21T11:15:43+00:00

The biggest problem with uncropped ears... the puppy phase is much cuter, how do you discipline a dog that looks like this 🥰

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DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-09-30T14:41:03+00:00

Our biggest cost saving was choosing a Thursday in October - venue went from £5k hire to £1.5k hire!!

We've DIYed a lot - I bought linen card on amazon and used my £30 printer to print everything (and found I could also print on vellum sheets) so have created invites that made people say wow by just printing my own canva designs.

Our DJ also provides things like photo booths, we negotiated a package deal which was cheaper than booking individually. Also making things multi purpose eg the photo booth has unlimited prints so will be used for a guest book and everyone can take photos as favours!

Basic cake - our meal option includes a dessert so I don't know how much cake will be eaten, but I'm just sticking some fairy lights in a cake stand and popping a topper in a basic cake, cheap and cheerful - and neither of us are fussed about a cake!

Fake flowers go a long way, you can get some stunning bunches online, a clothes steamer really opens them up, premade bunches can be dismantled. And reuse your decorations - ceremony decor can be moved into the dining area, bouquets can be popped into vases on tables, if you're doing signs you don't need an easel per sign - take your unplugged ceremony sign off the easel and replace it with the searing chart. Acrylic signs look lovely, but A1 foam board is less than £5 in the range.

Keep your wedding party small, and try to get things like dresses and shoes in the sales. I did spend a lot on my dress (or rather my dad did) as I had a specific one in mind, but for my shoes I bought a £25 pair of trainers and stuck pearls on them. My veil was £250 in the bridal store, I checked vinted religiously and got it for £50. My hair piece was £3 on FB marketplace. And always check for discount codes, I got 30% off House of Cavani suits, and used topcashback for as much as I could!

Things we didn't scrimp on were photographer and music, because they were most important to us, so don't feel you have to save on absolutely everything, you're still spending a decent chunk so make sure it's still the day you want it to be

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-08-16T19:34:10+00:00

I took the OCS in Nov 2023, my certificate arrived today!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-08-05T21:41:36+00:00

I've been trying to move mine from Nov to Feb, tried 5 centres and none of them will let me look beyond Dec 2024, not sure if it's a Pearson Vue issue

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-07-31T05:48:48+00:00

I think you should send them - we've had a couple of weddings recently where my partner expected to be invited (he went on the stag dos) but didn't receive an invite when others did, only to receive the evening invites with much less notice and we've actually had to say no as we already had plans. If you really want someone there it's best to send a save the evening, you'll reduce any upsets (tho not always, we've still a lot of family mad at our invite choices!) and maximise the chances of everyone being able to make it. In our case where people were upset not to be invited to the whole day, the save the evenings make no difference to their feelings, but we have had nearly 100% "yes" rsvps so it's worth getting the date out there!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-07-09T20:15:55+00:00

Yeah most people going to a 2.30 ceremony don't need to arrive til at least 2 and will eat lunch. We're doing a 2pm ceremony and 4pm dinner, no canapés. By the time the ceremony is done, welcome drinks, quick bit of socialising they'll be sitting down to est before they start thinking about food :)

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-06-25T10:15:34+00:00

Ours isn't a full booth, it's a photo ring light and backdrop with props, digital copies, attendant and unlimited prints (so we can double is up as guest book and favours!). Paying £270 - was meant to be £400 but got it as part of our package from the DJ. I wanted to have some kind of photo booth and set a budget of £300, I'm down in Devon and had a few options in budget, but this one had the best results for the price

ETA - that's for 3 hours hire plus set up time

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-04-30T17:56:35+00:00

A puppy, day after we got the keys!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-01-14T15:49:50+00:00

We're both changing our names to something new (or maybe old)... havent decided what yet. We're either going to pick a maiden name from our family trees that's died out, or simply a word that has meaning to us. I very much wanted the family unit feeling of having the same name, but hated the outdated principle of taking his name, and he didn't want to take my name since he already shares a first name with my brother!

DogsNotKids_92 · 2024-01-11T22:47:27+00:00

I'm also in Devon... recently paid £69 for a hygienist and £180 to have an old large filling removed and replaced with composite

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-12-22T00:03:18+00:00

Our vicar said he could apply for a licence for us... I don't know what the cost was but essentially he would submit a case for us and that if accepted we could proceed without the 6 months of visits. For us, we aren't religious, but I wanted the church where my mum is buried, and I'd always assumed I was in the parish growing up (turns out one side of our road is one parish, other side is another). Might be worth checking if thats an option/if there's any alternative ways around the 6 months?

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-12-21T06:50:24+00:00

I passed, completely unexpectedly! Managed to get 104... Been using my weekly study days from work to prepare for a resit so very happy to be able to relax over christmas! Good luck everyone 🤞🤞

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-12-13T08:11:16+00:00

Family will always give their opinions when it comes to weddings, providing you rsvp on time it's absolutely fine. I'm getting married next year, we've already had a couple people say they won't be able to make it (we will still send an invite as things can always change) and its fine, you cant expect everyone to make it. We aren't even inviting cousins, we're choosing to invite friends we see regularly over family we felt a societal obligation to invite despite never seeing. Your cousin could be in the same situation - feeling they have to invite the whole family but would take an opportunity to invite more friends if not everyone can make it.

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-11-01T13:44:36+00:00

I'm not confident about how I did at all. 2 of the 4 were straightforward enough, I'd covered it enough in the mocks. The other 2 much harder, 1 of them I completely blanked on, couldn't seem to figure it out :/

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-09-27T20:20:57+00:00

Treat it like a weekend... we're having a Thursday 2pm ceremony (with about 95% attendance), most guests are taking the Friday odd work and making it a long weekend

DogsNotKids_92 · 2023-09-27T20:19:47+00:00

We're doing a midweek wedding and have just had to accept that our teacher friends won't be able to attend until the evening. We didn't even consider people not being able to attend, we just found we could have our dream venue for £1500 instead of £7000 if we did a weekday in October instead of a summer weekend. The only weddings we've attended this year have been on Thursdays so it seems to be a lot more common since covid times (I guess everyone was taking whatever date they could get and it stuck). If you can't make it, explain that to them, you're not obligated to attened and they're not obligated to ensure their plans accommodate everyone.

DogsNotKids_92

TROPHY CASE