Four Weddings - a frugal bride

By Samantha Parker on Aug 26, 09 12:23 PM in

I wrote this story in the Liverpool ECHO today. Natalie has completely put me to shame with her £600 wedding.

I don't want to think about how much money I could have saved! I've been lucky enough to get some discounts but not as many as I had hoped.

I also wanted a big white wedding with all of the trimmings.

I'm sorry that Natalie didn't win. She deserve some sort of prize for her achievement! Best of luck to her and her new husband!

A FRUGAL bride decided to defy the wedding industry and set a budget of only £600 for her big day.
When Natalie Canavan, 38, wed her hubby James, 40, in May this year they decided they didn't want to start their married life in debt.
Natalie said: "We are in the middle of a recession and I got a bit sick and tired of ringing up suppliers who added zero's when you mentioned you were having a wedding.
"I'd ring up for a quote of a band for a wedding and then ring them again 10 minutes later and say it was for a party. There was always a vast difference in the price."
"I decided to set myself a budget of just £600 and actually came in under budget with a total of £580.
"It was a lot of hard work and shopping around. There was a lot of research involved."
Natalie and James entered their pub wedding into ITV's Four Weddings for the chance to win a honeymoon worth £5k. Their day was screened on Monday.
Four Weddings see four couple judge each others weddings out of 10. The winner gets a honeymoon.
Natalie's daughter Jessica nine, and the couple's daughter Annie, 2, were bridesmaids.
Natalie from Penny Lane, Wavertree, added: "We hoped we would be able to prove that you can still have a beautiful wedding for a fraction of the cost.
"Unfortunately the other brides didn't believe that you could put together a white wedding for £580.
"They were very suspicious and it did hurt to hear their comments on TV. But we did do it.
"We had a lot of help from people at our local pub. The pub landlady was absolutely fantastic and organised everything from the flowers to the chair covers which she did herself and included in her price.
"Even the band was free as she let me choose one of the regular bands who provided entertainment for the whole pub, not just the wedding party.
"She did everything at cost for us as she knew she would make her money on the bar.
"A student photographer took the photos for free and a gentleman at the pub with a Mercedes drove me around.
"I got me dress for the bargain price of £30 from Ebay and then paid £50 to have it cleaned. Family and friends helped in anyway they could but we never asked for anything.
"I wish we did win as we could have taken the children away but I wouldn't change the day."