Our DIY Wedding

June 24th 2023 was the day we married at our home in front of our friends and family. When Franki asked me to marry him on April 23rd 2022 we didn’t really have an idea of what we wanted our wedding to look like. Last year we went on some location visits to various Masias around us. I joined bodas.com and made shortlists of venues. The thing was, although each place was beautiful the cost was around 4000€ +IVA for just the venue. Our original list of guests was around 150 people. Bearing in mind that catering companies charge around 100€ for an adult, suddenly we were looking at a price tag of 20,000€.

Unfortunately for us that was simply way out of our budget. 

With us having to spend so much money on IVF and having just bought a home a minimum 20K€ wedding wasn’t going to work. So we parked the idea of a wedding and just let the ideas settle for a while. I think it was around the end of 2022 that we began to toy with the idea of doing a much smaller wedding at our home. After all, we are super lucky to live in a beautiful place with a sizable garden and pool. We wanted to include Franki’s family farm so we decided to use it for the ceremony part. It was really tricky to pull back our guest list, not a fun job at all and something that left us both feeling icky. Of course we wanted to celebrate with everyone we love but that simply wasn’t feasible (more on that to come).

So this is how we did our wedding on a budget and a whole heap of love.

Firstly it was time to get organised. My best friend India helped me to create a wedding spreadsheet so that I could keep track of all the things that needed to be done. Having everything in one place really helped me to keep on track. This was especially important in the last few weeks leading up to the big day.

India suggested I come up with some colour ideas to work from as the base for decoration etc. Franki had vetoed any bright colours for the ceremony so I was allowed to let my inner glitter child out for the party part. I created two mood boards in canva, one for the ceremony and one for the party. These really helped to guide the colour choices of everything. I’m no designer but I think how it came off was really beautiful. 

Saving number 1 - Electronic invites to save on printing & postage costs. 

It’s always nice to receive a wedding invite via post, however after the big day they end up in the rubbish. So to save on printing and postage costs I used withjoy.com that allows you to create a wedding website with all details for guests, sends out invites and allows RSVPs. For our Catalan side I used canva to create invites.

Saving number 2 - Buying a wedding dress on sale & having it customised.

Before Franki had even proposed I saw this dress from the 1950’s worn by siren Vicky Dougan. I fell in love, screenshotted it and vowed if we ever married I wanted something similar. One time I was back at home in Norwich and more for my Mum’s benefit I booked an appointment at Pure Brides to try on some dresses. Prior to this I’d only tried on a few in Barcelona which were gorgeous but also around the 1500-2000€ mark. I’ve always been a fan of sparkles so I asked the woman to bring me a selection of her most glittery dresses. After trying on a few she looked at one and said “oh I don’t think we will bother with this one”. I said I wanted to give it a try and it turned out I loved it. Sure, there were quite a few parts that needed altering but I absolutely loved the beading, sequins and pearls. Plus I loved the mermaid shape. I was expecting her to say it would be well over a grand so when she told me it was reduced from 1700 to 500 I was like ‘woahhhh yes please’. 

One top tip for trying on dresses, take a breath! It can be overwhelming and the stylists are brilliant but also want to make a sale. I almost ended up walking away with two dresses before I came to my senses. We had lunch and then I rang up the shop to confirm I wanted it. Now it was just the task to get the dress to Barcelona. Thank goodness for my Mum who brought it over a month later. 

Now was the slightly overwhelming task of trying to find the right person to customise my dress. Big thanks to those who made recommendations. A very special thank you to Montse who introduced me to Judit, a modiste. She was able to turn my dress into my dream dress. I was really happy with how it turned out and the customisations, including making it smaller, cost 342€. So in total a dress for about 1000€. One that was totally unique and fit me like a glove.

Saving number 3 - No wedding flowers.

Now, I absolutely adore flowers. What I don’t adore is the prices for them in Catalunya, I swear they’re way more expensive than in the UK. As we were getting married late June I decided I didn’t want to spend money on flowers that would wilt quickly. This meant no bouquets for me nor my bridesmaids. What I did instead was made corsages and hair slides with fake flowers that I bought from. I thought I’d nailed the glue gun approach…..however on the day of the wedding some of them started to fall apart waaaa, including the ones I’d made for my head. I’m not quite sure where I went wrong, but no biggie, we made do with what we had.

I snipped a few roses from our garden and my mum brought a bunch of peonies so we used these to decorate the speech stand. I foraged for wild plants in the days leading up to the wedding to be put in vases around the seating.

My friends Jo & Sam bought some bougainvillaea from their gardens to decorate the house and add a splash of hot pinks and purples. 

Saving number 4 - A handmade arch for the ceremony.

When I was researching Pinterest for ceremony ideas I came across lots of beautifully decorated arches. Determined to make one ourselves, Franki and I set about creating our own. Lucky that his Dad has a farm and his brother is a gardener. We used buckets and rocks to create the base and then placed three large branches in each and two across the top, secured with wire. Franki’s brother gave us the idea to put brown sacks around the buckets which fitted perfectly with the farm chic aesthetic.

We built the arch in the ceremony area at Franki’s Dad’s farm so that it didn’t need to be moved. HIs Dad very sweetly built a protector around it to stop any eager cows from destroying it. 

The day before the wedding, together with my family, best friends and Franki, we decorated the arch with handmade carved wooden flowers and birds from my Mum. It was perfect and just how I’d envisaged it.

Saving number 5 - Wholesale alcohol

Franki’s friend owns a restaurant so we were able to bulk buy alcohol rather than buying from the supermarket which was a far cheaper option.

The splurge - Catering

Our biggest cost was the food. Franki’s cousin is an incredible chef and he was our first choice. We settled on a menu and a price that worked for both. Our style of food was cocktail meaning that small plates would be served spanning a couple of hours so that people could graze. I think this was a great option as it was informal and suited a very hot summer day wedding. 

Overall I was so happy that we decided to do pretty much everything ourselves. It was a really personal and intimate day and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our friends and family who helped in the days leading up.

It was a lot of work and we pulled it off in 6 months. I can also totally appreciate why people would hire a wedding planner or support as I was pretty exhausted! It truly was a magical day.