Judy's Affordable Vintage Digest Judy's Affordable Vintage Digest Issue 2 | Page 38

We popped down to a very busy Kilo Sale at Leeds Trinity Church to see what you lot were up to! Fans! Ellie and Ellen ‘For me (Ellie) this is the first one. I’ve (Ellen) been to one before in here about a month ago, it was great, the clothes are so cheap! In general we like to experiment with some vintage bits rather than a full outfit nobody wants to look like their Nana!’ planning or the day! Control freaks beware, it just won’t. That’s life! Major compromise would be not having the dream honeymoon we would have hoped for. If we’d invited less people and spent less money on the dress and car, then yes, but we decided to have a big party instead. I really wasn’t prepared to compromise on the dress - I had an idea and I wanted it to become something treasured, like an heirloom. So we didn’t get to go to America and get married by Elvis in Las Vegas as our honeymoon, but we did have a brilliant day and so did our guests. We still had a lovely few days on the Isle of Wight at Vintage Vacations in an old airstream caravan. Tell us about your dress? New shop dresses were a nod to the 50s but not quite right. I couldn’t find a vintage one either so instead I took a drawing and some ideas along to Alison Miles who is a fabulous dress maker in Bath. She used vintage lace in part of the design and created exactly what I wanted. It didn’t come cheap but to be honest it wasn’t much higher than the cost of dresses I had seen in the shops. Alison helped me find the right shoes too and made the most gorgeous vintage brooch bouquet for me, which will now sit in a vase forever. As for Jamie’s outfit we found a great suit online, he had brothel creepers and we made the boot lace ties. Jamie loves Star Wars so the button holes had Star Wars Lego mini figures on them! How much did your wedding cost? Do you have any tips for doing a vintage wedding on the cheap? You have a lot of choices in your wedding. A dress from a shop could cost you around £1200 but then a dress from Vivien of Holloway is £100. You can get married 38 in a church like us, which set us back by £500 (most of that is for the actual legal part) but then a registry office is possibly cheaper. We went with a really affordable venue which only charged us £25 per head for the day and £10 for the night with no venue hire or decorations charge. But then you could pay £6,000 for a manor house exclusive with food and drink, or you could find a barn and have a hog roast. My wedding ring was super cheap but then you can spend a fortune on one. We put around £5k towards our wedding and the other £4 or 5k came from family - I don’t think there was much change from that but what I am trying to say is you could spend a heck of a lot more than that. You could also spend less but essentially if you want to get married legally and in front of 100 people and then feed them, there is no getting away from the fact you are going to spend thousands of pounds! The biggest single cost of our wedding was...food and drink! In the end we probably paid nearly £4K for that. My tips for spending less would be to make it an intimate affair, thrift a dress and get it altered, get friends to help you make decorations, and bring a bottle and a dish. But one thing you shouldn’t save on is a photgrapher who can capture it all. But obviously it’s all up to the couple. If you were to have the ceremony again, would you change anything? I have no regrets - I look back on the day and it was everything we wanted. Right now we are feeling the pinch and wonder if we could have used that money on a deposit for a house or something more useful, but then us, our family and friends wouldn’t have the memories and photos that we do. We have so many other things that we will treasure forever from the day too. Misbah ‘I’ve never been to this type of event, but I saw the adverts and I thought I’d come and see what clothes there are. I’m usually pretty terrible at shopping and operate mostly on hand me downs, but this is good, it’s cheaper than buying stuff in store and the style works. I’ve found a good shirt/jumper sort of combo, so it was definitely worth it!’ Courtney ‘I’m a first year here in Leeds so I have managed to go to some vintage shops here, but this is my first Judy’s event. This is great, I’ve found a few pieces already and I haven’t been here for that long, so it’s really great! Just the great value of it, instead of paying for an item, you’re obviously paying for a kilo and it’s really, really good. There’s loads on offer, there’s so much, it’s so busy. I like rummaging through things and finding little gems. My all-time favourite style icon is probably Audrey Hepburn, she’s amazing and like her, vintage is really classic and timeless. It’s about pure style.’ Tessa ‘This is my second Kilo Sale, the one I went to before, I got there towards the end, so it was quiet. I’ve not been to one that’s this busy. I love ٥