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
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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
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