- Isla Rose Potkins told Insider she reduced her wedding cost by $48,800.
- She was able to save money by having a winter ceremony instead of a summer one.
- She also planned her own wedding and used DIY, which included making her own confetti.
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British TikToker Isla Rose Potkins said she reduced her wedding cost by $48,800 with a few essential budgeting hacks.
Isla, 25, got engaged to her longtime partner Christopher Potkins in 2018 and the couple married in November last year in Hampshire, England. She shares wedding videos and budgeting tips on her TikTok account, which had more than 19,000 followers on Wednesday.
Isla Rose and Chris Potkins on their wedding day in November 2021.
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Isla told Insider that she didn’t have a budget in mind when they started planning the wedding, but that she had assumed it would cost about £10,000, or around $12,200. When it came time to request initial quotes, Isla said they went “overboard” as they wanted to see how much their dream ceremony would cost — which turned out to be £60,000, or around $73,200.
The couple ended up spending £20,000, or around $24,400, according to Isla, who said they reduced the price by prioritizing what was important to them as well as investigating cheaper alternatives. She shared her top tips with Insider.
Isla and Christopher saved thousands by having a winter ceremony
Isla and Christopher tied the knot at Northbrook Park, an 18th-century manor house in Hampshire.
Northbrook Park in Hampshire.
romylawrencephotography
“Where we got married, it’s not a cheap venue, to be honest, a lot of people go there for Indian weddings and big huge celebrations,” Isla told Insider.
“We were quoted for a Saturday in midsummer and that was going to cost around £12,000 ($14,700) and when we looked at doing it in November on a Friday it was £4,000 ($4,900).”
Isla added that wedding suppliers give discounted rates during the winter months.
They didn’t spend money on a wedding planner
“We wanted to keep things as low key and in budget as possible, so we tried to do pretty much everything we could ourselves,” Isla said.
Isla said they were able to plan the wedding without professional help by using spreadsheets to stay organized, as well as DIY-ing certain items that most people would have paid for or hired.
For example, in a video posted to TikTok earlier in June, Isla shared that she made her own wedding confetti.
“The hours of stamping was so so worth it,” she captioned the video.
Isla recommends purchasing items instead of hiring
“A lot of people will hire things for their wedding, which I personally feel is the biggest waste of money because you’re just paying to borrow something,” Isla said.
Isla told Insider that when they enquired about hiring out charger plates for her wedding they were quoted £2, or around $2.45 per charger plate. The couple ultimately decided to buy the charger plates for the same cost, and resold them afterward.
“We pretty much got those things for free, because we sold them for what we got them for,” she said.
