Morag and Fran spent £7,800 on their Glasgow wedding and made almost everything themselves. The original plan was an 80s prom party, but as time progressed, Morag’s self-described “sparkly space princess” tendencies took over. Purple, blue and gold became the main colour scheme, with a dose of rainbow for good measure. They included Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball references which brought a 90s anime edge to the celestial styling.

The day was held at Queens Park Bowling Club, which is just around the corner from where they live and cost only £200 to hire. The wedding became one enormous group project between the couple, the bridesmaids and Morag’s parents who made the artwork, graphic design, flowers, centrepieces, buttonholes, accessories, cake, cake toppers, photo booth, favours, confetti, rings, quaich, handfasting cord, tablecloths and a giant 40m tassel garland!

For Morag, the appeal of DIY went beyond saving money. Each new idea became an excuse to acquire another skill. “If I saw something I wanted, I learned how to make it, like beading, wire work, making press on nails and flower arranging”, she said. “Having complete creative control over things like my outfit was great, being able to design exactly how I wanted to look. I have a tendency to get carried away with some ideas, and Fran was mostly happy for me to do that, but some projects we had to work more collaboratively (like our invites and signage) which had great outcomes.”

Both of Morag’s parents accompanied her down the aisle to an entrance song that had been decided when she was 16. Morag joked that she would one day walk down the aisle to In Time by Robbie Robb from the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure soundtrack. When the wedding finally arrived, she couldn’t find anything she preferred. They chose standard vows and asked their celebrant to include a traditional Scottish blessing, handfasting and a quaich ceremony.

The bouquet toss received an update. Instead of throwing flowers and only including the single women, she tossed a toy cat into the entire crowd instead. Whoever caught it won a bottle of prosecco!

At dinner guests were given a quiz and a wedding-themed Mad Lib to complete at their tables. It was a great ice-breaker and so much fun.

Formal speeches were also dropped in favour of an open invitation for anyone to stand up and say something. It removed the pressure from nominated speakers and left room for contributions from anyone who felt wanted to make one.

Their biggest cost was food, which came to around £2,600. Feeding 100 people was one area where they didn’t want to risk doing it DIY! They had a cold buffet during the day and a pizza delivery in the evening – no-one went hungry and here was enough left over to keep the newlyweds fed for weeks afterwards!

Morag and Fran’s celebration shows what can happen when a couple makes the choices that are right for them, and don’t blindly follow the predetermined wedding path. Its not always the easiest route, but for them, it was perfect. “A DIY wedding might seem like a frugal option but it does involve a fair amount of stress, time and materials”, Morag concluded. “So, ask for help if you need it and don’t take on too much by yourself. If we’d had more money I would have gotten a co-ordinator and venue decorator. We decided not to book one as I was handling most of it myself, but decorating the venue on the day fell to us and our wedding party. which was quite stressful. It would have been nice to have a more relaxing morning! Equally, changing the venue around from ceremony to dinner to dancefloor also fell to us as the venue didn’t include staff.”