A Bride Saved £10,000 By Baking Her Wedding Cake Tells Other Women To It Themselves

A bride has managed to stop the happiest day of her life from turning into the most expensive by handcrafting every element from scratch. 

Marrianne Mercer, 32, from Tonbridge, Kent, spent just over £9,000 on her big day, by making every possible item from the invitations to the cake to the flowers, saving at least £10,000 in the process.

She's now released a book for other brides-to-be who want to have a go at DIY-ing their own celebrations

Marrianne Mercer, 32, from Tonbridge, Kent spent eight months handcrafting her wedding to David Miall in August 2013, making everything from her bouquet to her veil and saved more than £10,000

Marrianne, who works as a graphic designer for the book publisher Search Press, has always enjoyed crafts, but this was her most ambitious project to date.

She spent eight months before her big day in August 2013 crafting 678 paper flowers, 120 order of booklets and 400 pom poms for decorating the church

'I kind of got carried away. But there was a great sense of achievement in seeing my vision come alive,' Marrianne told FEMAIL. 

'I'm a designer so I usually get a vision of how I want things to look. When it all came together it was quite something. I just loved it.

Marrianne admits that making and decorating her three tier wedding cake was the hardest task of all

From the offset of our engagement I knew I wanted to create a handmade, crafty wedding.

'I like to take elements of inspiration from others and adapt them into something unique that pleases my eye and, perhaps, my pocket.'

With this in mind Marrianne deliberately chose a venue that was a blank canvas - the village hall near St Mary's church in Leigh - and set about turning it into a celebration.

'My mum Linda used to be a textiles teacher and she made the bunting. At first I told her: "No, I want to do it. I want to make everything",' Marrianne said. 

But she was glad when Linda insisted on taking on the task, as she ended up devoting most evenings and weekends, and even her lunch breaks at work, to her craft projects.

The pom poms used to decorate the pews were handmade by Marrianne and her friends

Confetti was made by drying out petals in the airing cupboard. Marrianne made the cones from leftover craft paper she found in magazines at work 

Linda went on to make 300 metres of bunting, using £100 worth of material Marrianne had found at local markets. 

'It would have cost three times to price even just to hire it,' Marrianne said. 

She dried flower petals in the airing cupboard to use as confetti and made cones to hold it in from paper she found in craft magazines - as well as a box to store them in. 

Luckily Marrianne didn't have to splash out on a wedding dress, as her parents bought it for her as a gift and her veil was handmade.

'I tried one on in a bridal shop and really liked it, but really disliked the price tag,' she said. 'Mum saw how simple it was and went out and constructed one almost immediately from tulle for a fraction of the price.' 

Even Marrianne's veil was hadnamde by her mum, using tulle and a plastic hair clip. Her parents bought Marrianne her wedding dress as a gift