The dress, oh the dress, it's the most visible and anticipated part of a traditional English wedding so you don't really want to get it wrong or look back in twenty or even ten years and wonder what you were thinking. But remember that money can't buy taste so you don't need to buy the most expensive dress to be a beautiful bride.

If money is no object then shop around, do your research and when you've gathered together all the elements you love, take it to a dressmaker and create your dream dress, after all you'll be absolutely certain that no one else will have it and no one will have seen anything quite like it either. The great thing about this option is that you'll be able to spend money on the perfect design and materials and not the designer label which no one can see. No design is too weird or whacky so you can wow the guests with colours, designs, embellishments or beautiful vintage lace.

If you're looking for cheap but beautiful wedding dresses, it's time to look online, in second hand shops and on the high street. All you need is the perfect shape to work from, think of it like a blank canvas and see past the elements you don't like because they can always be changed as long as the overall shape is correct. Even the colour can be changed, with the use of professional clothes dyes but only by a few shades so don't buy a black dress if you want the end result to be white or you'll end up with a dirty washed out grey.

Next it's time to work out what you want to change, more than likely it'll be a case of stripping it down to the bare shape and adding on areas of vintage lace from the local material shop or brooches or beads from the haberdashery counter; whatever it is you'll be amazed at how small changes make a massive difference and you'll form a real bond with your dress too. These are the things that make a second hand or cheap dress your wedding dress with your stamp on it and don't be afraid to go crazy! If you're not a confident seamstress, there are plenty of tailoring and alteration services across the UK and they're seriously reasonable so you'll get even the most ill-fitting of dresses to fit your figure perfectly.

The final way to afford a beautiful wedding dress is to cut costs elsewhere, unless you're rolling in cash, weddings are all about prioritising.

Wedding plans are all about prioritising the budget so what's really important to your best friend might be way down your list so to reduce wedding costs , pick the most important things and cut back on what's left. There are ways to reduce wedding costs all over the internet and asking your friends for favours is also a great way to save money.