Wedding cakes can be an expensive line item in your wedding budget, costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds. A cheap option is obviously to make the cake yourself from scratch, if you have the skills, the time or the inclination. However, you might consider looking to the high street to find a decent cake at a decent price.

Firstly – look at the traditional supermarkets. All of the supermarkets – Morrisons, Asda, Tesco etc. do a range of what they call “special occasion” cakes ranging from a very reasonable £10-20. Now that all of these supermarkets have a ‘finest’ collection, they also tend to do well iced, tasty rich fruit cakes. These are usually available in different sizes too, so you can layer them if you want to create a more traditional tiered cake.

Generally, the supermarket cakes are well presented but come only in plain white, which means that you will need to decorate them yourself. Luckily, this is easy to do! By browsing eBay or Hobbycraft, you can find tier holders and a selection of glitters, cake gems and foliage at very reasonable prices. For a white cake, rather than going overboard, you could always opt for some very simple green foliage (that is safe to put on a cake!) and a wedding topper – a sugar figurine of a bride and groom or something else that you like.

Waitrose supply some high quality cakes that are already iced and decorated. The same goes for Debenhams and John Lewis. These cost a bit more than the standard supermarket cakes, because they look slightly more special and professional, but they cost much less than a completely bespoke cake. You might also consider a trip to Marks and Spencer, as they have a good selection of cakes – they offer a special service where they will make cakes to order for you. A whole selection of cake bases can be found ranging from sponge cakes to fruit cakes and even chocolate cakes.

Finally, if you are on a tight budget, don’t dismiss the idea of using good quality cupcakes or chocolate pots arranged in a tiered display that you could serve as dessertor leave on display for guests to help themselves later on in proceedings. You could even bin the idea of “cake” altogether and opt for Krispy Kreme doughnuts (arranged in tiers of course).

It is wrong if you thought that typical British weddings are starving of novel ideas. In fact, there is a glut of ideas, and each idea sounds as enthralling as the previous ones. The only glitch then is of finance. Had weddings been the be-all and end-all of life, not an iota of concern would have been put on the expenses. It isn’t though. Wedding marks the onset of a new life for the married couple. Rash expenses at this stage of life are only going to make things worse in the future. The following section lists down a few “must dos” for couples who intend to use wedding loans to say, “I do”.

Failing to plan is planning to fail:

You would not want your wedding to go awry because of a shortage of funds. Planning ensures that there is enough to expend on weddings. Adequate consideration must be given to planning the budget of the wedding. The planning process may be fun, but the results obviously are unprecedented. The various concerned people sit together and decide the various costs that are incurred. In addition, a priority table is prepared so that a less important expenditure can be postponed or omitted altogether. With the changing times, the couple themselves finance the wedding. Nevertheless, it will be prudent to consult the elderly for a proper understanding of the expenses that are commonly incurred on such occasions. A proper planning for wedding budget must have in built flexibilities to provide for contingencies as and when they crop up.

In search of wedding loans:

Once the various persons concerned approve the budget for the wedding and decide that a wedding loan will suffice their purpose, the pursuit for wedding loan begins. Internet serves an important tool in conducting the search. Search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo provide links to thousands of loan providers who are offering wedding loans in the UK. Borrowers can easily adjudge loan providers with the information given about them on their website, compare wedding loan deals through a loan calculator, and request wedding loan quotes from lenders who appear lucrative.

Working the details of the wedding loan:

After screening lenders through a number of stages, you single out a lender for offering UK wedding loans. Lenders often work as a network, thus increasing the purview of wedding loan deals. Since the requirements of borrowers differ, customised rather than standardised wedding loan deals are offered. The case of each borrower is studied minutely at this stage to find out the amount that can be lent as wedding loans. Interest options and repayment options are explained to the borrower and he is allowed to make his decisions. Borrowers must not take decisions without knowing in full about its present and future repercussions. As needs be, borrowers can consult the experts or independent financial advisors for a more detailed explanation of the term or any feature of wedding loans.

For a plush wedding in the UK, a large wedding loan will required to be drawn. Qualifying for a large amount of Wedding loans requires a collateral in the form of home or any other asset to serve as the backing for the loan. This is known as gaining on the equity in home. Nevertheless, people can get approved for large wedding loans without collateral, if they are able to instil sufficient faith in the loan provider regarding their credibility. Borrowers with a good credit history do not face difficulties in getting unsecured wedding loans because of the faith that they generate in the loan providers. A person with a bad credit history does not fail entirely in getting a wedding loan. Many loan providers accept to offer them financial assistance during weddings at higher interest rates.