Couple salvaged items from scrapyard to save £24k on dream wedding - even rings
A couple created their dream wedding by salvaging items from their own scrapyard - saving themselves around £24,000.
Melissa Drabble, 40, and her husband Mark, 41, run scrap metal dealer -Tin Man Scrap - in Buxton, Derbyshire.
And after they got engaged they decided to build their wedding using some of the hundreds of thousands of items brought in.
The newlyweds eventually found tables, chairs, decorations - and even their engagement rings.
Melissa and Mark estimate that the wedding ended up costing them £6k in total - a huge saving on the £30k they had estimated it would come to.
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Melissa Drabble, 40, and husband Mark, 41 (SWNS)
They transformed items from their scrap metal dealership to use on their big day (SWNS)Melissa said: "To have a wedding that was different was always my aim. I love to stand out from the crowd.
"I felt it was my challenge to make our wedding from things we could reuse and recycle.
"On the day, guests asked, 'Where did you get this?'. And I told them, 'The skip!'.
"It was a lot of pressure to get everything done but it went to plan on the day and looked even better than I hoped."
Childhood sweethearts, Melissa and Mark, met in 1999 when they were both teenagers.
Within three years they had two children - Chloe, now 21, and Nathan, now 20.
They had their very own upcycled roundabout (SWNS)They decided to start a small business together after entrepreneurial Mark had begun "meddling in bits of scrap."
They turned their garden shed into a tiny waste metal yard before expanding to bigger units as the business grew.
The initial idea was that people would bring their scrap metal to be weighed in and valued for Mark and Melissa to take it away and recycle.
But they were finding many items that were too good to be melted down - so they began selling on their best finds.
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Their reclamation yard, Derbyshire Reclamation, was then born in 2012 - which became the source of much of their secondhand wedding.
By April 2021, they had a date set in place for September - and they began scouring their collections for unique wedding decorations.
Melissa made her own boquet (SWNS)
Decorations included a vintage bumper car and an elephant playground set - which they restored to later sell on (SWNS)Their chairs, candlesticks, cake stands and goblets came from their skips, which they upcycled.
That was also where they found disco balls and a real phone box to decorate their venue.
Melissa's engagement ring was brought in as scrap gold which they paid just £140 for, while her wedding ring was passed down through her family.
All the tables were free from a local pub which was being demolished, and all the plates and glasses were borrowed from a friend for free.
Melissa, who posts on TikTok under @melissa.drabble, said: "I had lots and lots of help from my close friends who helped me every single night making things and painting.
They picked up a £1,500 marquee from Facebook - and later sold it for the same price (SWNS)"It actually bought us closer together - that's what weddings are for."
They also scoured places like Facebook Marketplace to buy items instead of hiring - meaning they could sell them on after.
Their £1,500 marquee was found there - and sold on for the exact same price a few months after the wedding.
They also snatched up garden decorations including a 1920s roundabout, vintage bumper car and an elephant playground set which they restored to later sell on.
They got married in a church, but enjoyed the main reception and meal in their own garden, with a friend coming to cook in her kitchen.
They had a buffet made by Melissa's mum and brother in the evening.
Melissa said: "The wedding wasn't intentionally a money-saving challenge.
They upcycled their own wedding chairs... (SWNS)
... and saved £24k in total (SWNS)"Ultimately a wedding is about the marriage and we wanted to make sure it stayed the focal point.
"Sometimes weddings can be so big that it kind of feels like the emotion doesn't exist.
"But because of the nature of our jobs, I knew that I wanted everything to be handmade and personal!
"I also really wanted to do things that could be kept and cherished for years to come."
Over a year since the wedding, they're still loving married life, and say their wedding was one of the best memories.
Melissa said: "I'm so passionate about saving things from landfill so with my wedding, I wanted it to be as vintage as possible.
"I love nostalgic things with a history - I wouldn’t dream of buying something too modern.
"With a bit of TLC, you can make something completely new and totally unique."
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