@thebeerfear I hate that- it implies all people who spend money on weddings don't care about the marriage.
We spent £12k on our wedding, all of it except for the dress was about the comfort of our guests. We both come from large families: aunts and uncles were 35 people alone, add in our own siblings and nieces and nephews and the fact we wanted to have some friends there and we got to 120 pretty quickly.
We chose a more expensive city venue as the cheaper (for us) alternative would mean all our guests having to pay for a nights accommodation, and we prioritised the food and wine.
My dress was £2k: I desperately wanted to find one second hand, or cheap, but ultimately I guess I'm a strange shape as it was the only one after a year looking that i felt comfortable in. It's crazy money but I actually have no regrets.
Places to save money: photographers (we only had one for a few hours to capture the ceremony and a few group shots and it saved loads and we were happy), hair/makeup if you want them done can be cheaper if you go to a salon that have them come to you, we had invites made in a print shop that were v reasonable and we didn't have any favours/decorations other than flowers on the table which were reused from the ceremony.
I think if you prioritise the basics of what your guests want, it's hard to go far wrong. I would have loved a church hall type wedding but we don't live anywhere you can rent venues like that so we were limited unless we made people travel. For us, the marriage ceremony was for us- the readings, music, etc was all chosen for us- but the 'wedding' party bit was all about our guests. We were together six years when we got married, we had really made our commitment already so the wedding part was to show our friends and family they're important to us and we see them as part of our new shared family. (Also, legal protection before children and house purchases!)