Marriage suggestions please

Try your local Royal British Legion club, some hire their halls out for private functions and they will probably let you cater yourself.

They will have contacts for a disco that they will regularly use so may be a good price.

People can buy their own drinks at the bar.

Church or village halls were always a cheaper option for parties.

Alternatively does anyone have a big garden you can use and then everyone can chip in with bringing some food or have a bbq ask guests to bring the drink they like instead of presents.

Get married at the registry office with parents as witnesses and your children can be involved.

Bit late for that now and it’s not really relevant to her query

Agree, the kids can still dress up as flower girls if they want
Have a party in your house / garden afterwards and invite how ever many you want

Why not get married first?

Why not? Marriage to some of is still, is a sign of commitment and love. Anyway that's not what this thread is about.

Registry office and bring and share

I got married 3 years ago on the cheap.
We did a registry office wedding £300
Wedding dress Tkmaxx £100
Suit from Next £100
Bridemaid dress for dd £20 Vinted
Adult ds suit Next £100
25 guests.. didn’t invite kids or plus ones. Found a lovely pub and hired out the function room £150.
Meals for guests £40pp
Guests took photos and sent afterwards so that was free.
The pub had a band in the evening anyway so once the meal had finished all the guests went down to the bar for drinks and free entertainment.

I'd go to the registry office so you're legally married and save £X until you can afford to commit to the day you want.

Consider hiring a village hall, a bouncy castle and doing a buffet. Then you get everyone together and can do it under £1k.

My inlaws did something similar to what @CountryQueen suggested with the added benefit that he was the vicar so didn't have to hire the hall!

I wasn't that impressed personally to travel a long distance for it and then get put to work decorating tables and fed very cheap food, but I understood afterwards that was necessary to make it affordable.

I wouldn't have minded chipping in with food prep but faffing around with ivy and fairy lights was annoying.

I would personally have had a simpler, smaller event in those circumstances.

If you can find a space to host a party what about doing a pot luck for the reception? You buy drinks and everyone else brings a big dish to share? Actual wedding can be registry office or church depending on if you are religious.

We are in the middle of sorting a low cost wedding

We are having the ceremony outdoors on council land (really pretty forest) which makes the venue free of charge - We are paying £450 for a celebrant

Then we have booked a pub function room booked for the evening - pub doesn't charge for the room, everyone buys their own drinks at the bar, we provide a buffet through outside caterers - cost £400 We are playing a Spotify playlist through the speakers

Our wedding clothes - my dad got me my dress (£200) we are paying less than £80 for my partners suit and my 2 children's outfits were purched by family(£50 each)

So all in the wedding costs are just over £1000

Depending on your location, look at working mens clubs etc as they often do free function room hire.

Get friends and family to chip in for a diy buffet

Why get married? You have everything married people have, apart from the tax breaks.
Will save much money and arguments

My friends had a very small registry office wedding with parents and grandparents only. They went off for a meal. And we all turned up at 7pm for the reception having all eaten beforehand.

So you could do the small ceremony with your DC and parents/grandparents. Have a meal then party with everyone else. Provide a buffet though, people like to snack after a couple hours of party and drinks.

Invite them to your wedding saying the best present is a contribution of n pounds per adult. It’ll be lovely and they’ll be pleased to be there.

My BIL eloped with just their children and parents then had an evening party at home a month later.

Might help if I added the link

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/

Use this link to find a church hall near you. Won’t cost more than £100 for the afternoon and evening.

Get in with friends to decorate it before getting married at 3pm. Back to the church hall for a buffet from Aldi. Crisps, sausage rolls, quiche, salads etc. Decent playlist and some speakers dotted around plus craft/dressing up corner for the kids. BYO drinks and a slow cooker full of hotdogs for the evening.

You can pull that off for a couple of hundred.

But don't take the dress.

I think @MojoMoon's suggestion is sensible.

If you have a garden, you could then do a family barbecue there at some point to celebrate the wedding. If you've lots of family, at least that's free labour hopefully and people can bring puddings and stuff.

If your close relatives are not practically helpful in any way, forget the party part! If your parents can afford a grand on a dress, they could afford to host something for you if they feel the lack.

Church and church hall. Or chapel. Get buffet from a supermarket delivery service.

A relative of a friend had a big expensive wedding dress and then took guests to the Toby Carvery, where they were asked to pay for their own meals.
People did talk, and roll their eyes and laugh.
You can not accept a gift of a £1000 dress and not cater for guests, it all needs to be in proportion.

I did a party last year in the local cricket club. 150 quid room hire, I found a caterer who did a buffet for 300- that was to feed 40 people. We paid 280 for a dj.
It was brilliant fun. It something like that would work?

I don’t know how much is too much for you however my cousin (who ironically is very materialistic in most ways) did hers for £1500. I’ll lay out the basics of how she did it

• Registry office
• a white dress from asos it was a long silky one with cowled back and spaghetti straps (about £100) i think she may of got her veil from their too or from sheins bridal collection
• Artifical flowers from homebargains/range etc made into a bouquet
• only had their children as bridal party so only their outfits to buy
• hired the grooms suit
• Went to a local pub afterwards and paid for all the guests meal- which was just booked as a meal for 50 people not a wedding. They just pre-ordered everyones main meals.
• She ordered a white cake from m&s and then got cake toppers off shein to finish it off
• they used iphone and an editing app to do their pictures.
• she did pay for her hair and makeup to be done locally.