If you had a seriously low cost wedding, come and tell me how!

[LittleLongDog]

How on earth do people manage to get married? The costs just spiral!

Has anyone managed to throw together a lovely wedding day on an incredibly low budget?

And if so, how did you do it?

A friend did the photos but he is a professional. Another friend did the cake. We had the party at a relatives house but I would have hired the local village hall if we couldn't do this.

My dress was a sample but was perfect for me.

We didn't do a sit down meal, I just didn't want is formal wedding with speeches.

Friends and relatives brought food with them, we provided the booze.

It was about £1.5k all in all but that was in the early 00's.

Got my dress on eBay.

If you have a bridesmaid, same applies.

Groom - second-hand suit from charity shop - got it altered and dry-cleaned.

Reception - at sister's house as she has a big garden. Asked her friends to sort out a buffet.

Honeymoon - asked some friends who live in the country if we could borrow their house for three days and nights while they stayed with their parents.

Total cost about £350.

Jeez - forgot the cake.

DH made it and we paid someone to decorate it.

Got a friend of a friend to do the photos for a low price.

Made everything. Cake, flowers, favours, decorations....

When I look back on our wedding I can see that having lots of friends who would help was key.

When I said that they did the buffet, we obviously paid for the food.

Had 40 people back to sister's house and had a whole poached salmon, loads of salads and puddings which various people made.

We were lucky over the honeymoon as our friends were able to lend us their house for a few days.

Us, two witnesses, a registrar. No dress, cake, photos, guests or honeymoon. Back to work the next morning for a 56 hour continuous shift as a junior doc. Total cost £13.75. Which was the price of a marriage licence nearly 40 years ago!
Weddings don’t have to cost much, OP. It’s the marriage that matters.

Didn’t invite anybody to the ceremony. Reception was at a local village hall, didn’t ask for gifts and instead asked that guests bought their own booze, had a BBQ.

Oh and we asked people to bring booze if they wanted it.

What's your budget OP?
Think mine cost about £7k including a 2 week all inclusive honeymoon. As long as you start with a budget anything is doable.

The most important thing to us was the church service anyway.

The rest was just a party which loads of generous people helped to make a reality.

Friend did a cake as a present.
Photographer prob £200. Friend of a friend.
Dress £80
Rings £100
Food & Hall probably £150 (friend worked there)
Reg Office fee.

That was it I think.

Im divorced now - £80, I did it through the law courts, just signed a form as no DC then.

Babdoc is right. The marriage is the important thing.

We're still married xxxxx years and four DC later.

Registry office ceremony
Rings from a wholesaler at Hatton Gardens
Reception: Rented the back room of a pub. It was a pretty handsome Victorian hotel with plenty of original features so still felt "fancy"
Dress: Made for me by my Mum
Cake: Three fruit and cream gateaux of different sizes, arranged on a cake stand.
Decor: Packet of balloons and rented helium canister
Photos and DJ: Very kind friends doing favours.
Top tips:
Don't buy from wedding suppliers and don't mention weddings.
If people are doing things for you for free-treat them right.
We gave my Dad £50 the job of checking in on all our helpers throughout the night and making sure they had enough food and booze. We gave them all a bottle of whiskey as a thank you as well.

@littleduckeggblue

I have a feeling that the OP isn't starting with a budget of anything like seven grand.

About to get married. Registry office for 20 people including us and children. 20 people going for meal at a restaurant afterwards. Outfits for us and the children. We should manage it for £2,000. Although we could cut that down a bit if we needed

Cheap dress (£100), own suit, one bridesmaid, pretty summer dress from H&M I think, church, parents garden, did own food, student acquaintance of my father did photos for £50 plus developing (digital did exist but it was in the changeover period), friend of parents drove me, another friend make cake at cost, brother and his friend did the music, cousins friend played the organ ... biggest cost was booze, we provided everything, total cost £1200 ish (probably £1600 today). Getting a free or cheap venue not tied to drinks or caterers is key

My sister's wedding; local village hall, dress from eBay,, I took the photos (amateur but they were happy with them, B&W makes everything look classy), our friends and family made the buffet, MIL made the cake. IPOD shuffle for the disco.

£500 all in; 7 years ago.

Same as others: friends did things. Everyone put their photos on Dropbox and we used them. DRess from eBay. Balloons from Asda.

Reception in local golf club where we know the owners - massive barbecue.

Was PERFECT.

You can buy inexpensive rings at Argos. You can also get second-hand rings.

We got dearer ones a few years later when we could afford it.

Feels like a ‘cheap’ wedding actually means devolving the costs to friends and family!

Us, two witnesses, a registrar. No dress, cake, photos, guests or honeymoon. Back to work the next morning for a 56 hour continuous shift as a junior doc. Total cost £13.75. Which was the price of a marriage licence nearly 40 years ago! Weddings don’t have to cost much, OP. It’s the marriage that matters

This, exactly, minus the 56 hour shift as a junior doc, and as it was a London registry office and we took our witnesses out for lunch afterwards, it cost more like £150, in 2012.

Yes I'm the same was that "cheap" childcare is available from people who love you.

@BlockedandDeleted not for us. Not asking anyone else to contribute or do anything, and taking them out for lunch. Still only coming in at £1.5/£2k

10 guests, wedding reception was a meal with everyone.
My dress was from Massimo Dutti and costs £40
Registry office venue - £100
Bits and pieces like veil and silk white roses bouquet - bought online and came to around £50
Rings - think they came to about £100 each
Friend did the photography.

It was a teeny tiny wedding, just me and DH, our parents and siblings plus best friend each. I was ridiculously happy all day. Grinned like a loon throughout the service and was just so happy simply to be marrying him. Thirteen years and 3 DC later, I’m still very happy I married him!

I think that catering and venues cost so much you do have to get friends and relations on board to have an inexpensive wedding BlockedandDeleted.

People are very generous of their time and enthusiasm in my experience.

A good many people told us ours was the best wedding they had even been to.

Contrast my niece's wedding a couple of years ago. I do not know the cost but I do know that my sister and her DH actually sold one of their houses to pay for it. Yes - the same sister at whose house we had our wedding reception.

Each to their own. I thoroughly enjoyed my niece's wedding but it was very, very costly.