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?

Ours was about $200. We were on holiday anyway so that doesnt include hotel, plane etc.

My dress was £20 off ebay. All my jewellery was cheap costume jewellery and did my own hair and make up.

My actual wedding ring was only £50 from H Samuel, I was expecting it to be much more!

When we were home we had a meal out with close family to celebrate.

We spent about £500. Dh only found out he had 4 sisters the year before and they live all over the country so we only invited them and my mum and grandma to the wedding (only 2nd time he had met them). Outfits bought in summer sales. We went to the local registry office then back to our house for a few beers and some sandwiches which we all made together. Our ds was only 8 months old so the sisters met him for the time. we all sat in the back garden laughing and chatting till at least midnight. It was a lovely relaxed day, despite dh getting the time if the ceremony wrong, I had to ring him to check he hadn't done a runner.

You dont have to get married in your local registry office so look around and find one you like nearby. Write a list of things that are important to you and go from there. But most importantly have the wedding that you and your h2b want, not the wedding others want/expect. I learnt that the hard way! If you want to elope, do it. A few months down the line nobody will be bothered/remember your wedding, but you will remember it for the rest of your life so make it yours.

I made my cake, bought 100 bunches of daffodils online and did my own flowers. Dress off the peg at Monsoon. (same for bridesmaids). Registry office followed by village hall. Was going to do my own buffet but PiL booked caterer. FiL bought the wine back from France for us. Just had photos at the registry office - got family and friends to take snaps at the reception - this is my one regret as they were all having too good a time to take any pictures ( me and DH are the family photographers) All in it was about 4.5 grand - for 50 guests. ( Would have been closer to 2.5 grand with the buffet!

We had a registry office ceremony followed by a village hall reception about 100 guests. I got my dress on Ebay and sold it after. DH wore a suit he already had. We had one child bridesmaid who had a dress from next.
Friend drove us to service.
We picked flowers from garden for bouquet and button holes, my parents bought some primroses in pots for the tables.
We asked for no presents but asked guests to bring a dish for the buffet and own drinks.
Didn't have a photographer or any hair and make up done.
Used nectar points to buy some champagne for each table.
We made cornflake crispy cakes for the cake.
For the evening do we didn't have a DJ we just used an ipod and made our own playlist, I did insist on hiring decent speakers and lighting though. I love to dance.
The rings cost a fair bit £250 I think. That's what pushed our budget up I felt a bit cross with my self about it at the time.
Overall we really enjoyed our whole day and felt very relaxed.

My entire wedding cost less than my best mate's wedding dress!

We had it really early in the morning, open invitation to the service (about 100-150 came), and invited 25 guests to a proper wedding breakfast at the local pub, which my parents kindly paid for.
DH wore a suit and shirt he already had, I bought my dress from Hobbs in the sale.
Bouquet, table decoration, buttonhole for dad and DH, and corsage for mum.
No bridesmaids, no organist, no choir.
Cake was not expensive considering they had to do a gluten free vegan tier! We only had two tiers.
We designed and printed orders of service and invitations ourselves.
No photographer, which is my only (very mild!) regret as we only have a few photos, but a couple of my relatives are good with a camera so we so have a nice if small selection of photos.
The banns weren't cheap but my then parish church gave their cert to us as a wedding present (I’m good friends with the vicar there!)

It was just the loveliest day! I look back at the photos and think back to the day and all I can remember is laughing and laughing with the sheer joy of it. It was so lovely.

Came to around £3k including honeymoon.

It was 20 years ago but
Friend took wedding photos but he was a professional photographer
Friend made bridesmaids dresses
Another friend had a jag so that was the wedding car
I bought fruit cakes form a catering company and iced them, they were decorated with flowers and silk leaves.
Simple bouquets for myself and two bridesmaids
Village hall buffet
DH went to France and bought whole car full of duty free booze
We made the wedding invites

Spotify instead of dh, we asked everyone to pick a couple of tracks they’d like to dance to. It was fun with people how my got it for “ their song”

Asked all local guests to bring cake, made it clear it didn’t have to be home made, but lots were because people want to contribute.

Set up a google photos link where everyone sent their pictures, which worked out great. Put the link on the Welcome board so people could just take a photo of it.

Got married at 4pm, had a hog roast rather than a sit down meal.

No adult bridesmaids, flower girls dresses from M&S.

Second hand dress (which I resold straight after).

No favours - not sure people expect them anymore?

It can be done... hope you have a wonderful day OP.

These were my MIL’s suggestions for our wedding:

1. Send my measurements to a company in China who could make me a wedding dress for $25.
2. Have the reception in the back garden.
3. Get each guest to bring their own chair, plate, knife, fork & spoon and a glass.

Not suggesting you do any or these things, just passing on some ‘helpful’ tips.

Oh and FIL bought his suit from the Oxfam shop. It spite of being told the suit colour for the men was grey, the second-hand suit he bought was brown with pinstripes. It was the cheapest suit he could find. It also didn’t fit.

DH sent him out again to get a proper suit. He wouldn’t even let me see the original suit that FIL bought as he was worried I’d cancel the wedding, it was that bad.

And the worst thing was that PIL said they couldn’t come to the wedding as they ‘couldn’t afford it’, in spite of having several expensive holidays per year.

So we had to schlep all the way over to their country, which meant that my family couldn’t be there as they GENUINELY couldn’t afford it. I knew none of the guests at my wedding and my poor parents were back home and were devastated at not being there.

Sorry for the hijack, I hadn’t realised how upset I was about all this.

We got married on our own, no guests. Had a beautiful dress, gorgeous hotel for 5 days, photographer, bouquet, registrar, platinum rings for about £3.5k

If you are under pressure to have a big wedding, you could be Blunt and ask those who are demanding the full pomp and circumstance to pay for the big wedding or just be quiet and let you do it your way.

We also had duty free booze and home made beer

OP whereabouts are you? People might be able to give you specific recommendations rather than " I spent £5 30 years ago"

If you're in London you're pretty much reduced to your local pub who may have a back room , as everywhere -and I mean everywhere else that was remotely 'naice' either has free hire charge but a massive minimum spend or a hire fee for dry hire. I got married this year so I know what I'm talking about. Outside London village halls tend to be the way forward as they are cheap to free. People may have great recs for cheap restaurants in your area.

I'm a florist so I talk to a lot of brides and most of them get caught up in the ensuing madness and spend far more than they need.

My only tips would be keep the service and the reception as close together as possible otherwise you either have to pay for transport or are expecting people to pay for that themselves and you always lose people en route.

Nobody remembers the flowers, what the bridesmaids wore or what the colour of the groom's tie was and whether it matched the napkins.

Email everyone invitations and set up a free website that deals with the RSVP element.

No one likes wedding cake

Lots of fab advice here. Thanks so much. It’s so lovely hearing about your weddings too.

I’m getting married for the second time in 2 weeks. Booked the Registry office a month ago, they had a space on a Saturday for us and 2 witnesses. That was £165, my dress is a simple cream broderie anglaise summer dress from Boden, £70 in the sale. DH to be has bought a new shirt and is just wearing smart jeans with it. Very casual.
Then fish and chips and champagne at a local beach that’s special to us, hopefully the weather will be nice
Only our witnesses know about it, we’ll be telling people afterwards.
To us, it’s the marriage that’s important, we are both over 50 and had the big do’s first time around. This time it feels more personal and very stress free.

ASOS dress and Topman suit, registry office and a meal afterwards with our parents and DC.

Simple. Most expensive thing was the rings.

Like another pp, just us and 2 witnesses/guests. Went for a lovely lunch with them after. Took our own photos, no cake or any of the other stuff. Total cost around £400.

Yes about £1k. Dress was £90 from an outlet shop. Got 2 girls bridesmaid dresses from a catalogue. Sister bought her own dress. Only bought ties and waistcoat for husband and best man and wore with their own suits. Registry office was only a couple of hundred pounds. Flowers I had intended on making myself but sent dh out on the morning of the wedding to get some extra flowers and he asked a florist to make one up (it was beautiful). We had reception at a relatives pub with a bbq for the afternoon (she paid for the bbq as a present) and then a buffet and singers in the evening.

Skip the flowers and don't get a "wedding" dress, just choose a really lovely dress that you look great in that doesn't happen to be white. This alone saved us a bomb.

Skip the DJ and make a playlist of songs that are special to you two and just organise some speakers and a docking station/blue tooth connection.

Everything costs so much because there is a massive industry built up around weddings and a huge set of expectations fed by bridal magazines & social media.
Ignore expectations and do your own thing based on what is important to you. The loveliest weddings I've been to were probably the ones that were the least expensive as they were the most personal to the bride & groom.

We had a late afternoon wedding so went straight from that to a drinks reception & buffet meal afterwards. Food was probably the biggest cost. Had a limited number of guests & no separate rent-a-crowd evening do. Cash bar at venue.
Wedding cake was plain white iced sponges from M&S stacked up in tiers - I added ribbon & my florist made a small posy to decorate.
Wedding dress was skirt given by a friend from her own wedding, so it just needed hemming to fit, & I bought a top to go with it from Coast. Had just one bridesmaid - bought her a dress she liked from Coast that wasn't too wedding-y so she could wear it again. That dress set the colour scheme for the wedding - bought ribbons & decorations in same colour from wholesalers at very low cost and put in lots of own time to decorate venue with some help from friends. Also borrowed lots of decorations from a friend who had recently got married and had bought similarly for her own wedding.
Groom & best man wore own suits - had new ties to match colour scheme bought from an expensive store's outlet shop so very cheap.
Rings were one of the main expenses - but designed by us and made by a local jewellery workshop for much less than from a high street jewellers.

Oh and a friend assembled the m&s cakes into a 3 tier cake with fresh flowers and another set of friends did my hair and makeup

My dress was Ted Baker, bought in the sale
Husband wore smart chinos and tweed jacket
We had the cheapest ceremony at the registry office (£50 - only allowed 4 guests in)
Had lunch at a local independent restaurant for about 14 of us
Flowers cost £5 (two stems of lillies)
Photographer was £125 - I explained that I wanted natural photos so no fancy lights or lenses needed
Cake was £90
Hired a function room for the evening with dj and finger supper for about 60 people, about £1500
Absolutely no stress or pressure, definitely not the 'normal' wedding but we enjoyed it and we didn't get into debt over it

Make a list and stick to it.

No need to buy a pre loved dress- may I suggest ASOS the bridal section? If you don't want the dress to be white, then it's even easier: ASOS bridesmaid section, a lot of beautiful dresses.

Good luck, OP!