Married at Gretna green

[Helpmeout124]

Okay. So my fiancé and I want to get married possibly next year but we aren't interested In getting into debt for it, or spending a ludicrous amount of money on it. We're pretty set on getting married at Gretna green, as it's just cheap and cheerful gets the job done, we live in England so will have to travel up, our plan is to go up Thursday, stay in a nice hotel, get married on Friday afternoon with with about 50 of our nearest, and then travel home Saturday and have a big party on the Saturday night in a hall in our hometown with all of friends and family probably like 200.. my question is really, what could we do on the Friday evening after the wedding, is there anywhere to go for a fancy dinner with our guests or to have a small drink with them, where I wouldn't look totally out of place in a wedding dress. Or should I just get changed and find somewhere to go. My plans fitting together besides this aspect 😂

You will need to book well in advance for Gretna Green, there can be 3-4 weddings a DAY there on summer weekends. There are a number of hotels and such in the area - they very much cater to the wedding industry, as it's a very popular choice for a location.

I got married at Gretna. V small family wedding. Chapel and gardens were beautiful. Low cost but surrounded by my closest loved ones. Also bonus sunshine.

we had a dinner post wedding at the venue. There are a small number of other restaurants in the area but it was easier for everyone to stay on site.

Sounds like a huge wedding to me! Why have the 200 people for a after party if you don't want to spend much and have it small?

Erm - are you being sarcastic?

You can go to your local office and get married in a lunch hour. That's cheap and cheerful.

Also considerably more convenient for the 50 people you want to join you - is there room for them to attend the ceremony, by the way? The whole point of Gretna Green was that it was somewhere English people went to marry clandestinely. Dragging what many people might consider an entire wedding-full of guests to an elopement is ridiculous.

No idea but that sounds lovely 😍

Have you looked into a registry office near you though? You could do it all on the Saturday and still keep the numbers you want. Some registry offices I've been to have been gorgeous X

We were married in Gretna Green and I recommend the Solway Lodge for a meal (if it is still there as it was a good few years ago!)

When I say Gretna im thinking the Gretna hall hotel, so not the blacksmiths, it holds 70 and our closest family will be happy to travel, they're always back and forth between England and Scotland for other things so why would a wedding be different. Our local registry office is not nice, and you literally walk out of the wedding reception straight up to McDonald's it's just not for me

Thankyou for the helpful advice and suggestions

What's Gretna Green got that your local registry office hasn't? And I'm not sure that 50 people travelling to Scotland and staying over counts as cheap and cheerful!

When I say cheap and cheerful I mean affordable without having to take out a loan. Everyone's definition is different I suppose

Have you looked on Facebook for Gretna groups?

I hope you have a great time x

I’m assuming you live in a reasonable commuting distance as it’s a bit of a faff everyone driving up on the Thursday or Friday for the ceremony and then driving back down on the Saturday, getting changed and going to a party on the night?

It totally depends on the type of people but that would be hard for me with young kids, working hours etc.
I don’t see that as a small no fuss wedding, it’s asking 3 nights commitment from people, unless as I say you are close enough that the people who are invited to the ceremony can just drive up and back on the Friday.

I think it’s fine and I genuinely think it’s a nice idea, i just don’t think the timelines work for the people who are expected to travel across the 2 or 3 days.

It sounds like a nice idea, however I will say like a pp that cheap and cheerful doesn't mean asking 50 people to take time off work, travel and stay in a hotel, only to come back to your hometown and celebrate again on the Saturday.

Unless everyone of the 50 people is so geographically disparate that everyone would have to travel anyway, why not make it as easy as possible for your guests?

We live in London and so to 90% of our friends, so we had our wedding somewhere central that the 90% could get to easily.

I guarantee that your family and friends will all say " oh lovely!" to your face and then some will moan about the expense and faff to each other. It's just the nature of weddings. Virtually no one outside your immediate family and closest friends cares like you about your wedding. Most people just want a happy, faff-free day to spend with you. I'm not trying to be goady - I work in the wedding industry and see this dynamic loads.

It doesn't have to be your registry office, loads of places are licensed these days.

50 people is quite a lot of people to cater for (never mind 200). We had 60 at our wedding and I won't tell you what that cost. 😩It kind of sounds like you are anticipating that people will travel up on the Friday and spend the night, come for the ceremony, join you for a drink or a meal after. Will you be paying for the meals and drinks? If you just do drinks, does that mean people are on their own for meals? It's Gretna Green, so can't imagine you'd look out of place anywhere in a wedding dress. I would assume it's more to do with availability of space to book and cost. Just looked at Gretna Hall and it's £5500 for 40-60 guests but that only includes food for 38 of them (not sure what the others are meant to eat? I guess they are evening guests who aren't invited for the sit down meal?). That seems quite pricey to me when you're planning to cater for 200 the following night.