Low key but not small wedding?

[BlackStarryNight]

DP and I are talking about getting married and trying to work out how we'd do it! We don't want to elope or do a tiny wedding but a big traditional do doesn't appeal to us either. We'd probably have 60-70 people, I'm thinking maybe registry office followed by a private hire pub/restaurant sort of thing? Somewhere to spend a nice chilled afternoon/evening and have some nice food/drinks. I'd like to have a few speeches but probably not cake cutting, dancing etc.

Has anyone done anything with a similar vibe? Would love any more ideas! Don't want to have to organise too much but would love to celebrate with people

We did exactly this! Church ceremony at 5pm, then exclusive hire of a local restaurant with outside gardens. We had a jazz band on the lawn after the ceremony with champagne and canapes whilst we had photos taken. 4 course, candlelit dinner at 7pm with traditional speeches afterwards. No separate evening do/disco etc as essentially, the 'entertainment' was dinner. Rounded the evening off with fireworks. It was perfect for us, we had 50 in total and everyone came in black tie, everybody came to everything and nobody was hanging about for hours, bored/hungry etc. We could spend a bit more on the food and drink because we didn't need a separate evening buffet.

Recently went to a wedding in a hotel, had the ceremony, then a meal for about 40 guests, then a bigger party/celebration in the evening, with a buffet and disco. No first dances but they did do speeches. Both had been married before, both had children all grown up and they had granddaughters as flower girls/ bridesmaids (basically just in beautiful dresses) was a lovely day and after the food we went up to our room for a hour or so before coming down to the party. Their was comfortable chairs for the older guests who sat in a different room to the disco

My favourite wedding (other than my own) was a 'festival style' wedding of a cousin. They had it in a field on their family farm with festival tents and a buffet of simple food with pizzas in the evening. It was lovely and low key (probably about 60-80 people), though obviously somewhat weather dependent and you'd need a field.

I think for them it probably wasn't low key as there was a lot of planning involved as they did it themselves (no venue). But it was a really nice relaxed day.

For our wedding we rented out an historic restaurant. We did a cocktail hour in the bar, then the ceremony in one of the rooms (legal here), then a really nice dinner in another.

We did it on a night the restaurant is normally closed which kept costs down and we were perfectly happy that it wasn’t the kind of wedding that people partied into the night. Things wrapped up around 9pm which was perfect for us.

I did something like this. We had register office wedding with 19 people then went to a nice pub in the conservatory for a meal with those people, then about 20/30 more people showed up throughout the evening to join us for a drink. It was perfect!

Watching with interest as we are planning something similar.

So far the plans for us are to invite 50 of our favourite people to a lunchtime registry office wedding. This is the max capacity of the local registry office walking distance from our house. This means we are creating a reserve list and having to make tough decisions as to who to invite. My dad and brother are on the reserve list.

We will then all walk to our local pub for some fizz and small snacks then walk back to our house for simple but substantial buffet (cheeses, roast beef, salads etc) with whoever fancies it. Beers, tins of G&T and soft drinks in a bath tub to chill. Rental chairs and tables.
No cars, no photographer, no cake.
Grooms father might do a speech. So might my best woman.
Budget on bridal wear £300, rings ££, suit for groom existing. Flowers bought from local supplier ££.
Food and booze will be biggest expense.
Maybe £500-1k?
Invitations and RSVP cards £100-200?

I was initially really anti something so low frills and DIY and home based but then the thought of spaffing £6k on a party for others and not using it on something more valuable didn't feel right.

Or just stay unmarried as we've both been married before and don't have shared children. Do have a shared house and mirror wills, LPA, life insurance etc.

We did registry office then village hall with caterers.
Cake, invites, bridesmaids dresses and hair bands all home made, my friend is as good as a professional dressmaker, she almost set up her own business. Friend is a professional photographer so he charged us just for film and travel expenses.

I love the sound of this! Think we’d need it to be a bit more casual as there’s too many kids we’d want to come… but I’d love to be invited to a wedding like this!

The festival type do sounds great too but I don’t want to rely on the weather… and it sounds like a lot more organisation which we don’t really want to have to do

I'm having a church service followed by dinner at a local pub(exclusive hire of upper floor) then an evening reception there with local band. The middle ground I suppose. 50 guests for us plus a few people we know locally coming for the evening to see the band as their kids aren't normally able to (the local pubs over 18's only after 8pm when bands are typically on)

We are making it come as you like dress code wise, more rock chick vibes!

I went to a wedding that had a service at1, lunch at 230. And wrapped up about 6pm. Everyone just chatted and had drinks. The b&g were quite quiet people who didn't want a bigf fuss or a booze up