Wedding budget

[TheNeedyPoet]

Hi lovely people of mn,

My partner and I are considering our wedding at the moment. For context we are mid 20s and trying to prioritise budgeting for different areas of life. We are very lucky to have a house with a big mortgage to pay and home renovations planned over the next 5+ years. Saving for a wedding would stop all home works so just trying to work on the balance.

we are planning a relatively intimate day but still want it to be a treat for all our loved ones. My initial wedding budget of £10k honestly doesn’t seem too feasible unless we want to diy everything.

I guess I want ideas on whether you spent big and regretted it or would do it again. Or had a budget wedding and it was still magical?

we are definitely more keen on getting married sooner and doing things cheaper but don’t want to plan a day without good food etc for our guests

We got married almost 20 years ago. My parents paid for most of our wedding as they are still quite traditional in that sense but we didn't blow the budget. We chose a venue that could only have 70 guests (including me and DH) for the day to keep on top of numbers. We didn't have a videographer, that didn't interest us as we'd never watch it back. We didn't pay extra for chair covers as, again, an unnecessary expense.
We did have good food and gorgeous flowers.
I'd not have wedding favours if we had the day again, my mum wanted to have favours for my gran.
I would have put on an extra drink after the ceremony as the first drink we put on was for the pre dinner speech and toasts.
My dress cost me £300 plus alterations, my shoes came from Next. I couldn't bring myself to spend lots on a dress for 1 day (and we got married late afternoon so wore it less!).
Our ceremony and venue was 1 place so we didn't have wedding cars.
Remember the wedding is just 1 day. I get it, it's lovely to celebrate with your nearest and dearest, but the marriage is more important (to me, which is why we didn't go mad with my Dad's money! ).

Had a budget wedding and it was great. Most important thing was having family and friends there. We made the cake and photographer was free (done by a friend with a decent camera). As long as you give people a decent meal and they don’t have to hang around during loads of photos they are happy.

We spent £35k and there’s nothing I would change. We just went for it and it was the best day ever. We had Irish dancers and a chocolate fountain and anything we wanted so that we wouldn’t look back and say god I wish I had done this or that.