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Original poster

To wonder what people's weddings were like

143 replies

meantosay · 27/01/2011 15:31

One of the current wedding threads just got me wondering? There's a lot of talk about people having weddings they can't afford etc and was just wondering how many of you had small simple affairs.

I had a small church wedding and buffet lunch at our new house for about 40 people.

OP posts:
WimpleOfTheBallet · 27/01/2011 16:11

MrsOak....the grounds of what?

Lonnie · 27/01/2011 16:14

Married in Denmark 70 guests dinner in local village hall and music after.. finished off with a buffet around midnight.

I would say neither big or small considering the fact my father is one of 4 and my mother one of 7 by the time we had all my aunts and uncles and parents we already had 22 people.

15 years ago on the 3rd Feb.. Fab day

beijingaling · 27/01/2011 16:17

Eloped to Fiji, got married on a beach. The island's village choir sang and it was magic. Very casual- we watched a DVD until 20 mins before the ceremony and Went snorkeling in the afternoon.

HecateQueenOfWitches · 27/01/2011 16:18

Fabulous. We went and booked the registry office, then we went shopping together for outfits. Himself got a suit he wore for years and I got a lovely chinese style outfit that I've still got and will wear again as soon as it fits Grin

We had guests staying over the night before, woke up, had breakfast, got ready, drove down to the registry office, did it, posed for pics (taken by friends) then we went for lunch in a pub across the road then in the evening we had a party in our local. The landlords were friends and let us have their back room for nowt and we got the local college catering students to knock us up a buffet. We went home and a friend stayed the night in the spare room.

If the whole thing cost more than £500 I'd be amazed.

It was great.

The whole church centre of attention princess horse and cart meringue dress thing would have killed me. I was shitting myself when Himself went to park the car. I said to our friends "He's not coming back, he's not coming back. I bet he's doing 80 down the M1 by now. On foot."

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 27/01/2011 16:19

Ours was a registry office do with the reception at TGI Friday's (our favourite place at the time). There were 16 (including us two), we didn't have much money then and we were both really happy with the day. :)

Quenelle · 27/01/2011 16:19

I married in a registry office and had a medium-sized dinner at a hotel followed by a large party in the evening. Because:

There was only registry office or church 19 years ago.

My mum had to make her own buffet when she married and swore she wouldn't let me or my sister do the same. I let her have her way because she hadn't made a fuss about me not getting married in a church, even though I knew she minded.

We were pressured into inviting all family and friends of family.

We were very young and lived/worked in a pub, therefore we had lots of friends/acquaintances who wanted to come to a big party.

If we were getting married today I would still have the registry office and then take close family and friends, including children, to a local restaurant. No formal speeches, just a few boozy toasts and fun and laughter with the people I love. I'm going all misty-eyed thinking about it actually. I might propose to DH when I get home tonight.

LifeOfKate · 27/01/2011 16:20

I had a lovely small wedding. 7 guests in total (parents and siblings), registry office, followed by afternoon tea in a little tea shop and then curry in the evening :) It was perfect (for us). We did say we would have a party at some point for friends and family, but it's been 3 years now and still not happened, so who knows if it ever will :)

mackereltaitai · 27/01/2011 16:22

Ours would have been simple if not THAT small (register office and walk to local restaurant for 60 people) if the PILs hadn't invited 20 of their friends and then told us they'd done so and that it would be rude to let their friends down.

ILikeMilk · 27/01/2011 16:25

My first wedding was on the beach, the only thing I remember is sweating all day and worrying about the makeup. My second was much better in a lovely castle in the country, we stayed overnigt and had a nice breakfast with the guests and family (around 60 people). Shame I was pregnant and had an awful morning sickness, so could not enjoy much of the food or drink. But it still was lovely! And I had an amazing dress(but not sure what to do with it now, lol).

stillbobbysgirl · 27/01/2011 16:30

I foolishly agreed to get married in Denver as we were going to visit family there for xmas - 6 weeks before xmas.

Ordered a dress through a US company to be collected in Denver 2 days before wedding. Sent them my measurements but dress looked like crap anyway.

Wedding on a Wednesday, and on the Monday evening before we went to big ice hockey game (18,000 people there). I was the one in 18,000 to get hit in the face by a flying puck. Spent rest of evening in a&e and had 3 stitches in face on wedding day.

My best friend flew in to be my witness, and we had 5 other people at the court house actually at the wedding. I only actually knew 2 of them.

Stayed in a beautiful old Victorian hotel for dinner and overnight and spent the evening drinking in the really nice art deco bar.

After taking our stuff down to the car the next morning I went back to room to collect the leftover cake and my shoes, to find chambermaid sitting on the bed eating said cake.

It was an eventful few days.
I regret going away as it broke my mums heart, but I sometimes think that our fairly shitty wedding made the marraige stronger!

Two weeks after we came back we had a big party for about 400 that everyone we knew was at, bagpipes, band, dj the lot and that was really great.

ILikeMilk · 27/01/2011 16:35

400! Wow. I am not sure I know 400 people.

tomatoplantproject · 27/01/2011 16:35

Traditional country wedding for 120. Lovely. Particularly cos we now live in London and it felt right going back to the sticks where we knew everyone involved (everything was done by a friend of a friend) and we had eaten dozens of times at the reception place. Wish we could do it all over again....

Honeybee79 · 27/01/2011 16:38

Civil ceremony at Westminster reg office, drinks and informal dinner (lots of shared food) for about 25 people. Hol in france then huge piss up in local pub. Was fun and pretty cheap.

cantspel · 27/01/2011 16:45

I got married in Kenya 19 years ago this year. It was a civil service overlooking the beach. We had african dancers lead me down and then dance after the service and everyone joined in. My oh gave some money to the head beach boy and he got in loads of crates of soft drink (they are mostly muslim) so they could join in the celebration even though they were not allowed in the hotel.
We left all the family at home and picked people we met at the hotel as witnesess and the hotel manager gave me away.
We had a meal in the evening with our witnesess and then dancing in a local beach bar.

When we came home we then retook our vows in my church with family present.

swanandduck · 27/01/2011 16:45

I wanted a really small church wedding followed by a meal in a local restaurant without any of the normal palaver.
But I could see the terrible disappointment on my mum's face and gave in. So we had the big long dress and the photographer and the rolls royce and the sit down meal and the table plans and the speeches and the band and I really didn't enjoy it at all. It was just sooooo not my thing. I would love to have something more special to look back on. If my dd gets married I don't care how big or small she wants the wedding or what kind of wacky reception she chooses.

ziptoes · 27/01/2011 16:59

My pal got ordained on the internet so she could marry us. Me, DH, 4 guests and a beautiful sunset. Lovely!

UnquietDad · 27/01/2011 17:57

Abs - this was, as I say, 12 years ago. Back then I wasn't so bothered - and options were fewer.

bigTillyMint · 27/01/2011 18:04

Late afternoon civil ceremony in a lovely otel followed by sit-down meal and speeches and then dancing, with about 120 guests.

We and our closest friends stayed the night before and had a great time that night and the day of the wedding before the ceremony, and then loads of people stayed the night and we had breakfast, etc together. It was lovely, not least because my mum / MIL looked after DD who was 9mthsSmile

I can't remember what it cost, but I had a high-street dress, a relly made the cake and my uncle who was a prof photographer did the photos, so that cut costs.

KalokiMallow · 27/01/2011 18:06

Mine was pretty small, only 17 guests. But we paid a little more for a special venue (Whipsnade Zoo), then had a picnic in the grounds.

My dress was hand made by me. My hair was done by my witness. Photos were taken by one of the guests (DH had done a photography course with her)

It was a perfect understated day :)

ChilledChick2 · 27/01/2011 19:57

DH and I had quite a few biker friends at our registry office marriage, then we all buggered off to the pub, DH worked in, for the reception (the owners sorted out the food, and cake.

All in all it cost a total of around £700 for the marriage and reception and everyone had a ball.

eatyourveg · 27/01/2011 20:06

We had a small wedding, 25 people in a tiny welsh chapel then bara brith and a cup of tea all round in an upstairs room of a nearby pub.

5Foot5 · 27/01/2011 20:16

Tiny village church where my parents lived and where I was brought up. We had 70 guests as that was the absolute maximum the church would seat.

Afterwards in the village hall where my Mum had paid some local ladies to lay on a buffet.

DH and I bought some wine for the meal from the supermarket also bubbly that wasn't the real thing for the toast. The local pub said they could lend us glasses, but then we had a last minute panic when we realised that we only had enough glasses for one each and we needed more for the toast. In the end we went to Habitat where they were selling glasses at £2 for 6 and bought 6 dozen.

We didn't have an evening do but after DH and I had made our escape all the friends and family descended on the village pub.

celebmum · 27/01/2011 20:38

eek! i seem to have gone against the grain here! Hmm

We had a hotel wedding with 100day guests for a champagne reception and 5course meal. I had 7 bridesmaids, DH 2best men & 3groomsmen. I had gorgeous purple flowers, glass candleabra's, 2profesional photographers, 4teir cake, chair covers and table diamonds etc and i designed and had made a bespoke wedding dress.. another 100 or so guest joined us in the evening for a hot pie/chilli combo and we danced till the early hours!
We left the next day for a 2week honeymoon in egypt.. bliss!

Cost slot, but we'd saved for it for years, it was the most perfect day and just how we'd dreamed it would be. Smile

celebmum · 27/01/2011 20:39

cost alot not cost slot..?!? duh Confused

celebmum · 27/01/2011 20:46

oops! kicked my cuppa over and got distracted then!!Shock

the whole point of me posting about my wedding was that i was going to say that my wedding seems quite alot but in comparison to some of my friends weddings ours was realativly modest! prob the 'simplist' of all the weddings from my circle of friends!