To ask can you have a great wedding on the cheap????

[salsmum]

At the end of this year I will have been to 4 weddings (including my own sons) although each of them were fantastic, well planned, expensive weddings. AIBU to think that with ebay etc..if you so wished you could have a fantastic wedding 'on the cheap?' Myself and my partner do plan to 'tie the knot' at some point (we are both in our 50s) but I do love a bargain! can I ask did you have a 'bargain' wedding or did you spend £££££s and wished you hadn't spent quite so much??

I think so. I spent about £1,500 on mine and that covered everything!

Dress, shoes, tiara- about £320
Register office- £150 ish? I was married by special licence.
1 bridesmaid- £100
Suits - £200, worn again for interviews....
Car- £150- an old American car, complete with suited driver
Flowers- £60, silk (hay fever!!) created by a student friend, in return for photos and testimonial/ references

The rest went on a village hall (mind you, it looked like this) , food which we cooked and drink from Tescos. I had an afternoon tea party rather than 2 events.

DH and I sloped off at about 6pm to a nearby farmhouse- champagne was delivered in advance.

A colleague of mine had a lovely wedding where she and her husband and their children (second marriage for both of them and very little money) went to the registry office in the morning for a private ceremony with just themselves there, then rang round family and friends to let them know and invited anyone free to come join them for a meal that evening at a local pub restaurant. Everyone paid for their own food, they had a great evening together which cost no more than a family meal for anyone, no gifts or fuss and she said she had a wonderful time. Unlike her first wedding which had been a big do and she remembered mostly the stress of organising it all!

Wouldn't work for everyone by any means, she had a family situation that made this work well, but it's so nice to hear someone talk about their wedding with such pleasure as she does.

Mine cost about $1200,that included my dress,my kids outfits, Dh outfit ( No suits at my wedding :o )food, beer,wine,decorations,a cake and some flowers. Most of it was on an emergency tent hire 3 days before the wedding when we discovered it was going to rain

We got married in my garden,JP came to the house to marry us,that cost $75. The tent hire $600 included tables and chairs. We decorated it with balloons and fairy lights. Bought paper table covers and plastic silver ware and glasses from a party store,very cheap.

I did 90% of the cooking and my close friends brought a dish of something to share.We supplied beer and wine and told people if they wanted anything else to bring their own.Friends teenage son did the music and another friend did the pictures

Bought a beautiful rum cake at a local bakers and had them decorate it,it was beautiful but simple.There was a new florist opened near me,she wanted some "exposure" so did me some really beautiful but not OTT flowers for small money,small bouquet for my Dd and a hand tied thingy for me,very elegant plus a couple of stunning floral displays to put on buffet table.

We had tiki torches all round the yard ( citronella ones to keep mosquitos away. Late june in Mass is bug heaven ) and a big firepit. There were kids everywhere having a blast,guests in shorts and flip flops. It was a great wedding ( WAY better than my bigbuck fancy dancy one to dickhead exh )

Actually thinking about it, I'm sure they invited people to join them for a drink rather than a meal, but at a pub restaurant where food was available for those who wanted it! They were trying to make it as low cost for everyone as possible and said rather than bring a gift, come join us for a drink.

Parts of ours done on the cheap:
Friends did the flowers in the church (their wedding present to us)
Friends did order of service (wedding present)
Invites and place names were off the shelf from WHsmith.
Cars were done by a bloke mum met walking the dogs.
Bridesmaid dresses bought in Monsoon Jan sale.
Friends of friends did ceilidh band at a reduced cost.

There are loads of bargains to be had for a wedding, but it really depends on what you are expecting to get out of the amount of money you are prepared to spend.

If you're inviting guests that don't live locally, you have to spend a certain amount.

I walked to the village church with my Dad. The ladies at the church did flower arrangements for the church and the reception using flowers from their own gardens.

My mums friend made and iced the cake.

We had a marquee in the garden, and we got 4 students from the nearby university to play classical music in the garden for the guests. Had a professional caterer in to provide a buffet lunch

No evening do.

You can hire a dress if you want to wear white and avoid paying thousands for something you will never wear again.

IMO until you get over the "biggest day of my life" thing and understand that the wedding itself is really not important, you"re not mature enough to get married!

Mine cost under £100 including registry office and ring (for me - dh didn't get one till several years later).
Great day!

We spent 20k on ours a couple of weeks ago. I don't regret a penny, it was the most fantastic day.

We are both perfectly mature enough to understand all that marriage entails and were not interested in competing with others.

Our wedding was just over £2K, but nearly £1K of that was the band as we wanted a particular band to play. Turned out nobody listened to them anyway, so we could have done the wedding even more cheaply. We self-catered, booked the local village hall, I made my dress, and we got married in the registry office, but had the "proper" wedding in a local beauty spot the following day, with 250 guests, champagne and lovely food. Our wedding was fancy enough to make it into a national magazine spread.

It did help that I can use a sewing machine and am used to catering for large events.

worldgonecrazy Yep, I had a friends band play and noone listened to them either. I was so embarrassed for them. Then they told me that all the weddings they do are like that.
It seems people are just much more interested in drinking and talking to each other at weddings.