To try and plan a wedding for 1500 or under

[Themrmen]

Seriously having trouble trying to organise a decent wedding that is still nice and keep the budget that low, anyone got tips, ideas, experience. Doesn't help I'm Surrey based which seems to be one if the more expensive areas.

Do you mean in terms of decoration/dress etc or more the venue/location/food costs? Is it a small number wedding?

Get married in your own garden or a friends'. Buy a 2nd hand dress, ask guests to bring flowers from their gardens and use them on the tables...a shabby chic wedding is a lot cheaper than any other as so much can be made at home. Choose mid summer...so there are free flowers and so that the garden is a nice venue.

Borrow and beg all you can. Cater yourself.

We got married for about a 1/5th of that in surrey... (damn expensive rings) unfortunately though the only advice I could really give is don't invite anyone as that simplifies everything.

Get married at a registry office at 4pm or 11am
Then have a small sandwich buffet dinner or lunch in a pub with no hire charge
If lunch, everyone go home or prop up the bar until they fall over
If dinner, drinks afterwards. Helpful if they can buy meals for themselves behind the bar
Outfits from high st, suits that everyone already has
Cake from M&S/Asda celebration cake
Taxis or drive yourselves

I went to a family wedding at a hall which was cheap to hire. BYOB and everyone bought a dish. The couple provided a disco and cutlery, crockery etc. It was fab.

ask a friend to use drive you in their car.

self catering. (afternoon wedding, one buffet)

flowers and foliage from families gardens.

reception in home/garden.

We did this. Registry office at 3pm. Non-traditional wedding dress. Friends took pictures. Under 30 guests. Bought our own wine and paid corkage fee and bought everyone dinner in our favourite local restaurant (this was the bulk of the costs). No flowers. It was the best day ever, completely relaxed and everyone loved it.

Ours is going to cost about £600 all in. We're getting married in a registry office with our mums and DPs kids, then the 6 of us are going for a meal. That's it and my idea of bliss

If you are going to use outside suppliers (caterers, florists, function rooms, photographers), ask them for quotes for a party rather than a wedding.
The 'W' word tends to double the price...

If you have a registry office wedding on a Monday morning, you can then go a a lovely pub for lunch. All things you might want (photographer, car etc) will be very happy to negotiate a great price with you as they are usually doing nothing on a Monday - so you can save a fortune! You can usually book them at very short notice too (unlike if you were wanting a Saturday wedding when they get booked months/years in advance).

Contact a local art college, they may have some photography students who would be willing to come and take photos.

Of course YANBU.
You might or might not BU in your expectations of what you can do for the budget - but it depends on what your restrictions are.

Only invite a few guests and just serve canapés in the garden.

I like the idea of marrying in the garden, how do you organise that?

We got married nearly 28 years ago so can't really compare costs, but it was on a budget.

Mum hired the local village hall and bought food in for a buffet. Some local ladies and friends helped out with serving the food. We bought the wine from the supermarket and borrowed glasses from the pub.

DSis and I bought flowers from the market (it was February) for tables and for the church.

I did buy a professional bouquet for me and the bridesmaids. Oh yes, the bridesmaids (both grown up) paid half cost of their dresses and we chose a style they could wear again afterwards.

I imagine it is easier these days with desktop publishing tools to make your own invitations and with digital photography you probably don't need to spend a fortune on a photographer. Maybe you can ask friends to take photos of the day and email them to you and then put together a collection that you like.

Honestly I bet you will have a lovely time and it will probably be much more enjoyable and relaxed for everybody. Good luck!

My local hotel do a £999 package for 50 guests. I think the chain is called Olde English Inns. Personally, I'd rather do the village hall piss up type wedding, but as long as there's plenty of food or drink people will be happy!

You can't marry in your garden - you need to get married in a church, registry office or a venue with a wedding licence.

You can have the reception in your own garden though

If you're happy with a Registry office (or church) do then should be doable on that budget - it's the reception after that really costs. So a buffet or sit-down carvery in a pub will be far more cost effective than a wedding package.

It totally depends on numbers

Get married in the afternoon after lunch and take a small group to an early dinner in a nice restaurant.

Rent a small venue, decorate it yourself and get caterers in to do a buffet lunch. iPod for music.

Get married and elope.

Not in the least. I got married at the old town hall in a little town, followed by lunch in a private room at a lovely old hotel. Wore a high street non-weddingy dress. Only my parents, his parents and gran attended. Flowers, venue, meal, hotel room etc all came in well under a grand. We got photographs done for free by someone from the local photography society who wanted the experience. He just charged for the prints.

We even got a photo and write up in the local paper as it's not a very commonly used venue, plus a town crier! Apart from my nightmarish parents spoiling much of it, it was a lovely day.

Good for you OP. You will have a lovely and relaxed wedding (instead of freaking out about the debt you're getting into).

Are you planning a civil ceremony or church wedding? How many people do you want to invite ideally? How many people would you settle for?

It seems completely do-able to me, though. I love the idea of people bringing flowers from their own gardens - cheaper of course, but so much nicer than those OTT bridal arrangements!

You could do the boring legal wedding bit in your local registry office. Pick a cheap midweek slot. This would give you more options for a cheap venue as it wouldn't have to be licensed.

I used to be jealous of those American wedding shows where they'd just get married in their garden, or in the middle of a national park. The laws in the uk are weirdly strict.

(And yes, eloping is awesome!)

Thanks for the replies! We're looking at around 80 people and doing it in a registry office but it's the party after that is costing the money as within the 1500 we need to buy/rent everything ie rings, suits etc.

Have a section of a pub then. Give the pub a budget of £10 a head for a buffet, spend £200 on a glass of prosecco for everyone to toast you, don't provide any other drinks. Photos - get friends totake loads - they'll all end up on fb anyway. Flowers - not needed but maybe as a wedding gift someone could buy you a bouquet. £100 each on rings, £100 suit hire and £200 for a dress. Job done

Actually doesn't your fiance have a suit?

Cheap rings, wear clothes you already own. Bunch of flowers turned into bouquet with bit of ribbon (won't last long but get the photos done) - don't have a photographer or a car.

And have a party in a pub or nice local restaurant. You may need to invite fewer people. Don't have table swagging, centre pieces or anything like that. I like the ideas above of a few people back to a nice pub, provide a bit of fizz then people go to the bar if they want more.

I recently got married for less than that.

-No invites, sent a message out to everyone or called them.
-Really nice registry office in a park
-Dress bought online (made to measure)
-Conservatory room at a pub. The staff did an amazing job setting the room up with a log fire and nice table settings.
-Favours from Cancer research, which guests loved.
-Had a break after 6pm and checked in to our hotel and then those who wanted to party on came to a night out organised by my sister's boyfriend who is a local DJ and had sorted all the VIP areas (got lucky there)
-No photographer, our friends with good cameras stepped in and everyone uploaded to a dropbox file afterwards. Then we'll get Tesco to make it into an album for us.
-Decorated with vases that I already owned plus pine cones and photos pegged up.
-Flowers from Waitrose tied together with ribbon
-Borrowed a family member's classic car.

The whole thing was fantastic fun, food was great and really nice atmosphere. Ended up in a burger bar at 3am. Everyone who's seen the photos has commented on how much they like the flowers, dress, venue :)

Good luck x

I don't know if this is an option, but are there any nice community or church halls where you might get a deal on the hire? Say party - do NOT mention wedding. Then you can have some lovely food and cases of chilled Prosecco and wine.

If that's not an option, then it is well worth asking your favourite pubs or local restaurant what they can do for you. Be clear - ask if they can they do something for £10/head and do a deal with one glass of Prosecco and a bottle of wine on each table. They can only say no.

Also, ask people for help.

I would ask the best photographer among your invited guests to make sure that they get some nice shots for the album.

Ask someone else who loves gardening if they would put a posy together for you - if there's two decent gardeners then get someone to put some spring blooms in jam jars for the tables - they look gorgeous, clever and brilliant.
Ask your most wickedly stylish friend for help with getting a fabulous dress on a budget.

Ask your musical friend to get some tracks together etc.
People love to contribute what they're good at, especially to a wedding.

Gosh, I'm loving this. Such a refreshing change from grabby money poems, bridezilla behaviour, and hen do's in Thailand.