To think it's impossible to have a wedding on a budget?

[SicknessStillness]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Currently going through fertility treatment so don't want to spend a lot on the wedding as hopefully at some point we'll have a baby to spend on... Tips on how you saved money on a wedding? I thought £2000 would be fine but it seems impossible!

Thanks

You don't need a wedding, though. Just get married. We did it with two witnesses for about £200.

I'm pretty sure it COULD be done for that much but whether or not you'd have the wedding you want is another thing. Basics such as the licence fee, ceremony etc are usually not too pricey. It's the rest that adds up. Maybe save for a bit longer so you can do it how you want?

Two thousand pounds to throw a party is plenty of money.

Just get married with a dozen of you there - close family and a couple of friends - book a table in a nice local restaurant - job done.

Less than a hundred pounds here. Registry office, few people.
Local hotels here do a £999 all in deal here.

My friend had hers in a gorgeous hotel in lakes for no where near that.

Place marking for tips as in similar situation!

Me too!

It depends on what you want I guess, you could definitely get married for £2000, I got married two weeks ago, the registrar was £400 (ish) and that is the only legal bit you need. Wedding dresses from places like Monsoon are pretty cheap. £1000 should cover local hall hire, DJ and food for a party ( don't tell them it's a wedding cos they put the price up). Use an app like wedpics so everyone uploads photos and you don't need an official photographer. Get flowers from asda and vases from IKEA for decorations, and/or make bunting etc. Just need to be realistic about what you can get for that price.

Yes it's possible to get married for that, spending £££ on a wedding isn't completely necessary - how many people do you want to invite?

It depends what you want. Feeding people is the thing that costs money.

Just looked at fees for Greenwich registry office

Marriage conducted by a registrar in the Edwardian Room in the Town Hall Monday to Thursday: £154
Friday and Saturday: £214 (including one handwritten certificate)

Think it was £35 for marriage notice

So that leaves 1700ish for a hell off a party somewhere! Meal in a restaurant or one of the many places which do free room hire if you are spending on drinks at the bar.

Depends what you are after though

How much is a wedding important to you, and what bíts? Because you can have a great time if you are prepared to jettison the wedding magazines, instead decorate a church hall, get your friends to help with the catering and decorations, go to Calais to gèt the booze, get another mate to Dj, do your flowers yourself.

Avoid a hotel, a formal sit down meal, formal flowers, limousines and you've more than halved the price. Getting friends to do snaps cuts down the photographers costs. You'll end up with something far mire memorable and individual.

But if your heart is set on the more standard stuff' you'll need to save.

Yabu.

Marriage in a registry office, few friends/family. If you feel so inclined, drinks and/or meal at nearby pub - people pay their own way so you only invite close friends and family who can easily understand that.

You and dp wear suit/favourite outfit you already have. Rings can be bought quite cheaply if you want them. I think mine was about £60 from Argos the day before our wedding!

You don't have to do the big reception, flashy wedding if you don't want to. It depends on what's important to you as a couple I guess. Ours was only as big as it was (30 guests max) because dh wanted to elope and I said we had to at least invite both sets of parents. Ended up with both sets of parents, both our siblings and my nieces. My grandmothers and then very good friends. It was a bloody awesome day. Arranged it in 2 weeks from deciding to marry to the day itself. We were already going out that night too for a long booked function so I was going to wear the same dress. But I fell in love with another one so had one for wedding and one for function. Have worn both several times since.

I got married in 2010 and our budget was £2500. I had my dream dress, photographer, cars, DJ, band, full wedding breakfast for 60, evening reception. It was hard but it is doable.

We hired our local county council function suite which cut the costs hugely - £650 for ceremony room and function room, fully exclusive use etc v £3500 to hire the popular wedding hotel that I hated!

Utilise the talents of friends. Eg my now exh nephew was a DH, my dad is in a band so they did the music etc, a customer of exh did my bouquet and button holes plus bridesmaid posies all in silk flowers. I made all my invites, order of ceremony, rsvp cards, thank you cards etc. Hand delivered as many as was possible.

Look at local wedding shops that have sales or specialise in lower cost dresses, look at having them made for you. Mine was bought through an American site and cost me less than £200 including shipping and customs charges.

Oh, and a friend with a half decent camera took lovely photos, plus those from other friends and family.

Our wedding cost less than that and loads of people said how much they enjoyed it. Won't be to everyone's taste, pretty sure my uncle, aunt and cousin didn't enjoy it. But we did! We hired a barn for a £50 donation to charity, scrubbed it out and decorated it with loads and loads of borrowed fairy lights, branches and cut out paper hearts, it looked beautiful. Everyone brought a dish with them - no one minded at all. My friend made wedding cupcakes. Wedding dress was a present from my step mother. Suit was hired. Flowers from the garden. Drinks were Buck's Fizz and cocktails, some people brought cases of beer very generously. My friend is a dj, so that was handy, but she wanted to join in the party too so we made a playlist of stuff we live and played that. It mattered more to us that all our friends were there to have a good party than it did to have a traditional wedding with speeches and first dances and bridesmaids. Just think about what is important to you and do those bits.

Ok, work out what you want to spend the money on.

You have some fixed fees (making it legal). You need those. Then:

• a dress. How fancy do you want it? You could buy something pretty for under £100 easily.

• a room. How big does it need to be? If fewer than 30 people, can it be someone's house? If 50-100, can it be the local pub? Can you sweet talk anyone?

• food. Can people bring dishes as a potluck? Could you go for something like afternoon tea instead of a sit down meal? Or could you have a hog roast, or a fish and chip van?

• flowers. Do you need them? If you must have them, can you order bulk from wholesalers in Holland? If you only want bunches for bride/bridesmaids, would it be ok if you went by the local florist and got a nice-looking bunch on the day? It'll be much cheaper than picking a colour.

And so on.

If you're not too fussed about everything being 'just so', it's easier. Easier on your nerves as well, maybe?

Get married, wear a nice dress and go for dinner somewhere afterwards to celebrate. Please dont spend alot of money on it!!! Our wedding cost £30k and whilst i love my DH, and we had an amazing day, if i knew then what i know now I never would have done it.

Registry office fee and then down to the pub 👰🏽🍷

I think maybe you can do it better if you don't try to make it too traditionally weddingy.

I went to a low-budget wedding that had followed the church-breakfast in a venue-disco reception trappings and the budgetness really showed. It all felt quite flat, though maybe also due to mix of guests.

Another wedding that was town hall and then back to the couple's (not even very big) apartment for a party with loads of bubbles, homemade delicious buffet and informal/relaxed yet celebratory atmosphere felt much more successful.

My friend got married on less than 2k and it was honestly the best wedding I had been to.
She got a deal on her venue which included 2 amazing good quality and quantity buffet meals and a dj (1k) and ceremony in new registrary office with notice was around 500. She brought her dress from a discounted wedding dress strore for less than 100, bridesmaids and best men paid for their own outfits (£20 dresses off ebay for the bm's) which, even if they didn't pay would have only cost her an extra 100 anyway. Family friend took some photos and made wedding cake but I'm sure if you ask at your local college there will be students doing courses such as baking and photography ect who would love to be given the opportunity to do some work for you for free or massively discounted as they could use it for some of their assignments or course work so well worth an ask there. Get looking at pinterest for cheap crappy favours and home made decorations, spend £100 in a craft shop and get diying (beware this can get expensive though so budget)
Pinterest/ youtube, go to wedding fayes to get an idea of what you want and then shop around, be cheeky cos if you don't ask you don't get.
And that's if you want a big ish wedding, alternatively you could just have a small ceremony with a few close family and friends and then take everyone for a meal after.

Its not impossible! We got married at Gretna Green-their simplest package was about £550 incl photographer. Honeypie Boutiques for my dress, DH had full kilt already, DS got kilt set from kilt shop sale, DSD got dress from tk maxx, shoes off eBay and we saved feeding hundreds of folk by not inviting anyone! 4 close family attended. Meal at pub afterwards,
When we got home, we had a bbq at ours with friends and family! Lovely, simple day, no fannying about. Total cost: approx £1800!!
You can do it cheaper than that too! Its about what you want! :)

Flowers no issue as we have a florist friend, can get a cheapish dress as not too fussed on the big white traditional thing. It's photography and feeding everyone and that sort of thing which worries me. Our towns registry office looks like an office and we'd rather have a church for sentimental/ family reasons I'm just not sure it's doable! I know the official bit is all the matters but I don't want to regret not doing it properly down the line

It's not impossible at all, it's just that you might not get the wedding that you want.
But then you have to ask yourself if you want to get married or be married.
Getting married lasts for one day; being married lasts forever, god willing.

I got married abroad for about £2000 including flights and hotels.

Honestly you still can do it! Afternoon tea eg instead of dinner is a very cheap way of feeding everyone.