To ask if it's possible to have a wedding for 2k?

[Budgetbride]

My mum is buying my dress.
We don't have a lot of money, but would like to have a lovely wedding.
Would like to have around 60 guests but would be open to (for example) immediate family for the ceremony and then the rest for the reception...

What I was thinking so far was -
Immediate family only for ceremony if necessary
Ceremony at 4pm
Photos etc
Buffet at around 6pm
Dancing...

This would mean only one meal had to be paid for...

Would be very low key, could maybe hire a hall??

I have a friend who makes cakes for her business, she has offered to make the cake for only the price of the ingredients

My other friend is a florist, she has said she will only charge for the flowers

I can do my own make up and own hair

Best friends husband is a photographer, I was thinking of seeing if he could give us a discount?

DP's best friend is in a really good local band, who play locally to fundraiser for charity. I was thinking of instead of asking for presents, asking if guests really wanted to give something, they could donate to this charity, and ask if the band would play at the wedding? We would obviously do a large donation too!

We basically don't care about the trappings but want all our friends to come together and have a great time, nice, casual and relaxed.

Am I being massively entitled to ask friends to help out?! We would be very clear that we do not want gifts/money, just want everyone to come and celebrate with us!

Is this possible/entitled?
We would elope, but want to celebrate with our friends!

Other option is to elope and then come back and just have a party when we come back?

Just to be clear - we are not tight! Just skint!

Totally possible. Ours came in at under £1000.

Village hall, self cater - buffet style.
Instead of gifts, could close friends/ family use their talents to help you with the big day - flower arrangements/ make a cake/ provide music/ take photos/ bring a dish to share etc.
Just enjoy and relax - I always think people stress too much about weddings - most people will not remember the details that you've stressed over a few months down the line, just make it a day to celebrate and enjoy the company of your nearest and dearest, and the simpler your celebrations are, the easier that will be, because there will be fewer things that could go wrong and you'll be less stressed.

Get a quote from a local pub for a buffet. They'll likely do a good deal for food if they hunk they'll make £££'a from 60 people drinking and you won't have to hire a room.

Totally possible.
Also: don't tell any suppliers its for a wedding. Book hall, caterers etc for a 'family celebration'.
(Do make sure to ask for help well in advance so crafty friends can go at their own pace and not eg be presented with 60m of bunting to sew up a week before the wedding )

It's totally possible as long as you're realistic. Do away with the twiddly pointless bits like favours and bridesmaids.

Of course it's possible. What do you mean "ask friends to help out"

Why not ask on invite for people to bring a dish or a bottle (stick to one on the invite or you could end up with lots of drinks and no food) instead of a gift, and have a pot luck buffet

Wedding can be done on any budget and the ones with the biggest budgets aren't necessarily the best

Just having one meal is a good idea and totally fine. Two of the weddings I've been to recently served a big 3 course wedding breakfast at 3/4 pm, which meant that everyone was still stuffed in the evening so barely touched the buffet anyway.

Some church hall type places don't cost much to hire (especially if you don't mention it's for a wedding as that jacks the price up apparently) and you can probably use your own caterers, or what about ordering ready made food from somewhere like Morrisons?

I recently went to a party where the food came from there and it was really nice and excellent value - eg a tray of sandwiches for £6 that worked out cheaper than just buying ready made sandwiches from the shop. Platters of cooked meat or cheese too that were cheaper than just buying from the deli counter. Get some scones and cream and you could use this sort of thing to have an afternoon tea as your wedding breakfast.

Totally possible. These wedding favours are great for only 40p each - www.swizzels.com/shop/personalised-mini-love-hearts-wedding-favours?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtJzLBRC7ARIsAGMkOAlAZeDjjvLSe44yTx0VJYa_PUJv87kd5h2RkXTGqhP3unq8OiSqNbUaAruVEALw_wcB

Ot but what else would the florist charge for other than the flowers?

For 5 a head you can get loads of really nice m and s food. www.marksandspencer.com/l/food-to-order/party-food-and-sandwiches/party-food-and-sharing-platters?intid=FTO_LP_4_Partyfood

Avoid Iceland stuff, cheap but there will be lots left over

Totally possible, ours was more than that but we had a band that cost £1300.

We had it at a rugby club and made our own buffet, our own cake, MIL did flowers and table decorations, decent enough wine from Costco on tables (paid corkage to the club as their house wine was Blossom Hill!).

No favours on tables, no chair covers, all these little things add up (e.g. Chair covers would have been £400!).

What makes a great party (I think) is some nice food, plenty of booze and good entertainment. No one notices whether the bridesmaids match the theme of the venue.

By 'asking friends to help out' I meant asking them to use their talents to provide stuff and not charge as they usually would!

user obviously usually they charge for their time! When I looked at florists we were talking £600!

Ot but what else would the florist charge for other than the flowers?

Erm... the time used to make up the floral displays, what you are putting the flowers in so that they stand up on the table, cost of delivery and any other decorations used in the flowers...

Whatever you do, don't read any bridal magazines. There are so many things in them that you never knew that you needed, like chocolate fountains.

Completely depends on the wedding you want.

If you wanted a wedding with 100 guests, sit down meal, decent photographer, band etc then no.

A small do then a buffet then yes.

I know large traditional weddings go down like a lead balloon on MN but that's what I'm having but we can afford it and it's what we want.

2K wouldn't even cover the cost of our wedding breakfast.

Yes. One if the nicest wedding Ive been to was a budget one. IT showed you you could have a good time without all the trappings.

Choose your date carefully. I'm having a birthday celebration and was told if I had in the summer it would be a couple of hundred more to hire the caterers. (Thanks mum fir my birthday being in the spring! )

You don't need favours.
Use the cake for pudding.
Village hall hire is cheap. £100. Saturday.

Have a look on Pintrest too. I went to a party with some truly spectacular invitations and decorations. Turned out the 15 year old sister and her friends were really creative and the mother let them come up with a plan. She bought the craft things from eBay/the works and the girls got to work.

For 5 a head you can get loads of really nice m and s food

Item per item, it's half the price in Morrisons and still nice enough - less variety granted but also be aware that a lot of the M&S stuff is available cheaper in the shop, you might have to go to a couple of shops to get everything, but if you have 2/3 big simply foods near you, it will be cheaper to just go into the shop - they did on Watchdog or somewhere - eg the ordered food is £14 for 20 mini hotdogs.

You can get 3 packs of 10 of those hotdogs in the shop for £10 and you'd get the rolls for £4 or less so 50% more food for the same cost. All the quiches, pork pies sausage rolls and other bits are in the 3 packs for £7 deli offer so just buy 9 packs in the shop for £21 instead of ordering the £30 off the website.

Look fir late deals too.
My cousin got married last year, out if season for a ridiculously small sum about your budget. Sit down meal, lots of people, lovely venue.

Agree - forget favours and other tat like that.

You can do it for that cost and I think it sounds a lovely alternative to throwing money at a day you'll not remember much about as you'll be so busy.
we had a very frugal wedding and are to celebrate our 25th Wedding anniversary next month.
You seem to have your priorities in the right direction, it's the marriage that's important not the wedding.
Good luck to you both, all the best
Ha Ha, you won't have to spend most of it like Bridezilla running around making sure everything is running smoothly and to the nanno seconds you planned.

Yes - totally possible.
Decorations from home bargains type shops, sweets instead of favours, use family talents instead of gifts.
Make your own playlist on an iPod & borrow speakers, consider if prices carat the same if they don't realise it's a bank holiday.
Just matching ties for the groomsmen, bridesmaid dresses in sales, party table wear from pound shops.
Decorate your own generic 'celebration' cake from supermarket (ones you order online).
Hope you have a great day!

Definitely possible if you're happy to skip some of the more extravagant trappings. (Friends may be able to help but equally they may not - you can ask but you can't put pressure on people IYSWIM.)

My wedding was pretty cheap, significantly under your budget - register office with about 30 people, no bridesmaids, music on a CD with my brother standing at the back of the room pressing buttons. We used a relative's lovely big garden for the reception, Mum made the cake (she offered!) and the buffet, then we took over a pub garden in the evening and bought chips for everyone. Our main expense was the booze to be honest - a carload from Majestic. Obviously we were very lucky with what family could offer us, and we weren't at all fussed about the little extra things like favours and so on. But it can certainly be done.

My second wedding was definitely budget, but we had a good do. Close friends and family to registry office which was mid week, followed by celebration at local hall (a local YWCA coffee lounge-quite a large room with integral bar) One of Dh's friends was a DJ so did the music as a present, my Aunt made the cake, we put flowering pot plants on the tables (my Dsis painted the pots) and I supplied the buffet and drinks. I made most of the food although helped out by close family as I wanted good quality food and not a load of messy dips , and cold greasy sausage rolls.

We married on a Friday as late as possible, then people came to the celebration after work.

You can do it the only advice I would give is to make sure the food and drink is the best quality you can afford. Do not ask people to bring a dish and bottle, some will forget and others will roll up with wine and crisps. My friend did this for a party it was a mess!

Nu at all to ask your friends. I'm a hairdresser and two of my friends have got married this year. I did both their bridal hair and bridesmaids hair as a gift from me.

Otherwise 2 grand seems a decent budget for the type of wedding you're planning. Congratulations!

Anything is possible but I'd caution about getting friends to be involved on the day (playing in the band / taking photos) it means they can't be fully involved in the day and sometimes people prefer to be able to enjoy rather than work.