Tips for a super cheap wedding ??

[lauraLees1990]

Does this sound ok -
My partner and I have three small kids , recently bought a house etc so can't afford an all out wedding .
We have so much family let alone his million "close " friends 🙄 anyway .
Thinking about having a late registray office wedding with 70 guests and then straight into an evening party with buffet for say 200 people . Anyone done this ?? How much did it cost . And can you give me any tips . How would I word it on invitations that it's just wedding and evening buffet so people know not to expect a fancy three course meal etc . Also would you be a bit 😳 if someone invited you to a wedding like this ? I just don't have thousands to spend on one day when I would rather buy a new kitchen or take my boys to Disneyland 😂 but feel the time has come to get married and it's the last thing we want to do to feel like a proper family . Thanks

Why not just get married without any fuss? You can't really do a party for 200 on the cheap, even if it's as cheap as possible (which you surely wouldn't want).

You can't do a wedding for 200 people cheaply. You really can't.

You can miss out things like favours, cars, bridesmaids, table covers etc but don't skimp on food.

Hire a hall. Get guests to bring booze/food. Don't bother with a cake. It's just a party like any other. Plan it as though it were a 30th birthday or similar.

Just go to the registry office with a handful of close family and friends and get it over with. A buffet for 200 people will never be cheap.

We did registry office on a Monday for ten people including us and then went to Toby carvery. Best day ever.

You’ve pretty much described our wedding. Wedding 4pm and then onto a pub for a party. We’ve made it clear on the invites that it’s casual and all we want is their company. No need to dress up and certainly no gifts. Everyone knows it’s a buffet so they can eat at lunchtime and we’ll just put some money behind the bar. It’s cheap and cheerful and is about us spending time with our loved ones celebrating the day. There’s no need for all the formalities and expense.

I’m in no way saying it’s wrong to have a lavish wedding, but it’s just not “us”.

My wedding cost about £4,000, honeymoon included. Local windmill for the ceremony (£400) with bbq buffet (about £300) small venue kept the numbers to a manageable level. Local pub with buffet for evening do (about £250). Relative did the photos, bridesmaid dresses came from monsoon, my dress was on sale. We decorated ourselves & the men rented waistcoats & ties to wear with suits they already owned. It is possible to have a low cost wedding just shop around a bit and decide early on whether something is essential to your big day or not.

Just nip to the registry office with close family and skip the rest. Nobody will expect a big wedding with three children.

To cater for food and drink for 200 won't be cheap.

Omg. My BIG wedding didn't have that many guests! You are overshooting.
If you want a small wedding then keep it small.
You can literally do it for less than a £1000 by doing register wedding, off the rack dress and suit, no BMs or ushers, and a friend's & family meal or a buffet in a small hall or someone's garden. Heck my friend did a camp out (tents) in a site with spit roasted pig for their reception. You can be as cheap and cheerful as you want. But not with 200 evening guests!!

That's a crazy big wedding. Who will expect to be fed and even at cheapest you are talking £10-15 a head. £200-3000 just for eve guests food let alone the rest.

£2000-3000 I meant and that's not even factoring in a venue big enough and entertainment. Why are you going so big for reception and why 70 for the day if you want to keep it a small wedding??

I am getting married in a registry office in September. None of the registry offices near here would allow 70 guests.

200 people =expensive even if you go really down market

I like the idea of renting a hall and asking guests to bring food. One of those 200 guests is probably a photographer and one is in a band or a dk? There’s your party!

At a friend's wedding last year, she didn't book a photographer, she asked everyone to take a few pics and send her any particularly nice ones. She got some lovely pictures.

Can you give us a better idea of the budget OP? I went to a wedding once in a rented hall where a local indian catered by just supplying a few curries and sag aloos and stuff it was great. If you're doing a hall I'm sure you could rope people into making food and bringing it. I'd be fine with just an evening buffet for a late wedding.

We had 75 guests at our reception. Yours is rather large in comparison

I’ve been to a couple of weddings like this where they had the evening bit in a village hall/community hall. To me the ingredients for a great wedding are a couple that really love each other, good music, not overly expensive drinks and some half decent food which includes a decent buffet, hog roast, pizza van etc. The rest is just extras.

You can have a cheap wedding for 200 people but a cheap wedding for 200 still won't be 'free'.

Personally, I'd just have your parents and siblings at the registry so there's no hanging about for most folk, then straight to the hall.

But you still have to cover:
Clothes
Hall hire
Decorations (I'm pretty minimal but you need to have something to make it look nice for your guests
Booze
And food.

You can do a bring a plate wedding of course.

The 'cheapest' wedding I went to was on a campsite, where the bride and groom paid for the site and the venue. They provided some booze, but people brought their own, and they had some snacks and a pizza van turned up for two hours to feed everyone. People pitched in with decorating, a friend made the cake, etc etc.

But they still had to find clothes, decorations, venue hire, some booze, transport, the celebrant, PA hire, they wanted hen and stag doos, invites, thank you cards, etc etc etc. It all adds up.

I don't think you could rely on BYOB/Food for 200 people.

It's slightly off imo to not feed your own guests.

Registers office - immediate family only. Massive party later on.

I don't think many registry offices will fit 75 people. Could be wrong.

Fly to the Vegas, get married by Elvis, tell everyone via Facebook. Fly back. Worked for us.

You sound like the same position as I'm in , 3 kids , mortgage , been together an age and don't want any fuss. I certainly wouldn't be having 200 at any party . Just do it as casual as poss and maybe get a gazebo in your garden and ask everyone to bring a dish?

I had trouble getting a venue that would allow over 150 guests due to fire regulations and I was living in a major UK city at the time. Check whether any of your local venues will allow that many people first.

@recrudescence we got married in Vegas 3 months ago they wanted an extra $150 for elvis to do it though so we just used a regular minister Haha