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

You can do it cheaply if everyone pulls together .

Does your garden fit 200 for a BBQ? Would your mates all bring their BBQs and blokes help with the cooking ?

Or church hall - hire is usually round 100 odd quid, 200 tops. Would it actually need themed decoration? No it wouldn't. For the food - I'd be looking at all of the Supermarkets party platters, Morrisons are great value - Ive used them and in comparison, they are cheap.

Booze - well only a fool has a pay bar - if you go up the church hall routes do BYO and don't expect presents.

You pull in favours for cars, flowers, make up, hair .

It's all about the people, not the show

We did a cheap wedding with a sit down for 120 people.
-Village Hall
-Avoid wedding caterers - our caterer usually did film set catering!
-We bought all alcohol for tesco and returned what wasn't drunk
-Ice chests borrowed from everyone
-no cars
-Avoid wedding dress shops, elegant white dress

• friends took care of photography and music (bought a cheap pa and connected ipod
• basically avoid clichés!

Buffet catering quotes I had for my wedding in April ranged from £7 per head to £15 per head. We had to hone down the guestlist as catering was the biggest single expense.

I've just checked my local council website. For the county, the main office at County Hall can hold nearly 80 people. Several offices around the county can hold 50 people, with some having smaller rooms as well. So it varies.

BYOB Pot Luck reception after the fact?

What exactly is your budget?

We did similar and it was fantastic - people had a great time and still rave about it now. We did it like a party plus cake and extensive decorations.

Ours was approx 100 people and we spent around £700 including the dress and suits (paid for DH and best man - I didn't have bridesmaids).

We cut costs where possible. Venue for party was free, disco was discounted as was a friend, cake was made by a friend at cost and photos were taken by a family member for free. My parents paid for a car for us to travel from the registry office to the venue.

Ask on your local Facebook page for local caterers (or order en mass from M&S and get a friend to make some stuff + costco trip). Get a venue with a bar.

Invitations should just say what's happening, something like "you're invited to our wedding ceremony which will be directly followed by a party and buffet".

If you're on a tight budget start with a spreadsheet and look up costs for all of the things you want and then work to budget.

Do you have to have all those guests?

Sister married recently: immediate family only, registry office, local pub for drink, nice restaurant for lunch and then met with (select) friends in evening at another pub.

Was a great wedding. Better than ones where 1000s have been spent IMO.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned sausage butties yet 🤣

We've done a registry office. With drinks at a nearby pubs after. Then a family meal the weekend after ( they're paying for own.. Just a bog standard place)
We're lucky as my friend makes the cakes.. Mum's friend does flowers. Dps cousin is a photographer..
Bridesmaid dresses.. Matalan.
My dress a maxi dress dortothy perkins. ( I didntb want a proper dress but could always get 2nd hand?)
Do had a new suit anyway..
All mens matching ties = ebay.
Already had my ring as do got it as a Duo with emgagemt ring.
Had to buy his.. Nothing special due to his line of work so will get scratched easily.
Bridesmaid hair bands and flowers.. Peacocks.
Got a perfect match for my shoes to the dress in shoe zone, was surprised as I have a bad foot so was thinking was gonna cost big bucks for comfort.
Bridesmaid shoes.. Next
.
My teen isn't keen on a suit so is wearing black trousers and shirt with matching tie to dp.

My hair and 2 eldest bridesmaid hair is being done as a favour for something we're helping her with.. Youngest will just have bunches as its short.

Total £900 Inc a meal out the eve on our own. Lots of bank holiday deals etc.

We did picnic hampers for ours, for about 150. We did a huge Aldi shop, plus some nice M&S bits, and spent a day packing them ourselves with paper plates, etc. Went down really well, and I think cost about £800 all in all including hiring the baskets and rugs.

That was honestly the cheapest and most stressful option for catering for a large group.

You can't ask for tips on a 'super cheap' wedding, then start talking about 200 guests.
The two just aren't compatible.
200 guests is a HUGE wedding.
You need to make your mind up.
The day would be fine if you were having a really low cost wedding, but you can't claim that, and then invite 200 people.

One of the nicest weddings I went to was one where all the guests brought food: some were asked to bring sandwiches, savoury buffet food or a pudding. They hired the village hall and had a barn dance type thing.

Loads of food. Was lovely.

Other option might be to hire a chippy van to do fish & chips and do similar, like a beach party type thing. Bought as they know numbers in advance it might work out ok?

I would hope that no one would be 'iffy' about a cheap wedding if they cared for you as they should just want to enjoy the day/evening (though I am an optimist).

If you are prioritising the evening get together over dress/flowers/photographer/video/cars then try and break down the components and decide what your priorities are and how little each can cost then optimise your budget and the experience. See what your family and friends want to do to help. You might risk dodgy photographs though you might make an amateur photographers day and the photographs could be excellent (or good enough). A family member might be able to cater for a couple of hundred though your venue might need catering safety certificates.

Get the cheapest large non-wedding venue (Depending on where you live, this might be a social club or village hall-equivalent) that can accommodate the numbers and will allow self-catering or catering brought in. Or take a risk and have an outdoor event in the Summer for maximum cheapness and weather routlette.

Can friends or family cater safely well enough? If not, shop around to find the best, affordable catering you feel happy with.

Discos tend to be cheaper than live bands unless you are friendly with a decent covers band and can play a playlist between sets.

I've attended everything from weddings with a homemade buffet costing a few hundred including venue to one with pie and peas brought in costing less than a £1000 to c£100k in 5 star hotel featured in wedding magazines. One had a mid-day service and no evening do which felt a little odd as most of the guests had to travel for over a hundred miles.

Hopefully most of your guests will enjoy your day.

See what you can afford, how much that can buy and whether you feel comfortable with it.

Good luck.

Can I just put in a plea for NOT asking everyone to "just bring some food" ?

A) it will be a huge headache for you to sort out who is bringing what (so you don't end up with six blocks of cheese and no bread, etc) and it is difficult to share the load fairly amongst your guests. Guests often drop out on the run up to the wedding - you will not endear yourself if you start handing out more jobs with a few days to go because the person bringing the tiramisu can't make it.

B) Your guests then have to transport food either on the day or before it. They will probably have had to make it in advance, so it may not be the freshest, especially if they have to travel with it.

C) you will have to organise and store the food at a safe temperature, which is tricky. You will have to serve it, which is time consuming. You may well have to hire plates and cutlery, which will cost a surprising amount and require washing up and returning.

D) Your guests will get food poisoning. Ask me how I know :(

Seriously, catering an event is a lot of work. Please please get professionals. Doesn't have to be fancy - pizzas from a local pizza place, sandwiches from a supermarket, fish and chips - but use professionals for this bit.

I think when everything's done and dusted it's the people who were there that you remember. The decor, the food - all fade into the background.
Village Hall, Indian buffet, one glass of fizz on arrival, free soft drinks and BYOB.

Ask mates to help clear up instead of presents.

I remember looks on my mum and dad's faces, dancing with my husband, feeling so loved to be surrounded by lots of friends. The emotional memories endure - I only know what the physical surroundings looked like when I flick through the photos.

You can’t really have an Instagram worthy wedding with a small budget. A lot of the people that do it “on the cheap” usually have friends and family that are willing to do hundreds of pounds worth of labour for free.

It will also involve the weeks and months leading up to the wedding being consumed by wedding planning and DIY’ing everything - not really ideal if you have children.

A hog roast for 200 will probably cost minimum of £1000; agree the cheapest is probably DIYing a buffet but you will have to figure out how that will get organised and you still have the matter of finding a venue for 200(!)

Either cut the guest list or increase your budget. I find wedding planning does wonders for putting friendships in perspective: “well, yes, I like them, but enough to spend £150 on them?”

As long as it's a proper buffet and not a sausage bap I reckon you'll be alright.

Prob cross posted x1000 😂

Catering appropriately for 200 people is going to cost 2k easily. So what is your definition of 'cheap'?

I have a budget of £2500 - I know the reg office is £280 . that doesn't include my dress ( mums buying it ) , bridesmaids dresses etc or photographer ( friend is one ) just hoping to cover food and music . might have to re think 😂😂😂

It will be a local hall which is free and there is a bar where people will buy own drinks

Swansea reg office holds 70 😀

stick to about 50 guests.

Some friends of mine had a wedding where they explained in the invitations their situation, and said that instead of presents could everyone bring a bottle and a plate of food. They’d obviously coordinated who was bringing what food. It worked really well.
Congratulations!

We went to a wedding like this and it was fab!

Super cheap wedding for 200 guests

We kept our costs down by having 20 guests, close family only, but suspect that's not the kind of wedding you want!