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

We did the same. Married at 4pm - as it was the last ceremony of the day, we asked if we could keep the room for an hour longer and had a 'bar' where people could have a drink whilst we had photos done. Party started at 6 in a hired out wine bar opposite ceremony venue. We had platters served for the kids on arrival (sandwiches/sausage rolls etc) so they weren't starving and we did a buffet at 8pm. We had about 60 to the day and an extra 20 in the evening.

Losing the big meal meant we could spend more on an amazing buffet and drinks but still saved money - people still comment on it years later.

No one commented on the timings at all (not to my face anyway). A wedding as is a wedding - we did it how we wanted to do it. Informal and relaxed.

Tips - call in favours and accept offers. Our photographer friend offered to do photos so we paid for his hotel room & drinks in return (still much cheaper). Our videographer friend did a video. Our printer friend printed the stationery as a gift. Saved us so much money. We also got our florist to make arrangements which the ushers/bridesmaids could carry across the road to the wine bar and laid them on the bar... total cost was ~£5-6k

We did a cheap wedding and I'd recommend a late ceremony and a hog roast, salads. Worked well for us. Was a DIY wedding most bits were from eBay or second hand and I've seen sold them on.

I just got married and to save costs on decorating the venue so I could buy less flowers we asked our local pub and wine bar to save their empty spirit bottles. We washed them and then filled them with LED lights (12 for £4 on Amazon with charged batteries). It wasn’t that much effort (I hate diy and crafts) and probably only took us an hour to fill sixty bottles. You could also ask a pub or a wine bar to save wine bottles and use them as candle holders.

I agree about calling in favours/asking friends. I do some work in events and happily step up if asked and usually offer as well. Might be instead of a wedding present or in exchange for accommodation, sometimes for nothing, always at cost if they insist on paying. I've had full price work off the back of doing it so it's never an issue.