Anyone ever had or been to an ‘alternative’ wedding?

[Angelaanaconda10]

Been to 4 in the past 5 years, each one was in a grand stately home/hall type setting, lot of money had clearly been spent. Traditional sit down meal, followed by the first dance, speeches, cutting the cake etc. Long, elegant white dress with a train(trail?)

They were all lovely, clearly very well thought-out and fancy. I hope this doesn’t offend people but it’s not the sort of wedding I would want. I can’t really speak for my partner but I’m not interested in tradition, even in having a white dress. I don’t have the money for such a wedding either and I have zero interest in spending years planning and stressing over every detail like I’ve seen friends do.
I don’t even have enough female close friends I could have as bridesmaids.

Has anyone got stories to share about weddings?

I wonder about this too, I’d want it to be small but good and not boring? I don’t know what the answer is either. Part of me thinks the above rigmarole is going through the motions, but then maybe the ‘motions’ is what practically it means to hold a largish event and it’s the same, wedding or just a big party?

Mine! I literally had a piss up in a brewery
Dark red dress. No flowers or chair covers, or horrible sparkly bits on the table. Just fun. It was a lot cheaper than some of the country house efforts I've been to.

We had 20 people at our wedding - simple registry office ceremony and then booked a private room at a local restaurant for the meal. It was fantastic! Loved every minute 💖 We did what suited us and our budget (spent £1200 including honeymoon)

I've also been to a Pagan wedding which was very relaxed and took place in a field with a hog roast 😁

If I was going to get married, and I'm not because my ex has put me off relationships FOR EVER, so if hell froze over basically, I'd have a glamping/ camping weekend with a big barbecue the first night, some optional activities like a walk, something wood crafty, some wild swimming, and a ceilidh for the main event. Probably around 12-15th August to catch the persuid meteor shower.

We had 80 people, started late, we got married at 3pm I think and had a buffet. The place was beautiful, though, needed no dressing up at all. Like an old country pile, my dress was cheap. Had the best day, mad dancing to live band then bed at 11pm.

Short and sweet !

I got married in Vegas. One friend had a handfasting on a common, with some food after. Another did a registry office and caileigh (sp??) In a barn. It's easy to do something different.

My favourite wedding I ever attended was on the bride's family farm, with teepees, fire pits, lots of food, alcohol and a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere. Even the farm dogs joined the party after dinner.

Unlike some much more expensive ones I've attended, everyone just looked like they were having fun.

Yep. Booked a holiday travelling the west coast of the us. Stopped in vegas. £600 for a hotel chapel, ceremony, flowers and photos.

Wore a dress I’d had for a while. Have worn it since.

Bloody amazing and no stress.

These are really interesting ideas and stories thanks 😀

Mine was not alternative but very low-key. It was a super cheap but nice venue, very very good buffet, live music/dancing and no fuss. No white dress, no speeches. Had some very lovely comments about it afterwards (they could have been lying but everyone looked happy on the night).

We had a registry office followed by knees up in function room of nice local pub. We did our own playlist, I bought a second hand silk dress off eBay (not white). We had a big crowd of family and friends, open bar, lovely big hot buffet provided by the venue. No bridesmaids, ushers or speeches (I just did a quick welcome toast).

We spent 3k, half of which was the bar bill. Everyone had a brilliant time.

If you lay on the food and drink, people will have a good time no matter what else you decide to do.

Register office followed by walking across the road to the local park for photographs then on to the local rugby club where the bar staff put out platters of Iceland party food, rolls, ham, cheese, quiches etc & the bar sold cheap booze whilst everyone bopped the night away to a disco.

Another register office. B& G had requested guests BYOB, this was taken off us as we got onto a private bus to the local river where there are a number of boats that do river cruises, they generally do dinner cruises at night but the B & G had hired a boat and the local chippy delivered fish suppers for the guests & the B & G went round pouring prosecco, cider & lager. At the end of the boat trip we were taken on to a barn (there was an attached venue but we were just in the posh barn bit) where the G’s brother & his band played a set then a disco started & there was a cold buffet of nibbles & all the BYOB drinks we had brought -along with a extra alcohol provided by B&G.

Both lovely, relaxed fun weddings enjoyed by all.

I guess mine wasn’t traditional.. but not really out there either.

We just had 30 guest at the registering office and then we went to a local dairy farm and had a “kids party” including feeding goats and bouncy castle fun.

We then had a more traditional party at a local venue. No first dance/ speeches/ photographer or cutting of the cake.

FYI my “reception” was £20 a head and that included luxury ice cream and go karts!

Group of 20 at registry office for official bit in late afternoon. Bigger party in the evening at a music venue with a rock dj and punk band. I wore leopard print 50s dress, dh had leopard print tie with purple suit, and had leopard print cake. No bridesmaids, no wedding party, no speeches or first dance (although tempted to have one to Tammy Wynette's D.I.V.O.R.C.E. lol). Had a total stress-free, debt-free blast! 4 years ago today.

These are great to read 😀

The absolute best wedding I've been to was a brief outdoor ceremony then drinks outside for about 35-4 people while kids and others played croquet, a vegetarian dinner with us all sitting at one long table and country square dancing after - few fiddles and a woman calling the dances for us. it was the most fun ever. Only one speech by the bride which was more like a thank you for coming/welcome.

Colleague's wedding: Registra office, arriving by normal black cab together (they didn't own a car then).

Bride wore a white simple dress but more from Debenhams/Monsoon than an expensive bridal shop.

After the ceremony, river cruise with buffett lunch plus they hired a private room in a pub for drinks afterwards.

Best laid back wedding I have ever been to. No favours, no speeches, no bridesmaids or best man/grooms men (they just had two witnesses, good friends), no formal meal, you just grabbed food and sat down where there was space.

Mine wasn't traditional ...

Barn wedding starting at 3, with a pizza and desserts truck for food. Big sparkly dress, flower crown and green hair. Loved it!

Have what you both want OP. Zero regrets on ours. Dress from Monsoon sale in Ivory. Ceremony in a council owned stately home, set fee inc flowers. Reception at our house with diy catering and cake made by MIL. No dance, formal speeches.

Maybe not hugely alternative but...

1. Bride and groom had a registry office ceremony followed by a sit down meal at a nice pub. Then we went back to the campsite where their friends had spent the day putting up marquees, mopping up puddles (yes really) and preparing a buffet. It was fab. Drinking and staggering back to a tent at the end.

1. Another registry office with just their parents and sibs present. Then back to their house for a vegetarian BBQ and drinks. Board games galore. A "smoking" tent at the end of the garden and lots of weed Brownies

1. A lovely wedding all in the same venue. Bride and other female guests had one breakfast slot. Groom and men had another to avoid seeing each other. The night before one of the bridesmaids threaded all our eyebrows for us. Sit down meal followed by a live heavy metal band. So relaxed. We were drinking wine out of the bottle. The brides sister was in her pyjamas but still partying at 11pm . One of the other guests went for a nap at some point in the afternoon.

It is actually the wedding anniversary of some friends of mine today. Facebook reminded me so I was just looking at the pictures. It was a lovely wedding with about 50 people.

They had to do the legal bit at a register office with 2 friends but their actual wedding was officiated by a humanist celebrant in an organic cafe on a Saturday evening. The bride wore a long teal dress rather than white. No attendants. They wrote their own vows. A friend who is a cellist played but the couple also played some music including on a theremin. Details of the rest of the evening are a little hazy but I think there was a band and food (just a buffet).

It was so clearly "them" but didn't feel odd to anyone not sharing their passion for music. Usual mix of family and friends and just a lovely evening.

Someone on here was having a register office ceremony and nice afternoon tea after thought that sounded very nice.

I know someone who tried to have a really 'unique' wedding by selecting many different unusual ceremony type things and having them all, one after the other, during the wedding. So a complicated knot typing thing, a ritual sand pouring thing, some unusual vow type thing.. I forget the rest. Just one thing would have been really meaningful and even profound but the collection of many things just meant they all lost meaning. It just came across as trying too hard to be different.

We got married abroad, booked it then told people we’ll be getting married here on this date if you want to to book your own holiday etc, didn’t stress about who came or where they stayed or how long for.

Ended up with 30 people, picked everyone up on a bus, got married at 5pm, we paid for the bar & a buffet and a dj but all pretty low key.

Didn’t have speeches or a top table, or loads of decorations/flowers had to tell the dj about 10 times we didn’t want to do the ‘welcome the bride and groom’ thing, my dress was from House of Fraser.

Didn’t have a separate reception when we got home, would’ve defeated the object of getting married abroad for us.

Loads- a few :
Barn dance with hog roast held in a marquee in the grooms parent's field.
Registry office followed by afternoon tea, then pub.
Registry office then a picnic in the garden of a NT stately home (but the bride stressed over the weather, which was fine )
Wedding on a Caribbean island - surprisingly reasonable as the guests basically paid for ourselves.