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?

Best Wedding I went to:

Friends got married but only had close family at registry office. That's okay, because for most people it is the boring bit. But everyone was invited in the evening to a black tie ball. Everyone dressed up and partied the night away. Live band, hog roast and great fun.

We had a small family wedding in our local village church where we are members. About 20 I think. I wore a calf length deep pink dress, he wore open shirt and grey tailored shorts (our vicar also had shorts on)

Reception 24hrs long - sole use of camping field with tents put up at local farm shop, stage with local bands, local brewery provided barrels, farm shop provided BBQ and Hog Roast (this was mid 90s so not as popular then), adult ball pool and inflatables, activities for the kids. People could crash out when ready and survivors breakfast next morning with outdoor church service.

Mixture of his military and officer training friends, people from uni and the village and my medical mates - on the whole groups who play hard and work hard.

We loved it.

I got married on a beach with only our 3 children, parents siblings (and partners) and niece and nephews present. 20 people all up including us. We didn’t have a wedding party as such - no best man or anything, though my mum did dress the kids up. My dress was $50 on sale and then we all went to the pub for lunch. The cake was an icecream cake from the gelato shop my mum ordered 2 days beforehand.

It was perfect for us.

My best friend had an outdoor humanist ceremony at a very pretty rural village hall. We all pitched in making sandwiches and cakes, hog roast in the evening, bouncy castle. Every little girl invited, including my DD, was a bridesmaid - BF and I spent months courting eBay for matching secondhand Monsoon dresses and different coloured Converse All Stars in the right sizes. There were about 15 of them in the end! The garden was in a hill and it was the most amazing sight, watching flocks of little floaty-dressed maids running up and down the hill.

She spent most of her budget hiring the most amazing band for the evening - they're called Big Macs Wholly Soul Band and they're incredible - and the dance floor was full all night.

offbeatbride.com/ may give you some inspiration

We got married at 4, had a hog roast and a steel band, everyone sat outside (we were lucky with the weather), we bought all the booze in France so everyone basically got smashed. Great day 😁

Our wedding was pretty traditional but one part of it people loved and said they'd never seen before was the fact we hired the museum adjacent to the stately home we got married in for a few hours! It was a really fun and interactive place for the kids, made for some really fun wedding pictures and meant that people had something to look at/something to do in the downtime between the wedding and meal it was about £600 but well worth it. Got married 5 years ago and our friends and family still bring it up every time our wedding comes up in conversation.

twitter.com/C_litteraire/status/1408475109032071168?s=19
Get married here! Sorry, white dress picture, but how beautiful.

I'd like to do the same. I want a small 10 people abroad wedding and a party after.
I don't want a big cake, favours, formal 3 course set down meal, first dance, expensive dress, flowers or table plans. I don't even really want bridesmaids or groomsmen.
If not abroad i would like a buffet type meal or something like pizzas and chips, good music including rock music, fun games and activies to do - stuff like beer pong, pool tables, table tennis and finally reasonably priced drinks or at least good options for the money.

A sweet cart is usually the only thing I enjoy about normal weddings, I'm usually fighting over the kids for them and then I'm ready for home.

We had the whole thing in a community hall. It was a Victorian primary school so nice old building, bit crumbly. No bar, did BYOB which went down extremely well. Ended up with some of the younger cousins manning the bar table and lapping up tips! Food was done by a food waste charity so we had no idea what the menu was until the morning of the wedding as it depended on what they were able to rescue the night before. I wore a pink dress. It was perfect!

A few informal ones (including my own) and they were all more fun than the formal stately home ones. Best ever was a friend who got married in his village church. It was packed to the gills. Then a reception afterwards in village hall with roast chickens made by ladies from the village and people dancing around toddlers crawling on the floor.

We had a register office wedding then reception in a local community centre with a ceilidh which got all the guests dancing with each other, and food made my family members. My best friend from school did similar in an old boat house with everyone bringing their own dishes to share then candlelit procession by the river.

I had a registry office wedding followed by a standard reception at a local venue which did a reasonably priced all inclusive deal and actually it was far less stress than doing something alternative.

Venue owner just took us through a set of questions about what menu options we wanted, what sort of catering we wanted for evening party and whether we wanted cava or champagne for the reception drinks. Took about ten minutes over a cup of coffee.

All that was left after that was booking a photographer, a bouquet and a taxi to the registry office in the morning. Took about fifteen minutes each. I bought a nice frock from a place that did student ball dresses. A friend’s band played but the venue would have played music if required. We turned up on the day and the venue just made it all happen.

We got married outside in Scotland. No wedding roles...stood in a circle...no favours or dress code. We had fish and chips for dinner and no evening Reception to worry about.

We skipped the hen and stag dos, white dress, bridesmaids and best man, first dance, speeches and presents. Everyone had a good time and we spent relatively little.

We got married in a registry office in an EU country just me and dh and 2 witnesses we pulled off the street. We never wanted a fuss so this suited us. We then did a trip around the country for the next 10 days so it was a combo wedding/honeymoon.

Our friends nipped off to the registry office with witnesses & then off on a coach to a local field where they had set their reception as a mini camping festival with bands, food stalls & bars, lots of friends mucked in with various trades etc to help set this up. It was a 3 day camping weekender & to date the best wedding by far we've ever been to

Mine was at the town hall for ceremony and then reception was in an art gallery. I wore a silver dress, my wife wore purple. I wish we’d done the whole thing at the gallery, it was very cool.

We had our wedding in th city hall with 40 guests. Think that cost £150 or thereabouts. I paid £200 total for dresses for two bridesmaids and a flower girl. DH and his best man got suits at £150 toral. My dress was £99. We booked out an nearby Italian restaurant for a meal afterwards, of which by far the most expensive part was the open bar. Hair stylist for me and bridesmaids was £100 or thereabouts. I don't wear makeup so no cost there.

Total cost ~ £5,000

We got married on a beach in the Scottish highlands, we had 15 guests. I did where a white dress but it was short and my DH wore wellies! We had a meal after at a big house that we had booked out for us and all the guests, and then just had a sort of house party afterwards. We bought all the booze and stuff from Costco. We all stayed two nights and did a barbecue the night before the wedding and got the wedding meal done by caterers. It was brilliant, I loved the whole thing and although it was a three day wedding it cost way less than a hotel would have done for one day.

This was my second wedding, the first was the traditional hotel/bridesmaids/first dance thing and I did enjoy it but wouldn't have done it again.

@FedNlanders

We got married outside in Scotland. No wedding roles...stood in a circle...no favours or dress code. We had fish and chips for dinner and no evening Reception to worry about.

We obviously had similar ideas! I love our photos, everyone stood in a circle with their hair blowing and their coats on! 🤣

I once went to a travelers wedding, we knew exactly where the venue was without checking the adress because of all the ££££ cars that were parked in front of it.
I was wearing a white blouse, black smart trousers and red lipstick and felt hugely overdressed, everyone else was very casual.

We got married in a pub (well, the venue room above it) on a Sunday because it was cheaper.
Music provided by a friend's teenage son with a DJ set up. Photographs by SIL who's a press photographer. Cake from Tescos decorated with flowers from the garage (the same ones went into the buttonholes). I wore black. The best man wore a fantastic goth outfit. I went to the venue on a bus, DH walked there. No seating plan, flowers or favours and a buffet meal. We spent most of our small budget on drink and an accessible venue.
I'm informed by others who were there that it was a damn fine party.

I am quite a reserved person so a big wedding for me was never likely. As it turned out we ended up having a Covid wedding so it was just me, DH, & two friends as witnesses. No party but no stress either. We did laugh a lot and eat cake and we had a lovely afternoon doing all of this.

We got married in Gretna Green. We took our parents, my Grandad, our 2 sisters, 2 Brother in laws, 2 nephews & 2 nieces. We had a civil ceremony and an anvil blessing then we all went out for a meal and the next day everyone came on holiday with us.

We did have a party for the rest of our family and friends back home afterwards.

We had 26 at our wedding. 14 family, 10 close friends and us. Had an evening meal & quiz night with all the friends the night before then got married at 11 at the registry office with lunch and an open bar at the hotel we all stayed at after. We left after that to get flights and know my family all got together for a meal and our friends all went clubbing without us. Not at all conventional but we had a lovely day and it wasn’t all that expensive