Can you help me reduce £4k wedding budget to £2k?

[ThePartyArtist]

The plan is to get married abroad (not a glitzy resort but in the town that DP is from, and where his family still live). We'd be a party of 16 in total and it would be fairly informal - small ceremony, a few drinks then a restaurant.

I've totted up costs and it's around £4K which is double what we'd hoped, esp. for these small numbers!

The biggest costs are;
Flights for 8 - 10 people from the UK (c. £1800)
Self-catering accommodation for 6 people (c £760)
Meal for 16 people (c. £700 including a 10% tip).

I feel it's only reasonable for us to pay for people's flights and accommodation as they'd be coming from the UK.

Ideas I have come up with for saving money are;
A weekday ceremony.
5pm / 6pm ceremony therefore shorter drinks reception before meal.
Put people up for fewer nights.
£300 total budget for rings.
£300 total budget for bride and groom outfits.
£300 total for ceremony venue and registrar.
Spend NOTHING on wedding cars, printed programmes, favours, gifts for bridal party, bridesmaids / best man, or professional hair & make up.
Ask restaurant to do a group deal.
DIY drinks reception at our holiday accommodation.

I'd particularly like people's insight into:
How realistic a budget I have set aside for rings and clothing? (I am happy to go second hand / high street) - could I reduce this?

Drinks reception (how much time to allow for this before a meal - don't want everyone falling over! Having an idea of timescale would allow us to guess at amounts of drink to provide).

Ideas for saving on any other aspect of the day?

[wafflingworrier]

we got rings from argos-husbands was £30 and we have had no issues with it. try pawnbrokers for really cheap deals just check the hallmark on the ring to make sure it's real gold/platinum

outfits-charity shops or the coast sale-I think coast do a student discount on top of that so find a friend with teenage children and take them with you when you buy!
-bridesmaids-ask them all to wear a dress in the same colour but any shade they like, so they still match but you don't have to buy them anything.

drinks-normal to provide one drink at reception, one with meal, one with toasts. there's no need to stick to this though
instead of champagne you could have cava or pimms and lemonade.
since you are paying for the drinks its fair enough to keep it simple-wine,beer,apple and orange juice. ppl can't complain if it's free!
keep the receipts when you buy the wine (if from a supermarket), then you can take any back that isn't drunk.

we didn't have a photographer, but handed out blank cds in envelopes with our address on at the wedding and asked everyone to send us their pictures, then during the day we asked different friends to photograph different bits (eg, one went around each table during meal, one did a few in the evening, one did the outside church) cost around £50, then we made a photobook which was about £80

congratulations on your engagement! it sounds like it will be a lovely wedding.

[wafflingworrier]

just wanted to add about wedding rings-I used to work for a jewellers and they are ALL con-men/women.
in the uk it is illegal to sell a ring as gold/platinum/silver without hallmarking it first. this is a tiny mark (google it!) put on the inside of each item of jewellery. the hallmarking is sent off and independently done in the same office in the uk.
so, if it has a hallmark, it is gold. 9ct gold is slightly "weaker" than 18ct but there is no difference in terms of normal wear and tear unless you use power tools every day (eg lots and LOTS of bashing), the only other time 9ct is bad is if you wear it next to a stronger ring (eg 18ct) in which case they will rub against each other and the 9ct one will get sharp.

SO, get as nice a ring as you can for as cheap as you can=go to argos! ok, the shopping experience is not as nice as in a posh jewellers, but you will save a lot.

plus, when you celebrate your silver wedding anniversary and are rich old people your husband can buy you a bling ring.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I was also going to suggest charity shop.

Two hospices in our county have several charity shops, in different towns. But each of them has one shop where they send 'mother of the bride', upmarket label clothes, and bridal wear.

I called in one of them last week to look for nice work wear. The changing room was busy so the lady showed me into another room saying 'you can use our bridal room'. It was a big room with full length mirrors, shelves of bridal shoes and wall to wall rack of wedding dresses, a lot of which were very current styles. I was amazed! If dp and I ever get round to getting married I will go there.

You just need to call in a charity shop and ask if they have a particular shop where they send wedding and posh clothes, so if you don't want a traditional wedding dress you can look for a nice other type of dress. That sort of place though, you have to keep popping in on a regular basis to check what they've got and grab something you like.

Rings, well if we were getting married on a budget I'd get more expensive bands but second hand. Lots of people are taking gold to be weighed in these days. But the jewellers aren't sending it all to be melted down, they have a lot of it for resale as 2nd hand.

And how nice to see a bride with a destination wedding, saying they expect to pay the flights etc for those they consider essential to be there.

Wish my sister had done that, would have saved a lot of stress and money for us.