Low budge wedding ideas

[Capricorn8990]

Hey all, I got engaged on Saturday and I am ecstatic!

My parents are elderly and dad isn't in best health so the main thing is that they are there and would like him to walk me down the aisle!

Does anyone have any recommendations for low budget weddings that can happen sooner rather than later?

I have no idea where to start!

Thank you 😊

How low budget and how soon? You could do the town hall and a pub lunch in no time at all, but that might not be what you’re after! Ours was ‘low budget’ as in good value for 100 guests, and ‘soon’ as in six months…

@WashableVelvet I guess within the next year or so. My parents got married on 5th November and I think it would be lovely to do the same! I really have no clue how much a wedding costs so need to do some research. I guess £5k - £6k?!

A relative had the registry office and then booked a labour club for £50. We had Spotify on during the day and then at night a DJ which was £100. A friend did the catering which was sandwiches and buffet food. They booked pizzas later on which was about £100 and the cake was £200.

It was a blast! It was relaxed and the drinks were cheap. We went early and set up the room with helium balloons, ribbons and fairy lights.

Invites can be bought from eBay and the whole thing can be booked quite quickly.

My comment was probably a much lower budget than you are looking at. Go to venues and ask them their packages- if you’re not bothered what day of the week it is you can get some amazing deals which are ‘all in’ with food etc for around £5k (I’m in the north west) then it just flowers dresses, suits and rings. Keep an eye out for closing down sales and sample sales- there’s some amazing dresses at a bargain.

How about a Registry Office and then hire a hall. Get a disco booked. And instead of gifts ask guests to bring a plate/get food delivered etc.

We had a registry office wedding and then took a few people out for lunch afterwards, I bought a new skirt and top to wear but not a wedding dress. In whole thing cost about £600. That doesn't include a ring though, because I used to ring I inherited from my grandmother! We had a really lovely day and I wouldn't have wanted anything busier.

Registry office, and a nice lunch or dinner somewhere with a nice ambience. Depending on how many people you'll have for the meal, you'll have different packages.
Check out all the Registry offices and council offices in your city, some of them are really grand rooms. Islington Town Hall is gorgeous, for instance

I did:

• second hand dress, was a fabulous silk gown
• baked own cake (traditional fruit cake so I did it weeks ahead of time, like a Christmas cake)
• flowers wholesale from The Flower Monger, was great because I sent a few photos I liked and they advised on quantities and types so I bought the right stuff

Congratulations

My wedding was very low budget, but it wasn’t in the uk.

We hired a holiday home for a week, it was a base for us and relatives to stay, it had nice grounds we got married in. The cost of the house rental was less than a venue for a day. We used a wedding celebrant. Food was a spit roast company, they cooked the food on site, provided nibbles after the ceremony, all the plates & cutlery & cleaned up. There wasn’t a bar as such, we set up an area with lots of beer, wine & Prosecco, it was help yourselves. We let guests start helping themselves even before the ceremony, we encouraged everyone to have a glass in hand to cheers as soon as the vows were done. There were some spirits but I don’t think they were opened. Music was a playlist we put on an iPod. We hired all the tables & glasses & a portaloo. The portaloo was for the guys while the women used the house toilets.

We had a number of babies and young children at our wedding so having a large house was great as we had a couple of cots set up for naps.

Other ways we kept costs down was I made our wedding cake. I literally made a Christmas cake and decorated how I liked it. I’d never done anything like it before, it wasn’t perfect but it was me. We didn’t use a professional photographer, just friends and family. Same with a florist, we used the house grounds as the main background and the wedding, I then went a an Aldi equivalent supermarket and bought a load of flowers and just set them up on tables in various cheap pound shop vases. I was lucky my bf used to be a florist so she made up my bouquet from these flowers and some button holes.

My dress was from a job type website, that was my cheapest option were I was living but in the uk there are so many charity shops that specialises in wedding dresses. I also didn’t do the whole professional make up and hair think. I do regret not getting much in the way of pampering on the day. I’m not a big makeup and hair person but think it would have been nice to relax for a few hours and have someone take over pampering me rather that have my moh shouting at me to get my arse in the shower an hour before the guests arrived and forgetting to shave my legs because I was rushing 😬

I don’t want to post pics as they could be outing, but I will try and message some to you.

Sorry I can’t send pictures by private message.

Have a think about who it is important to be there. This effects things like if you can get married on a week day = much cheaper, as well of course as how many you are catering for.
Winter is generally good, in terms of things being more readily available and also cheaper.

Seriously though, there is very little you have to spend, but it depends completely on what sort of wedding you have in mind.

There are websites for village halls that do weddings.

In your position I'd be starting with the cheapest picturesque looking village hall and working up from there.

Think awesome party, with a ceremony. Not a package wedding.

We concentrated on free flowing food and booze, not the "wedding" bits.

you could easily do a wedding for 30 people and a sit down meal with food, drink, cake flowers, dress, suits, rings for with £3k-£4k realistically

keep it simple but stylish

each time you look at more and more go back to basics and keep it simple

starter and main course - then wedding cake afterward

look at new upcoming designers for dresses, you'll get a better dress and at half the price or less of a "wedding" dress

get married between xmas and new year when lots of relatives are off work anyway and hospitality isn't as busy as everyone is at home stuffed

mid week weddings are cheaper

We did registry office and a village hall. Asked a few friends to take photos rather than get us a gift same with the cake. Caterers came in with a hot meal. We had set up the hall for the meal the night before. Grew the flowers ourselves. Lots of prep but we enjoyed it.

Thank you all for your suggestions and your personal examples! I am very excited to get planning xxx

We arranged our wedding in 5 weeks

Local registry office then back to ours for pizza and cake after

Marylebone Town Hall (or similar) £400 (probably pricey for a registry but it’s beautiful!)

Go on fb - “wedding dresses for sale” always cheap because second hand doesn’t retain value but you can get a £2k dress for £100!

Book a nice restaurant / pub nearby and hire a space with a minimum spend, usually around £1-2k, spend it all on food and drink.

Everyone will be happy!
Get a good photographer! I can recommend an amazing one with a great price who did mine if you send a PM.

Men’s suits - Hawes & Curtis and lots of discount codes online

Local florist for your bouquet - budget £80

Lolas cupcake or similar for £100

You can hire wedding dresses. They're excellent value.

We did a Registry office for ceremony and only immediate family.

We used our tiny house and teeny garden to host the wedding. Rug and cushions on the floor. Can you use your house as a venue? We hired a personal chef to do all the catering £1100 for 20 people, not a sit down do. Hired crockery and glasses, serving staff and decs eg candle stick holders.

Cake - call in favours. A family member?

Flowers - dried so you can reuse them £90, then made it into a wreath that still hangs in my house. Also paid £200 on other flower decs.
We had free flowing food and drinks and none of the traditional wedding bits eg first dance, bridesmaids, best man and best man speeches etc. Just a great party with friends.