A simple (i.e. inexpensive) but beautiful wedding?

[larkstar]

I haven't been to that many weddings - I know a few friends and family that have been to some extraordinary weddings - I wondered what is the simplest way to marry and for it still to be a beautiful, memorable meaningful event - is there a way to do it without spending stupid amounts of money? Have you been such a simple wedding?

We had a ‘simple’ wedding, cost all of £2000. Most of that was food for the guests. We married at a friend’s house in their garden. We had a friend’s band playing and everyone mucked in, someone make the cake and others decorated the garden, someone was DJ later on. etc. It was blissful. Everyone said it was the nicest wedding because they all felt they had a part in it. It carried in for several days….😂

Sounds the perfect wedding to me, good luck!!

What I would suggest is just having a lot of personal photos and meaningful quotes/ photos of yourself and your partner. I have been to a wedding like that and it is very tasteful to the couple and really emotional.
Perhaps a memorial table as well? Make it all about yourself and your partner. Even if it is something simple on the table that is not expensive, your excuse is... it is meaningful to you!

We had a (relatively) simple wedding. One lesson I learned was that 'simple' can be more work for you, so leave plenty of time for that... (we had homemade cakes, favours, flowers etc - all lovely touches which people appreciated but all take much time than writing a cheque to someone else!).

I would do it the same again.

Most of the really simple, beautiful ones I've been to have been a public commitment/vows with a celebrant that follow a basic registry office 'official' ceremony. It means that the venue can have deep personal meaning but doesn't need a marriage license, the celebrant can be from any denomination and doesn't have to be a 100% secular registrar, and there's more flexibility around times and length of service.

Registry offices themselves vary hugely in cost so it also allows you to 'shop around' a bit - locally to me there's a registry office, only open a couple of days a week, where you could marry for less than £60 and then spend the rest on a really lovely public celebration or party with your friends.

I love a simple wedding where it’s all about the vows rather than the whole big day.
Simple ceremony, nice food, few informal pictures and no two tier guests.

Pressed send too soon...

(reads own post)...

I suppose our wedding was not, in actual fact, 'simple' then, and my advice is therefore irrelevant .... our wedding would have come across as simple, homemade to the guests, but was quite work-intensive for us (which we enjoyed doing so was good). It meant it was very personal, and lower cost than it would have been for a bigger / less homemade do.

We got married in a hotel with a lovely view, kept numbers small and basically just paid a small fee for the ceremony and then for everyone to have a 3 course meal with wine. Was basically like taking everyone out for lunch rather than having exclusive use of the hotel or paying a big fee just because it was a wedding. Then had the reception at a big house we'd rented for the week with our own food and drink. Get your cake from M&S and decorate yourself. Also bought my wedding dress from monsoon was only £200 but I really liked it, more so than the expensive ones. Was a great day!

One of the loveliest weddings I've been to was my mum and step dad. They married with just my sister and I and our partners there, then we went to a gorgeous restaurant for the six of us. In the evening, friends were invited to their house for drinks and canapés. It was perfect - zero stress, no fuss, no presents, photos or formality. Honestly if I were planning my wedding again (and ours was lots larger but still pretty simple), I'd go for something small and personal every time.

Your wedding looks.

I was chatting to my daughter after she'd been to an incredible wedding at the weekend. I know she and her other half have talked about "the future" - marriage, kids and how that all fits in with the careers they both have. I found getting married was a very personal thing - it meant a lot to me and if it had been up to me I would have got married with no guests but that's just not the done thing - we largely did what we wanted by not having an evening event - it was a meal for guests after a church service - we really didn't spend a lot and we enjoyed what we did do so no regrets - there were a few too many people, the numbers did grow, but not a rediculous number - about 80 I think. We had already bought a house and had been living together for 5 years when we married - the nicest thing was that while we had planned to spend the night before apart she was so nervous about the wedding that I went back home and it felt so right to be with her when she needed some reassurance - absolutely that was the most special thing but not very traditional! I keep saying to my daughter she/they should do exactly what they want to do and not feel like they should fall in line with traditional ways of marrying but I don't have any concrete suggestions - if she rang me up and said we just got married with no invited guests I would not be unhappy at all - I would just be happy for her and her partner and want to meet up to celebrate in some way. I'm only asking as I've not been to many - the nicest one was one of my other daughters friends - she asked her various friends to organise small parts of the service and celebration - my daughter was left to play some of the music in church, others did other parts of the music and service, made the cake, dressed the church, etc - it had a very home made feel about it but the couple who got married were lucky(?) enough to have just the right number and sort of friends to be able to call on to contribute - not everyone, few perhaps, will be in that same position. So my question is just out of general interest really.

Best wedding I’ve ever been to…

Tiny church which we had to walk to, lovely ceremony fully personalised and hugely fun.

Walk from Church behind the bride and groom to friends garden for canapés, Pimms and jazz band. Further short walk to marquee on. Village green overlooking a Cornish estuary for speeches and hog roast during the day and bread and cheese in the evening.

Flowers hand tied, wedding dress about £50 in the sale (it was beautiful). Everyone had the most amazing time. Band and dancing in the evening.

Cost less than £5,000 I believe. Much was about who they knew and the connections!

Venue
Food
Cake
Flowers
Dress and suits

I would choose two priorities out of those and then things.

We married in Australia where my parents lived. It was a conference venue which had previously been a restaurant where my Dad took me for my 16th Birthday. Wedding outside with a celebrant the inside for a meal with wine. Back to my Dads for a party after. 25 guests. Mum did my flowers, we decorated a plain iced cake and I borrowed a friends dress.
Was beautiful.

Instead of starting with what you want, start with what you have. Does Granny bake really well? Know someone with a classic car? Any of your mates willing to do you some music instead of a gift?
Also Facebook marketplace is your friend on this one- people selling off their ready-made decor, favours etc at a fraction of the price.
It can be done, you just have to think creatively.

We had a simple wedding.

We married at a register office but had our photos done at the ruins of a local castle that's pretty much around the corner and then our party at a small pub a couple of miles away.

We didn't bother with a formal sit down meal and just had a buffet instead; that way it was much more relaxed and fun and people could sit wherever and with whoever they wanted and mingle as much as they wanted. It was beautiful because the pub is a lovely old building set in some really nice grounds but had a small play area for the children to use so they were happy too.

If you know people with certain skills, e.g. baking or photography, or who have contacts and can call in favours it will help. Dh used to work in the motor industry and he knew a bloke whose wife is a photographer and she took our photos for less than she usually charged. He also knew someone who has fancy cars for hire for events like weddings so we got our car for less than it should've cost. My mum knows a lady who did our cakes for us for not much money and my aunt made some of our wedding clothes.