Tell me about your lovely low key wedding

[Lambside]

Or one you've attended. The registrar, all back to ours or restaurant, or local church hall ones.
What did you/the bride and groom wear?
What time was ceremony and meal? Was there a hiatus in between and if so how was it filled?

[Mamabear14]

Ours was in August. 4pm in a hotel. Just us, our 3DC and parents. Plus photographer. Ceremony, few pics, 3 course meal and a few more pics and drinks. Done by 10pm. My flowers were fake, cake £35 from asda. Wonderful!

[brogueish]

Last year, overseas (Europe). Just DH and me, no guests. We were married late afternoon in beautiful gardens surrounded by monarch butterflies. He wore a light suit and I wore a white sundress. Went for a meal afterwards then back to the hotel. It was great.

[Lambside]

I've caught up with the thread now after return from work. It's lovely to read with my cuppa and finally sitting down in the warm.
X

[Lambside]

Oops always sign off texts with an X

[BarchesterFlowers]

Ours was register office 11ish, pub to fill the gap, lovely (michelin star) place to eat but only four of us so fine cost wise.

I wore a max mara silk shift dress, DH a relaxed shirt, no tie, chino type trousers. Sort of things we might wear if we went somewhere nice for Sunday lunch.

No flowers, no music, no extras at all apart from two cars with drivers so we could all have a drink.

[Neoflex]

We had two weddings so some might not consider that low key but both were small in their own way.
The first was in the country where we live. We went to the registry office with our 2 witnesses and their partners. My parents flew over as a surprise and showed up at the registry office. After we went for brunch. then everyone went back to their homes for a nap. Friend of dh owns a dingy bar so we paid for some barrels of beer and had the place from 7-11 pm in the evening. Colleagues, friends, absolutely everyone was invited who wanted to come. Put out some crisps and nuts. After 11 the bar was opened to general public and turned into a kind of nightclub. I wore a red bridesmaid dress from an aunts wedding 10 years ago. Our friends came in jeans and tshirts. For dinner I got a kebab from the takeaway. In total it probably cost about 700 euros with the fees.
Fabulous day.
The second wedding was in my husband's country so we could have a "big wedding" for about 8k maximum. Meaning I had a white dress (reduced for 600 euro) and everyone sat down for a meal and we had a photographer and video graphed etc. But we had around 60 people and nothing had to match etc. It was a shack restaurant at the beach and we hired a company to put up an arch and our friend "officiated" and filled it with jokes. We had beach games and hired equipment to play music. We stayed there partying til 6 am, with about 10 friends left, drinking bottles of whiskey from the bar (now clised) and then went skinny dipping. I couldn't get back into my dress so had to walk home in my husband's suit.
Probably totally reveals who I am now for anyone who was at either wedding.

[StillSmallVoice]

Church at 12 o'clock followed by a pub lunch. I wore a nice dress, but not a wedding dress and it was our immediate families only. Lovely day and we've been very happy together since.

[Greatballs]

Lake District hotel 30 people including us. Ceremony at 4:30 followed by champagne. Sit down meal at 6. Private section of the bar with outside space till bed.

No best man, bridesmaids, roles of any description- just us two and "guests".
Mum did my flowers and bought my dress (£110 traditional ivory full length but very plain and no veil etc) MIL payed for husband's suit. Other family members bought drinks, did photos, decorated the table (we had everyone round one so no Top Table or complicated seating plan). SIL did my hair, friend did my make up, friend made cakes. We asked for no gifts, so people offered us wedding day things or services which was actually really nice. We were very easy going because we didn't have an opinion on many if these things!

Was ace! So chilled out, inexpensive and genuinely enjoyable and stress.

And we stayed on in the hotel for a honeymoon too. It was so relaxing that we conceived our first

Good luck OP!

[MaderiaCycle]

We got married at our local town hall (at 3.30pm) which is an old victorian building and is beautiful. Walked from there to a restaurant which is a local social enterprise and helps people who have experience of jail / homelessness back into employment - where we had the place to ourselves and they charged us just normal menu prices - think £6 starter, £12 main, £5 dessert with 25 of our friends and family. I wore a proper full length wedding dress and DH wore a kilt (we're not in Scotland!) which he had already and hired the jacket for £50. Then back to the hotel bar. Cost us less than £1500 in total.

[MaderiaCycle]

Oh and we had a photographer for £180 and cake was £70 (by a friend of my sister) and used my normal hairdresser that I've been going to since I was a kid so it was £10. Flowers were £100 booked last minute!

[HSMMaCM]

Hen night was pizza at my sisters, while DH went out for beer with his mates and my dad.

My dad insisted on a dress and flowers. My dress was £250 and no idea how much my bouquet was. DH got a suit, because he didn't have one and has worn it several times since.

Wedding at registry office and blessing in church. My cousin videoed it all. My nephew and niece were bridesmaid and page in fancy outfits found at a charity shop.

Reception lunch straight after wedding in my sisters back garden. Buffet lunch made by family. My brother bought cava for drinks. Another cousin made a cake.

We left on our last minute bargain honeymoon at about 5 and my sister just had an open house until people wanted to leave.

We had a fabulous day and were really relaxed all day.

[theDudesmummy]

Second marriage. Flew for over 12 hours the day before to get to the country where my parents live, to get married there. I won't go into it but some bad things had just happened to me health-wise and I was exhausted. Married by a priest in his own dining room (totally non-religious ceremony, he just said do you want to get married and then we all signed the papers) with just my two brothers and two stepdaughters there. I had been told by DH that we were then just going to have some quiet drinks and nibbles in my parents' garden, but he had in fact arranged a small surprise garden party with friends and some members of his family, with beef and lamb on the spit and a gazebo. Fell asleep on my parents' sofa with both my stepdaughters on top of me and DH on the floor beside me along with my parents' many dogs. It was lovely. That was 12 years ago, we are still happily together.

[QueenStreaky]

Registry office 10.30. One witness each. Dh wore a nice suit, I wore a black mini dress and silk jacket. No flowers, bridesmaids etc. We drove there and back in Dh's Micra . Dh's three great aunts showed up outside as we were taking each other's photos, on their way to Tesco .

On to in-laws' house for champagne, nibbles and a few photos in their garden. Then to local Chinese restaurant about 1pm, and on to the pub where we got rat-arsed.

Home, couple of hours' nap, out to the pub again till 11pm.

Bloody marvellous, and I'd do it all again exactly the same. SO relaxed because there was nothing organised so nothing could go wrong. Fab day .

It's our silver wedding anniversary next year, too .

[gallicgirl]

Registry office wedding with fewer than 30 guests. I wasn't going to wear a traditional dress but then thought sod it, I want to feel special and hopefully I will only marry once! Also paid for professional hair and make up artist on recommendation of my regular hairdresser.

Back to local hotel in mate's car, where some of us were staying over. Lots of mingling in a private garden. Speeches from best man, groom and bride only. No dress code, no wedding list, no band or dancing. Just a lovely relaxed time with plenty of opportunity to chat. I had a fantastic time and I don't think I'd change anything.

[Bellamuerte]

I had a 4pm church ceremony followed by hotel buffet and disco for 100 guests. No hen/stag do. No posh invitations (DH designed postcards and got them printed online). No wedding cake (I made cupcakes instead). No bridesmaids or best man (so no suits, dresses or extra flowers to buy). No church decorations and our friend decorated the reception venue as a gift to us. DH picked me up before the ceremony, drove me to church and then to the hotel (car hire is expensive!) We went home afterwards because it seemed silly to pay for a hotel room when we were going to sleep anyway. No honeymoon because we couldn't afford it, although we did have a week off work and hung out at home having takeaways and watching Netflix.

Total spend was about £5k. Our indulgences were real flowers and a nice suit for DH. My dress was made by MIL (which is another story, because it turned out to be the most hideous dress ever and DH made me wear it). Don't skimp on photography - my photos are dreadful and I still cry when I see other people's nice photos, I wish we had just forked out for a decent photographer.

Our friends spent £25k on their wedding and got divorced 4 months later!

[MoreFangBleed]

My DH drove us to the registry office with MIL and my best mate in the car.

We had about ten guests, I wore a cream skirt and top I'd found in a charity shop and a jacket I already owned and DH wore his only suit.

MIL provided buttonholes (and grumbled about my lack of Bouquet - I twigged later that she wanted a bouquet to hide my unmissable pregnant belly) my best friend took the photos and then we went back to ours for a BBQ in the back garden.

Whole thing cost about £300. It was lovely.

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

We got married at 12pm at the Registrar’s office and went back to my parents where we had put out a buffet and lots of booze on ice. We had already told everyone that we would be leaving at 7pm. The party went on until 3am though.

There was a lull but we had booked a balloon man for a couple of hours who entertained all of the old Aunties.

And I did wear a wedding dress, but I really, really wanted to! 🙂

[beargryllshasabigrope]

Registry office wedding, then on to a pub that we’d booked out for the day. Steak and pavlova for dinner at around 3pm. Wedding cake and a buffet in the evening. Free bar. Nothing fancy. Best day ever!

[Curlyshabtree]

50 guests in nice city centre hotel, sit down meal and sarnies later. My Granny did the flowers. No favours on table. Dress was a simple non wedding one, nice label. DH wore a £5 suit from Next clearance.
Parents paid for photographer, we had a DJ play our music. No bridesmaids. 5k!

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

Forgot some details. I bought invitations that you write out. My BF made the cake, that was her present to us and a friend who is a photographer did the photos and my lovely Uncle took me to the wedding and brought us back.

It doesn’t have to be posh to be good 🙂

[OutComeTheWolves]

Friend got married in just a nice white dress and did her own make up in a church walking distance from her house. She looked stunning and her father walked her to the church.

Reception in village hall - no day time & evening guests; it was just one big party. She asked each guest to bring something for the buffet instead of a gift and as there was no bar in the hall, it was bring your own bottle. The food was delicious because everyone made an effort to provide something lovely for the other guests. Easily one of the best weddings I've been too.

Oh & instead of a DJ, they'd just asked everyone to tell them some songs they liked and they made a playlist on the iPad & hooked it up to the speakers.

[Doilooklikeatourist]

Married at local church
Friend of my parents had a Rolls-Royce, so he drove the wedding car !
Lovely simple service , back to local restaurant for late lunch for 60 , then on to a local pub for dancing and more food
Taxi away to a hotel ( both of us in floods of tears as it had been such an amazing , happy day )

[Doilooklikeatourist]

Oh. And I did my own make up and had my hair in a pony tail ( with a scrunchy made out of a scrap of left over material from my wedding dress )

[TwigTheWonderKid]

We got married at 3pm at a London registry office. Our wedding car was a white London taxi. Reception at local pub function room where, after ceremony, photos and everyone getting between wedding and reception and drinks we had a sit down meal for 30 at about 6.30pm. My best friends had decorated the reception venue for us. After that our friends' band played and while they were taking breaks we played mix tapes our best man had made for us (it was 1996!) An evening of friends and much drunken dancing. Best friend made my dress and her dad took all the photos.

[Alice0906]

Our wedding was small and relatively inexpensive, but it was everything we wanted it to be. We married in January, then went to the carribean for a truly once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon.

We had a church wedding. The service was at 2pm, then we had cakes (made by MIL) and mulled wine (prepared by a friend) at the back of the church afterwards.
We had a professional photographer take some photos - think we paid about £350 as it was very off peak and we only wanted him for half the day. We got the photos on USB and I did an amazing photobook online. I used //www.aperturebooks.com not the cheapest, but fantastic quality.

Then we went to an old coaching inn nearby that is run as a nice pub/restaurant/hotel. We had the function room behind the main bar from 6pm. There was time for people to check into their rooms and have a drink in the bar before then if they fancied it.
We had a really good three course meal and plenty of wine for 30 people - that was the most expensive bit of the day, but my parents kindly offered to foot the bill for that. After the meal some people went to bed, or had to travel home, the rest of us stayed, chatted and drank more wine until they turfed us out at closing time.

My BIL has a vintage car, so chauffeured us.
Some friends decorated the function room for us. One made the most amazing, intricate welcome sign featuring loads of things personal to us, our initials and the date. We got it framed afterwards.
Another friend organised someone to do my hair and makeup as their gift.
Someone from the church did all the flowers - Church decorations, buttonholes and bouquets, she used mostly supermarket flowers and some greenery from her garden, cost about £70 for the lot and looked fantastic.

I bought my dress on eBay, a gorgeous Maggie Sottero wedding dress, unworn, £350. Paid someone to pin the alterations (it didn't need much) and did the sewing myself. I got a second hand veil and a feather shrug very cheap on eBay.
DH bought a good quality suit in a sale.
I made the bridesmaid dresses, tbh didn't save much, probably spent £150 on fabric. My friends used the leftover pieces of fabric in the decorations though.
We made the invitations and orders of service.
Our rings were made to our specification by a jeweller in Hatton Gardens and were about £600 for the pair. We decided to get exactly what we wanted regardless of cost as we intend to wear them for the rest of our lives!

We decided what was important to us and prioritised our spending on those things. Do things your way OP, and don't be afraid to ask friends or family to contribute their talents! Oh and you don't HAVE to have anything just because its traditional! :)