£5000 budget - is it possible?

[TwittleBee]

Hello,

We have just come into unexpected financial difficulty (won't go into details) and shall have to cut our £10k budget in half if we want to meet our date in 2020.

How have people managed to be so savvy? I have already purchased my dress so that doesn't need to be accounted for but things we still need to purchase include:

Venue
Registrar fees
food
drink
flowers
bridesmaid dresses x 3
groomsmen suits x 5
rings
invites
photographer
MUA & hair stylist
Decorations / favours

The venue we have already fallen in love with and were planning on booking this weekend comes to £3500 including food & drinks! Leaving us only with £1500 left which was originally our budget for the photographer!

Shall we just give up? I mean, my family have already expressed how shit our wedding was going to be on a £10k budget, so maybe we should just wait 5 years before we marry (wanted to tie the knot before DS started school though)

This is madness.
3500 for 24 people?, many of whom are already criticising you?
With a 5k budget you can't afford that venue.
You'll need 500 odd for the ceremony: I think the registrars were 450 odd back in 2014 for a ceremony away from the registry office.
Which leaves you 1K for everything else.

Have a look on some blogs for the best looking/happiest looking weddings: they are never the most expensive. Change the whole tone and concentrate on everyone having fun. It's a celebration of your marriage. It all sounds far too much like hard work already. and don't listen to anything your moaning family says.

haha! Ignore everything I just said. No idea why but only front page showed up for me. Congratulations OP! Sounds perfect!

Well done - a sensible decision regarding a wedding .

Venue: pick somewhere cheaper
Registrar fees: a church is cheaper if you're up for that
food: buffet, you can do it yourself
drink: let everyone buy their own drinks from the bar, few bottles of prosecco on the tables
flowers: silk flowers, half the price, just as pretty
bridesmaid dresses x 3: let them buy their own
groomsmen suits x 5 : again, but their own
rings: gold bands start at £100/£150
invites: make them yourself or use vista print
photographer: find a student at your local college
MUA & hair stylist: go to some tutorials and do your own
Decorations / favours: make your own and ditch the favours

You don't have to compromise on each thing but if you decide what really matters and do the other bits as cheap as possible you can afford it :)
Ours is a double wedding and is going to cost about £4000 (obvs lots of the cost is halved) but we're having everything we wanted, we could have done it much cheaper if we had to

Goosey - have you actually read the Op's update ?

Get married late in the day so you only feed people once

We had a small wedding but amazing honeymoon those days we you were just 2 of you are so important.

Op i hipe tou have a fabulous day. It sounds very romantic just the two of you and your witnesses.
Dh’s wedding ring was £30 (sterling silver) amd has held up very well. Originally we were going to replace it when not skint but we’re not now.
Our wedding was £800 altogether and it was a wonderful day.

Ragwort- clearly not 🙄

It is definitely possible to do it on your budget (I am!)
I'm getting married in the church next door and the reception is at a small hotel nearby, a Groupon deal - 60 guests have a 3 course meal plus hotel rooms for £2.5k. We're buying booze, cake from Waitrose, my dress is costing about £160, his kilt is a hire. I'm doing my own flowers and decorating £400, photographer is £900. Have found a fair bit of old scrap gold in my jewellery box so will send that off and that'll pay for the rings. I have two friends as pseudo-bridesmaids so will buy their dresses (max £40 each) but the best man is wearing whatever suit he likes. The invitations I got from eBay (brilliant service from the seller, providing proof after proof!) For about £40.

I'd probably kick your venue in to touch and start looking outside the box!

And 5 groomsmen??!!

Read the thread, people! I hope you have a great day, OP! Don’t worry too much about your families - would it work if you framed the big do later as an anniversary party?

Wow, sounds great OP!