If you had a beautiful wedding under £15k please tell me how

[Skiaddicted]

We have 80 people who we genuinely want with us on our special day (actually more than that, the 80 is being incredibly tough). Im happy to get a Wed2be dress and get a friend to do my hair and make up. Costs locally, however, just seem to be insane for wedding venues!
The best we've found is marquee venues who charge circa 3k for the land hire......then a marquee is 8k ish.....catering seems to be around the 6k mark somehow......it just seems madness

If you're doing a beautiful wedding cheaply please help!!

People will be travelling a long way (some over 6hrs) so we want them to have a lovely time too

[PottersonDayz]

We went to Gretna Green and had a Thursday wedding, my wedding dress was Wed2Be and my Bridesmaids were Lindy Bop - we took a really small party to Gretna and took them on Honeymoon too. Our reception is in a local hotel with about 150 guests. I’d say we’re about £7.5k all in.

[Skiaddicted]

@mamandematribu because we have lots of friends and family we love and want to celebrate with. Its the one day everyone you care about is in one place for the day. Many people will have to travel a long long way so we dont want them to feel put out, yes there is a degree of keeping up with the Jones's but i think actually there is a degree if expectation if you are invited to a wedding on being fed, watered well and entertained etc

I will have a word with the venue, they are recent reviews but on the whole the hotel is well reviewed

[DeRigueurMortis]

Depends on the reviews OP - how recent, how reasonable, how relevant they are to your occasion etc

Overall I'd be inclined to speak to the venue about any reviews that concern you and ask for their feedback on what they have done to rectify such issues and why they feel confident that they would be immaterial to your wedding.

Then depending on that you could theoretically ask that such remedies were part of your booking contract with financial penalties if not adhered to. If they don't agree then I'd back away, if they do I'd be reasonably confident it's not an issue.

[mamandematribu]

Why do you need to spend thousands on a wedding? If you both love each other does it really matter if you just spend £200 on a small ceremony.
Keeping up with the jones syndrome

[AnxiousElephant77]

We've got 100 guests and the ceremony and venue cost is about £6k. This includes catering and our DJ.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

What did Trip Advisor say? Were the reviews recent and relevant?

I always keep in mind that people are far more likely to leave a negative review than a positive one, unless the venue incentivises it... so I'd assess for relevance, maybe questions to ask the venue and whether they are old and the problems may have been fixed.

[Skiaddicted]

We looked at a stunning venue on sunday, 9k all in on a monday (obviously excluding flowers/cakes etc) and loved everything about it. Trip Advisor came up with really mixed reviews though (only looked afterwards). Would you risk it?

[user1471462209]

We spent about 10k I think. Had a marquee in in laws back garden / field.

We cut loads of corners basically. Didn't have a pro photographer, had a hog roast but then did all our own sides etc. Did our own flowers. Used cars of family members. Didn't have a DJ just a play list. Oh, didn't have a cake! Had cupcakes which partially made up centrepiece on tables.

It was lovely though, didn't scrimp on my dress or decking out the marquee. The food was yummy. We did a free bar which TBH didn't cost that much, we had waitresses for the food but then everyone just helped out on the bar. It was a great day.

[SuitablyDull]

I have not RTFT.

We had about 200-250 at our wedding. It cost somewhere in the region of £4-6000 as my parents paid some and it was a while back so memory is a bit vague.

We had the ceremony in the village church, which I attended. We paid extra for bells at start and end. The church was decorated by a friend who was on flower duty that weekend and she used wild flowers and grasses (we married 6th June).
We booked the village hall for the reception. The day before we decorated using bunting my mum and MIL had made for us and with fairy lights. Table decorations were jam jars and bottles with wild flowers and flowers grown by family members especially.
The buffet was done by mum and her sisters, and Mum made the cake.
We provided welcome drinks and a glass of fizz for the toasts. The bar was run by friends who had an event bar company. They also did pulled.pork baps for evening do.
Local DJ. Local Ukulele Band who gave us a massive discount because we were their first wedding and several were family friends.
Photographer was a friend who was actually just about to complete teacher training and so didn't charge us a huge amount.
Hired suits for the males in the wedding party (7 and a child). Bought my dress second hand and ex stock shop. Bought the three bridesmaids dresses from online 50s shop.
We made our invites. We did everything we could ourselves or asked friends or family to help.
Make a list of what's most important to you and dp. Shop around, and do as much as possible yourselves.

I'm also not a particularly crafty person but with the help of the likes of Pint rest and YouTube there are loads of tutorials out there that will help to keep costs down.

[Samsamsuperman]

We did a wedding for 95 for £11k.
Dress was £1.5k
Venue including food was £6.5 (ceremony and reception in same place - no need for marquee?)
Got married on a Friday
Did playlists rather than hiring a DJ
Ordered flowers online and did them ourselves
Cake was M&S wedding cake, about £100
Bridesmaids dresses £35 each online
Favours weren't expensive, decorations home made.
(this was all 2 years ago).

[Cruddles]

I'm a bit surprised at some of these where people spend £12-15k on a wedding but guests have to buy some of their drinks.

[platform9andthreequarters]

Mine was around 10k, 4 years ago. And that included rings, dresses, grooms suit etc. And we had a band, a casino and an open bar.
Village Hall reception venue.
Only one sit down meal.
Everything DIY, venue decorations, flowers, cake etc.

Definitely look at venues like village halls, often they are lovely old buildings with fully functioning kitchens /toilets (so no need to hire like with a marquee) and often do a weekend rate so you hire from lunchtime Friday to lunchtime Sunday and set up/clean up yourselves. Ours was £500 for the whole weekend.

[DistantVworp]

About 5 years ago, for about 80
Town centre registry office - £200
Village Hall - £9/ hr hired for the day before the wedding so about £250
Food - provided by local pub £800
My dress - £200 (my mum made it, that's just the material cost)
Bridesmaids dresses £250 (made by my mum - they were all 5 or under)
Flowers £200 (bouquet etc, Hall flowers were all pinched from my mums garden)
Booze and other drinks £1200 (booze trip to France, wine all bought at vineyards)
Decorations - £100 (mostly homemade)
Wedding cake £120 (it was actually cheese)
Groom and DS kilt hire - £200
Musician - £400
Bouncy castle hire - £150 (there were loads of kids)

There were other bits and pieces, but all in was well under £5k

If I were to do it again the only thing I'd change would be to get a professional photographer, I had an amazing day 😁

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

Realistically 80 people is going to be expensive to feed. We cut our list down to 50 and found a lot more affordable venues, although we're now at 62 again as DP's family have decided some family members that previously were optional are now not... I'll deal with that later!

You can either compromise on the venue, cut down on some of the costs (no favours, getting friends to be the photographer and provide a cake seem to be common, no bridesmaids/grooms men to dress) or go for a wedding that's cheaper but more difficult for guests (during the week, abroad).

We're coming in at about £8k for our wedding at the moment although there's a few things left to get. I expect it'll be about £12k all in with the honeymoon.

[MrsEmma85]

Elope to Vegas. £1500

[Magpiefeather]

Oh yes I did my own hair and make up too - I do every other day of my life!

[Magpiefeather]

Made everything that we possibly could ourselves : invitations, place names, cake, cake topper, guest book, confetti cones, paper flower garland

Also ordered my own flowers from triangle nurseries online - highly recommend. It saved a fortune. Fantastic service and beautiful flowers. I put small bunches in old bakes beans tins I had saved through the year for the tables at the reception. Friend did the bouquets and buttonholes.

We got married at local registry office which just happened to be an absolutely beautiful old building.

I would recommend getting married later on in the day - as others have said you only need to feed everyone once and also people don’t get bored at all!

Our reception was room above our favourite pub - it was brilliant. Was free as long as we spent over £1500 on food and drink (which we surpassed paying for everyone’s roast beef dinner anyway) .

Agree with PPs there are some lovely village halls!

[ColdRainAgain]

Married, on a Saturday, in March (at 6 months notice) - the hotel waived the hire fee, so we "just" paid per head for the wedding breakfast. All in one venue, so no cars or other transport required - we each drove ourselves there, and got ready at the venue, and home the following day.
Married at 3pm - only fed everyone once.
Wedding dress from Debenhams.
Cake from M&S with sugar flowers from the local market.
2 night honeymoon, no flights.

We did spend on the photographer and the rings.

[Podemos]

Definitely start later. If you're in an expensive area then I'd guess it's likely to appeal to tourists?? We had lots of guests travelling from another country but had a 5pm wedding- everyone enjoyed a leisurely time around the city beforehand.

We had a 'proper posh' venue but had a hot buffet instead of a sit down meal. It was lovely and left more time for dancing. Didn't need to differentiate between daytime and evening guests.

I got a beautiful dress from a department store.

Didn't have any flowers- venue was stunning without.

Made our own table decorations - fishbowls, glass beads, candles, petals.

Spent the money on what was important to us - an amazing photographer and evening entertainment.

Spent just under 15k but could have been a lot cheaper if we hadn't spent on 2 bands +DJ, last minute very expensive chair backs as the ones I'd booked let us down, cheaper photographer, paid for fewer drinks for guests (1 on arrival, one with meal, one for speeches), gone with a cheaper food choice- e.g hog roast.

[Fannybaws52]

We found a catering company who did package deals that included a cake, car and some decor as well as evening buffet.

This saved thousands.

[AthollPlace]

Don’t overspend on wedding rings
That’s the one thing we did spend a lot on. The wedding is one day but the rings will be worn for maybe 20,000 days.

[AthollPlace]

The way to get a cheap wedding is to only have one reception, not two. I don’t see the need to have two tiers of guests, some of whom aren’t invited to witness the actual marriage ceremony and only come along several hours later for a party. We just had ONE reception. Everyone came to the church. Everyone came to the one and only party. Nobody was made to feel like second best. The ceremony was 4pm and the reception was 5pm till late.

We also did away with non-essentials like bridesmaids and groomsmen (less clothes to buy), cars (we took a taxi), and cake (who really likes wedding cake anyway). Didn’t have a honeymoon either - that shaved off thousands from the final bill.

[OnceUponATimeInWonderland]

Keep an eye out for new venues coming up, we booked ours before it was built and only cost us £1500 for the full day, including chairs and tables etc, rather than the 8k+ we'd been quoted elsewhere!

[Doobigetta]

Start later in the day. 4pm ceremony means only one round of food needed.
Use “executive” taxis rather than wedding cars.
M&S or Waitrose cake
No video
Do your own makeup
Small wedding party
Don’t spend much on shows nobody will see under your dress
No favours
DJ rather than band
City centre and local suppliers keeps mileage costs down (they all add it on)
Don’t overspend on wedding rings

[Daffodil2018]

Have a look at Deans Place hotel in Alfriston as a potential venue. Can't remember costs but we looked at them and they were at the more reasonable end of the spectrum.