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

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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

www.ceremoniesineastsussex.co.uk/find_your_perfect_venue?mincap=70&maxcap=135&name=&location=&sort=rand

50 people for the ceremony, 100 for the evening. The package included drinks on arrival and after the ceremony, we put £150 behind the bar for toasts and people could buy more drinks if they wanted to.

@blackcat86 Unless I’m missing something does that mean you only put £1.50 per person behind the bar for an evening drink? How did that go down?

We actually used a token system for drinks so there were big bowls of tokens on the tables which people took up to the bar for a free drink. The tab came to £150ish. There were a lot of kids and drivers who had soft drinks (or parents had brought fruit shoots with them) , others had plenty of booze. A lot of people opted to buy larger amounts like a whole bottle and so didnt use a token - nothing to stop them, they just chose not to. We would happily have paid more but people had 3 drinks from 4:30 - 7 (when the food was served) on us so I dont think that's too bad.

That was just for the toast btw before a lot of evening guests had arrived. The first and pre ceremony drinks were part of the package. No one complained about the bar. It was a small venue and very reasonable.

We had a lovely wedding on 6k - it was a Saturday but out of season in March.

Our venue was a private golf club with an upstairs hall/converted barn style and that including main meal and evening buffet was just over £3k.

Definitely have a look during school holidays or half terms of you can get a midweek deal!

We did a Saturday but key for saving money for us was hiring the local town hall for the reception - £200 for venue hire and staffing. We got a caterer in for the food.

We had a spring Saturday wedding. Suits from topman, my dress from David's bridal. Bridesmaid wore her favourite dress. Bridal party flowers and button holes etc from m&s, and got a resulting discount on the cake. Very kind friend drove us in their vintage car. We used a newish photographer whose prices were low in exchange for using us on her website etc.
Venue was a local restaurant and we provided all food, welcome drinks, wine and beer all day and toasts then after 8pm it was a cash bar.
No band or dj, my husband made a play list and it was brilliant! Something for everyone from 50s and 60s through to now. Overall I think we spent £6k and we had 85 guests

Try and hunt out a country pub that can host you? I'm in Kent and our wedding cost about £7k for everything. Also know teachers who have married on a Monday in hols, much more affordable. Good luck finding somewhere!

When getting a quote from a venue ask for a full breakdown and then work out what you can strip back?
Do they offer corkage? I saved by paying corkage on the welcome drinks and then buying pink fizz from Asda 3 for £10. We had a buffet and made use of our cake.
I went to a lovely wedding where they had their cake served with local ice cream for their dessert, so the venue only provided the starter and main.
Think about having candles or other decor instead of flowers on the tables. Favours aren't necessary, and can be added later if you want them and have money left in the budget.
I had a second hand dress, made what I could, and hired the grooms suits. We had matching ties for the men, but didn't insist on everyone in matching suits.
Think about what you remember most about weddings you have been to. Usually it is the evening entertainment (worth spending on!) and making sure there is enough food and drink. If you work your timings so that your guests are likely to have eaten beforehand (such as a 2pm slot) then they are unlikely to be starving during photos and needing canapés etc.
I'm in Surrey and had 70 for the day and many more in the evening for £7k at a very nice hotel in Hampshire.
We have lots of friends and family who are teachers so went with a Friday in half term. Generally weekdays in school holidays are cheaper as it isn't peak season for conferences and wedding peak days are weekends.

We did our wedding for 80 day guests and 100 ish evening for just under 7000 5 years ago.

We were lucky with the reception venue, it was their first year so cost 1500 exclusive use (barn). Our ceremony venue was a town hall but a very chapel like one. We decorated with home made bunting.

Flowers were done by a friend of a friend, not free at all but she did them as a side hobby so cheaper and I had wild flowers and sunflowers which is cheaper than Roses etc.

Cake was made as a wedding present by a family member.

Catering was a hog roast with bowls of potatoes/salads and dessert.

We hired a bar and got a very reasonable drink package (10.20 for welcome drink (pimms) half a bottle of wine per person and toast drink).

Dh is in a band so he had friends play out first dance song, we had a spotify play list for everything else and hired speakers from a local music studio.

We hired lawn games etc for entertainment.

We did m and s buffet food for the evening.

My dress was 700 though my mum bought it for me, bridesmaid paid half their dresses (I know this isn't a popular option on mn).

DH bought his suit but the groomsmen hired.

We did the decor ourselves (hessian table runners, mil made table cloths, jam jars, candles etc)

We shopped around for chair and table hire.

Our photographer was a family member so we paid half price.

So many people have said it was the beat wedding they'd been to. We were very lucky with family input I know.

I second pp who said about village halls - you can find some really pretty ones and they're super cheap in comparison to wedding venues.

Mine cost 6k I had 250 guests.
Got married in a church then had reception in a marquee in the garden of our local village hall.
Had a hog roast and guests all bought a contribution to a desert table.
My dress coat £150 from a bridal store that was getting rid of "last season".
Did everything myself - made my invites, made my place names, collected decorations that were free etc.

We did it by getting married in a registry office then bussing (vintage double decker) to a non posh venue for non posh food. Lots of booze we provided and paid corkage

Big trick for us was a venue that didn’t have a big hire charge! I don’t think we’ve skimped at all and we’re around £15k for 70 day guests and 100 evening.

Venue (including food and drink):£7k
Dress and accessories: £800 (wed2b)
Bridesmaids: £30 x 4 (bought online on Black Friday)
Hair and make up for 5: £500
Flowers and decor: £1000
Photographer: £1500
DJ: £400
Suits: £500 hired (7 suits)
Cake: £500 for full dessert table as well as wedding cake. We used a local baker rather than a ‘wedding’ supplier.
Rings: £700 for both at 77diamonds online retailer.
Stationery: £100 (Vistaprint)
Pianist: £300 for ceremony and wedding breakfast.
Registrar: £600 - check this as I was shocked at how expensive it is!!!

I’ve probably missed a few things but I think the key is spending on what’s important to you, and making savings going online where you can!

Have you tried the Weald and Downland museum? link
I know someone who married there

I married a teacher. We did a Thursday during the Christmas hols. After Christmas. Winter wedding made it cheaper. Thursday made it cheaper. Had a fantastic day!! We had 85 for the day and extra people at the reception.

We did lots of things ourselves or asked friends. I made the invitations. My Mum made the cake. Best man's sister did photography, Friend was DJ. Dad's friend drove us to the venue in his jaguar . Everyone else got taxi's instead of posh cars. Florist did bouquets but on tables I had lavender plants from the garden centre in nice baskets, then older lady relatives got to take them home. Our men in the wedding party wore their own dark coloured suits and we just hired everyone matching waistcoats and cravats. I still had a posh dress and rings. We made lots of savings but it was actually really lovely.

We had a lovely wedding and it was well under 15k, it was under 10k, prob 7-8. 110 guests.

We had a golf club venue but a v pretty one. Rather than their packages they did a bespoke version which was room hire and extras added on. I only got this option when I said the packages were too expensive.

We got married at 4pm and had only one meal. It was a hot buffet. This saved money, the corkage wasn’t a bad price so we bought Aldi wine for tables and were only charged corkage on what was used. We didn’t use the house Dj who was expensive, we got our own. The venue was quite pretty so we didn’t decorate too much. No chair covers. They supplied drapes from ceiling. I supplied some hobby craft faux ivy which they twisted around bannisters. Local florist was quite cheap just got a fishbowl with grass and floating hydrangeas in for £6 per table. My dress was web2be and shoes were M and S sandals. Daughter wore a china eBay dress. Son wore a next suit. Served wedding cake as pudding.

Village hall? Decorate it yourself. For the evening buffet could you make the food yourself? Buy cheap plonk and soft drinks and let people help themselves or do a BYODrinks type thing? For hot food you could hire a catering company to do a bbq / street food thing. Or do an afternoon tea through the day with the bigger hot food on a nighttime? Spotify on someones phone or a friends band?

Church service, hired a village hall for reception, did an afternoon ceremony so we only had to feed people once. Dress £150 from BHS, did my own makeup. We went to Calais for wine and beer, pound was much stronger! Had a caterer in for a fork buffet. Hired glasses from Tesco. Friend of my mums did flowers. Cake was M&S and florist added flowers to it. Had balloons to decorate hall rather than flowers as cheaper. 80 guests and it was lovely. I think it cost a couple of thousand. This was 2001.

I've been to a couple of lovely weddings recently where the couple did a very small registry service and then hired a celebrant, or had a friend act as celebrant at an unlicensed venue, both were gorgeous and not too expensive I don't think. One friend hired a hall and made up picnic baskets for catering, filled them with bits from Waitrose and sold the baskets on Ebay later, she had origami flowers, it was beautiful.

We had about 70 and it cost around 5k. Biggest saving was food because we got married at 4pm so had a drinks reception and straight into the evening party. It meant we could have a really good hot evening buffet rather than a formal meal.
Hired a local swanky wine bar who only charged £150 for the hire and a minimum bar spend. They also did the food so they made their money on that and the bar.

We did it for 5k however we are up north so costs are cheaper

Venue was church hall which we all decorated. My sister and BIL have stage management degrees so let them.loose.

Church was most expensive but worth it when you look at the photos

Decorations =ebay is your friend. I also made up a load of different props myself. Took time but saved money.

Dress was expensive but my parents bought that.

Suit = bought on 20% off offer which also included a free shirt and tie.

Bridesmaid dresses = ebay, under a 10 for DSD and DGD (darling god daughter) Asked my older bridesmaids to buy their dresses themselves. Gave a colour let them pick. best man was the same.

Food = DIY. More stressful but worth it.

Cake = MnS premade cakes. Dsd decorated it with things bought off ebay.

Like I said it took more time and the convenience wasnt there, but DIY weddings worked out half of the price so was worth it in the end.

Also forgot to say, we had it on a thursday.

I did a Saturday wedding for a little over 15k for 120 guests!

We hired an entire pub and their stipulation was a 10k minimum spend. So we provided 2 courses and then wedding cake for dessert. We provided welcome drinks and drinks with the food. All guests then had to buy drinks in the evening, we invited approx 30 extra evening guests and ultimately between all of our guests from approx 6-1am they easily helped us meet the 10k minimum spend. We then hired a DJ. Once I included dress, bridesmaid dresses etc we did it for just over 15k. Also because we had a nice looking pub we did no decorations and the ''theme'' was just a very chilled party. We had so so many compliments of people saying it was the
Most natural / laid back / genuinely fun wedding they've ever been to.
Look at pubs and cost of exclusive hire! You will have to probably stick to their menu and the food will ultimately be pub grub (ours was delicious though!!)

I got married a goodly while ago.
Village hall old barn type places seem to have really taken off for weddings with outside caters and bars etc.
A lot of people save money by having friends do flower arrangements, dressing the venue, creating wedding stationary, doing flowers, baking a personalised non traditional wedding cake (and serving this as desert etc) it doesn’t have to cost the earth.
You can hire bridesmaids dresses (which are a lot cheaper) and people don’t have to keep and store a sentimental dress they will never wear again. Or Monsoon do really nice dresses.
I think I would still go for a Friday or Saturday as it’s often difficult for many people to get the day off mid week.