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

Just another thought on venues...

In my time I've had to organise a fair few corporate events.

It's surprising what places actually open their doors for such things that you might not expect (think museums, race courses, golf clubs etc). In fact I think Silverstone race track is In Surrey and they have the Paddock Club where they do Corp events.

So rather than google wedding venues in your area think about googling corporate event venues....

@DeRigueurMortis Silverstone is in Northamptonshire

Can you tell I didn't do GCSE geography?

Opp's....on the location but hopefully the OP gets the gist on the concept

We hired a house in Spain - £8k. It slept 22 (all our family for a week) We had friends come out and they stayed in villas near by that they paid for. We provided all food and a free bar for the whole event . We had live music, drummers from Barcelona and a DJ. It was the most amazing week with family and friends and we could not of wished for a better location
utopia-villas.com/property/villa-casa-nova/

Ours was in a stunning village hall in Kent. The legal ceremony was in the Thursday with immediate family at the registry office. At the actual wedding at did a non legal ceremony. There's a big saving.

Food was hog roast from a farm shop, who provided all of the wedding food excluding cake.

No photographer, had a friend with decent camera for ceremony, used everyone's phone photos for rest of it.

Booze was fully supplied, no one put their hand in their pocket. This was bought over in Calais and we drove it back. The wine warehouses over there will pay for your crossing fare if you spend enough. Red was €3 and white €4 per bottle. Also bought cans & bottles of beer plus gin for pre dinner drinks. For evening beer i got a local company to supply to kegs of craft beer.

Had an excellent live band. They also supplied all PA system for speeches etc and DJ'd from mid afternoon. This was a major expense but we could afford it as we'd saved in other areas and was important to us.

Put on a coach to get everyone back to nearest big town where everyone was staying.

Hired events manager to run the event. She was there from Friday to Sunday, so set up hall with tables, decorations. Hired wait staff. Ran the catering on the day, received all the deliveries etc. Cleaned up on Sunday.

All in about 9-10k and band was 2.7k of that. If you do it a bit hands on in prep you can have a wonderful day in a beautiful location for a decent price.

And that was for 120 guests

A marquee in my parents' largish but not exceptional suburban garden, informal hog-roast type caterer, bought all our own booze and borrowed glasses (free from the supermarket) and paid a mate of my brother's to run the bar. Modest table decorations made at home from wholesale flowers and ivy cut from the garden rather than a paying a florist, and music from a friends' band. Whole thing cost about £5k and we asked about 160 people! Ceremony was late in the afternoon at local register office with only about 40 close friends and family - timing meant we didn't have to feed them twice.

Went abroad..
Found a multi million pound villa on AirBNB for less than 2k for four nights. Booked a posh restaurant €80 a head with unlimited wine (4K). Celebrant €500 ( was the voice of the London Underground). Taxis to and from villa and a day out for everyone the next day €750.
Fantastic weather ( October last year) Cheap flights. Two lots of couples have already gone back to the destination because it’s so lovely.

We got married on sunday before a bank holiday monday and at new year so the venue was decorated already. Saved a fortune.

Avoid hiring a barn. It's very trendy so expensive. Ask restaurants/country parks/theatres etc you like if they do weddings. They might but not advertise. That's how we got our venue. I agree with everyone saying village halls are a good bet. Also if you are getting married in a church ask if the ladies who do the flowers could do your flowers. Much cheaper than the florist.

We had a church wedding then hired a barn for the reception, got some local caterers in

Did you say you lived in Sussex? In summer I went to a restaurant on Brighton beach front called Murmur. Food was really nice and had a great atmosphere but it might suitable. You’d be on the beach front, might get nice pictures. I’m not sure if they would fit 80 people but you call/email and see.
Good luck!!!

Hi OP. Check out HallsHire.com for halls in your area. Some have outdoor space for your barbecue and open beams etc for a barn feel.
Then get yourselves a caterer and you are done. Venues where you can get married ramp the cost to cover their licensing etc so get married in church or refit later office then move to venue for reception.
Congratulations

Book relatively last minute and in the off season. We had our wedding reception on a Saturday in early March at one of the top wedding venues in our area (Derbyshire) for a fraction of the price as we didn't book it until late October the year before. We were charged around £3k for a 3 course meal, canapés, drinks on arrival and wine for the table for 65 people. Room hire, DJ and extras like table cloths etc were free. The venue basically said to us that if we didn't book it then no one else would at that late stage and it was the same with all of the other venues we spoke to - we had 3 Saturdays from mid Feb to mid March where we could get married and all had availability for at least one of them. We also did without a sweet cart and other gimmicks and kept it classy.

We also got married in my very beautiful village church. Way cheaper than a non religious ceremony, but appreciate it isn't for everyone.

Not sure where you are based but we got married at South Farm in Cambs and as it was a Friday in Feb half term (we aren’t teachers but a lot of our friends are) ww saved a fortune. Hire was something ridiculous like £1500 instead of 5k and the food & drink was 20% off. It was around the 15k mark in the end (we hoped to be closer to £12!) but it was the most beautiful wedding and we scrimped on nothing.
www.south-farm.co.uk

We spent about £12k. Had an off season wedding in March and got a 20% discount at our venue which paid for the evening do. Our package had flowers included. We had a beautiful venue so didnt spend any more money on decorations. Chair covers are a waste of money - everyone puts their coats on chairs after 5 mins and you dont see them anyway. We had a dj instead of a band. The amount this saved us meant we could have a string quartet for our ceremony and still save compared to a band.

Lots of ways to save if you shop smart.

£6000 with 90 guests. My mother made my wedding dress. My sister (bridesmaid) bought her own dress. Married on a Friday in August at 3.30pm. Early evening meal with wine 5-7pm then onto a DJ and money behind the bar. Just nibbles (nuts and crisps) as the guests had recently been fed

We spent £6k on a barn, a hot buffet, wine from majestic and a ceilidh band.

India Knight (the author) dedicates a chapter to this in her living thrifty book (not 100% sure what it was called but something like that!) lots of good ideas!

We only invited immediate family - as in parents and siblings to our wedding and the wedding party so only 20 people total. It was intimate, just what we wanted as we wanted the day to be ours and not feel obliged to get round seeing everyone.

I understand its much smaller but we got married at registrar office and went to a nice restaurant after.

Bought dresses for me and bridesmaids on wish (did it with loads of time to spare so we had time to sort something else if they turned up awful) they were perfect and cost £136 total

Made to measure suits for groom and best man, again ordered from overseas, no problem £100

Took our own cars, my mum drove me in ours.

Ordered £40 gypsophilia from Holland and made the bouquets and buttonholes. Made confetti to hand out by drying rose petals from the garden in the oven.

No drinks, just provided food.

Asked everyone to take lots of pictures and shared them all on a WhatsApp group.

No cake, we went on honeymoon straight from reception and dessert came with the meal anyway.

No favours, we asked for no presents and bought everyone's meal.

I wouldn't have changed anything and have no regrets from the day. I would have been regretting if we'd spent ££££ though. It's just one day, the marriage is the 'big' bit.

Hope you get there and have a fantastic day!

@2andahalfpints that sounds really lovely. When you think about it, so much has built up around weddings that is unnecessary. Why is a cake needed at all? Nobody misses it. I wasn’t happy with our professional photographer and the photos we have put are other people’s snaps.

We had our ceremony in a church and the reception in a village hall which we decorated ourselves. It looked great and meant that venue hire was about £100. Honestly, don't spend thousands of pounds on a tent! Your guests care more about good food.

In summer I went to a restaurant on Brighton beach front called Murmur. Food was really nice and had a great atmosphere but it might suitable. You’d be on the beach front, might get nice pictures. I’m not sure if they would fit 80 people but you call/email and see

yes, I went to a wedding in August at a small nightclub facing the beach, just behind the aquarium in Brighton. About 70 people, paella was food, once meal was eaten tables put away and had the club until 2am. Good views over the beach and sea, right in the centre of town so handy for everyone

I didn't have a cake either..got friends to make cup cakes.
My bouquet was a £5 bunch of flowers trimmed.

I'm not going to RTFT but there are so many ways to do a wedding for under £15k. That is a very healthy budget!

Things we did:
Find a venue where you can bring in your own stuff eg a village hall
Cake from M&S
Dress off the rack from Phase Eight
Spotify playlist instead of a DJ/band
Got a friend to take the photos and another to do my hair and make up
Home made floral arrangements
Buy as much as you can off eBay or in the sales (bridesmaid dresses, table decorations etc)