Keeping the costs down

[JesusDontWantMeForASunbeam]

We're tentatively looking into planning a wedding and as DP looks a bit stunned at the cost of venues/food etc I'm curious as to where you managed to cut costs/what isn't necessary please!

The biggest cost is food.

We had a sit down buffet in a church hall (nice and modern) and had a meal for 46 with limited alcohol for £1k.

Get rid of everything that isn't important. We didn't have cars (a friend gave us a lift!) wedding favours etc. Decide what is important to you and spend your money there.

We didn't. Either you have a wedding with 100 people with lovely food and drink in a beautiful venue and it costs a lot, or you have something small and down to earth in a restaurant or back garden with a handful of your closest friends/family. Trying to create something in the middle never quite works as something has to drop whether that's the quality of your food or catering company, or a lacklustre venue.

It's easy to drop costs by having cheaper clothes, not bothering with favours or decorations but that's not what really makes it expensive.

I would never skimp on a photographer because that to me was very important. I wanted to display the photos and look back at them with pride in 30 years.

Food, drink and venue hire just costs a lot, for any event but esp a wedding.

We're in the same boat OP

We have chosen to get married in January when it's much cheaper. Our venue does a January / February package which is half the price of a spring / summer wedding. We are marrying and having the reception at the same venue, so no cars needed. No wedding favours. My fiancé is wearing a suit he bought for a friends wedding and I got my dress second hand.

I didn't have flowers apart from a bouquet. Nobody noticed

Favours were homemade ginger biscuits. Very cheap.

We made invitations with stuff from Hobbycraft. I didn't do Save The Dates. Nobody noticed.

We hired cars from an "executive taxi" firm rather than hiring classic cars/ limos etc.

A family friend made our cake as a present. The cake that was actually given out on the night was from a supermarket so we had the real cake to take home. (My sister's cake got left out all night at her self catered, open air venue and was devoured by wasps. A lot of money wasted.)

We had a hog roast buffet rather than a sit down meal. £1000 for the whole thing and there was loads. Catered over 100 people.

Go for something really informal and do a barbeque or a buffet or have a pub meal.

Have your music (if any) on a usb stick.

Get a friend to do photos. Buy clothes second hand.

Don't have bridesmaids or page boys. Don't invite masses of people just close family and friends.

It really isn't worth going OTT.

Getting married between Xmas and new year, quite time and got small venue near registry office, which did away with cars. Flowers from esty as no fresh flowers this time of year. Xmas lights made everywhere look fabulous. Many guests were on leave, eve do no food, just cake and drinks & stipulated no presents please come and celebrate. Started organising End of September

Total cost around £3k for 30 guests sit down meal and evening venue at same place exclusive use (quite time of year) for a £2k spend and that included the food. We had several bottles of Prosecco on arrival and for the toast

Our moto was keep it simple

The less guests, the less of everything you need - smaller venue, smaller decorations, less hire costs of tables/chairs/toilets, less food, less favours.
I agree with PP who said you can’t do a “big”wedding on a budget. Either go large and make it impressive or small with no corners cut. Alternatively don’t go down the wedding route at all and just make it about being married. Sneak off and then just have a party at some point,

My wedding is on a very small budget.

I'm not having a MUA or hair stylist.
I'm making my dress (so far have spent £170ish)
I made all my invites.
I've made my favours
Making all table decorations (keeping it simple with jars and candles)

Food will be a bbq buffet. And the evening food will just be a standard party buffet.

I'm making my cake

My bridesmaids bought their own dresses

Having a registry office ceremony

No fancy cars or anything like that

I have been extremely lucky that I don't have to pay for our reception venue, though. But that also means I have to do virtually everything myself. Which is cool, but also a lot of pressure.

I definitely think you can save money on many many things and still a lovely wedding. But the food is trickier to do on a tight budget. My friend had a buffet style meal at her wedding, and ask some friends to each bring a dish. Which worked really well and gave a massive variety of food.

We managed to keep it down as we're getting married in November (classes as winter wedding) making my own decor:

• flowers
• acrylic signs
• favours

-bouquet

• centre piece

And my wedding dress was under £700

Were getting married in june and were having it on a sunday. It's called the relaxed package so not sit down meal, just hog roast and will do a do it wall and wedding cake for dessert. Got my wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses online. Got photographer cheap as it is my partners friend. Ceremony will be in the same venue so no car needed. Total cost for venue (reception and ceremony) food and welcome drinks for 70 guests, and use of the honeymoon suit from 12 until the following day, and breakfast the next day £2300. We also paid an extra £150 to have the bar open til midnight instead of 11pm. All in all our wedding will cost roughly £6000 including honeymoon

Work out what matters to you and what doesn’t. I didn’t care about the car - went in a taxi and loved it. I didn’t care about cakes, we had a M&S one, three white tiers that we decorated. I didn’t care much about flowers- had my bouquet and buttonholes only. The biggest saving for us was only having 30 at the daytime and just having a big evening reception at night.

We are using a local, independent pub. We’re paying for meals for everyone, but the use of the pub for the afternoon and evening is free!

Not getting a traditional expensive wedding cake. We’re having a cake table of numerous different cakes - all delicious from a local small business supplier.

Using own cars to drive to church/venue.

Family and friends doing photographs.

Dress is designer found on Facebook - it’s perfect!

Planning on the costs being under £3,000 for about 40-50 people.

What Honeyroar said.

Be realistic about what you think you can afford to spend, then prioritise what is important to you

You'll get all sorts of opposing views, the more replies you get.
Also, things like the size of your families and the numbers of friends you have, come in to it.

I went to a wedding once where 11 of us (incl B&G) went to the ceremony and then just to a meal in a smallish restaurant (not booked as a wedding, just a meal, so no inflation of prices), then they had a party in a hall in the evening. Lovely

I've been to two different weddings that were on campsites.

I've been to weddings in grand stately homes.

I've been to receptions in a school hall, a Church hall, some parish rooms, in social clubs and in posh hotels.

I've been at weddings where various guests donated their talents (cakes, photography, flower arranging, driving their own car, etc).

there is no correlation between the cost of the wedding and how nice it is.
Decide what is important to you two , have some consideration for guests' comfort, and stick to what you can afford.

I got my dress in a sale. It was going to be almost £1000, I got it for £400. It's so bloody beautiful too.

I'm not doing save the dates either. I really don't see the point in essentially sending two lots of invitations, who the hell thought that was a good idea?

I'm getting artificial flowers too. Will still be expensive, but at least they won't die a couple of days after the wedding.

I refused to scrimp on the venue, food, photographer or band though. I wanted to get married somewhere I loved, not because it was cheap. I loved two venues and chose the cheaper of the two, but I did actually like it more. The other one was bigger and a bit intimidating. The venue is providing the food and I'm paying for extra wine for tables because I think it's important people enjoy themselves. The photographer is more expensive than I'd have liked, but she's brilliant and it's the style of photos I like too, plus we get a lovely album with it.

The band are brilliant too and again important otherwise people could end up bored if they played crap music or sounded bad. I'd advise going to wedding fairs and listening to bands live. You don't get the same feeling from videos.

Sorry I'm not helping on keeping costs down but I agree with others you can't do a middle ground and get a big fancy wedding for little money. You have to pay for these things. People are providing a service and unless you pay well, you tend to get crap.

Yeah it's one day, but hopefully, it's the start of a long marriage. I wouldn't do something you will regret.

I think you need to decide what you are willing to compromise on, set a budget and stick to it. I wasn't willing to compromise on venue, band or photographer but I'm not having cars or a videographer. I'm not fussed about favours, flowers, cake and decorations so the budget for them is probably quite low. Having said that apart from the venue which was 300 over budget everything else has come in under budget.