£1000 weddings

[Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc]

Is this even possible?!
We have a free photographer and we’re happy with a registry office - which is about £300

Im going to get a second hand or high street dress
Fiancé will wear a suit he already has
Im not counting rings in the budget

Can we make it cheap but nice for around 25-30 guests? Would you be annoyed if you went to a wedding that just offered some Prosecco afterwards and that was the end? Is there something else we can do that doesn’t cost us any money?

I’ve posted before about trying to plan a small wedding but we are skint and just want to be married. However, family (who if money were no object we’d love to have there) have made it clear they’d be really upset and hurt if we didn’t have them there, and that isn’t our intention, so just trying to find a way to balance it all!

Obviously you asked this question 6 months ago @Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc
What did you decide ?

We did, had a buffet so the per head catering was inexpensive. Limited booze.

We got married in church (baptist) so church and hall was by donation.

We did it when we had to change plans again due to covid. I borrowed my parents garden and a neighbour lent their gazebo. Got a supermarket order to make up afternoon tea. I made cake. Dress was special but not bridal so could wear again. I think as long as you manage expectations you'll be fine i.e. We would love you to join us for a glass of fizz after.

Definitely doable.
Still white website for a wedding dress or Oxfam do second hand wedding dresses online.

I bought a giant vase from TK Maxx and then the day before bought 3 bunches of flowers from Morrison's and cut some foliage from a Eucalyptus tree in my mum's garden and placed it on the food table. I got my artificial wedding bouquet from Ikea's wedding section. I thought it looked nice.

Reception at home or a friend's garden. We got our booze from Majectic who offered sale or return on unopened bottles and free glass hire. Alternatively, a pub that offers free room hire out the back. You shout guests a glass of bubbles on arrival and then guests buy their own drinks.

We got our wedding cake from Marks and Spencers for £90

I've heard that Costco do good buffet stuff for parties. Reframe the buffet as a 'grazing table' and you'll be bang on trend. We got ours from Morrisons food ordering service and it was really nice quality and they will deliver on the day.

IPhone playlist and a bluetooth speaker worked well for background music and then tipsy dancing in the evening.

We said no presents and really weren't expecting anything as we are in our 40s and have everything we need but people were very generous and almost everyone slipped a note in with their card.

DH cousin got married 5 weeks after us and rumour has it spent north of 20 grand. MIL is obviously bias and may be pulling our chain but apparently lots of DH's family have said our wedding was better :D

Also when is the wedding op.enought time to plant some bulk bulbs to bloom- voila ready to pick your own flowers to put in jam jars or breakers.

Also depending on location you decide on but big or use old sheets and paint banners or murals to hang on walls etc.my cousin did the life of the couple,and driving into the sunset ones.they were amazing

Yes absolutely doable. I’d serve afternoon tea because then everyone understands it’s casual and will only last a couple of hours.

Shorter time minimises costs

Thanks all
To update you, we get married in 4 months
We have a registry office and a photographer booked and absolutely nothing else
We’ve not even told anyone we’re engaged, never mind that we’ve booked a wedding
Certainly no idea what we’ll do after the ceremony with people

So basically we are doing terribly at the whole process

@Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc
Same here!
We've booked the registry office and that's about it.
We're lucky we have a huge garden so we're having a big barbecue that our friends are sorting. He loves cooking / bbq-ing etc so is very happy to do it.
We are borrowing a marquee from the local scouts. I do Beavers so have an 'in'.
We are providing the food and getting people to bring their own booze in lieu of presents.
I'm looking at EBay for dresses. Debop and Vinted too.

For the cake we are having a cake stand with lots of cupcakes, with pretty toppers. I can bake and decorate these.

Rings- go secondhand. Either a jewellers, eBay or antiques fairs. Massively cheaper.

Good Luck with yours! A potluck wedding is so much more personal and fun, in my opinion.

My cousin hated the idea of a wedding. She got married on a weekday, with just parents, then hired a village hall on the Saturday evening, couple of local bands for entertainment, half a dozen casks of ales, wine etc in the kitchen, and got the local chippy and the local Indian to do buffets.

Everyone got given a glass engraved with the couples name and date on the way in the door and that was that.

It was hands-down the best wedding I've been to, really relaxed and enjoyable, and I still have the glasses.

A wedding is a party at the end of the day. Feed people and water them and they won't care about flowers/tables/cake/suits or anyting else.

My sister recently got engaged, I’m helping her plan it and I had no idea that weddings were so expensive, so I joined wedding groups to find out ways of cutting costs without compromising the quality of the big day - like all of you, I assume!

Coincidentally, I’ve just started a new job at My Wardrobe HQ , a luxury fashion rental and resale company and had no idea they did bridal/wedding dresses until i started there so if you’re wanting to still have the dress of your dreams but they’re too expensive, I'd definitely check them out. They have really good bridal brands including Halfpenny and Oscar De La Renta so it’s really worth thinking about.

If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try my best to answer them!

Get a village hall or church hall - usually about £30 for a couple of hours.

iPod with a decent playlist - borrow a speaker to see if they have one there they usually do.

Order some platters from local bakery and ask guests to bring and share - people are happy to do this!

I’m sure once you tell people they’ll happily donate cakes and drinks!

I love a low key wedding as there are no expectations on dress code etc and people love to give rather than receive.

This is a grazing table - laid on two sheets of Greece proof paper - so no plates needed

Looked a tasted wonderful.

Very doable, but please don't ask guests to cook/bring food. I'd rather not go in that case.

@Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc

Is this even possible?! We have a free photographer and we’re happy with a registry office - which is about £300

Im going to get a second hand or high street dress
Fiancé will wear a suit he already has
Im not counting rings in the budget

Can we make it cheap but nice for around 25-30 guests? Would you be annoyed if you went to a wedding that just offered some Prosecco afterwards and that was the end? Is there something else we can do that doesn’t cost us any money?

I’ve posted before about trying to plan a small wedding but we are skint and just want to be married. However, family (who if money were no object we’d love to have there) have made it clear they’d be really upset and hurt if we didn’t have them there, and that isn’t our intention, so just trying to find a way to balance it all!

Personally I would be happy to witness the wedding, have a bit of cake and champagne, and then wave the couple off and get back to my life.

Make that "ecstatic " at the thought of not revolving an entire weekend around a wedding.

Just let people know it'll be ceremony followed by an hour or two max, so they can plan around it.

@rjane

My parents married in 1957. Grandpa gave them GBP 1000 and said they could keep what they didn't spend. In today's money that is over 20k. Mind you, in those days it was a late morning wedding, lunch and then off on honeymoon.

The days couples were eager to be alone!

My elderly neighbor and her husband to be, in the late 1940s, had grey tailored suits made and were married in them after a regular church service, with siblings in attendance. Mom stayed home cooking the lunch; then the couple drove away on honeymoon.

That seems more romantic to me than interminable big white wedding pageants.

@WithRosesAroundTheDoor

My favourite wedding ever was in a village hall. It was bring your own booze but the lovely bride trawled free sires, car boot sales and charity shops for different glasses and each guest chose one as a favour. She asked close family to being a dessert to instead of gifts and instead of wedding cake so just paid for mains for everyone. It was a street food kind of thing with paella and veggie pasta kind of dishes. It's definitely doable.

This sounds wonderful!

We did the same. We got married in 2020 so it was a limited wedding but we wanted it small anyway. The service cost around £250 in registry office then we had a marquee in family member's garden. We got food platters from Morrisons, which I think was £600. Then spent around £300 on drink.

My second wedding was around £1,200. We had close friends only, married at a beautiful historic registry office. One guest was a photographer who offered an album as a gift and we paid for everybody to have a lovely meal and drinks at a gorgeous venue. That included both our outfits and a wedding suite for the night. I think it's perfectly doable. I had a massive white wedding the first time round and didn't want that sort of thing again.

Venue is the key thing. Does someone have a large enough garden? If not I’ve done a childrens birthday party in a local park, could easily have done a wedding party instead.

Then ask if anyone has any gazebos to borrow, shelter if it rains will be important to factor in.
Get everyone to bring a picnic blanket and a buffet dish.
If at someone’s house organise a supermarket delivery to arrive with lots of bags of ice, nibbly snacks (I’m thinking pakora, Bahjis, felafel, crisps, that type of thing). Also fruit juice for any non drinkers. Have lots of bottles of water. If any supermarkets deliver chilled wine then have it delivered then too. As it’s arriving on the day chilled you can last with the food out the fridge for a while and it’s less logistics faff.
Buy a big bucket for drinks, top with bags of ice.

To add, personally I wouldn’t go to a wedding with just a quick glass of Prosecco afterwards, but would be very happy with something low key and casual that I contributed to, it’s more the faff to just go to a wedding just for 30 mins of being sociable afterwards isn’t worth it to me (I’m not that into the ceremony bit!) - I’d want a couple of hours of socialising.

Also agree with asking everyone to bring something in lieu of a gift. Some will do both anyway.