What to cut from wedding?

[WeddingOnAShoeString]

Hi,

I posted before about us wanting do get married on a budget and got some very helpful advice about village halls but I think we have decided it’s not for us.

We are currently looking at registry office and then bbq at a bar which is free to hire and costs are something like:
Ceremony £700
Possible drinks reception at RO: £400
Food: £800 (80 guests, £10/head)

I think my parents will probably cover some
of the bar bill but I’m happy to just put “cash bar” on the invitation especially if we do the small drinks reception.

So now I am looking at things we can omit/change and this is what I have so far:
-DB is a chef so going to ask him to make the cake
-future BIL is a graphic designer so going to ask him to do the stationery. he is also into photography so we are thinking of just hiring someone for the ceremony/portraits as future BIL will probably take lots of really good photos anyway because it’s what he likes to do.
-future FIL has an old classic car so we could ask him to use that to get there
-high street wedding dress, I have seen some lovely ones at coast/phase eight
-plant a rose bush in the garden and use them as button holes. A bouquet I can just buy from sainsburys the day before
-no band/DJ? Just use sound system at venue, DB did this and it was fine.

Does this sound okay or is it too miserly/depressing?

Any other suggestions for cost cutting?

How many people are coming? For wedding invites you could just buy a pack, or we got some cheap but lovely personalised ones from Etsy- it was about £30 for 25 invites, which was enough for us as we only had 60 people in total and lots were obviously couples or families.

We didn’t have a wedding photographer, just a friend who had a decent camera.

We had an afternoon wedding, so only one meal required (barbecue) and we served wedding cake for dessert! Our ‘drinks reception’ was on the beach- we bought our own prosecco and plastic glasses!

Definitely no wedding favours, we had no seating plan at all, just a bit of a free for all. Put a friend in charge of table decorations- she got some lovely little jars and arranged supermarket- bought flowers in them with some tea lights, it looked really lovely 😊 We also asked around and borrowed fairy lights from friends.

Some really great ideas here. Great thread 🥰

Hi, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your POV) our registry office is a town hall which actually looks quite grand. I’m sure there are other options if you ask but the standard ceremony is £700 for room hire for 2 hours, red carpet entry, room
for bride to get ready in and somebody in charge.

There is a registry office in another town near us that will do it for £200 but you only
get 30 minutes and I am trying to have a half way house between getting married because we want to be married and having something with a bit of a sense of occasion. My brother got married in a church and it was £800…

Our budget wedding:
No bridesmaids/groomsmen.
No photographer - nephews will be given a couple of decent cameras and told to get snapping.
Buffet meal rather than sit down. No band, just a DJ.
Obviously guest list is strictly family and a very limited number of friends.

Happily all family members that I asked were happy to give their time and talents to the wedding stuff. SIL is doing flowers (from her own SIL's fab garden) Others are collaborating on the cake. I did my own invites, mass booklets, centerpieces and pew ends, doing those DIY can save you money, as long as you are keeping the bottom line in mind.

You could send out E-invites and avoid postage costs. Or download a wedding app (I've got the With Joy app and it's great) plug in the wedding details and just text everyone the link.

I agree about the cake - it will be expensive for your bil to make and you should offer money for ingredients.

The £10 a head for food seems very low. Ensure that you do not do self service as the first few people will take more food than you are allowing for and others will get nothing.

I’m going to back up posters who think that the food might not be enough.

a BBQ which gives each guest two from burger, sausage, kebab, chicken; bread/buns; pasta salad/salad/coleslaw.
I think for most, having more than two from the following wouldn’t feel excessive. I was at an event last year which was catered barbecue style and most took much more than two of the above (then went up for seconds!). Maybe that’s because there was clearly plenty of food, but I don’t think most would think taking two skewers and a sausage is excessive. Unless you are going to be serving the food yourself is anticipate running out, and telling people they can’t have more is awkward. There’s also the situation where all the nice looking barbecues items run out first and those at the end are left with one burger in a hot dog roll because all the burger buns went earlier.

£10 for food is poor. If your going to host people for a wedding they deserve more than that.

What are they getting for a tenner a head 😬

I wouldn't bother with buttonholes for all guests. Most weddings I've been to recently haven't had them, except for maybe the groom, dads and best man.

@WeddingOnAShoeString that registry office sounds lovely. However the ceremony itself is very short anyway. We got married in RO and we were in and out really. It all felt a bit sirreal so I don't think it mattered so much. Also re buttonholes we only had them for the men immediately in the wedding. My mum wore one as my dad is no longer here