Tell me about your basic / low cost wedding?

[blesbliss]

The cost of a traditional wedding is prohibitive and if we're going to do it, it will have to be very basic / low cost.

I have another post considering a registry office followed by a pub meal but also wanted to hear of any other ideas to keep the wedding very low key.

We found a registry office that looked amazing, was in a medieval house, then a village hall close by with beautiful lights and a vaulted ceiling. You would never ever have guessed that those two things together only cost £800.

We (DD and I- she was 8) did the bouquets and flowers for the top table ourselves. We hired chair covers, candles (for centrepieces and decorations for the ceremony) and put them out ourselves, with help moving them onto tables after the ceremony from the children of other guests. We had fairy lights strung from the ceiling for extra lighting. My dress was £30 eBay, DD’s was £40. Suits were hired. We got a package deal from the venue for food (and DJ) but if not I think we could have got cheaper (and possibly better) shopping around. Total cost £4,000 venue, £420 for the rest, 110 guests.

Don't spend a long time planning it..the longer you take the more the fripperies seem appealing!
We got married, then had a big party, paid for all the food and drinks for less than £3k.
Registry office, local venue, licensed but no bar. Paid for a buffet to be catered for and a delivery of samosas and bhajis towards the end of the night. Paid a friend's teenage kids to serve drinks. Had a playlist disco and a ceilidh.
Nice dress but not a wedding dress, no bridesmaids or such like. No suit hire, DH bought a new shirt and trousers. No bouquet. Did my own hair and make up. Had a lovely time.

If we’d used eg a village hall and food vans we could probably have saved £1-2k, but none near us.
oh, we also had a DIY sweet station (jars and bags from eBay)

Don’t fall for the hype. Work out who you want there, really want there, and start from that. Don’t get guilted into asking aunt Clara who you haven’t seen for 20 years.

both of you, your guests, some food….that’s enough. Nice clothes as there’ll be pictures, some flowers if you like a bunch of flowers.

And don’t have a sweet station. Or swagging of any kind.

my brother h registry office, pub lunch, nice pub and it was lovely.

We went away to a hotel that offered a "just us" package in the Lake District.
We chose to go and do it completely privately and it was literally just us and our 2 dc but we could have chosen to have up to 8 guests if we'd wanted to.

Made my own dress, got married at Easter so the church already had flowers, went to the florist and picked up a few fresh lillies on the morning of the wedding for me, went in my son’s car which we decorated with ribbons ourselves, and had a bring-and-share reception in the church hall. Honeymooned out of season on the Norfolk broads. Total cost under £1000.

We had

•Local registry office with a rose garden and gazebo.
•Only immediate family and very close friends, about 18/19 people in total, inc kids - and us.
•Had the reception at a pub with garden, and bouncy castles for the kids, no hire charge.
•Agreed a playlist to be played into the garden.
•They set up a marquee at no charge.
•Paid £10 per head for a bbq set menu.
•Had a completely free bar, which only came in at about £800.
•Got the cakes from M&S, had a cake plus a small fruit cake plus a small gluten free cake. The small ones were the £5 taster cakes from the wedding range.

The whole thing including cars, hotels (we paid for mums hotel rooms and 1 sisters family room for 2 nights) plus a dinner the night before the wedding and the best man's clothes, we only had kids as pageboys and bridesmaids so paid for theirs too - came in at just under 6k.

We just did registry office and back to my sister in law's for a buffet. About 15 people in total.
My mum insisted I should have a "nice dress". I got one from Debenhams for £35. Personally I would have felt more comfortable in jeans but oh well.

So for the reception we only paid for the food and bar bills.

We just did registry office and pub lunch on New Years Eve and it was perfect!
There were 18 of us including children, just our immediate families and very closest couple friend.
My ultimate top tip is that even if you're saving money and trying not to get carried away, don't cheap out or skip getting a brilliant photographer. Ours came just for the ceremony and cost £200 for the hour, and I'm so, so glad we're not relying on pictures from people's phones to have captured the day. Ultimately you'll look to the photos to remind you of the day and decent photography makes the difference between a wedding being 'small and DIY' and 'intimate and rustic'.

We both wore jeans, lovely London register office, brought two friends as witnesses, went for tapas and champagne afterwards. It was low-key and romantic.

I only decorated with a few balloons around too, and the pub put up fairly lights and had a cart that they put the cakes on. I bought a cardboard birdcage cake stand and had a cake topper from etsy.

I didn't go overboard with dec's.

Remind yourself that marriage is better than the wedding day itself!

Set your mind on a few keywords of what you want and go from there. When I got married I was obsessed with brides form the 1920s and found the cheapest ways to make that look/vibe happen. A bit like doing a fancy dress costume on a budget. I got a dress from Debenhams and everything else online. From head to toe, veil, tiara, jewellery, dress, shoes and other accessories, I'd say cost £150 in total. I did my own makeup but did get a hairdresser to put it up.

My friend got artificial flowers from a pound shop and managed to bring them up so convincingly that you would never have guessed. She isn't generally artsy but think she got info online.

We had a church wedding 27 years ago. People basically helped to organise things as wedding gifts. We’d been together for a while so there was no gift register etc.

A friend made my dress from a McCall’s pattern. I bought the fabric.
Cousin sent me “the veil” (!)
Brother1 and cousin-in-law took a video/photographs for either side. We paid for printing. I still haven’t made an album…
Best man decorated his own car (lovely old VW Beetle) with ribbons and flowers.
MOH did table decorations and my flowers.
Aunt made the wedding cake and had it iced.
PIL and my parents paid for the “buffet and roast” lunch.
Church ladies decorated the tiny village church a day early (Saturday) with an extra contribution from us. Brother2 played some tracks over the sound system.
We gave the priest €100.

Sorry, we got married before euros, so we must have given the priest 100,000 Lire.

Don't bother with a cake - so expensive and no-one cares
Consider an evening wedding in Autumn / winter so you've got just one meal and less hours to hire a venue

I have just paid for my DD's wedding.
It was small but lovely.

Registry office. 20 guests in total. She booked a local restaurant. They were doing a set 3 course menu (Christmas menu) I paid for 2 drinks for each guest.

The wedding cake was taken to the restaurant. Not a traditional cake. It was from a specialist donut shop.

No wedding car as we took her.
We all walked from the registry office to the restaurant. We went to a bar on the way and had a few drinks.

No photographer as my dd didn't want one. But we all took photos and sent them to one of the guests who did a lovely album (ordered on line).

Her dress was from coast and was in the sale at £70 and it looked gorgeous.

She had flowers from a local florist. Ordered her own invites on line for £23.

No speeches. Really low key. But a lovely day.

Restaurant bill was £750 that's for the food, drinks and service charge.

Registry office and buffet in a local pub for 50.

dress and shoes from eBay

decorations kept simple but sourced second hand from eBay/Vinted/charity shops. Resold again afterward.

we did drinks tokens instead of wine on tables, own hair and make up, taxi instead of cars.

flowers we bought locally on the morning and rearranged the bouquets into vases etc, but kept it simple.

silver rings

no bridal party

work out what is really important to you, we did have a proper photographer but only for 3 hours to cover ceremony and a few shots of us. We also provided some transport for guests.

don’t get sucked into what people say you ‘must have’ or do.

Bought my dress online for £80, only had one bridesmaid and got her dress from ASOS, didn't bother with a cake, and I made all the invites, table decorations and seating plan myself. We also only had 28 guests in total and it made the day really intimate. We had our reception in a private room in a pub/hotel and used family to drive people between the venues to safe car hire. We bought our own champagne for drinks on the lawn after the ceremony and qualified for free glass hire with the purchase. We then put a post online for a server and we're recommended a brilliant lady who kept everyone's glasses topped up, then washed up all the glasses for us afterwards! We also did out own music - created a playlist and used our own speakers.

Ceremony late in the day so you only do one meal. How many guests are you thinking?

A basic Church wedding will cost you around £700, use the flowers already in the church. Our church hall rents at £15 an hour and do your own catering/local service at about £12 /head or local Indian charged £12 for full Indian buffet. One couple ordered pizzas from dominos another used Waitrose entertaining

I attended the church I married in and the church council waived all but the statutory fees. I wore a gorgeous summer dress from Debenhams, groom wore smart trousers, lovely jersey over a checked shirt and tweed tie. Organist was a friend and played as her present. Reception in village hall, catered by raiding Sainsbury's deli. Both mothers made and iced a Christmas -type cake.

Oh and my uncle put ribbons on his car and drove me and my father to church.