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.

Registry office - five guests - lunch afterwards. Wore a nice afternoon tea type dress (not £££s), DH wore a suit he already had - did buy a new tie from Liberty! My DM made a cake ... no cars, formal photos, or anything like that. Can't remember if I had a small bouquet or not. Still together 35 years later .

We dispensed with a lot of the things which many people don't question: in the service, but more practically too.

I had no bridesmaids (also no hen party)
We hired a marquee and squeezed 70 into my parents back garden - that we could do that was a luxury, but the marquee was offset by using friends to cater for us (buffet).
Another friend did the music (his gift) and even brought his own system.
We didn't use a wedding car (walked, which was delightful)
My BIL did the wedding photos as gift from him and DSis
DCous did a video as his gift
Borrowed tables and chairs from local church
Bought huge amount of white material and cut into tablecloths and napkins - which still using!
You get the picture :)
I did spend £850 on my dress though - nothing in my life had or has ever made me feel so beautiful :)

Good luck. Snip bits here and there and you'll achieve a lot. And congratulations!!

We did it by thinking outside the box. We didn't hire a "wedding venue" we hired a vintage cinema for £150 and held the ceremony (blessing) there. Then we had the reception in a function room. Decorated that ourselves. Cinema didn't need decorating. Did drinks on arrival at the cinema just bought them whilst on offer! Food in function room was a local catering company, not expensive. Then did a buffet in the evening using another company. Wedding cake was a gift but would have baked a simple cake myself. Dress was bought off vinted although was unworn, still a huge bargain. Did have to pay to alter it. Bridesmaid dresses were quiz on sale.

Spent maybe 3k all in if that. Did have to have a legal ceremony beforehand but that didn't bother us.

We hired a local band, and just had music on Spotify in the function room.

We had registry office ceremony followed by a reception/party in family member's garden. We had a catered BBQ for the meal with an diy evening buffet. We supplied the wine and soft drinks and then it was a bring your own drink affair. We did have spirits available. The only thing we splashed out on was a live band for the evening.

Registry office followed by a meal in a restaurant. Only invited 20 people. No flowers, no cake. Wedding dress was 2nd hand off ebay. My best mate had a posh camera so she took some nice photos for us. It was fab.

We did canapes and fish and chips delivery later.
my mate took photos as her gift
my cousin made a cake as her gift
we borrowed my mates posh car
we had wine and beer only
my MIL did the flowers after purchasing them from a local fruit shop
we hired a rowing club and decorated it ourselves

I wouldn’t change any of it

we had a simple registrar's office wedding, bought our clothes in the sales. We had a lunch for 30 adults plus six children. We had one big table and a set menu. We offered wine with lunch and champagne for a toast. It was a lovely day. Afterwards we spent the night in a local hotel where we were upgraded. This was 35 years ago.

Some really imaginative ideas, I’ll pass some on to DD!

Kensington and Chelsea register office - basic fee, but so many famous people got married there (there's a book) it made it slightly more fun. DH was impressed to have got married in the same place as DH Lawrence and Sid James 😂We just had dd and 2 friends. Passers by took photos of us on the steps. We went for lunch at Bibendum afterwards. My dress came from Next. I ordered some flowers over the phone and cried when they arrived as they were gorgeous.

@blesbliss how many guests do you plan to have? Loads of good ideas on here that I'm going to nab 👍.

We got married in church (registry office would be cheaper) and then afternoon tea reception in parents garden around the corner from the church.

-MIL make the cake
-My mum did flowers (tbh I didn't even notice them on the day so if money is tight I would definitely ditch)
-Sandwich trays from the supermarket (pre-ordered) and an absolute shit ton of scones from a local baker
-Jugs of Pimms
-balloons and bunting
-We did both buy a new suit (have reworn many times since in fairness) but again that's totally optional
-We weren't originally planning on having a photographer at all, but last minute found someone with an hourly rate than a full day "wedding package" and I'm so glad we did. Best thing we spent money on.

We very were lucky to have the practical help from family and that they had a nice big garden - appreciate this is a massive priviledge.
I will always remember the day before the wedding running around like a headless chicken while my young brother and DHs no-longer-young uncle were up a ladder hanging bunting!

For an "as cheaply as possible" wedding that's still nice, in our planning stages we also considered the registry office (which happened to be a pretty building and set in a really nice park) and for people to bring and share a picnic lunch

Sorry I just found this post- may I ask which location this was please? Sounds great.

Our wedding was 18 years ago, but some of these will still stand.

Made our own invitations and order of service.

Wedding dress from Monsoon's wedding collection. The matching jacket then went into the sale so I returned it, got a refund and instantly repurchased it for 50% off!

No chair covers, table plans or favours.

I made the cake.

I paid the corkage and bought better wine than they had available and got a really good deal from my chosen supplier.

Married as late as was legally allowed in the day and everyone invited came to all of it. Fed everyone at a sensible time and didn't need a later buffet.

A friend had DJ set up so we borrowed that and then lots of people did little half-hour sets on the music.

We did have a free bar but didn't have spirits, and it was soft drinks, wine, champagne, beer and cider. The wine was sale or return I didn't bother returning, we just had wine for the next year or two!

We did get mates rates on the photographer as he was a friend.

Our wedding was 120 guests, free bar, four food choices and canapés and A LOT of champagne, and including the honeymoon was £8500 in total.

It's doable if you make sensible choices and don't get caught up in ridiculous and unnecessary things the wedding industry will say are essential or fashionable.

No one will ever say "that was a lovely wedding, I liked the chair covers".

They will say "that was a lovely wedding, the bride looked lovely, the groom looked handsome and the food and drinks were nice".

• We got married in an outdoors activity/adventure centre. Much cheaper than other reception halls and we had a lovely view. My husband and I are outdoorsy people so it suited us perfectly
• We got married in april, again, again cheaper than in the summer. We got lucky with the weather
• I bought a regular dress (that I could wear in other circumstances) but I spruced it up with a satin bolero, satin belt and petticoat, all bought second hand.
• Decoration was mostly dried flowers, lavender and wheat
• We had a catered buffet that included dessert. We made shitloads of tiramisu and many friends provided cake
• Nice sparkling wine instead of champagne

Nice little registry office with only 8 guests.
Taxi as transport.
Meal in small local restaurant
m and S cake but got someone to personalise it.
Home made invitations.
Nice dress from high street. Not a bridal dress.

Registry office (find a nice one! For example, Coventry is an old medieval Manor House).
Meal for close family. We booked out a tiny restaurant (seated 27) and just paid for lunch for everyone. Home by 3. It was great!

My sister in law got married at a registry office and had her reception at home. Just got platters from m&s.

This was 28 years ago before the wedding market went bonkers and people started to have all sorts of ridiculous expectations of stuff they "need' We even had small children at ours 😉

We got married in a beautiful registry office then had the reception at the nice function room of a nearby pub. We hired a white taxi but I really don't think cars matter.

We got married as late as possible so we only had to serve one lot of food. We invited around 30 of the people we loved most in the world so it felt big enough but was a manageable number financially.

My best friend made my dress (but in those days there were no nice cheap off the peg dresses like there are now). We decorated the venue with star shaped helium balloons which we did ourselves and the kids took home with them.

Another friend organised the playlist though we were super-lucky that other friends were in a band and also played for us.

We had a two course sit down meal for everyone with the wedding cake as pudding. We provided wine with the meal but had a pay bar.

Our wedding was such a joyful day and the reception was just like a fantastic, fun party because we had everyone we loved with us and we'd done the things we could do ourselves in advance so we didn't need to worry about the practicalities on the day (food, clearing up etc)

Ours cost £350. 2 witnesses. I’d never have had a big fancy wedding. Complete waste,of money.

We married in the registrars office and had a lunch for 20 people afterwards in a small restaurant. It was over 30 years ago so can't compare the costs but it was very inexpensive. Parents paid for some champagne and we supplied wine for the food and a drink on arrival. No wedding cake or favours because we felt it was a waste of money. We had a glorious day and our guests seemed to have fun too.

We did a big weekend before get together for all our friends, where we paid for a bottle of wine each for all attendees and they paid for their food. Ended up in a nightclub; it was messy but a great laugh!
Our wedding was then in a church but with only immediate family (14 in total, including a best man and his girlfriend) and then a meal in a hotel that we paid for. Many of our friends sat in the church for the service and then waved us off. Flowers were 2 bunches (MOH and mine), no invitations and half fee from a photographer, but could easily have just had everyone bring a camera and give it a go instead. Don't regret it for a second.

My first wedding was like that. From memory, it cost £135. It was rubbish and the marriage didn’t last long.

My second was a bigger. 150 guests. Loved every minute of it. It was worth every penny we spent on it. The photos still make me smile.

Are you actually correlating wedding cost and size with the longevity/strength of the marriage?

No. It was a dig at those on MN who seem to believe that the longevity of a marriage is inversely proportional to the number of guests and/or its cost.

Been married twice and both times I asked for something low cost and simple.. I hate spending money if I don’t need to especially on myself or being centre of attention..

My first husband was here on his own with the rest of his family scattered across the world.. I couldn’t bring myself to ask them to pay to fly here for a wedding and I didn’t feel right expecting my husband to be to pay for it.. We registered our marriage with two witnesses then asked my family and our friends to come to dinner.. It might not have been lavish but everyone was happy and we were married..

Second time round we had our celebrant at home with family and friends.. The men threw a big bbq and the women indulged.. It was all we needed..

I guess everyone is different but this worked for us..

Good luck and congratulations..!