Venues for £500 or under?

[Brokeandwed]

Our budget is about 800 max. I'm struggling to find anything that isn't in the thousand range. But surely not everyone has that money to spend, any creative or cheap ideas would be most appreciated

Registry office then a meal in a pub, don't tell them it's a wedding when you make the booking, just book a table for your number of guests.

Do you mean for the ceremony, reception or both? How many people and what part of the country?

If it was small, say 20 people, do you know anyone with a large garden where you could erect a marquee? Have it in a restaurant. Some have smaller back rooms for private hire. Winter, midweek wedding would be cheaper.

Can you save a bit more each month? When are you thinking of doing it? Elope?

Sometimes local authorities (councils) own venues which can be rented for the day.

Look at each Council's website.

Registry office and church hall and friends and family provide things as gifts

Eg photos
Flowers
Help making buffet

What numbers? Roughly whereabouts?

I'd agree with going for a pub or someone's garden if you can.

I went for a community centre but they can be pricey these days. I also spent a fortune decorating it

https://millpoolcentre.org/

Probably have to travel but this area has a couple of wedding celebrants I could recommend. This allows you to self cater but you'll probably all have to pay to stay somewhere local.

Try universities

We hired our local Labour club for free as members which had a garden as we guaranteed a certain spend in the bar (I think we put £300 behind it ourselves and then they made double that again at least) . They had PA equipment/tables/chairs - and I asked my local flower stall what would be the cheapest flowers for the time of year and just dotted buckets of them around - plus some cheap tropical themed decorations it looked fine - tbh everyone was outside anyway.

We got a company in to do the bbq but that's cos there were 150 of us, it could have been done by us or for much cheaper if fewer people - heck I'd have just called pizzas or similar in.

If I do say so myself it was one of the best weddings I and many others had ever been to, and I think it's really because we hadn't spent loads on it there was no pressure for it to be a certain way/live up to any expectations and so really it was just a massive pi** up.

Just think what you'd do to celebrate any kind of do with the amount of people/money you have rather than try and fit it to a wedding mould.

Congrats - have fun

PS - costco will be your friend if you're a member - cut price food/drinks/cakes etc - you might be able to negotiate providing your own fizz for the toast to save a bit too (if the fizz is v cheap can cut it with orange juice/cassis to make kir royale to disguise it)

This is what I’d do. Many places will give you a private room for free if you have a certain minimum spend, which won’t be much.

I’d only invite guests you love, wear a lovely highstreet dress, and ditch fripperies like matching bridesmaids or flowers for anyone other than yourself.

Registers office and church hall. Do everything yourself. Or maybe a pub function room. (Don’t mention wedding)

Local community hall - probably cost you about £100, then Costco as others suggest. Ask guests to bring a bottle / beer to drink. Keep it simple. keep guest numbers low

We're going to a local restaurant - There's 12 of us. Room will cost nothing so it's just the meal & drinks and we're paying

This is what we did. Told the pub that it was a family celebration and hired a room which cost nothing as we paid for the food and also put money behind the bar. DD and cousins decorated it.

Got my makeup done at the Bobbi Brown counter - paid I think £30 which was redeemed against a moisturiser!.

We hired our local bowls club. Large hall with seating for 100, dance floor, bar and outdoor space. £110 quid 12pm till 12am. Anything similar in your area?

About 30 to 40 guests max. I'm in surrey so not the cheapest of areas! Just for the reception as I'm assuming the ceremony will be too expensive

We got married on a Monday because it was over £1000 cheaper for the venue than on fri-sun

@Brokeandwed so I’m up north (Lancashire) but I’m chair of a community centre. Many community centres and village halls hire out for events.

Ours is less than £400 for a full day (and access the day before and after for getting everything sorted/collected) - that’s ceremony/meal and evening do and you can have your wedding done there by an official thingymabob (menopause brain deleted words). That gets you access to our hall, lounge, full catering kitchen and a stocked affordable bar with volunteers manning it all.

We have volunteer room dressers that will set up the rooms and centre to your colour theme (as much as possible) with bunting, table clothes and chair covers (think that’s all under £100 depending how fancy you go as we have to hire it) and table decorations.

there must be similar centres across the UK?

Oh where in Surrey are you? Are you wanting somewhere with enough space for a sit down meal or just buffet/snacks?

Music?

A community or village hall is your best bet. I used the Guildhall at Lichfield. It only cost about £100 but 17 years ago. Get family to help prep food for you. I bought my wedding cake in M&S and lots of people said how nice it was. DH made the order of service. I made the invitations. I bought a flower girl dress and headdress from eBay for £20.

Sports clubs with a nice function room , village halls

Your best bet is going to be a set menu for guests in a nice pub but £800 for 30-40 is unrealistic sorry - that’s £20-26 a head and you probably want to provide your guests with at least a few bottles of wine to have with dinner before it goes to paid bar.
If you don’t want to drop the numbers, the other option for your budget is finding a nice village hall and doing a Costco cold buffet type jobby. This obviously is cheaper but requires a lot more work on your part but if you have willing friends and family you could maybe just about do it for that budget.

Do you mean your total budget for the venue hire is £800, so £20 per guest?

If so I'd look first to cut the guest list if you can (book it on a weekday or do it with two months' notice to cut down on RSVPs).

Then get creative - is there a local music school with a lovely hall, a cafe in a nice park, a church hall? With nice decor you can make anywhere look good - you could probably hire a parish hall for £200 then spend £300+ on decor if you wanted.

The absolute best wedding I went to was in a rainy November in a Salvation Army hall; the bride's pals served sausage stew and chickpea stew and fresh bread, there was homemade wine to drink and their mates DJd. It was glorious. Also went to an amazing one where the wedding food was just a gorgeous buffet from Waitrose, eaten at long tables with fresh flowers and candles, and drinks were served out of baths of ice.

Registry office followed by a party in a church hall / community room or pub. Put on some finger food, guests buy their own drinks but make that clear from the outset.

Your local church or community hall. Get friends to help decorate and clear away. I've been to some fabulous wedding dos in church halls/cricket clubs etc. At one the food was lovely hot pies. They went down a treat. Definitely on a budget but great.