Budget Wedding- How can I make it a bit more fun?

[Keepingitmum]

Hello, Looking for some advice really.
Me and my partner have decided to do a quick registery wedding for November this year. After the low key registery office wedding, we want to do something else in the evening, my question is how can we make it a bit more fun and interesting, but on a really small budget!?

A few ideas we had in mind:
Hire a village hall which would be at the weekend instead of on the same day and Dec it out as cheap as possible, maybe hire a DJ and have a caterer or something similar (waiting to see the cost of this)

Booking a place for a weekend holiday in England, ie through Sykes cottages and inviting close family members to celebrate/have a party in the evening

Hiring a marquee and decorating it in our back garden, get some speakers for music etc and food.

We have a big family so still want to celebrate with them and our friends, I'd say maybe about 50 guests in total if we do a hall hire if not then around 20/30 guests.

All of these sound good, but I just want to add a little something exciting for a small budget! Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you all ☺️

How many guests are you thinking?

We have a big family and by that I mean just siblings and partners and their kids, mum and dad's, and grandparents, with a few of our really close friends that already brings us to 40 guests! Or 30 if we just have family members...

If you don't mind a lot of hard work I think a marquee at home is a wonderful idea. Very personal, really memorable.

Rope in as many of the guests as possible - maybe create a bit of a wish list menu for catering and ask everyone to choose a dish to make and bring??

Ask guests to nominate their favourite songs onto a Spotify playlist - either in advance or when they arrive. You can hire relatively cheap all in one speaker systems.

Some games for a kids corner if you've got a few of them coming.

Larger garden games if you've got space again quite easy to hire for the day.

My brother did a pub quiz for us (we had that awkward clear out of main room before dinner thing) so a round of relatively themed general knowledge about mainly our interests and then a round specifically about us / our relationship etc.

There was also a music round and is one of my favourite memories of Mum and Dad having an impromptu dance to one of the songs!

Hiring a marquee can be costly by the time you add everything into it, the village hall idea is lovely or a local bowling club function hall?

you don’t need to spend loads, some nice food and good music goes a long way! And as already said, use any family members with skills or talents to help with DIY bits?

have a lovely day when it comes

Im on a buget, im getting married in a chapel for few people, which makes it so much cheaper, then i also got a wedding grant for it.

Ive booked an all inclusive spa weekend. But i was tempted to go surfing haha. Originally i was going to book a hall and bouncy castle.

A marquee party in November may be a very miserable event. Would people Eve traipsing in and out your house to the loo? I would hire a hall and keep all the mess elsewhere.

I agree with this ^^
Ask people to bring a plate to share as well.

get some lovely autumn decorations in a small hall. pumpkins for instance
who is providing food?

Marquees that withstand November weather are pricey. Though I think home would be more special, a hall will likely be the safer bet.

why dont you have a band rather than a DJ?

I should think a band is considerably pricier than a DJ @Willmafrockfit