Tiny wedding ideas please

[BatshitAndBrazen]

We have been together ten years now. We have two kids (mine from previous relationship is 18) and our child together who is 4.

We would like to marry with minimal fuss, somewhere not too far. We live in the east of Scotland, happy to travel anywhere in Scotland or the north of England.

We would like to have both sets of parents and our children there. When I look up packages etc, they all still seem soooo expensive considering it would be such a small wedding. I'm only looking for a nice ceremony and a meal.

I am definitely not an outdoors kinda girl so I wouldn't want to get married outside.

Any ideas would be most welcome.

I think the best way would be to get married in a registry office, church or other free-standing licensed location. And then book a private room at a restaurant or pub. There will probably be options for this in any city or larger town, so are there any locations that hold special meaning for you?

Friends of ours got married at Riddle’s Court in Edinburgh - beautiful room for the ceremony and a small private room for the dinner. They had maybe 10 guests. Unsure what sort of price point you’re looking at, I don’t think it was bargain basement level, but everything was very simple with none of the expense adders like flowers, fancy decoration etc.

Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland can do tiny weddings and is a stunning location.

can't advise on venues for Scotland, but DP got married in Town Hall registry office on a Friday. Cost us £289 for the ceremony room, £35 for the notification & £11 for the certificate. Cheaper for Mon-Thurs, more for Sat & Sun. The Town hall ceremony room was lovely - well decorated & furnished, flowers, music if we wanted. The registrar and her assistant were totally lovely.

We then booked lunch in a bistro literally 2 mins walk from the Town Hall. There were 12 of us including DP & me.

My advice -
check out your local authority ceremony room
book a local restaurant in walking distance
don't go for wedding packages - they see you coming and have £ signs in their eyes!

Agree with @DPotter, don't go for a package. Just book the registry office, then a restaurant. These big weddings these days have become very tacky.

Registry office do then back to yours ..but maybe get a catering company to cook for you serve drinks etc so its a special experience?

Thanks everyone, I will have a look at the venues mentioned. Our local registry office is very naff, but I think I'll look into some in the surrounding areas. South Queensferry has lovely views of the bridges etc.

I'm sure a private room to dine somewhere would do us perfectly.

If you Google 'micro-wedding' + location there are lots of venues with smaller rooms. Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester for example starts from £90 per hour.

The problem with a non-registry office venue is the extortionate registrar's fees. For the exact same service, it varies form £600 in Cheshire East to £400 in Stockport. Solely for a registrar to perform your legal ceremony, that you might not get much say in. Worse still you're limited by their availability.

All registry offices are required to offer a 'statutory' ceremony for £57, try and fine one with a nice room (many are nice but impose an extra charge for the nice rooms and make you use a boring office for the cheap ceremony). Alternatively, consider having a friend or hiring an MC to perform a ceremony at your food venue after the 'legal' wedding.

We married after 12 years and 2 children - we did a registry office ceremony followed by private room for a family meal. We played our own music, sorted our own catering and drinks and it made it our own day. I wouldn't change a thing - we were 16 people which included us, our children, our parents, our siblings and their children. We found a place that had a nice green space outdoors that the kids could run free on - we married in summer. Just remember not to mention the word wedding. It seems to 'justify' a huge hike in price, even when you are having a micro-wedding 🙄

It's worth checking out registry offices in different areas. The one local to us is in a 60s purpose built council building overlooking a car park. The one in the town where I grew up & where my parents still live is in a 1900s building in a beautiful street. The room was upstairs with a balcony and the staircase itself is a sweeping one so both provided great backdrops for photos.

Check out the Love Shack, ive booked my tiny wedding there and so excited, it looks lovely!