How to make a wedding not cost £10k!

[BrideOnABudget]

Hello
I am recently engaged and planning our wedding for 2026. We are thinking months April-September, not too fussed which in between that period.
I've been looking around and everything seems to be costing around £10,000+ which is just so much money and not something we can afford!
We are looking at around 80 guests and like the idea of a barn wedding, tent weddings, castles, hotels etc. but a lot of this is obviously extortionate!
Any suggestions on how to make it cheaper?!

We got married in May (it was May 2024 so prices will have changed a lot). We got married in church so we had to pay the organist £40 and the caretaker the same. We gave the minister another £40 so the actual wedding cost £120.
We booked the function suite at a local hotel for the evening with a buffet for 120 people. We had a family meal in the hotel dining room for ten people. At £20 each that cost £200.
We stayed in the hotel for one night as did a few family. I think that cost me about £500. The cost of the function room, buffet and resident DJ was £600.
We used a local private hire taxi, they said they would charge a lot as the driver would wear a suit, he would get the cat valeted and put ribbons on it. They charged £60
The total was £1360.
That does not include a wedding dress or my kilt hire or flowers.

I had my wedding last year in my local village hall. Venue cost was £60!

Booked caterer and band myself. Friends did decorating and flowers.

We had 100 people and the whole thing (including wedding dress) was less than £3k. We had a fantastic time and lots of people said it was the best wedding they’d ever been to.

Our came in at roughly £3k for 60 guests, and we just focused on what we wanted and did a lot of DIY.

Got married in the local church
Drinks and buffet afterwards in the pub across the road - this was half our budget, £1k on the buffet food and £500 behind the bar to start everyone off on drinks
Dress was custom made from china - £200 did take 4 months to arrive, and I was prepared to buy another dress if it didn't work out
Dad did all the flowers on his allotment
Sister wrote a poem
Mum made bridesmaid dresses (for two 4 year old girls)
Friend did my hair and makeup
Brother did photography
I did favours and the cake (brought a plain white one from Asda and decorated with fresh flowers)
Even invites I printed myself.
Father in Law played the Organ and all wedding music! MIL did the order of service.

I was lucky because we did love in a really pretty rural village, and my family all had skills and things to contribute.

Get married in a registry office (around £100) and then have a party in a hall / barn / pub somewhere after the event. As soon as you tell anywhere / anyone that it's a wedding, the cost of everything is tripled (at least).

The best wedding I ever went to was a registry office then on to a pub afterwards. Function room with a DJ, pie and chips, free booze - cost the couple about £2k - £3k and absolutely no different to having a "wedding"!

I think low key home made weddings are more fashionable now and it seems more authentic to be in a local village hall than an huge fancy venue that you never go to normally. And can be more relaxing for guests too.

Church Hall, Village Hall, Town hall all can get the "fancy" vibe without the fancy price tag. Tavistock Town Hall (Devon) and Arundel Town Hall (Sussex) are 2 I've been to but I'd use Google maps to look at all of the town/village halls in your area and see if any appeal.

We spent less on fancy looking wedding with 3 course meal, canapés and ceilidh in the town hall than people spent on the marquee hire for their more rural wedding.

The only cheap barn weddings have been where the barn already existed or was needed on the existing farm of one of the couples families, but you usually end up paying £££ for toilet facilities!

Ours was 10k for 65 guests several years ago in london, most of that was on catering with some on hotel rooms for parents and travel for guests from ceremony to reception by hire bus. We had the reception in a nice pub on a weekend, it was very low cost for the venue hire because of the location, so the money was largely on the food and alcohol.

Areas to save were:

• cheap wedding dress
• used my granny's wedding ring
• no bridesmaids
• dj not band
• student photographer who didn't charge much as wanted experience
• made own place cards, seating chart etc
• taxis not fancy hire cars
• limited flowers, only small bouquet for me buttonholes for DH and a few others
• table flowers I did myself, flowers bought from market
• MIL made the cake.

A relative had a wedding at 3 by the time they went back to the venue and photographs were done it was time for speeches and the evening buffet. It was a great wedding, no sitting around waiting.
They saved on the cost of the sit down meal.

Skip flowers other than a bouquet. Consider dried flower bouquet.
Buy vintage or second hand dress.
Buy plain iced cakes from marks or a supermarket and assemble into tiers with flowers or petals scattered over
Print order of service at home on plain A3 or A4 paper and fold by hand and ask relative with best handwriting to handwrite names in gold pen
Put up sheets with seating plan and do not put out name cards
Skip favours
Have buffet menu rather than served
Put 1 red/white bottle per table and then paid drinks after that
No bridesmaids or groomsmen

I did a fair amount of these and friends did others

We did ours as a DIY wedding for about £2k (but only 24 guests).

We had a registry office wedding and reception was at my friend's, very nice, beach front property. We had the reception inside the house due to the small number of guests and the winter season, although the weather was unseasonably mild as it turned out.

Do you have any family or friends with a large property/ garden that you could use and hire a marquee?

Bought dress from China, had local seamstress do alterations.
Bridesmaid were all small and they had high street dresses
Food from M&S, drink from Tesco, desserts were bought by different guests, cake was M&S then decorated by me
Best friends mum was setting up as a wedding florist at the time, and wanted to do a full wedding without the pressure and responsibility of being paid, so BF paid for the purchase of the flowers and her mum did the arranging. The flowers were perfect, and the massive weddings she done in the years since have been amazing.
Didn't bother with wedding cars, just ribbons.
Used a crockery hire firm, where you just load the dirty plates back into the crates and return them dirty.
Only thing I didn't do 'on the cheap' was hair and makeup. I'm sure amongst 80 guests though, you probably have a pretty could skill mix, ask for their time in lieu of gifts.

I planned it all myself in a few months, under the supervision of my friend whose house I used. She had previously planned a 200 person wedding in her garden for herself in about 9 weeks under the supervision of a friend who is a wedding planner at a local hotel. Planning is the key, you need detailed timelines covering everything and someone (not you) keeping a close watch of the passage of time through the wedding day.

We did our wedding ‘on the cheap’ about 30 years ago and it still cost about £5k for 30 ish guests. That was a £500 dress, no flowers (I bought dried flowers and arranged them as little centrepieces), no bouquet, no bridesmaid, a Top Man suit for (now X)DH, curry for dinner I can’t believe this now, as a lover of sweet treats and a cake maker myself, but we had a traybake instead of a wedding cake!

Probably most of the budget went on booze, as I don’t remember much of it!

We did have a professional photographer who was probably quite a chunk of that budget and I guess these days with everyone having their own camera in their pocket you could get some decent pics without even needing a photographer, but it really was as pared down as it could possibly be tbh. And still cost £5k. Doing it for £10k these days would be amazing!

Next time around I’m thinking of an afternoon tea party, and my DP doesn’t drink so we can get away without any alcohol and then everyone can leave when they finish their scones and we’ll go home to bed. Perfection!

We spent 5k 7 years ago. We got married in a hotel in August with 80 day guests and 100 night guest.

Things we saved on -
We got married on a Friday
We had a hog roast instead of a sit down meal
We didn't have starters or hors deouvre
I bought a dress from a outlet
Bridesmaids dresses were high street store
I had a large posy of flowers as opposed to a wedding bouquet
We made our own centre pieces and favours
We didn't need cars
We had hot sandwiches and chips instead of an evening buffet
A family member made the cake
We hired a student photographer for three hours instead of a all day professional

Just got married at the end of November. Opted for a 'twilight' wedding so we got married at the registry office at 4.30 arrived to a country pub with function room for 5.15. Welcome drinks and photos. Speeches and dinner for 6.15 for 70 guests. DJ to follow. We had a carvery and dessert. Welcome drink, prosecco to toast and 5 bottles of wine on each table. No need for evening food. Venue was free, food and drinks came in at less than £2500. I had a wedding dress from a sample sale. Bridesmaid dresses for my girls from vinted . Lots of other decor bits from vinted. Husband's suit came from m and s. We used big real Christmas trees for our main decor. I had hair and make up done professionally. No favours. I think probably all together came in at £5k if not less.

I think it’s what you make of it. Someone I know got married by the river Tay in a humanist ceremony. Then we walked round to a hall which was about £100 quid to hire. Someone played music through the sound system. They’d put on a buffet, we bought our own drinks. It was a really nice day. There was a celidh in the evening. There was a big round of bacon butties at 11pm which really soaked up the booze. I enjoyed much more than fancier weddings where you are left starving for hours as they have budgeted two canapés per person

Congrats. 🎉

Our wedding was about 2k, very small. We had everything we wanted. Appreciate it would not be for everyone but this is what we did:

Around 15 guests.

Council venue (some are really nice! Widen your net if you’re not happy with your local.)

Non wedding venue for the meal - so we paid for the meal and drinks only, no venue fee hire. 3 course meal, drinks for everyone cost about £650. It was a country pub with gorgeous views, very ‘weddingy’ - only reason it isn’t an official one is due to its size limitations I think.

I didn’t get a dress from a wedding boutique, I got a bohemian style white dress from Etsy.

Made my own bouquets.

Cake from M&S.

In summary I didn’t use wedding vendors for our wedding details and this is what kept the cost down.

This is my top tip too

The fuck would I pay 2 or 3 times the price just to get married on the week-end, thats a rip off.

But apparently the only friends any mumsnetters have are teachers who can't take a week-day off

Sounds absolutely lovely 😍 but I’m biased as similar vibe to my wedding. Congrats!

You’re going to struggle with 80 guests.

Have a look at local hotels/wedding venues - They often have a standard package for winter/mid week that is under 5k

My wedding cost less that £200 all in.
30 people at the register office, then drinks at the pub - everyone paid for their own.
My dress was £80 in the monsoon sale, DH had a new tie but wore his interview suit. I got some roses from the market. Done.
We had a fab day- 24 years later I can’t imagine getting married any other way.

Dinner for 80 people at 75 a head would be 6k alone.

We hired a church hall for the evening / late afternoon do and ordered food from the catering service at Waitrose. Also bought a cake from there and a friend decorated it. Had the wedding breakfast at lunchtime in a nearby Italian restaurant with around 60 people.

Churches sometiimes offer buffet lunches or afternoon teas if you pay their catering committee. Church halls are often fabulous and village churches have sizable gardens for photos. Hire a photographer.
It is traditional but saves money.

Then all go out to the local large pub's function foom, or the golf club, bowls club, RSL club with a set menu of not too many choices and home made wedding cake. (saves money)

Provide alcohol and soft punch with the meal but no spirits.

Hire a fairly local band that plays covers and have taped music too.

It is cheaper to have a week day wedding but every single guest has to take a holiday and lose pay.

Don't go too late. Make your own favours like small jams or chutney..

Alternatively hire a mobile roast caterer to a country hall, after a garden or church wedding.

Have cheese and fruit boards. If it is going into the late of night, hire the local kinder committee or sports club or make cheese toasties for supper or order pizzas in. Make food and freeze it - cup cakes, cheese sandwiches for toasties, savoury muffins. Well chosen taped music is better than no music.

Have a small wedding but a larger reception at home with a BBQ and salads and make your own pavlova bar.

Or have a large day wedding, a tasty afternoon tea or mocktail hour with speeches at the church and only have a very small number invited to a sit down wedding breakfast. Fewer than 20 people will be easy to book at many venues..

Cheaper food often means a very limited menu .. prawns (peel your own) soups, pasta, lasagne, trays of sushi for a wedding breakfast. Along with stand up baskets of asian curries and fried rice etc. bowls of strawberries in season.
Set up pots of tea and make your own coffee.

Many (!) years ago - we had our wedding reception in an Indian restaurant on a Saturday afternoon when they would usually be closed.
It was buffet style with loads of different starters and 6 different curries/mains.
We didn't bother with bride's favours or ribbons on chairs etc.
I think people want plenty to eat and drink - not too much hanging around and a nice relaxed atmosphere.

Work out what you want to spend money on. Ours was food and drink a priority. We booked a nice local restaurant out for the day, that had a garden, and they did fizz and canapés and a lovely buffet dinner and bacon rolls later. We put some wine on the table and money behind the bar. Hired a dj. They had flowers on the tables anyway.

Registry office, in a castle so that was a bonus, my wedding dress was from John Lewis, 3 little nieces as bridesmaids dressed in monsoon dresses. Husband bought his sons suits to wear as they were best men.

Had cupcakes instead of a wedding cake.

It wasn't cheap but it wasn't 10k, and I didn't feel I'd paid for anything unnecessary that the guests wouldn't even have noticed.

If You want a barn wedding venue near West Sussex , Southend Barns might be the best option for you.