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?!

If you are budgeting, then i think you need to remember that it's just one day. No amount of money makes it last any longer.
Barn wedding sounds lovely but these things cost an arm and a leg.

We did registry office on a weekday and then a party with a buffet.
My dress was second hand and cost me £35. So was my husband's suit.
It was such a brilliant day.

My sister remarried after being widowed so had a low key wedding. A very basic meal in a small hotel in 2023, it cost 2k for 40 people. She made her own table decorations and I made the bouquet and buttonholes, I am not a professional florist but have done a lot of flower arranging, made wreaths and flowers for weddings for friends and have been to lectures on it.

No cars, just asked family friends with decent cameras to take photos, DH and a friend of hers did this. Her DS made the cake, he is a chef so that was an amazing cake. She sent email invites. She bought a very pretty dress off of Amazon of all places. It was a very pale blue with a lace overlay, it was actually a lovely dress. A friend of theirs has a band so they played for free.

She basically had a lot of people who could do stuff for her to a really good standard which was very lucky.

We had a budget wedding, but it involved a registry office ceremony, hiring a rugby club for the evening and doing a lot of work ourselves. Key cost was the band (£1200, worth every penny, the dance floor was full all evening) but we also hired in tables, linen etc. No favours or stuff that no-one remembers or cares about!

We made the cake, MIL did the flowers, my dress was less than £100, we catered (don’t recommend this but we pulled it off with a little paid help on the day). I think it was around £3k all in.

If you want a catered fancy venue for 80 guests then you are likely looking at £10k at least.

We got married in secret and it cost £100. £50 for registry office and £50 for my dress (he wore an existing suit). My mum and his dad were witnesses and no one else present. I don't have any other family and his are very laid back. Pictures just captured on phones.

It was Saturday lunchtime. We then went for a meal just the 4 of us. Then announced on FB that we just got married and if anyone wants to celebrate we are in the pub! The place was packed, everyone so excited and no one was upset that they didn't see the ceremony. It was so special to us and the amount of people who showed up with cards and presents without notice was so touching. Everyone had the best day. We then blew £3k on a honeymoon to Dominican Republic!

I went to a weekday wedding recently and most people had cleared off by 10. It was quite depressing!

@BrideOnABudget congratulations on your engagement, how are the plans going?