Wedding in Autumn 2025

[Konj]

Hello, I just thought I would ask this lovely community of people as you all always have great ideas and support.

My fiance and I to spend next year travelling so would love to do an intimate wedding autumn of this year.

Our budget is £10-£15k - with about 45 - 65 guest.
as we really want to use our other saving towards travelling and doing up house we just moved into.

I know the feasible option would be town hall and dinner but I would love to have a small wedding where we do things like dance, party etc.

my fiance dad is also a chef but I’d rather him enjoy the day then cook for us however that would save us a lot of money as we would not pay him as he would only need for us to cover food cost and then some.

ive been considering a ceremony in back garden but wondering by the time I hire chairs, a celebrant etc, I should just find somewhere that provides it all.

im based in London and flexible with time and location with in reason if anyone has any thoughts or suggestion I’m open to hearing it all.

thank you in advance

I don’t have a particular suggestion of venue but I can tell you we spent £6k on ours last year which included church, hiring the top floor of a gastro type pub, prosecco reception, 3 course dinner for 35, wine, live band, further 30 evening guests, buffet, paid for all drinks. (I made the cake, used own cars, friend took photos). I had a proper dress and he bought a new suit.

venues that charge you as an event and not a wedding is key - we paid £49 a head for the sit down meal and no charge for room hire as long as total spend was over £3k. Food quality was excellent and portions too big. I’m not in London but I’m sure there are places where you can do similar, and you don’t need to cover the bar bill as we did.

As above, ours is in June and is probably going to be £6kish
Registry office, photographer all day, function rooms above a gastro pub £150, 2 course meal is about £25-30 each (Yorkshire prices!) for 45 of us, glass of fizz to toast. Bringing it up to 100-120 of us for a night, live singer, DJ, buffet. We've got dresses/ suits/ bridesmaid dresses. Staying at a lovely place next door for 2 nights.

Where we've saved is going for the cheaper option of room, so go and look at nicer pubs around your area and see whether any of those have separate rooms. If they do food, great! Ask them how much per head. We're not bothering with cake, or with doing favours.

The money spinners are the venues. If you want a barn or stately home, those alone will probably take most of your budget. Lots of hidden extras too- to get legally married there, it will likely cost £700-£1000 extra to get a registrar there. And they'll likely have tiers of decoration- sods law you'll always like the higher priced ones!