Even a basic wedding is so expensive!

Tigsteroonie

thick_tom wrote: »

these days - do you have to get married ??

If you want to take advantage of the government's latest tax break, you have to :mad:

sebling

BlushingRose, I am exactly the same, we got engaged at new year and went to a wedding fair thing a month or so later and was so put off that I didnt even think about it for months afterwards, although I did win a magician for the wedding (it pays off taking part in these competitions but be warned, you get a lot of spam so create a new e-mail just for quotes and anything weddingy)
My aunty keeps telling me to do what her friend did and just turn up at the town hall and drag some people off the street but the rest of my family would feel like they missed out! I did toy with the Idea of asking people to pay for their meals but I figured thats a bit rude and you can do without anyway, even afternoon tea is a bit expensive.

So far, apart from my magician I have got a wedding dress for £60 from a vintagey type shop, a colleague has offered to lend me all the tea cups and vases and glass jars she used for her wedding as center pieces, been offered my nan's wedding ring, someone's offered to make the cake buy favour boxes and make mini cakes to go in them and bought place name things as they found them for 99p, mother in-law has suggested that she make things for the buffet and I'm sure my mum would help and my sisters offered to pay for her bridesmaid dress (also we found one on e-bay in the style I wanted for £16 tho there are dresses for £7) and to help with chocolate fountain stuff, I haven't even asked for anything, people just know we are a bit hard up and are happy to help out and are keeping their eyes out for deals, my brother has a pretty nice car too so think i'll just see if we can use that...keep a look out on bigdailydeals.com, wowcher and groupon, there was one recently for the whole reception inc. table linen, sit down meal and buffet for £700, which is amazing compared to the prices I have looked at.

At the moment I'm looking at church halls or cricket club type places where they are in parks so you get a nice surounding

also you said registary office was £200, thats similar to ours only before 11am on a weekday its only £49, its worth checking what deals you can get if you get married on an unusual day

sebling

and also Im quite crafty so will be making wedding invitations, paper flowers for tables and other things

CupcakeLisa

I had a family member get married two months ago - spent £200 and £125 of that were fees.

£40 rings argos, £10 flowers and the rest on drink for her garden party. everyone brought their drink. One of the best weddings I have been to

floss2

angelil wrote: »

If you're planning on staying married for your entire lives, then if you want to wear rings for 30+ years, they NEED to be an investment. You COULD buy them from Argos, but you know what they say: buy cheap and you buy twice (minimum!).

There are cheaper options too regarding food, for example: what about a hog roast, a pub lunch or afternoon tea?

You can also cut down costs by marrying out of season (i.e. not in the height of summer) and on a weekday, as well as by making certain things yourself (e.g. place cards/decorations) and omitting other unnecessary items (e.g. save the date cards).

In short, it can more or less cost as much as you want it to. The marriage matters more than the wedding anyway.

Argos rings aren't necessarily the wasteful option - my first wedding ring was Argos & it did me 15 years then got melted into something else.

A hog roast isn't cheap either - these can be anything from £250 -£1000 depending on size & location.

Stephb1986_2

Our fees alone are £450!!

Weddings aren't cheap at all

Steph xx

Trixsie1989

We went to a wedding fair yesterday and were surprised at how many people were offering discounts to us. We've managed to get 30% off the photographer, 20% off the suit hire and the groom free, 20% off the dj and we've negotiated our venue down from 2300 to 2000 with a. Few extras thrown in too coz of it being a January wedding. I'm going to another fair next month to look for more bargains :-) I was cheeky enough to ask for discounts and got them xxx

Relocationrelocation

"Its the getting married that counts, not the sugared almonds!" --- quote of the century! I love this and agree whole-heartedly....

Fuzzy_Duck

As anything other the marriage itself is window dressing, it helps to consider what is important to you both and cut anything you deem unimportant. I've also found it helps to avoid the word wedding and go for more unconventional choices that don't carry the hefty wedding price tag.

I think asking people to bring a dish instead of a wedding present is more acceptable than asking people to pay for their meal. You could also consider getting married later in the day so there are less meals to provide.

A hog roast can be a cheap choice if you have loads of guests, but for smaller numbers I don't think they're worth it.

Gloomendoom

BlushingRose wrote: »

Would people be offended if we invited everyone we wanted but asked them to buy their own meals later on, do you think?

Not quite the same thing but we had "afternoon tea" and most guests brought along contributions. There were mountains of cakes of all descriptions. I had cake for my breakfast the next day.

We had a hog roast in the evening. It suited the outdoors 'theme'.

There was quite a debate on the "marriage and relationships" board about guests paying for their own meals at weddings.