Married on the cheap?

savemoney

mariephotographer you cant advertise here reported your two :spam: posts

FutureGirl

My friend got married in a Registrar office and it cost her £35 each for the notice, then £50 to get married.

She then hired a hall (£150) and a DJ (£250) and her family made all the food themselves.

Why are you so bothered about 'being talked about'? - getting married is how YOU want it to be.

PlymouthMaid

If you spent beyond your means, people are more likely to think, 'how on earth are they paying for this? What a waste when they could have had a holiday/fixed their house/car/kids education etc'.

One of the nicest weddings I ever attended was a registry office with 2nd hand wedding dress, friends driving the bride, a church hall with fish and chips and a band. I did the invitations for them as I was good at calligraphy in those days. Other friends did Bride's hair.

If most of the weddings you attend are swanky affairs, be proud of being different.

bekeebrooks

It's about being married, not the wedding! Anyone that "talks about" what you can afford doesn't deserve to be there, imo.

First thing we did is cut the guestlist. I have a massive family, it was 120 guests just my side.
We're now having about 20 people including ourselves. We looked at "pretty" registration offices and we're getting married in Salisbury Registry Office in Bourne Hill. There are beautiful ones all over the country. Ours was £35 booking fee, then will be £35 each to give notice then it is £90 for us to have the ceremony. Our photographer is £460 which is way more than I wanted to spend, but as we aren't going for a traditional wedding we wanted a non traditional "wedding" photographer. So we are paying to have the artiness there.

We are then having dinner at The Castle Inn in Castle Combe, we've booked 8 rooms which comes to just over £2,000, BUT that is for 2 nights and includes breakfast (and it is beautiful) and everyone is paying for their own room, as it is essentially a "destination" wedding. The point is if people want to come, they will come. We are paying for the dinner which is picked off their normal menu and for a 3 course it ranges from £15-£30 each depending on what people want.
We are having the wedding breakfast in their private conservatory which we do not have to pay for, which we can decorate. There are only 2 rooms left in the hotel so we pretty much have it to ourselves.

I'm going to go to Wed2b and see what dresses they have (everything is under £449 apparently) but I have found one I love advertised as a bridesmaids dress which is £30! Cake we will probably make ourselves, my H2B loves baking and we want a naked cake. Looked at getting a coach from Castle Combe to Salisbury and then waiting for 2 hours, then back to Castle Combe, that is £200 for a 24 seater.

You need to think - do you want a wedding or a marriage??? Who cares what other people think, it's your day, it's what YOU want, not what you feel you should have so people don't be nasty.

mai_taylor

There's some really pretty village halls around that can be hired for next to nothing. Get married later in the day so you only have to feed people once, you could have a bbq or hog roast for the main then do a great british bake off style competition and ask people to make their own cakes and you will judge them (winner gets a small price), so you'll have plenty of puddings. If you don't like that idea then M&S do wedding cakes at a good price and you could jazz it up with flowers.

We got our primark suits for £40 each and they looked amazing, you could also get the groomsmen to wear suits they already own.

We didn't have wedding cars, DH just drove to the venue in his little Citreon C2 and I stayed at the venue the night before but would have got a taxi or just got anyone to drive me if the room wasn't included.

I only had one bridesmaid and got her dress cheap in the sale and asked her to wear her own shoes.

Make your own and your bridesmaids bouquet, there's lots of tutorials on youtube, decorate the rest of the venue with jam jars like others have said.

You could look at the high street (Monsoon, BHS, Debenhams, Asos) for dresses or there's lots on ebay (not the one's from China) and preloved.

Rope in friends as much as possible do you know anyone good at hair and makeup or any budding photographers?

Just because it's cheap doesn't mean it has to look cheap, if anything people will see all the effort you've put in making all the personal touches rather than a fancy hotel venue which shows none of your personality.

Fuzzy_Duck

I had a cheap wedding and people seemed to enjoy how laid back it was. Here's how I saved:

- Stayed at a nearby B&B the night before
- Registry office wedding with close friends and family
- Reception at a brewery which would normally be closed in the evening (making it super cheap to hire with reasonable drink prices!)
- Started the reception late so we only had to feed guests once (had a hog roast- plenty of food and they cleaned up afterwards)
- DIY decorations
- No transport as everything was within walking distance
- Quirky wedding dress and suit (although I would have happily bought a non-wedding dress which would have been even cheaper)
- Bridesmaids chose their own dresses within my budget
- Had a professional photographer for a few hours only (loads of guests took decent photos too however)
- Served a cheese tower which works out cheaper than a cake

happilymarried2013

I got married nearly 3 years ago for the princely sum of £1750. We catered it ourselves for 250 people, bought a cake and wedding rings that were at least 50% of the total cost. We had the most amazing day and it really is all about the marriage not the wedding.

We will be having another celebration in 2 years time, we have to renew our hand fastening (we did this two days later in a private ceremony so will do a public one in two years). We had a church wedding with a social club do and 2 photographers.

Looking back - there is nothing I would change about my wedding day, it summed me and Hubby up perfectly.