Whats the most expensive and cheapest weddings you have been to and which was best?

squashy

I had a posh-cheap wedding!

Got married in a castle, but it was capacity of 50 only so limited numbers which saved money...I got a works discount for hiring the place so paid about £400 which was cheaper than a lot of other boring places we looked at.

I had an ivory silk wedding dress which I bought as an ex-sample from a wedding fair, reduced from £950 to £350, it fitted like a glove and made me feel like a princess.

We had a champagne reception after the ceremony only it was Cava bought cheaply from a booze warehouse and some strawberries from a greengrocers, we had to pay a little for them to provide the glasses and pour but it felt really swanky!

We had our food in a tapas restuarant so it was really fun and laid back, with platters of hot food to share round instead of a plated meal each, plus we could have as many as we wanted to join in for drinks!

We had a proper photographer but got one to price it for us without the album which we could do ourselves afterwards. Lots of other little savings like that, internet bargain table decorations, supermarket bridesmaid dresses etc.

it was a lot of hard work to get the prices down as we did, and we spent about £3500 altogether but it was worth every penny and it was just as swish, if not more, than other weddings I've been to that cost £15k etc!!

ceebeeby

Our whole wedding, ten years ago cost £74 total!!! Licence & ring was all we bought. For me, obviously that was the best.

The most expensive wedding I ever went to cost the brides parents circa. £20-£30k. Was fab, but I had wet knickers and bra throughout the service. I was staying in the brides house (she was at her parents) and 30 mins before leaving for the ceremony a pipe burst in her house ... as everyone else was already in their wedding gear and I was in my dressing gown I got to hold the pipe together to try to prevent the flooding. One emergency plumber later (that we left in the house with instructions to close the door behind him on his way out) we arrived at the church, 10 mins into the service, me still dripping wet. To make matters worse my car got nicked from outside the reception and used in a smash n' grab!! Fab do, but costly!!

DebtphobicDeirdre

I had a medium-priced wedding 18 years ago and it was lovely. The price of your wedding is not relevant to whether people have a good time or the quality of the marriage.
We had 46 people to the sit down meal and if there had been any more I don't think I could have spoken to them all for more than 30 seconds. We all had a fantastic time and I hope you do too, Black Saturn.

smitty2702

I had a mid range wedding and everyone loved it and I have since helped friends source things / plan theirs.we married in a registry office, I wore a dress amde for me by a lady, who was a dressmaker and although retired still made a few wedding / bridesmaids dresses. we designed it togther and it was perfect. this and 3 bridesmaids dresses, their ballet pumps, my tiara / veil and wedding shoes came to £500.I arranged a reception at a local hotel in the countryside. Not a big posh one but one which was small and friendly and eager to please, they had just decided to start doing weddings and we were their first. We decided against an evening reception as most of our family had small children and instead had a carvery dinner and then drinks afterwards. The hotel didn't charge us for room hire but even went so far as to get linens matching my dress / bridesmaids dresses and letting us use their brand new cake stand. they made sure we had a lovely area in the grounds for photos.They only charged us £9.95 a head for soup, carvery and desserts (half that for children) and they gave everyone a free glass of sparkling wine and the kids had jugs of juice so we didn't need to buy them drinks. We were served at the table and made to feel really special. They also gave us a room at the hotel for the night. We took toys and books and colouring things to keep the children amused and there was also a play area.I had a few comments from people before hand about it being a bit wierd to have a carvery but to me, all mine and OH's family like plain food as do we and our fave meals are roast dinners so why should we pay a fortune for something we dont particularly like!!!I did pay out for a photographer and flowers at full price but my cake was made by a lady in the area who usually makes birthday cakes, it was 3 tiers (one plain, one fruit and 1 chocolate), absolutely stunning, with decorated flowers in my burgundy theme and cost me £85 as she hadn't done wedding ones before, she has since gone on to expand her business and is one of the well known people in the area!The ONLY thing I would change about my wedding was the weather, we still had a fantastic day but I would have liked some sunnier photographs!Smitty

chalky_75

Good Luck thats what I say -- Its about your love not money

lostinrates

Ours was the cheapest, and obviously the best for us, lol. (cost of register office/paperwork only!) Two close friends were our witnesses. we wore clothes we already had.

The biggest have been absolutely gorgeous weddings: and yes, of course part of me wanted them, but they were also very much less personal: more spectatory. I like both sorts.

Its about what is right for the couple IMO: thats what will make the day ''the best'' wedding anyone their goes to: if the bride and groom beam and when you look back at their wedding you smile, because they are still happily married many years later.

ljbnotts

I've been a guest at a really expensive wedding -2006 it cost £52,000! A ridiculous amount that they couldn't afford. They had a marquee in the garden next to the ;local church. (so no venue hire etc). the food was expensive but not particularly great and the bride spent lots on flowers (all orchids) and decoration that no one really noticed. They also had a pay bar, so didn't have the cost of booze to cover! It was a fab day for the guests as we were all friends and had a great time, they got divorced 4 months later.

Cheapest wedding was in the local village hall and they didn't provide much food but had a great cailegh sp? and we had a much more relaxed time! (still together and very happy)

Overall i would say its the company not the amount you spend!

DKLS

The most expensive wedding I went to cost over 40K, and was also the most disastrous, ending up with the place overun by riot cops!!!! Basically the Groom decided that after the wedding he wanted 1 more shag with the head bridesmaid, he was duly caught by the MIL, and all hell was let loose, with both families knocking hell out of each other. The groom and bridesmaid slipped out and went on the honeymoon!!! he faced the repercussions later. It was my most fave wedding for all the wrong reasons.

I am currently saving for my own wedding which the current costs are:

Wedding all in - £3000
Honeymoon - £7000

SugarSpun

I went to a really cheap wedding - local church and reception in the pub afterwards. They ordered three platters of sandwiches for about 60 people and it was all over lunchtime so everyone was starving. No one really knew each other, and the groom's mother kept insisting that my friend and I go sit with the groom's rugby friends. Fine, except the rugby friends opened their conversation by asking our names and measurements.

It was obvious that they were very much in love, and they're still very happy, but damn it was not a pleasant wedding.

I was at an offensively expensive wedding when I lived in the US - stunning, expensive reception venue an hour's drive from the church, bride's dress was $6000 and covered with Swarovski crystals (and looked like a bathtowel pinned on), 200 guests, 10 attendants, four course meal, cocktail hour, canapes, live band and so on. But most of the guests were friends of the bride's parents, the partners of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were seated at a table that was almost outside (we all kept our coats on during dinner) because she didn't want us trying to talk to the attendants and ruining the illusion that their only duty was to the bride and groom, the first dance can only be described as a prelude to the wedding night, the groom's children (one born after he left his wife for the new wife) did their best to sabotage the whole thing, the ex-wife turned up and spent the night leaning against the bar alternating Martinis with eating the face off her younger, hotter new man, and the whole thing ended up with the chief bridesmaid's fiance punching the best man's fiancee in the face and the groom knocking the chief bridesmaid's fiance unconscious and getting arrested.

Ours was quite middle of the range. We had our dream venue, but clothing, photographer and cars were minimally expensive and the cake was a gift, and then the reception was quite cheap (but an absolute nightmare that you can read about on the Weddings board).

We had lots of people coming from out of town and so we also had dinner in the evening for those travelling, and brunch the next morning for anyone who was still around. Having events over two days made it more expensive but also incredibly relaxed and everyone got to know each other really well. It still astonishes me to see my friends who didn't know each other before the wedding Facebooking each other all over the place now.

I don't think it's about what you spend so much as how much you think about how your guests will enjoy themselves and how to incorporate that and what you want to happen.

[Deleted User]

Most expensive.. my wife's cousin's - Mandarin Oriental. Actually quite a brilliant wedding, must have cost in excess of £60k. Big band, lots of expensive cocktails, very fancy food ect

Cheapest.. friend's wedding in Cyprus. DJ, buffet... quite a nice do also.

Neither were rubbish though, the expensive one was better. My own wasn't cheap (damn that kosher catering).

My sister-in-law has a spectacular budget for hers (more than the expensive one i've been to)

Expensive weddings can be fun too!