Getting married while broke

[sleepinbeauty]

Anyone getting married and have next to nothing to pay for it with?

OH and I are having a teeny little wedding with dinner for our family/closest friends.

Any one else doing something similar?
If you already did and are still hanging out in here, do you have tips?

Thanks a ton!

 

[EstelSeren]

Yep! We have very little money and neither set of parents have much money either, especially with OH's dad off work after cancer treatment. We're getting married in less than 2 weeks for less than £3000. We're being helped out by all our friends and family in whatever way they can and in total we're paying no more than about £600 ourselves! There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to have an amazing day on a really small budget! We're having a small ceremony with a meal afterwards and a party with a buffet in the evening! Our venues are small and local, we're growing our own flowers, we have friends DJing in the evening, a friend is doing our photos, another friend is doing our wedding video, we made our own invitations for the day and utilised Facebook for the evening, OH's aunty is making my dress and the flower girl's dress (costing me £70 total!), OH's mum is making the cake and sorting out most of the buffet, etc, etc.
I'm really looking forward to it because it's going to be so personal and simple, and just very US. At the end of the day though, the most important thing is that at the end of it all you're married to the person that you love and you're happy. And money doesn't buy that.

Beca :wave:

 

[sleepinbeauty]

Thanks! I was just wondering if I was being completely unrealistic or not. I'll deffo be using the internet to invite people. Good idea.

 

[Boony]

I had a big white wedding with 150 guests for less than £4000 and the photographer was £1000!

you can have any wedding you want on a small budget if you really want.

 

[stephwiggy]

We paid less than 1000 pounds ~!! we had 20 guests and 40 plus at reception out honeymoon was 4 years later due to helath issues but it was amazing !

 

[Vici]

Depends what you class as a teeny budget - Our wedding is a big white one with 70 day guests and 150 night guests with everything we want for £4K xx

 

[welshwarriors]

We had 65 guest and the total of our wedding was £4500 (including 2 limos, amazing flowers with crystals, my dress, hubby's suit, the rings, photograper etc) We paid about £3000 of that the rest was paid by our families and paid off with the money presents we requested.

 

[honeybee2]

hiya!!! we're having a big white church wedding with marquee afterwards (all the works) for £5500. Its for 80 people but we're saving on the cake because its homemade, the marquee because they guy is local, we're having a posh BBQ at just £8 per head and supplying the welcome drinks & wine and bubby at table ourselves (£300 for 70 bottles costco!!!) We're not having transport as marquee next to church. Honestly hun- if you need saving tips- please ask, ive been planning this for last 2 years and still 17 months to go- nearly all done now xx

 

[polo_princess]

We've done all of ours for under £1,500 ... thats a registry office wedding, with a buffet reception catering for 70 people.

Weddings dont have to cost the earth to be special

 

[honeybee2]

very true polo princess!!!!! Weddings can loose their meaning and most of the time the bride doesnt remember a single thing because she's too stressed to enjoy the day after spending £20 000 on one day on silly things like £1000 for a cake! It is more special when you arrange & make everything yourselves- a personal touch!!!

 

[bump_wanted]

our budget was about £1000 i got married in a registry office but had a proper dress sit down 3 course meal my hubs wore a kilt and people commented it was a fantastic day and night because it was so laid back...id say the biggest money saver for us was having it on a Friday instead of a Saturday and using a local pubs function suite to have our reception...not as bad as it sounds it had a totally different private entrance from the actual pub and my husbands cousin done our pics as thats what he does

like others said no matter how much you spend the next day we are all married and its the marriage you want not the wedding tho you dont need to spend loads to make your wedding look fab just be wise

we had about 40 during the day and about 70 at night xx

 

[sleepinbeauty]

We've decided to have a very small, personal wedding. We'll save AND only have to get in front of a few people. hahaha (We're both shy)

 

[Pinkgirl]

The thing that is costing us the most is the wedding reception. Its nearly £50 a head including some free drinks with that for the meal. Its hard how our families work too...and it means us having around 110 guests....then more probably in the evening. I wish i could cut it down but its hard. For example one if i was to cut out like 2nd cousins...it would save money but it would mean us not inviting some couples who have invited us to their wedding. Which i kinda feel bad about.
I shouldnt complain as our venue is out of this world...just at times i do find myself thinking how else this money could be spent...but then on the other side of the coin its our special day which i want to be beautiful and unforgetable!
The ways in which i found easy to save money...buy bits in month...got loads from confetti on offer one month...doing own invites...using people in the family to help with bits!
x

 

[KittyKatBabe]

Hey Girls,

I am in very early planning stages, and I think its great reading your stories about successful budgeting. We don't want our wedding to cost the earth so I was thinking to do it in under £4k over here or go abroad, which I really do fancy.

So all in all, we have a lot of thinking to do.

x x

 

[sleepinbeauty]

Good luck KittyKat! I hope you get the wedding you want without breaking the bank!

We're still chopping our guest list down....

 

[mummy to be]

Hi there. I got married on Feb this year and we had next to no money. Our wedding cost us less that $1800 (australian dollars) (not including photographer). My advise to you is eBay eBay eBay My dress, flowers, decorations, gifts, almost everything was from eBay i also didnt mention to our cake maker that it was for a wedding as when ever people hear the word wedding they almost double the price!!! IT is crazy how often people do that.

Wish you all the best... where there is a will there is a way

 

[fuffyburra]

Hi there. I got married on Feb this year and we had next to no money. Our wedding cost us less that $1800 (australian dollars) (not including photographer). My advise to you is eBay eBay eBay My dress, flowers, decorations, gifts, almost everything was from eBay i also didnt mention to our cake maker that it was for a wedding as when ever people hear the word wedding they almost double the price!!! IT is crazy how often people do that.

Wish you all the best... where there is a will there is a way

Good tip for the cake!! I'll be doing that

 

[mummy to be]

Thanks Try and steer clear from telling vendors that it is a wedding and you will save money left right and centre....

 

[sleepinbeauty]

Good tip! I'll be giving that a try every chance I can! lol

 

[~Mummy~]

We're doing this
We decided to get married in February and booked it for the end of May, our 5th anniversary. We've got a little one on the way and I've never been keen on big weddings, so it will just be small wedding with 20 guests.
We've decided to spend what we wanted on the rings, as that's one of the things that we do have to keep, but we didn't bother with invites or favors or anything like that. Also, we're just having close family so they will be taking the pics themselves.
I agree with someone who said not to mention the word wedding. If you are looking online for anything like shoes, or a wrap or anything try looking for things like ''white shoes'' rather than ''wedding shoes''.
I bought my dress from Monsoon, they have lovely dresses and they're really good prices as well.