From big wedding...to small wedding!

[misslatham]

Hey geeks, well after a crippling budget and 150 guests i've suddenly thought...you know what? Im more interested in actually marrying my OH than i am about the wedding. I've probably got 10-15 people on my side that are closest to me, same for him, so what the hell are we waiting for?? With any luck we might even be able to get it in this year. What do u guys think? And any ideas for smaller weddings? Xx

 

[WaxGirl]

love it!! I would hate one of those big massive ones

You so right to focus on the committment of marriage and not all the trappings

Are you thinking church at home or abroad?

 

[Sparkles2011]

We ended up cancelling our wedding but when planning, we chose not to get married in a church and just chose a beautiful barn house at a lovely venue instead. Because I would be getting ready with all my family on site as they had a hotel there, we didn't hire cars for either of us. This saved a few hundred. We had balloons instead of flowers which saved a fortune and we booked our venue on a Thursday and saved £2k as the venue didn't charge room hire for the reception from Monday to Thursday. Every little helps xx

Sent from my HTC Sensation using SalonGeek

 

[Crystal colleen]

I think it's a wonderful idea absolutely lovely.

A small personal affair is what I want we even have thought about going abroad and doing it and not telling anyone till we get back lol.

Good luck and your wedding sounds perfect and like the above poster has said it's about the comitment and the love you share not the big wedding.xxxx

 

[siobrennan]

congratulations on your upcoming wedding!!

we had only 30 for the meal, whoever wanted to watch us marry were welcome to come, but only 30 family and friends were invited to the meal, then we had a party at night for everyone else with a singer, and instead of a buffet we had rolls with sausage, bacon or egg!!

we married in the hotel, and we all got ready there too, so no cars. my dress was from monsoon, not a deliberate budget thing, i just really liked the dress!! i also didnt have a lot of flowers, just mine, my 2 bridesmaids and a top table piece, the other table things were round fish bowl type things with a thistle in it and a wee bit of ribbon that matched my husbands kilt.

you do what suits you honey, if peoples noses are out of joint with the arrangements well thats their problem!!

congratulations again! xxx

 

[Sarah22]

Hey geeks, well after a crippling budget and 150 guests i've suddenly thought...you know what? Im more interested in actually marrying my OH than i am about the wedding. I've probably got 10-15 people on my side that are closest to me, same for him, so what the hell are we waiting for?? With any luck we might even be able to get it in this year. What do u guys think? And any ideas for smaller weddings? Xx

I completely agree with you!! I'm getting married in November and our guest list is at 116... :-( Unfortunately we can't cut it down as my finances family is HUGE :-/

We're getting married on a Monday though (because we'll be together 8 years that day) and because it's not on a weekend, we got table centres, our cars and our DJ all included in our package for free!! Maybe somewhere near to you offers packages like this? Xx

 

[Sarah22]

Finance?! Haha!! Stupid predictive text. I meant fiancés lol xx

 

[misslatham]

Thanks everyone!! Since iv thought of this small affair ide iv become so much more excited!! Been texting hubby all morning lol

He says he doesnt care, never has been fussed about the wedding just wanted to marry me (aww) to be honest the thought of a typical big do, the money, the guests, the organising, phew....kinda makes the whole thing "un-fun" for me.

Id love to go abroad but it wouldnt be fair to those i care about and really want there. So maybe a picturesque hotel type thing would be great. Only problem is looking on the net, most lovely venues will only go for a minimum party xx

 

[Lush-Lash]

We got married in a registry office with 30 guests & had our reception in a pub with 50 guests, then had a 3 day honeymoon in spain... It's all we could afford.

But I tell you what it was the best day ever.

my brother in law got married last October, spent 10 grand on an all out you name it they had it kind of wedding. Sit down posh meal the lot! him & his wife separated 9 weeks later.

we've also got friends who spent a bomb & are now divorced.

we spent what our budget could afford (not a great deal) & we've been married 5 years.

I'd say go for it. No matter how big or small your wedding fund is.

Good luck xx

 

[Debs001]

We used a hotel too that was able to do the ceremony too, (it was actually the same one used in Gavin and Stacey although we did it first!) they had a minimum of 50 or we would have had to pay extra for room hire as well as meals, i think you'd be surprised how a small guest list adds up, I made my own wedding place cards and favours (a few Chocs in a pretty colour organza bag) I got some nice weddingy candles from the range that were in tall stem glasses as my centre pieces (smelt nice too) chuck some confetti stars on the table too , we asked for travel vouchers as gifts so guests could spend as little or as much as they wanted and we used these for a lovely long weekend in Venice as our honeymoon. Not including the dress I think it cost us around £2500 for meal, and evening buffet with a couple of bottles of wine on each table. We also asked guests to do the photos so even tho we don't have that one 'perfect' pic, we have loads that are fun and spontaneous (we also put a disposable camera on each table).

 

[crazybek]

We got married in a registry office with 30 guests & had our reception in a pub with 50 guests, then had a 3 day honeymoon in spain... It's all we could afford.

But I tell you what it was the best day ever.

my brother in law got married last October, spent 10 grand on an all out you name it they had it kind of wedding. Sit down posh meal the lot! him & his wife separated 9 weeks later.

we've also got friends who spent a bomb & are now divorced.

we spent what our budget could afford (not a great deal) & we've been married 5 years.

I'd say go for it. No matter how big or small your wedding fund is.

Good luck xx

we did exactly the same thing.Had a registry office do with 35 people then onto a great pub with a slightly seperate area big enough for 55 of us.We all had a carvery and i had no top tables at all.We organised them into a gigantic square with the kids in the middle and a chocolate wedding cake with a big sparler on the top!
Was a bloody amazing relaxed fantastic day and i wouldnt change any of it!
I even forgot to get my shoes from my mums on the day so wore pumps under my dress and borrowed my mates shoes when i got there!!
We had a blast and some of the best photos ever as it was all natural,no poses lol x

 

[misslatham]

Aww all your 'big' days sound lovely!! Just what I want. Just been thru our huge guest list with a fine tooth comb and, no offence to all my more distant relatives and friends, but we have 40-ish people that we are actually really close to. How about that!! Where did those 130 guests come from in the first place lol. We could do it assoon as Sept but just means we have to tighten our belts. Exciting!!

Does anyone know roughly how much we should expect to pay for flowers? Xx

 

[deanosnana]

I much prefer a small, intimate wedding than a large bash. Best of luck to you!

 

[souz]

im loving what you are doing! i got married last year, it was mine and my husbands 2nd time so we just wanted our close friends and family......sit down meal was 50ppl and evening a hundred and that was with cutting it down and no children!!that would have taken us way over!
anyway i had my heart set on somewhere really nice so thought what the hell ill just cut back on everything else.......(what would i have done without ebay as you will see!!!)
1. i bought candleabras from ebay for the centres of table, that way didnt need flowers, also bought pink runners to give a bit of colour to the tables
2. I made all the favours myself, i dipped fortune cookies in chocolate and then sprinkles and got cellophane bags(ebay) and tied with pink ribbon and cards with each persons name to double as place settings
3. cakes - i bought a cake stand(ebay) top cake from marks and spencer and cup cakes from marks also then put pink ribbon round top cake and pink cases on cupcakes and cut pink hearts out of icing!!
4. i had a bouquet, bridesmaid didnt, a few buttonholes and bouquets for mums (found local florist who worked from home)
5. had a friend who does chair covers and tie backs (did it for nothing)
We got married at the hotel so only needed a car to take me there - a friend has a white mercedes, pink ribbon on the car and voila!! this meant after ceremony i could afford a champagne reception and canapes, dj was one the hotel uses so that was cheaper.
anyway.....i still managed to spend around 10-12k (still not sure exactly as i bought so much along the way on ebaY!!) i had a fab day and so did everyone else, including how fab the venue and the food was....would i do it again.........im not sure, we could have done it far cheaper and had a much better honeymoon,,,we went to crete 5* so was still really nice.....xxxxxx

 

[souz]

and i used vistaprint for invites,thankyou cards, cards re gifts/hotels and place cards.....got the lot for £50 xxx

 

[Debs001]

Aww all your 'big' days sound lovely!! Just what I want. Just been thru our huge guest list with a fine tooth comb and, no offence to all my more distant relatives and friends, but we have 40-ish people that we are actually really close to. How about that!! Where did those 130 guests come from in the first place lol. We could do it assoon as Sept but just means we have to tighten our belts. Exciting!!

Does anyone know roughly how much we should expect to pay for flowers? Xx

Wedding flowers are quite expensive, we were quoted around £80-150 for small bouquets, again I did these myself, hubby went to our local market at 6am bought a couple of dozen roses and some fern (for the roses button holes) for around £25 and I just hand tied them and put some sparkly diamonds on wire I got from hobby craft.

 

[lbrown332]

I'm getting married in July and we are having a rather large wedding. We decided to have a big one as we've had a lot of deaths in the family in the past couple of years and everyone needs a nice happy family get together. We're right at the end of organising everything and my mum is still asking to invite more of her friends and we're just wishing that we had a small registry office thing and had a huge reception do somewhere but we are totally happy with the venue, the most gorgeous place we have ever seen!! sometimes big weddings are over rated!

Leanne
X

 

[lisa.sharrock]

We're getting married next May. We're having the whole day at the Crowne Plaza and it was booked as a package, (60 day guests, 130 eve guests catered for) although we will probably have approx 180 eve guests. 4 course wedding breakfast and evening buffet, dj & disco, chair covers & sashes all inc for £4k. It's our 2nd marriage, previously we both had our first weddings in America (bizarrely enough) and although I would have just loved to bugger off and get married abroad again as personally I ccan't be doing with all the fuss, we both have children and want them to be involved.

:biggrin:

 

[Pinkpants]

I hate to say this BUT! You can get some fabulous wedding packages thro groupon, save thousands. Good luck

 

[Tomme]

My cousin is planning a hand fasting wedding, the venue will be free as its the woods by us where there's a lovley space in there, I will be doing the ceremony so it will be free, the dress is coming off eBay (the most expensive item at £150), i used cocktail glasses with some ribbon thrown in for my 21st birthday table decorations, these will be re used but with glittery ribbon and a round candle in each, my mum is making the cake (7 layers all on top of each other then covered in a pale blue icing with gold flecks added), the dj will be my iPod, and the wedding breakfast will be in my garden using my 21st's decorations (about 50 bamboo sticks with candles in each tied with a ribbon to go allong the path, 4 gazebos with old chandeliers tied into it as candles,not lit, pushed into the bulb holders, the glasses on the table, all cutlery will be grouped up and tied with a ribbon and put on the plate, the top table will have 2 chandeliers dropped down to about 1m above the table with ribbon twisted around the candles, the arms and up the chain, the fence will be lit up with 12 candles in silver arms and my wall candelabra put on it, the crystal tree will be lit from underneath to sparkle, and the kids will be put by the little fairy house with tiaras and crowns on te table to make it fun), the broom they jump over to finish te ceremony is still being made in my spair time and will be hung accross the head table chandelier and then above their front door when they go home. Xoxo