Cheap Wedding

[Tezzabell]

I am having a baby with my boyfriend and we've just bought a house together. I've never been bothered about having a huge wedding and was never really that fussed about getting married before. But since I've been pregnant, I really want us to get married, it's nothing to do with the commitment really, there is no greater commitment than choosing to have a child together - I just want to be his 'Mrs' literally. If we were to get married, how cheap can it be? I'm not bothered about any usual wedding stuff, just a service to make me his ;-) xxx

[harleybobs]

I somewhat agree with caz, as my husband and I got married in a registar office, what you could do which is what we did was choose a city you like then do it there I love Oxford so that was where we chose and we made a day of it,(or you could make a weekend of it ) it was such a lovely day ( we didnt tell anyone we were getting married we just turned up at the office and asked two people that where in there would they witness our marrige ).

Good luck with whatever you choose !!

[SCHUMI]

i got married and the dearest thing about it was my husbands kilt!!! i got married in a hotel that also held the reception which was no charge.i got my cousin to take the photos and he got a couple o quid and an invite for his girlfriend. the minister came and charged �70 to marry us.i bought my own dress material, designed it and got a dressmaker to make it. a relitave bought my wedding cake as a gift.i didn't have flowers and the disco was paid for and meals by my dad. in total just under �700.and it was a great day oh my dad took me to the hotel in his car.no fuss no hassle a wonderful day.
what about asking your guests instead of gifts they chip in for cake,ceromony etc most will be grateful that they won't have the stress of deciding what to get you.

[spudqueen]

When we got married 16 years ago we married in a register office, I wore a beautiful dress which was handmade but was ballerina length, it cost �200 rather than �2000. We had a meal in a local restaurant for 30 people (close family and friends only), which my parents paid for then we had an evening do in the local cricket club. My in-laws did the buffet for us. All in all in was a very cheap do yet it felt like a 'proper' wedding and we have very fond memories of the day.
I have been to two wedding receptions this year though which have been even cheaper. One couple got married in Gretna Green without telling anyone, when they got back they invited a load of us to a local restaurant and paid for the meal.
The other couple got married at the local register office with just parents and a couple of friends present, they then had an evening do in the village hall which was great fun. I presume they had a meal or something after the ceremony.

[sunflower68]

caz I disagree. Did your sis not have pics taken at her wedding? My register office piccies will last forever; they are beautiful. I would not have it any other way, 10 years down the line.
SCHUMI my wedding was a bit like yours. Why pay more? People get sucked into it very easily; it is a heavily marketed and very competitive trade, the wedding trade and I for one am no sucker.

[Pippa68]

I'm with sunflower...the first time I got married was almost 20 years ago and it cost a fortune. I had a �1000 dress and all the trimmings.

The second time I married was last year. It was low budget register office with about 45 guests and we had the reception at a local restaurant for around �600. As receptions go it was 'cheap' but it didn't seem like it ~ everyone commented on how lovely & intimate it was. We went to a huge wedding the following week with the same guests, who seemed to take it in turns to tell me mine was far better...LOL.

I wouldn't change that day for the world...it will be imprinted on my memory for life, and we didn't even have 'proper' photos..we relied on guests to take piccies which was great as we have some lovely candid ones!

How much you spend means nothing...it's how you enjoy the day & why you are getting married that counts :o)

[888sally888]

I got married in July this year in Stroud - we went just with our 4 children and satyed in fab B & B (our room had its own swimming pool!). We had a professional photographer but bought the CD and then printed our own pictures at home.

We had a lovely meal out that night and then a party for all our friends a month later.

We had a cake, first dance and all wore our wedding outfits.

It was a great way to do it trust me!!

[sunflower68]

lol pippa68!!! You will laugh at this, my wedding ring cost �4 ! We were pretty broke in those days and I saw a lovely plain silver ring in Oasis, well I guess it must be sterling silver but it has never caused me a problem!

Tezzabell I meant to say earlier, making the commitment you feel ready to make, as a family already, is lovely.

Please please consider saving your money and don't be tempted to invite reams of people that don't mean a lot to you. Don't buy stuff to please anyone else but you three.
This is your day, no one else's. Oh, and buy a lovely dress you can wear again and again - get your money's worth girl, it's no good kept in the loft.

Don't be afraid to break the 'rules'. It will be a beautiful day I can promise you. x

[Tezzabell]

Thank You all, especially sunflower68. It might sound selfish but I son't want the day to be about anyone else other than us. Me and my chap have since discussed and said we will get married in the summer and just stay the night in the b&b that we first really fell in love in. That way, if we wait until the summer, baby can come too, and when she gets older we can tell her that our wedding day was special because all three of us were there.

[Hammer Head]

I got married on 25th May 1991. We organised it ourselves and my father in law asked me to total it all up and send him the bill. I still remember the amout now. It was �1568.

�350 for her dress, 40 people at the reception at �18 per head with the remainder in car hire, flowers, vicar, etc.

My father in law was so chuffed that we hadn't gone overboard that when we came back from our honeymoon, he gave me a brown envelope which I discovered contained �500 in twenties.

[sunflower68]

awww that's a pity caz and I can see where you're coming from. xx