You're engaged – congratulations! Now all you need to do is figure out how to deal with the small matter of providing dinner and drinks for 100 of your nearest and dearest friends and family using what minimal funds are in your typically millennial bank account.
Weddings are expensive. We know this. In fact, according to one study earlier this year, the average wedding in the UK now comes in at a mind-altering £30,335. Which, when you consider that the chances of a 25-34-year-old owning a house have "collapsed " in recent years, is bordering on downright criminal.
Luckily, the economic masterminds in our Money Diaries Facebook group (if you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for?) have weighed in with their help on how to keep the costs of a wedding down. From planning a (free!) alcohol-buying trip to Calais to ditching the things people will be too drunk on the day to care about (thank the above booze cruise), here are some of our favourite ideas on how to spend less, and have more fun.
We were totally realistic with our budget, and made a list of what our priorities were. We decided the photographer was a big one for us (why spend all that money and have sh*t photo memories!) .
Also, we were very honest with the venue about our budget, they’re not idiots, most places have someone whose job this is day in and day out, and know their business can’t provide a five course gourmet sit down with all inclusive booze for 100 people on a budget of £1k! We negotiated on the menu; only had a soup option for starters and no dessert. We served our wedding cake as cupcakes – which me and my husband served to each table. Funnily enough five years later, it turns out it’s one of the key things people remembered about the day as they loved that personal interaction from us.
Also midweek dates can give a massive saving!
–Rachel
Decide what is important to you and try and focus on incorporating that. We took a cancellation and got the package half price. Saved almost £3.5k. Haggle, haggle, haggle!
We also focused on the little details and tried to make it personal rather than caring too much about certain things. Most guests care about eating, drinking and having a good time so make sure and feed them, have relatively cheap alcohol on offer and think out the entertainment. I attended a wedding that had no DJ or big band (small background band), it was wonderful. You can do entertainment so many ways. The best compliments we had was on the cheapest things like flip flops and toiletries in the bathrooms. At the end of the day, don't bankrupt yourself for a wedding day. It will be special no matter what you do.
–Kara
If I got married again I'd skip the favours (half of them left behind) and the fancy wedding cake (massively overpriced and most of the guests were too full/drunk to eat it), lessons learnt but I don't regret any of it.
–Carly
We saved a lot by paying for everything upfront rather than by instalments. Especially the reception venue – because it was a cash boost for them during their low season, they gave us a discount. Paying such a large sum all at once definitely causes you to gulp but it’s also a good way of making sure you never spend more than you can really afford.
We tried to apply that philosophy across the board, never spending money that we didn’t actually have. We saved a lot of money by having my amazing mum make the cake, a jeweller on Etsy make the rings (mine was about £200 and my husband’s £600 – both platinum), and some friends and family do the flower arrangements with fresh flowers from a local deli as opposed to florist (about £300 all up including table arrangements).
–Lauren
We're getting married on a bank holiday Sunday as it's cheaper than a Saturday and means guests are already off work the next day anyway. I've also been advised to skip favours, which we will do. Also I don't know if this is common practice but my florist advised that we can use bridesmaids' bouquets on the top table as part of the centrepiece, which helps cut down on the number of flowers needed.
–Samantha
Don't bother with an evening do. Have an afternoon wedding, then straight on to one reception serving your wedding breakfast at dinner time so you only feed guests once. Means you wouldn't be able to invite additional guests for the evening, but I've never seen the point in inviting people to come to half the event and not all of it. If you don't like them enough to attend your ceremony, why waste money having them there in the evening?!
–Natasha
Try to find a venue that lets you do it all yourself. We were lucky enough to do ours at a family home and had a humanist ceremony (which everyone loved), did the bar ourselves – booze cruise to Calais (Majestic has a Calais branch and will pay for your crossing, which was way cheaper). We had Domino's pizza for the evening meal which got absolutely lapped up. We got 50% discount as I’m NHS and they delivered for free at a set time. We didn’t do favours. We did our own dessert table which was a mixture of family cakes/brownies/chocolate mousse, etc and a dozen Krispy Kremes. I wish we’d had a silent disco over a band, which I think would have been cheaper and is so much fun.
And don’t buy wedding magazines!
–Emily
Have a short engagement...less time to be spending money on extras when planning the wedding.
–Helen
I religiously enter wedding competitions. There are millions. I won my flowers, which is a really good saving. I also ensure whenever possible I buy things via a cashback website then convert my cashback into vouchers which I use to buy wedding stuff. I plan on selling loads of it after the wedding.
–Erin
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