Welcome and congratulations. Do you have a budget and where are you from?
We are having a late ceremony then a birthday meal (the word wedding makes prices rocket) which isn't really lying as it is my h2b birthday we get married. Then we are hiring the local pubs function room with karaoke for free.

Let us know which region you're in and we can make some suggestions :)

What morgsysgirl said about opinions and stuff most are lovely though

Don't mind me, I don't bite, honest *cheshirecatface*

you've got plenty of time :) i planned my wedding in 8 months :)

its the money and paying for things that gets people more than the actual planning i think. its more stress over paying for things.

like others have said, look into community halls. if you are looking at packages and stuff, £25pp is cheap! We won our wedding but had we had to pay for the food, it would have been £40pp just for the food, then another £12pp for drinks.

depending on your beliefs, a church wedding is pretty expencive. ours cost £550 for the ceremony. Registry offices are cheaper but both of these vary on your location.

Personally, I don't think you can do a 'cheap cheap' wedding these days if you want a little celebration after. I could maybe do it on £3000 for everything. Thats after you take into account the dress, the suits, the rings, photographs etc... but there are ways to save:

photographs/video: depending on how important these are to you. get friends and family to just take pics. most of the ones we got back were better than the 'pro' ones. or ask your local college for media students who want some experience :)

dress: second hand, charity shops, borrow etc

suits: wear what they already have but buy a colour themed tie

rings: you can get rings in argos for around £20, i know some women who have been married over 20 years and still have their 'cheap' argos ring and its perfect still!

catering: do it yourself or family do it.this is one thing i personally wouldn't stress on and would pay for. the night before you want to be relaxing really, not running round setting the food out :)


theres more, but just an example :)

good luck!
xx

Thanks everyone! Yeah we're in west midlands, Dudley area :) We've tried a few places already but they want us to pay for a complete package. Yeah we were thinking about £3000 budget. My h2b is going to make the 2 top sponge cakes himself and buy a ready made fruit cake for the bottom tier! Think we're doing a lot of things ourselves but it's mostly the venue for the evening we need haha!