A wedding under 10k?? Is it possible? Tips???

This is easy with a little imagination!

The big costs are venue and food that can not be negotiated. The rest you can barter, exchange and just look for cheaper options.

For example. I loved some invites I found on confetti, I got a sample and got a cheaper local printers to make them up. Identical!

Everything I found that I liked I checked on ebay for, favours, head bands for bridesmaids etc. All identical but cheaper

Try and make things yourself, I am totally not crafty but made the favours and the tealight holders myself (help from friends)

Make up and hair - Maybe find someone who has just started who wants to add to their portfolio

Shop around. Do not go with the first person you speak to, get quotes and compare.

Good luck x

Around 10k for us, with sit down meal for around 70, probably around 120 in the evening, church, and dressmaker made dresses for me plus 2 adult bridesmaids. Hired suits for all wedding party including both dads. Caterers were very reasonable as we wanted something quite simple, and were happy with leg of lamb rather than a more expensive cut (loin)

Major savings are:

Venue - £230 to hire a town hall (with bar)(wood panelled, early Victorian) plus £2.50ish for hire of crockery

Invites - making our own - OH drew a line drawing of the town hall and church (which are opposite each other) and we're printing themselves on A5 card.

Cake - I'm making it because I can make cakes and can't deal with flowers, so easier having a freelance master florist for flowers and not worrying about the things.

Not having more than the usual church flowers in the church because it is huge (seats 630 at a push for things like the crib service) and barring spending more than the entire wedding budget on flowers, you'd hardly notice them. Helps that it's a 15th century building and has lovely carved pews so I don't want to hide them. Equally because the venue has its own character, it doesn't need lots of decorating - which a hotel function room might.

Wine, bought from France, direct from Vineyard at approx 4 euros/bottle - kindly paid for by my parents as a surprise. Corkage is reasonable at the venue, which helps.

We splurged on dresses (for me + 2 bridesmaids) as I fell love with a fabric for the BM dresses and justified the cost of mine as having a dressmaker make it in pure silk was a similar cost to the dresses I'd though were "OK" in the shops!

I think it's definitely possible. Cutting out my venue and catering costs, the rest of it only comes to about £5500. I think it must be possible to find a venue for £4.5k somewhere, or cut out even more than I have:

-I'm making my cake with the help of friends

-not having wedding cars

-doing diy floral arrangements

-having my dress made for £550

-doing my own make-up, but having hair professionally done

-making my own decorations (only necessary for the evening part of the venue)

-our wedding party members are choosing and buying their own attire. The men already all own tuxedos, so that's lucky, and my BM are north american and expect they should have to buy their own (shh! no one tell them it's not the norm here!).

Things I could have scrimped more on, but decided were priorities:

-we've budgeted quite a bit of rings because I want them to be beautiful as they will last us the rest of our lives- I probably could have cut this down by about £800

-I've budgeted £300 for gifts for my BM- I'm not buying their dresses, so I figured I would get them nice presents. We've budgeted less for the groomsmen only because OH already picked their gifts and it's less expensive. Who knows, the BM gifts could be less, too.

-I'm have a sweets bar- so I could have cut that out, but it's not too expensive, I've only budgeted £100 for candy and paper baggies, and I've already found about 6 vintage crockery bowls, tea and coffee jars and the like at charity shops for £1-3 each, and a couple pairs of sugar cube tongs! I'm having the candy pick n mix baggies sub in as favours for the guests, too.

-couldn't really skimp of the total cost for the registrar and giving notice, etc: £695! So the person who said you could get married for under £500 was a little off it seems

And finally, I probably could have scrimped on the venue cost, which is coming to a grand total of, *drum roll please*:

£16,500 (including venue hire, 3 glasses champagne per guest, 1/2 bottle wine per guest, 3 course meal, coffee & tea, evening finger food buffet, and £1500 on an account bar)

Definitely don't pick a venue like this. Probably could have gone without saying, but just don't even LOOK at them, or you'll get sucked in like I did. I should've just put up a tent in my mom's back garden! Marquee and catering would've come in under £4k back home, and we could've been married on the cheap!