DIY wedding planning - HONEST opinions please :)

Ooh, this sounds amazing! If your friends and family are like mine they would have absolutely no problems with bringing a bottle or sorting food. Just a tip though, ask multiple people to bring the same things, as there's no way people could make enough to feed that many people! I want to come too! Haha. Good luck, I hope to see your wedding come together, it sounds like it's going to be an incredible day, you're very lucky to have so many people that you want to be at your wedding. Have fun planning, it'll take some doing, but it sounds like it'll be worth it!

I love this idea!! It's got a real festival vibe. I honestly think that people love chipping in and getting involved with weddings and this is a great way to invole your friends and family. The hamper idea sounds amazing!!! If I was having a summer wedding I would definitely be tempted to go down this route, and great call on the drinks, it means you're not footing the bill if someone wants to get drunk!! Or see if you can hire a paid bar? Laura xx

Sounds fab, but you wouldn't be able to use this for your ceremony unless you were having a hand fasting type ceremony. For a legal ceremony you have to have licensed premises. Otherwise sounds great x

It sounds fabulous :-). As a guest I would love the informality of this.

Great idea. Xx

Sounds good to me .. I'd have no problem bringing a bottle ... But I don't see why you would need buffet items ... Only for the cake talks and then you and oh could judge the cakes with a prize for the best! ! Street food is brilliant and there are loads of companies offering wood fired pizzas, paella, fish and chips etc that are super cheap. In terms of bopze if you are unsure of BYO then you can get a mobile bar in that will charge for drinks xx

I photographed a tipi wedding this summer. They had cream teas, it looked great. Loads of tiny sandwiches, scones & cakes served on those 3 tiered plate things.

Thanks so much for the replies!!

Definitely going to look into hiring a bar, or perhaps doing a cash bar - even if it's just £1 a drink so it's mega cheap for guests but means we'll get some money back.

It's just so difficult knowing where to start! And I think we need staff of some sort to man a bar? Hhmmm there's lots to ponder!

I love the afternoon tea idea (right up my street) but my OH wouldn't be that keen. He wants a BBQ!

My main concern is yes it's DIY but sorting the food/drink on the day isn't something I'd want us nor out guests to worry about, so staff of some sort will be needed. I just need to get myself in gear and get researching.

Thanks again for your advice ladies - I think Hitched is going to become my new BFF over the next year!! Xx

1 bottle of wine per person is more then generous!!!!! I would cut it down to one between two and that will save you some cash!

We are doing it pretty similar DIY style and we have been to a few weddings like this and prefer it actually! For the booze we are making about a third - blackcurrent gin and homebrew then buying in 2 barrels of cider and the wine. We are having a caterer for the wedding breakfast but not doing desert - thats the cake and the cheese cake, but are doing the evening food ourselves. We have costco cards and they do big platters of sushi and other things - massive pots of homous for £2 so we are getting stuff there a long with soft drinks. If you have a costco or similar so macro and qualify or have a friend/family that does then I definately recomend it.

For the wine my parents are buying this via supermarket vouchers e.g. spend £40 get a £60 shop so every time they get one of these they buy wine for the wedding as technically its free - they switch supermarkets for the weekly shop depending on the deal - sainsburies, tesco's and morrisons are the best for that sort.

We have also been to weddings where it was a bring your own for a BBQ and had several BBQ's set up.

We're doing exactly this, except our numbers are 120. We're having a free bar - £95 ish for kegs of beer and ale which contains about 72 pints each, £300 odd on booze from calais (look up majestic wine warehouse calais), DIY buffet from costco, and then for the main food we are currently thinking about big pan paella and chilli. We wanted fish & chips or some other street food van but that does restrict it to having to be very informal as not everyone can sit and eat together due to the long serving time. The big pans can serve more at once, though we're still looking at if there's a better option out there (including completely DIY'ing the food!). Although we're providing all the beer and wine free, plus our own home brew mead, we will be asking guests to bring a bottle of their favourite tipple if they want anything outside of this, say like Gin or Vodka etc. We're also asking some guests to bring a dessert instead of a gift so we can have a dessert table

Forgot to say for glasses you can hire for free from sainbury's or waitrose - £20 deposit best to book early for high numbers.

Car boot sales will be your friend for decorations and other bits and bobs - really keeps the cost down

As your in a field you will have to remind people of wellies and don't forget to factor in things like prices of toilet block hire!

A friend of mine did this last year - sadly we couldn't make the wedding, but I have heard from other friends that it all went well.

She requested that each guest make a main course dish that could feed 4-6 people and bring a bottle (I think she specified a spirit) to contribute to the bar. She gave each guest a country/theme for the food to be from, I think we had Mexican or something. This way she could know that there would be a variation. She specified that they were asking for this instead of any presents. For me personally I thought this was great - we would usually give/spend around £100 for a wedding gift and this way it worked out around £20 for the price of a bottle of spirits and the ingredients for a meal. I can't say how it worked in practice as I wasn't there! I presume they provided some wine and beers. I think, at the end of the day - if people are going to be offended about your wedding plans and take issue with how you are doing your celebrations - are these the kind of people you want to be with you to celebrate anyway??

I think to be honest if you allow 1 bottle per person you will have enough wine to keep you going through the day and night as lots of people will only have one or two small glasses.

We are doing a fairly DIY day - I have just bought 45 bottles of prosecco this morning! I am trying to work out how to word the invitations to state bring your own for the evening reception - there will not be a licensed bar so we want to ask guests to bring their own for the evening. I was thinking of wording it along the lines of 'bring a bottle to share/contribute to the bar' (we will set up a little bar with glasses etc). Any thoughts?