Budget

Because people buy into the 'it's your wedding day so it has to be super-special and that means spending lots of money' idea!

Try thinking outside the box. Book your ceremony at your local registry office or place of worship, as you wish. Then look for local venues that don't offer 'wedding packages' but which have private function rooms of a size to accommodate your anticipated number of guests.

Even the basic wedding packages at our local 'wedding venues' were way more than we wanted to pay, and came with a load of non-optional stuff that we really didn't want. Plus a very restricted menu choice. So we booked a local country pub with stunning gardens that was happy for us to order anything off their very extensive menu, and all they charged us for was the food and drinks - came to a tenth of what the 'cheap' wedding venues were charging, and we weren't paying for any fluff that we didn't want.