Eloping or marrying

You certainly don't need to spent 6000 on a venue! My covid wedding could only have 30 guests and our total budget was 7000 including honeymoon.

If you have 20 people, there are many beautiful ways of having a lovely wedding. Are you planning on getting married in a church / town hall? You can always have the official part in the town hall and then a little ceremony with a celebrant with your guests if you don't want to do use a licensed venue.

It can be in a garden, a forest, a holiday rental property, but also a social club, local museum etc

And the food can be anywhere too. Catered venues are a complete rip-off especially if you're going for a small wedding. You could either go for a restaurant meal or a picnic, or get a caterer to deliver food to your rented venue etc...

We rented a comfy cafe space that was beautifully decorated and had a children's play area, provided a lot of our own food and drink inc alcohol (the place was licensed and allowed us to supply our own), but ordered mains from the neighbouring restaurant. Best of all worlds!

I spent the night before in a lovely stately home meaning that the getting ready pics were beautiful and then my husband came to pick me up, and we did pictures in the grounds. My pictures look like we married in a castle, but we didn't incur any of the costs!

The sky is the limit to what you can do on a small budget

We are having 26 guests so looked at private dining options instead of 'wedding' venues. We found a private dining room in a hotel and they charge a small hire fee and then a price per head menu. We were originally planning a registry office ceremony but the hotel has a wedding licence and we can have a ceremony in the private dining room so that was a bonus.