Is it possible to have affordable wedding in London?

Hey Aleksandra,

I'm Hannah the community manager here at Hitched.co.uk- Congrats!

It can be so overwhelming not knowing where to start! We have tons of articles about the first stages of planning a wedding under our 'ideas' section of the website.

If you want to make a start looking for affordable wedding venues in London then this article is perfect!

Cheap Wedding Venues in London: 19 of the Best for Every Budget

I hope that helps! Please feel free to drop me a message too if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Hannah

I got engaged last year and we planned to have it in London but looked at the cost of hiring a venue only and the prices were ridiculous. You'd be looking at 5k just for a reception venue possibly up until midnight/1pm and if you want a later licence you'd have to pay for it.
Add on top of that the fees for the celebrant, food, drinks etc it's madness. We decided on having a wedding abroad in Seville. The difference in venues for 5k is astounding, we'd be spending roughly 10k but that would probably work out to 20k in the UK.

Congratulations on your engagement! When you start looking toy will find there’s lots of variation with costs and what you can achieve on a tight budget so you’ll find a wide range of options out there (but also lots and lots of help and inspiration online). Some things that might help as you get going:

Have a browse in the budget wedding section on here: https://whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com/category/real-weddings/budget-wedding/ you can see people who have done things from £1500 - £3000 and £5000 - £10k and get a sense of what might be realistic. The articles also break down how people chose to spend their budget, where they sourced items, and what they prioritised.

It might help to download a free budget spreadsheet online (just Google and have a look at some examples). This helped me get going. It’s good to find one that lists all the traditional items a couple might purchase associated with a wedding (including all the little bits like favours and accessories which soon add up). I used a budget tracker to have an honest discussion with my partner at the start about what bits we really want and then deleted the bits not relevant to us to start costing. You can then start to price up the key things you want to get a realistic idea of a sensible budget to stick to. For example, we deleted things like videographer and wedding cars as we didn’t want/need those typical things but spent a lot of time looking at venues and photographers early on to get a good deal.

Depending on your style/preference you don’t need to budget for ‘traditional’ things like bridesmaid accessories – if people already have things that work and you’re happy with them you don’t need to buy them just because it’s what usually happens. It really helps to have regular check ins with your partner to stick to your priorities!

The actual legal costs of a wedding are approx. £600ish (that’s the bare minimum legal bits depending on church or civil ceremony). It’s worth remembering everything else is totally up to you and can be as simple/lavish as you like, as it’s easy to get sucked into thinking you ‘must’ have something.

Most people find that getting the big cost of the venue sorted first usually helps you work out what else to prioritise. For example, my sister in law booked a local church and negotiated a deal as they only have approx. 60 guests so they have use of the kitchen and hall for reception in Surrey (approx. £1500). The building is beautiful, so décor costs are quite minimal and as it’s local, so transport costs were cut and they didn’t need to pay for accommodation the night before.

As they can now go self-catering and the wedding is late in the afternoon (only 1 meal to budget for instead of a wedding breakfast and an evening buffet) that also slashed catering costs. They are considering arranging a ‘bring a dish’/family self-catered picnic style buffet which again cuts costs further.

I found sourcing my dress/decor second hand slashed my costs and was a lot of fun to hunt for. We also opted for a half-day photography package to just capture the key moments which also saved us a lot too, and we agreed on early in the planning.

Try to enjoy browsing for ideas, send out lots of enquiries to local venues to get a sense of their pricing ranges, and have some realistic chats about what budget you can manage early on - hope that helps!

Have you thought about Registery Office wedding followed by private space in a restaurant or bar. There will be loads of places in the city that will be pretty reasonabley priced at weekends when workers aren't around.

Hi, I had the same dilemma!!


How traditional do you want it? Are you willing to forgo a few things ?Here are a few things I looked at doing to keep the costs down.
Get married in a town hall, there are so many beautiful ones in London.
Get married during the week, the difference in costs is unreal-we're getting married on a Wednesday.
Have the evening reception in a nice restaurant.

A more traditional wedding venue is Oaks Farm in Croydon/Surrey. This is a lovely venue and so much more affordable then anywhere I looked at !!

Hiya, we are trying to budget too. Things we are considering are winter/ weekday wedding to keep costs down. Late wedding and evening reception so as the previous comment, only one meal. Also not bothering with wedding favours or cars. We have looked at a few venues which are really lovely without much decoration needed. A barn looks rustic with just fairly lights but a village hall will need more decorations. Also we aren't having bridesmaids. Probably just my niece and nephew (4&7) as.flower girl amd pageboy. I can see how easy it is to get swept away with all the "should haves" but in reality, what do you remember about any weddings you've been too? Catching up with friends friends family and a fab couple saying I do, not the type of flowers on the tables.....

Yes I think so! Although depends on what sort of wedding you want and what you consider affordable. We’re getting married in London and did a lot of searching to find lower cost venues, and did have a few to choose from in the end.

Good places to look - pubs (many have private rooms), hotels (some of the bigger ones can be quite reasonable), sports clubs (this is where we found the most amount of affordable venues), there’s several sports clubs in the venue search but I’d also suggest searching for a rowing/rugby/cricket/golf club in your local area/an area you like, as they can often be hired for events but don’t advertise themselves in wedding venue lists, these small local places have super cheap hire too (although you’ll probs need to get creative with decorating the space!). I’ve known people to have budget weddings using a town hall and I came across some registry offices that have space alongside you can hire for quite cheap. I don’t know what part of London you’re thinking of (I stuck to around south west) but I’m sure there will be budget options all around.