My wedding and how much it cost

[Jane Smart]

As I said in Greedos thread about the most expensive thing we have bought, my wedding was one of the cheapest

Bit of a long story and I won't bore you with the details, but we got married in 1992. Both of us had been married before so wanted a low key wedding. I went and booked the registrars and paid a princely sum of £32 for the registrars fees.

Then my hubby to be said he could not go through with it, so I handed him the receipts and told him to cancel it, as I was not getting the red neck of doing so ( this was two weeks before the date we were due to get married )

I had already bought a lovely silk suit for the occasion.

When the day of the planned wedding came along, I went to work, , NOT in my new suit, but in a day to day one that I had anyway.

At 10.50am ( we were supposed to be getting married that day at 11am ) he came into my office and said "are you ready?" I said what for, he said we are getting married. Well a quick phone call to my friend who was planning to be a witness later and there we were in the registrars getting married at 11am. I nipped out in my coffee break, unknown to my work colleagues and got married.

So my wedding was only £32 as we never went out for a meal or had the usual reception or honeymoon In fact, we never had a camera and the registrar came running after us saying, sorry I forgot to congratulate you. I think it was the strangest wedding she had ever done and probably talks about it to this day

There .. .. .. .. ..

 

[wafflycat]

You forgot to figure in the cost of that suit there, it was bought for the occasion, after all.

Mine was a cheap wedding too. MrWC & I were already living together & already had WCMnr. We did a simple registry office event with us, two witnesses & my parents. That was it. Then we went off for a blessing at the local church (this bit more for my parents than us, as we aren't religious but my parents were). Then back to home where I prepared a lunch for us. I spent the afternoon preparing a buffet as we had an open house for all our friends. It was a lovely day and cost less than £500 for everything.

 

[Greedo]

Fifer in cheap wedding!!!!!!!!!!! Shock horror!!!!!!!!

Only joking!

What changed you husbands mind then?

 

[Gromit]

My sister got married for Nothing, almost. My mum paid for the registry office, I got her bouquet and someone else made the food. It wasn't more than £100.

 

[gavintc]

A lovely story Jane. Are you still together? Ironically, it will bring more longer lasting memories than a bling wedding.

 

[dellzeqq]

my first wedding cost $200. It lasted 13 painful years. I call that pretty expensive.

 

[MrGrumpy]

my wedding cost alot more than that but still did it cheap compared to these days, all paid for by ourselves. Oh and the best bit was the boxing match between my ( now deceased ) father in law and brother in law ( funnily enough has been doing time ), real class . Guys at work still talk about it to this day.

 

[661-Pete]

I cannot remember the cost, but our wedding was on a very low budget. Register office followed by reception at my in-laws' home. I remember that the cake and some of the eats were bought-in, but a lot were home-made. My wife didn't wear a white dress.

But I almost didn't make it. This was in January 1982 (yes: our 28th is coming up in a few days time). And the weather on the big day was - surprise! - heavy snow. I had a 15 mile journey to get to the register office. We allowed three hours. I'm glad it was my brother-in-law doing the driving, not me: in my panicky state I'd for certain have rammed a few other cars in my efforts to get through. We only just made it. It was a case of my bride being kept waiting, instead of the traditional other-way-around.

 

[Jane Smart]

A lovely story Jane. Are you still together? Ironically, it will bring more longer lasting memories than a bling wedding.

Yes still together Gavin and he tells me it has cost him loads ever since, but you are right, it makes a good story at parties

 

[Jane Smart]

Fifer in cheap wedding!!!!!!!!!!! Shock horror!!!!!!!!

Only joking!

What changed you husbands mind then?

He would have lost me if he had not married me

( in fact maybe he wishes he had sometimes )

( lost me that is )

 

[Jane Smart]

You forgot to figure in the cost of that suit there, it was bought for the occasion, after all.

Yeah but I got years and years of use out of that suit, wearing it to work etc., so I no longer count that in the cost of the wedding

 

[wafflycat]

Yeah but I got years and years of use out of that suit, wearing it to work etc., so I no longer count that in the cost of the wedding

You are me, and ICMFP. My wedding attire got lots of use post-wedding too.

 

[Wigsie]

Ours was not as cheap as many of yours, but I am still impressed by getting my wifes wedding dress from ebay! her folks are always broke and in masses of debt so we paid for most of it (with my folks helping out a little). I paid £36 including postage for it thinking ahh well if its crappy then fine will just ditch it. It fit Natasja perfectly and was absolutely stunning. We went to Barbados alone for two weeks and got married had the same wedding photographer as Tiger Woods (hopefully where the similarity ends) met an Afrikaans couple (my wife is Afrikaans too) on the first night, they were our witnesses and are now our good friends and godparents to wigs jnr number 2.

When we got back we had a buffet reception for around 150 people (although that was more for my folks).

After the wedding I sold the dress on ebay for £357!!

 

[Greedo]

Ours was not that bad considering the way it was heading originally. Not as cheap as half the ones on here mind.

Was getting a bit mental but as time grew nearer thankfully before the invites went out MrsGreedo started to have 2nd thoughts about the size of the whole day. She has a very small family, no parents, she didn't know some of the people I had invited and hates being the centre of attention. So downsized it dramatically and to be fair was probably the best thing to do.

Changed to a smaller nicer hotel, fewer people who we both knew, nicer meal and a more intimate and lovely day all round as everyone there was very close friends and family.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Me & mrs d's wedding budget (in 1982)
Reg.office thing; about £30
Couple of rounds in the pub beforehand for us and the two witnesses; about £10
Honymoon (two nights in 'posh' hotel); about £100