Did anyone see 'The Great British Wedding' on ITV1 this evening?

I am sure many people do spend a (relatively) ridiculously huge amount on their wedding and do get into debt, however the statistic that the average UK wedding costs £21000 could well be worth as much as the statistic that says the average wage is £40,000 or whatever figure is currently being stated. No idea where they get these figures from, invented for dramatic effect I suspect.

I didn't see the programme, Snoops, but I had a very similar wedding to yourself...registry office, my father took the photos, and a very small reception just for close family and friends. As you say, just as married and no debt afterwards.

My parents weren't too happy that we chose to have such a low key wedding, but it was what we wanted.

I personally think £21,000 is a ridiculous sum of money to spend on a wedding, but each to their own I guess!

Wow, those are pretty gobsmacking figures, Snoops!

Mr F and I got married in 1989, civil ceremony as I'd been divorced, so cheaper in that respect than a big church do, and my nephew took the photos, but we didn't scrimp on the reception and the bill was nothing like that, even allowing for inflation.

Both you and fruiters are so right in saying that it was what we wanted, not what everybody else wanted.

We married relatively late, so no parental influence, in fact no real pressure to get married at all as we could have just lived together. But we wanted to declare our comitment to our family and friends, and have a bloody good party at the same time!

Current figures do, indeed, sound verging on the obscene.

A wedding should be primarily what the bride and groom want and doesn't have to cost a fortune to mean an lot to the couple. Sharing the day is more important.

Don't forget snoopy, a rule-of-thumb for inflation is that prices double every ten years. So, £21,000 now was £10,500 in 2001, £5,250 in 1991 and £2,625 the year after you got married. Worth remembering.

I've been co-habiting with my partner for just over 3½ years, and we're getting married next June (by which time it'll have been almost 5 years).

We're having a civil ceremony, but our local Registry Office only has space for around 50-60 people, so we'll get all the legal stuff done on the Thursday, before having a 'blessing' at our preferred spot (a local city farm) on the Saturday, where we can invite the 100-120 or so guests we want.

Cost? £800 for the venue (a barn for the reception) plus around £300 to get the hall as well (some sleeping area if the little one's get tired in the evening, and it includes a kitchen for caterers a small garden for the ceremony). Catering is around £25-35 per head (depending on whether we have canapés, champagne reception etc), so that's our biggest expense at £2,500-4,200 so we're looking at over £5k before we've even got suits, a dress, transport, flowers, decorations, PA system etc.

Our original plan was the Botanical gardens in Sheffield, but that was £3,000 site hire (wedding+reception) and that's before we're even hired a marquee!

We are looking to save costs where possible (those currently betrothed, take note here!)

Being a farm, a £1,000 dress with a massive train is not really practical, so she'll probably just go for something simple and knee-length with white sandals. I'll probably shun the full suit and just wear a waistcoat, shirt and trousers (hopefully it'll be too warm for a tailcoat in June anyway!)

My mother-in-law to be is a keen gardener (and I'm getting very interested, although mostly veg rather than flowers this year) so she'll grow our flower, which we'll just pop into old jam jars for centrepieces.

We'll more than likely opt against canapés, instead putting antipasti on table (sundried tomatoes, olives, bread and oil, artichoke hearts etc). Also on food, a buffet is cheaper than a sit-down meal, but a hog-roast is cheaper still!
Alcohol will be a booze-cruise (I'm going to France at least twice in the next year anyway and through it at least one other time, so it's not extra petrol cost to pick up in Calais), and my parents live in Cyprus where, so long as you aren't really picky (I'll be getting my single malts from our local Dram Shop), spirits are really cheap (2x1l Bombay Sapphire gin for 20 Euros)
We're not having a DJ/singer, but I'll set up a playlist on a laptop and plug it into a PA system. We also have 5/6 bands within our family and friends (albeit some of them share some of the same members!) who are all willing to play for free.

We are trying to be frugal where possible, but some expenses have to be incurred. For us, the important thing is to have all the people we care about around us, so the guest-list will be our biggest expense (every extra four people is an additional £100-150 before they've even had a drink). Essentially though, we have £15,000 to spend, plus whatever we can save in the intervening year-and-a-bit. The less of it is spent on the wedding, the more there is left to spend on the marriage.