“Our wedding for 50 guests cost just £2,500”

Times Money Mentor reader Carol Thomas explains how she organised a wedding on a budget of £2,500.

Carol got married in April 2019, a mere two months after getting engaged.

Even more impressive than organising a wedding for 50 people in eight weeks was doing it on a budget of £2,500.

Carol, 35, admits that she and her husband Philip, 39, a computer technician, could have spent more on her big day but she felt strongly about her priorities.

“Debt at the start of marriage would horrify me,” the university hospital nurse says. “We may want to start a family soon so buying a bigger house is high on our agenda. And times are unstable – it’s not a time to be splashing out recklessly.”

She encountered plenty of peer pressure from friends and family members before she finally made it down the aisle.

“You have to have a wedding photographer, people said; you won’t organise a wedding in two months; costs will snowball.”

She proved the naysayers wrong and her wedding day was everything she’d imagined and more.

“We had £400 left in the wedding budget so we did the obvious thing – we put it behind the bar,” Carol, from Pontypridd, says. “Everyone loves a free bar. We drank, sang and danced the evening away.”

What I did

1. We booked the church as soon as it was available. That cost £550. We could have gone cheaper in the cost of a wedding and used a registry office but getting married in this very pretty church in the hamlet of Llanwynno was important to me. I wanted to make church vows.
   
2. We booked a three-course meal in a lovely pub for 50 guests. It was a roast lunch at £20 a head.
   
3. Instead of sending invitations to our guest list, we simply called people to invite them.

Find out more: 22 ways to have a wedding on a budget

What worked

• I bought my wedding dress in the John Lewis sale. It cost £150, and a month later I sold it online. I don’t think a £2,000 wedding dress would have made me look nicer – you don’t wear the price tag.
  
• For the wedding cake my mum bought three tiers from Marks & Spencer. We decorated it together. My mum also organised the flowers – some bought and others from my dad’s garden. I enjoyed doing them with her, it meant so much more.
  
• I designed the order of service and made decorations for the ends of the pews. After searching online for ideas I bought lace bows and roses. I also put roses on the tables in the pub.
  
• My hair and make-up were done by my hairdresser cousin.
  
• My sister-in-law took photos throughout the wedding day. I didn’t want cheesy-looking wedding pictures or guests having to wait around for group shots.
  
• For my bouquet, a nurse at work picked six calla lilies from her garden. It was elegant and such a lovely gift.
  
• We didn’t have cars – and I’m so glad. A huge storm swept in on the morning of the wedding so there wouldn’t have been a photo-worthy moment with the car anyway.
  
• Instead of spending hundreds on a DJ, my sister and I decided on a playlist and I hired a magician to do tricks at the tables. He was… magic!
  
• Keeping things simple helped avoid stress.
  
• Saving on the wedding venue was vital – that’s often where the bulk of the budget goes. Pick somewhere nice but clever – maybe a picturesque pub or a hall at an off-peak time.

And what didn’t

• To be honest, I don’t think there was anything that didn’t work. I did get quite nervous on the morning of the wedding but I don’t think I would have done anything differently.
• My advice to couples planning their wedding: don’t feel the pressure to conform, or that you have to fulfil people’s expectations during your big day by having things like a wedding planner, or a big (and expensive) marquee.

Read more: Financial guide to living with your partner

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