How to Cut Costs for Your Wedding: What We Did for £2,500 With 80 Guests

The average UK wedding costs over £20,000. We spent around £2,000-2,500 for 80 guests and had one of the best days of our lives. Here's exactly how we did it - and why some of the things we skipped turned out to be the best decisions we made.

Sort your guest list first

We didn't overthink this. We invited everyone we were in touch with at the time, then worked backwards from there. If your garden is smaller, or your budget is tighter, it's worth being upfront with yourself about numbers early on, since guest count drives almost every other cost on this list, from food to seating to how many disposable cups you'll get through.

Make your own invites

We designed our own invites in Canva, printed them ourselves and posted them out. It took an evening or two but cost a fraction of ordering printed stationery, and we could make them look exactly how we wanted rather than picking from a template range.

Rethink the actual marriage bit

This was the biggest saving of all and it's not something many people consider. We got legally married at a registry office the week before our party, with just our two mums as witnesses. We chose the cheapest available package - you're only allowed two witnesses for that option, which suited us perfectly as neither of us wanted a crowd watching us exchange vows. I find that level of attention genuinely overwhelming.

What we actually wanted was a party with all our friends and family. So that's what we had. The Wedfest in our garden was the celebration - relaxed, informal, ours. Separating the legal part from the party part saved thousands and meant both days were exactly what we wanted rather than a compromise. If you're after more inspiration, there are some brilliant wedding ideas on a budget worth browsing before you start planning.

If the thought of everyone staring at you as you walk down an aisle fills you with dread rather than excitement, this is worth considering. You still get married. You still get the party. You just don't have to do both at the same time in front of 80 people.

Use your own garden as the venue

Ben pointed out we already had a perfectly good venue. He was right. Using our own garden meant no venue hire fee at all, which for a party of 80 people would typically be one of the biggest costs of the day.

We bought a couple of pop-up gazebos and hired a marquee for extra cover in case of rain - which turned out to be a very good call as the evening brought a full storm with torrential rain and thunder. The day itself was scorching, genuinely one of the hottest days of the summer. We set up the day before once we knew the forecast was safe. I've shared the full story and photos in my garden Wedfest wedding post if you want to see how it all came together.

If you have the space and the garden, this is the single biggest money saver available to you. A few garden party tips are worth reading if you're planning something similar - a lot of the same principles apply.

If it rains, have a plan. Our marquee and the house itself were the backup, so guests simply moved inside rather than the day being ruined.

Sort out parking and toilets

With 80 guests, there's no getting around the practical stuff. We didn't hire a portaloo, we just let everyone use the toilet in the house. If you're happy with guests coming in and out, this saves you a cost entirely. Parking is worth thinking through too, particularly if you're on a residential street, so guests know where to go before the day rather than turning up and guessing.

DIY the decorations over time

We didn't buy everything at once. In the weeks before Wedfest we made paper pompoms over several evenings - I'd ordered pre-cut ones so they just needed assembling, maybe five minutes each. We'd do a few whenever we had a spare 20 minutes. By the day we had loads of them and they looked brilliant without costing much at all.

We also strung bunting everywhere - an absolute must for a garden wedding - had giant balloons (most of which ended up in the neighbours' gardens before the day had even started), and used Bella's chalkboard as a Wedfest welcome sign at the garden gate. Very free. Very effective.

For seating we hired straw bales from a local farmer for next to nothing. They dropped them the day before and collected them the day after - they were going straight back into use so the hire cost was minimal. We added large floor cushions from Homesense for extra comfort and it gave the whole garden a festival feel.

DIY the photo booth

I'd originally planned to hire a photo booth for a couple of hours, but decided to do my own instead. I bought a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 and plenty of film, made up props and displayed them in jars, and left everything out for guests to use themselves throughout the day. The photos were printed instantly and guests stuck them into our guest book alongside their messages.

The guest book was a wooden stag-themed book I found on eBay - it came all the way from Greece as I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in the UK. It ended up being one of my favourite things from the whole day. We have a book full of photos of everyone enjoying themselves with their own written messages. Much better than a hired photo booth with a generic strip of photos that ends up in a drawer.

If you want to add a photo booth experience to your wedding, a good instant camera, some props and a beautiful guest book will do the job for a fraction of the cost. If you'd prefer the full hired setup, search online for Photo Booth Rental Fort Worth or your nearest location and get quotes from a few local companies to compare prices.

Set up a kids zone if you're inviting families

We already had a Wendy house in the garden, so we put up a teepee next to it with floor cushions inside, plus a dress up box full of clothes, hats and accessories. The kids entertained themselves for hours with barely any input from us, which meant the grown-ups could actually relax and enjoy the day instead of constantly keeping little ones occupied.

Choose food people actually want to eat

We hired Cotswold Pizza Co who served wood-fired fresh pizzas to all 80 guests for lunch. They walked around handing out slices or made whole pizzas per guest on request. It was the best pizza I've ever eaten - genuinely. Then in the evening the same caterers ran a BBQ, so food was covered all day without us having to organise multiple suppliers.

This was so much more memorable than a sit-down three-course meal, cost considerably less, and nobody had to wait around to be served. Guests just ate when they wanted to. Think about what food actually suits your day rather than defaulting to a traditional wedding breakfast. 

Set up your own drinks station

We bought a few homeware troughs from Homesense and turned them into ice buckets, filled with soft drinks and beers for guests to help themselves. We also made large batches of alcohol-free fruity cocktails in 5 litre Kilner jars, plus put out wine and other drinks, and guests were welcome to bring their own too. It worked out far cheaper than a hired bar and meant nobody was ever queuing for a drink.

Skip the wedding cake and favours

We had cupcakes instead - roughly one per guest, so about 80 cakes displayed on a table for guests to help themselves throughout the day. Ben was convinced I'd ordered too many. By the end of the day only two or three were left. Much cheaper than a tiered cake, no cutting ceremony required, and everyone got some.

We skipped wedding favours entirely. Nobody missed them. A small token per guest adds up fast at 80 people and honestly most favours end up left on the table anyway. 

Rethink the rings

We skipped this almost entirely. I kept wearing my engagement ring for a while, then later bought a handmade ring from Etsy in exactly the style I wanted, a minimal thin rose gold band with a small diamond, for around £100. Ben never got a ring and doesn't wear one. If a traditional wedding ring isn't essential to you, there's no rule saying you need one, and Etsy is worth a look if you want something unique for less.

Save on what everyone wears

This one saved us a significant amount and it's easy to overlook. No bridesmaid dresses, no suit hire, no traditional wedding dress. I wore an ivory lace dress from New Look that had all the right vibes for a fraction of the cost of an actual wedding dress. Ben wore what he wanted. No one hired anything.

We also told guests to wear whatever they liked. Dress up if you want to, come casual if you prefer, entirely up to you. Everyone was comfortable and nobody felt pressure to go out and buy something specific for the day. It made the whole thing feel more relaxed too.

Keep hen and stag dos low key

I didn't have a hen do. Our son was 5 months old when we got married and I was breastfeeding and couldn't leave him. Ben had a small stag do with two friends, staying at his brother's Airbnb with cheap forest and river activities nearby. Big blowout hen and stag weekends can rack up serious cost, so if that's not your thing either, a low key weekend with the people who matter most works just as well.

Hire a photographer for a few hours only

We had a lifestyle photographer for the first three hours. That gave us around 200 photos on a wooden USB stick covering the whole setup, the guests arriving, the food, the children, the atmosphere. Everything important was captured.

Full-day wedding photography can cost thousands. A few hours with the right photographer gives you everything you actually want to look back on. After the first few hours we took our own photos for the rest of the day anyway.

Make your own playlist

No DJ, no band. We spent time putting together a playlist we actually loved and played it throughout the day. It cost nothing, there was no awkward DJ chat, and we got to hear exactly the music we wanted rather than someone else's interpretation of what a wedding should sound like. If you're throwing a big party on a smaller budget generally, my post on how to throw a big party on a small budget covers the same principles beyond just weddings.

Spend on one unexpected thing that makes the day

Our close-up magician was the highlight of the day. Darren Campbell went around to every guest individually doing tricks that nobody - and I mean nobody - could work out. He had everyone completely gobsmacked. Guests were still talking about it weeks afterwards.

It wasn't expensive compared to what a band or DJ would cost, but it was the thing that made our Wedfest feel genuinely different and special. If you're cutting costs elsewhere, consider putting some of what you save into one unexpected element that guests won't see coming.

The total

Around £2,000-2,500 for 80 guests including food, photographer, entertainment, decorations, marquee hire and everything else. For context, the average UK wedding budget would have given us ten times that. We don't regret a single decision we made.

The secret isn't really about cutting corners. It's about being honest about what you actually want from your wedding day rather than spending money on what you think you're supposed to have.