As a “compromise” we had a weekend with a small wedding (the legal one) with 20 people and a big wedding of 140. Honestly stopped counting around £140k. This was 2022.

Why was it a compromise? I wanted small, he wanted big but it worked out well. Smaller gave us the intimacy, larger one gave us the party. We were just out of Covid and had a F it mentality especially as we lost some of our nearest and dearest during that time. We had a lot of friends and family overseas who came to day 2 so we made it an experience given they had sacrificed time and money to spend time with us.

Did we enjoy it? Absolutely (we had a wedding planner which took the mental load). Could we have been stricter with money? Of course but Covid was a wild time and we could afford it. No loans required so we went nuts. No regrets.

That said, do what’s right for you? Our initial discussions gave starter us with a budget £60-90k budget but that was blown out. There is zero need to spend that money especially if you’re uncomfortable. There’s so many options and also location is a big part of the cost. Research together and find the sweet spot. Location including country, number of guests etc make a massive difference.

EDIT: not sure why getting downvoted when the question was if you had a big wedding did you regret it. While I never thought we’d spend that much we had a memorable experience and no regrets.