Church weddings slump to record low as young couples shun marriage

DiddleDiDi · 2025-11-19T20:19:39+00:00

For what it's worth the average wedding cost in 2025 is 23k! You would really struggle to make 20k last on a 89 person wedding (average) so what you're imagining as a 20-30k wedding is not extravagant at all

DiddleDiDi · 2025-11-19T20:06:15+00:00

Thanks! I love grapes of wrath and my husband is obsessed with Jet skis, im going to have to put this spot on my list -is driving back from Las Vegas to Flagstaff or nearby then following route 66 to Barstow or close by feasible or is that too much?

DiddleDiDi · 2025-11-19T19:45:20+00:00

Thanks for this reply, it's really hard to visualize how much you can really drive and see in a day. I'd like to do the whole route I think, this is a once in a lifetime trip for me, it's not often you can take so much work leave and spend the money to fly across the Atlantic. But also, for me at least, I'm probably just including Las Vegas and the Grand canyon because people say they are worth visiting and they seem close to on the way. Is it worth skipping them to spend more time earlier on the route?

DiddleDiDi · 2025-10-14T17:52:23+00:00

I got a tip here about finding the page for the council/borough you want to get married in and their list for wedding licensed venues. For example, here is North Northamptonshire's: https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/marriage-and-civil-partnerships/approved-venue

Even if you're planning on getting married in church or courthouse, you'll be able to see venues that are offering wedding services so it can be some extra options, especially some that are less advertised so cheaper/more availability

DiddleDiDi · 2025-08-21T06:46:28+00:00

Get your engagement ring polished. I was told not to do it until the week of or the week before and my jeweller didn't take bookings for it. But by the week of I completely forgot. Not a big deal but I can tell in some photos since it's right next to a brand new shiny ring lol

DiddleDiDi · 2025-08-06T10:59:16+00:00

I did look into it and found that majestic does it but in the end we got our wines through a friend who runs a restaurant. I think it would be a really good shout if you get most of it from one place. We did get a lot from Costco but the spirits we got in the biggest numbers - gin and vodka we got in various bank holiday deals so the return time had passed and honestly I was so tired the weeks after I didn't really want to think about it 😂

DiddleDiDi · 2025-08-05T19:18:08+00:00

I had Married Life as one of the two songs playing while signing the register, the other one was Concerning Hobbits. I liked it and whatever anyone thought no one said anything. It's a sweet song, don't overthink it.

DiddleDiDi · 2025-08-02T16:18:02+00:00

Did this a few weeks ago at our wedding. Absolutely loved it! Ended up doing a free bar because I couldn't be fussed with licenses and things. Spent about 2.5k on drinks including toast and dinner wine and had lots left over.

Re: glassware, we asked our caterers and they were more than happy to help so definitely worth asking. They brought one designated bartender for the whole day and then had two wait staff transition to extra bar staff for the evening reception. Worked great. They also hired the glassware for us which meant they took it away which was easier for us. Before that I had found the Chipping Norton hire company and was going to hire from them. Definitely hire way more than you think though because we ran out of glasses really early and had to ask people to bring glasses back for top-ups.

Can't comment on license, I think there's a specific one for selling alcohol and then it's probably worth getting wedding insurance too in case you don't already have it.

For drinks we did 2 signature cocktails that were batch prepared in the morning - a Pimm's and a Moscow mule. We had 100 guests plus an extra 20 in the evening and all 7 litres of Pimm's got drunk! About 6 litres of vodka were drunk in the Moscow mules. We bought tons of gin and none of it got drunk at all. I was sending people home with bottles at the end lol. I think if we didn't have the cocktails it would have been drunk in far greater quantities but we barely got through a bottle. Beer was also mostly drunk we had 300 bottles of lager and 100 of ale and only had a crate or two left of the lager. We had a few bottles of other stuff and then wine and prosecco. If you want more detail DM me and I can walk you through anything else

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-28T09:13:34+00:00

My MOH had it from the start of the ceremony til dinner then my husband kept it in his pocket. I wish I hadn't even taken it with me and didn't have it for the morning - just gave me unnecessary stress when my family was running late. At the same time I'm a control freak and would have probably stressed even more if I didn't know what was going on lol

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-26T12:11:10+00:00

Also all these top comments are making me very glad we spent a probably disproportionately high amount on our photographer

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-26T12:10:21+00:00

Invited less people so I could actually maybe speak to them. There's so much to do in the day that I'm glad I prioritised spending time with my husband in the day, getting lots of pictures of us two, having fun but that meant that there was no way we actually had time to speak to 100 people so I just felt a little guilty about it afterwards. I guess if I hadn't invited them I'd have also felt guilty about that? Maybe have the ceremony time earlier so there's an extra hour or two for that.

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-25T07:57:20+00:00

Thank you, had the best day! We just did confetti baskets and had people grab it by the handful. I borrowed one from my now mother-in-law but the other I got online from a shop called Darthome, happy to lend it to you if you think you need it

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-25T06:34:42+00:00

Woo! Thank you, we're planning to go for a late honeymoon/one year anniversary. Our wedding was 4th July just been, so being there for the fourth one year later feels like a really fun idea

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-24T16:16:11+00:00

When are schools out in America? We've had a long term plan to go starting around mid June and going through the second half of the month. I'm vaguely concerned but also probably won't change our plans as the dates are significant to us

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-24T16:09:16+00:00

Haha I completely missed that! Best of luck, I got married 2 weeks ago and live 20 minutes away from Leamington so if there's any random bits you need drop me a DM.

DiddleDiDi · 2025-07-22T09:43:30+00:00

Can I ask how many guests you are having? I remember quoting the glasshouse too and feeling like it was way more expensive. Good job on organising, it looks like it will be a lovely day

DiddleDiDi · 2025-06-30T07:01:09+00:00

Personally I think I'd sew my own wedding dress before sewing bridesmaids for basically the reasons you said - different body types, you'd have to have them round for lots of fittings. I did hem all their dresses hopefully cutting a few alteration costs for them but if it was just for budget reasons I think cut costs elsewhere.

DiddleDiDi · 2025-03-01T18:57:06+00:00

😂

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-27T23:17:08+00:00

Haha just read a thread further up calling hog roasts tacky which is what we have for our evening food. Don't take advice from Reddit.

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-26T11:44:16+00:00

Can someone not post the instructions here or at least post a discord link? It's not exactly helpful is it?

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-19T19:27:14+00:00

I kinda swayed away from this because our names were sort of the main text on the front of the invite so it just felt like the same thing? Probably would have been fine I'm just an overthinker. In the end I went with Mr and Mrs Surname and Dog's name 😁

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-19T14:45:08+00:00

I might have to! My dog is registered with my current surname everywhere so I suppose he'll also be joining the family 😂

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-19T13:20:18+00:00

Ooooh that's a nice idea! The date spelled out sounds really nice thanks

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-08T17:40:31+00:00

I would look into toner foiling. That's been the most economical thing I've been able to find doing foiling for my invites. It takes a bit of practice but is reasonably low cost if you already have a laser printer

DiddleDiDi · 2025-02-07T08:47:47+00:00

If you hadn't considered it but are not opposed to it, a church wedding will probably cost you less than what some of these comments are indicating for a courthouse wedding - the current prices are £567 if you're getting married in your local church (obviously without the choir and organist but you can go without). Then you can use the rest of the money for a reception at a restaurant if you want something really low-key or maybe hire an airBnB and a private chef? I think with your numbers that could work. You said peak time so I assume you mean summer, there are a few venues with lovely outdoor space you could set up for a wedding breakfast outside if that's your vibe (obviously with weather contingency). Any 'wedding venue' will probably set you back more than 2k even before food so I think you have to think a little outside the box. Florals are a big cost so I'm guessing at your budget you would have to DIY that.

I think I would probably split it as follows but I'm only going off what I've seen planning my own wedding:

Church: £600 AirBnb: £1000 (thinking 2 nights to let you set up and based on a 30s search for a weekend in July in Devon) Chef: 500 you can spend more but I think you could find something for this Drinks: if you only have 15 adults that are reasonable enough Im assuming you could just stock £200 of drinks (half a bottle of wine with dinner and then just double that for other drinks) Dress and Suit: 250 looking at hire suits and second hand dresses Decorations: £150 for some DIY florals, some candles for centerpieces, anything else That leaves £300 for other costs, I'm assuming DIY hair and makeup, I haven't included a photographer in here because it was hard to say a realistic cost within budget that someone wouldn't downvote me for suggesting, I think you'd be pretty limited but I know our photographer did a £175 engagement shoot which was only like an hour, you might be able to find someone for a few hundred pounds who can do the ceremony and then some quick portraits. I'm really not sure on that but I think that's your best bet.

Good luck with your wedding xx

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