My dress cost 12gns (remember those?), my mum made the cake and I iced it, we did the reception between us and it was held at home, honeymoon outfit I made myself and honeymoon was a week touring Scotland (B&B) in a borrowed and battered old mini. Wedding presents were of course the pyrex dishes, 2 tablespoons, blanket etc and 3 of my mum's friends clubbed together to give us a toaster.

My daughter went to a wedding where all the guests were given a programme for the day which started off at 8am with the bride being woken up with a glass of champagne !!! It never got to the bit after the wedding thank goodness but did run to quite a few pages.

When my daughter got married we did lots of things cheaply. She was living in China and designed and e-mailed me the invitations, place settings, etc and I printed them off and mounted onto cards - it saved a small fortune. I also made the cake and a friend iced it, made the bridesmaid's dress (not easy as she also was in China but it did fit !) and dried rose petals for confetti. Lovely weddings do not have to cost a fortune but there always seem to be a bit of 'one-upmanship' amongst brides and as for stag and hen do's I'm just so glad I am never invited !!

Absolutely!

Too much invested in one day, we would much rather help our kids with bricks and mortar, a home is much more important than entertaining hoards of people and having a flashy show. I don't include very close family or old friends, but I do think a lot of it could be pared down to a fairly intimate affair inviting those who really care about the couple. I understand the need for a religious service for those with who practice, but otherwise I see nothing wrong with a civil ceremony.

Nowadays, hen and stag are also factored in for some and they can be another whole set of horrors that bump up the expense and don't always end well either

I don't have a daughter but I simply wouldn't stump up for this sort of occasion. If the couple in question want something big and flashy I think they should be prepared to pay for it themselves.

We got married with the minimum of fuss, close friends and a meal in a lovely hotel afterwards overlooking the River Thames. It's really about the rest of your lives together not that one day.

My friend's daughter and her husband spent £35,000 on their wedding - and that didn't include the honeymoon. They are quite comfortably off but I still think it's ridiculous. At least they're still together after 6 years.

My son's best friend spent a huge amount on his wedding too and had a very luxurious honeymoon. The marriage lasted a year. Undeterred, he married again and spent huge amounts the second time around also.

We didn't even have a honeymoon DH went back to work on the Monday.
DH's nephew who had lived with his partner for 8yrs and had a 5yr old got married last year in a beautiful country house with every little detail co-ordinated it cost tens of thousands of pounds. Madness IMHO but their his money their choice.

We got married in 1961, I was 19, DH was 22. I bought my dress from the Co-op on instalments, and my aunt paid for the headdress. As I was in hospital having my tonsils out not long before the wedding, DH ordered my flowers, so I didn't know what they would be until they arrived. Actually they were lovely. Mum and her friends prepared a wedding breakfast between them, and it was held at home. It was a very hot September day and Mum had cooked a roast chicken dinner for midday. I had two helpings, then thought I might not get into my dress, but I did. My " Matron of Honour" supplied her own dress, and the two little bridesmaids dresses were made by their Mum. A friend of the family made and decorated the wedding cake. I kept the top tier to celebrate the birth of our first baby, but when he arrived, two and a half years later, we didn't fancy it. DH arranged the honeymoon on the Isle of Wight, abroad in those days and we went by train, me in my new smart suit with matching gloves and shoes. I don't know how much was spent, not a lot, but we are still together after 54 years. Ahhhh, and I still love him to bits,(nearly all of the time)

My neighbours D is marrying at Easter. It is the second time for her and the first for her partner with whom she has lived for some time now. It is a very big and expensive do and her dress is big, white and sparkly. The invites have already gone out with a poem asking for money in lieu of gifts for a holiday with her two children in Florida. Their day their choice but I hope my family members would not go down that path.

Two years ago, my son and his partner decided to get married with the minimum of fuss. He told us when to turn up at the register office and little else. Only close family and friends attended, about a dozen in all. There was no wedding dress or flowers or official photographer. My son arrived wearing a green parka and carrying a CD player. I could see the registrar and staff looking a bit askance when he said he was the groom.
The short service was conducted with four little 2 year old girls running around and there was much hilarity. The registrar was great. She joined in the laughter and I can honestly say it was the most joyous wedding I have attended. In the end I decided this was because there were no distractions to the couple exchanging their vows ( apart from the little girls ) No wedding clothes to admire, no posh setting, no bells or whistles. It was lovely and my son and daughter - in - law were so happy.
Afterwards we went to a restaurant for lunch and then unexpectedly back to our house. I had to nip into sainsbury's on the way home to pick up a cake of some sort, in the end a Gruffalo one !
It was a super day, totally stress free. When my daughter got married, she had the full Monty which took months to plan and cost a fortune. That was a great day too, but I now know that spending a lot of money is not necessary to celebrate a marriage. But I think it takes a bit of courage as the current trend if for a big do to mark the special day.

Wedding on the cheap, we ourselves were very young and poor as church mice and my mother had been widowed for 10 years. Splashed out on 2 weeks in Newquay, went on the train as we didn't have a car, then back to rented rooms to save hard for a house. We started our family 7 years later. Still here after 57 years. Fancy do's costing tens of thousands don't do it for me. My own DC's wedding were nice but not extravagant, sadly one is now divorced and the other one separated.

If it's what the couple want then why not , it's their choice

Totally- absolutel madness and a recipe for disaster- so many couples beginning married life with wedding debts! Sad.

We spent our 1/52 honeymoon in a cheap hotel in Clevedon that seemed to cater for pernament residents in their eighties and nineties on Zimmer frames. They locked the door at 8.30 pm.
We had only £10 between us and it was all we could afford.

Yes, I think that far too much money is spent and far too much agonising over trivial details of the wedding.All this 'fairytale Wedding' stuff, where did that come from?!
You can have a nice wedding and reception for a tiny slice of the cash spent on what is called the average wedding, if you do things carefully.Save the money for a deposit on a house, or on furniture.
It seems that the more lavish the wedding, the more the bride turns into a bridezilla.

Yes. (actual answer)

I went on my honeymoon on the back of a motorbike. We had three days in an old folks' home a small hotel in the New Forest. (The maid knocked on our door on the first night. Asked if I wanted my hot water bottle)