As the average UK wedding cost hits over £20,000, fiancées are fighting back.

Grim news for those looking to tie the knot: the average cost of a UK wedding has ballooned to over £20,000.

That’s over £3,500 more than the UK’s typical yearly rent.

Understandably, frugal and frustrated fiancées have turned to online groups to try and help keep those costs down. That includes Reddit’s r/WeddingsUnder10k, in which posters share how they stuck, or plan to stick to, a $10,000 (£7,464) budget.

Here are some of the tips members swear by: 

Flowers cost the average British bride anywhere from £350 to £4,000. But multiple members of the group say their guests didn’t notice their DIY or outright omitted versions. 

“We hit a wholesale market the morning before the rehearsal... and had my aunt help put everything together that night. Three guests complimented the centrepieces specifically,” u/Salt-Philosopher-587 said.

Under the post, others replied that they had theirs outdoors (meaning their flower vendor was Mother Nature); one person’s sister had made origami bouquets from old books. 

Others simply bought theirs from supermarkets, used other plants like succulents instead, or skipped them altogether. 

I’ll be honest: I can’t say I remember any of the wedding cakes I’ve eaten. Plenty of posters to the forum said their guests were happy with cheaper, DIY, and even supermarket versions (a good thing, seeing as they average about £360).

“UK Brides on a very tight budget; Waitrose ‘decorate your own’ iced Madeira cake is delicious,” u/lowkeybride wrote of the now-£11 cake.

Others are fans of personalised Costco cakes: the retailer has bases across the UK.

Of course, you can always DIY your own cake, though be warned: some baking brides did call this “stressful”.

“My husband spent two evenings building a Spotify playlist organised by mood, and we rented a speaker setup... People danced until 11:30, and the only complaint was that we stopped the music too early,” u/Salt-Philosopher-587 said.

They claimed “nobody noticed” the difference.

Another poster said they and their partner had “our closest friends help us curate the playlist”. 

But if you feel live music is a must-have, some posters saw success with simply approaching performers and asking what their fee is. 

“We had been looking at bands, but the cheapest were coming up at £1,200... Ended up at a random pub watching a solo performer who sings, plays guitar and puts together his own (really well done) backing tracks. He plays the kind of music we like, asked him for a quote...£200,” u/Virginia-Woof said.

OK, eloping isn’t for everyone. But if you’re finding the whole headache of planning a wedding a bit too much, newlywed after newlywed extolled the virtues of going it alone. 

“We’re both older and both non-traditional, and it was neither of [our] first weddings, so we had the luxury of only needing to make ourselves happy,” said u/CattyCattyCattyCat, who spent the equivalent of £4,700 on the day.

And u/Key_Perception8676, who photographed and organised an elopement on the Isle of Skye which cost under £8,000 in total, made some consider going guest-free themselves.

Yes, there’s the classic Charli XCX-approved city hall. But some members, like u/Lillman_jr, have thought even further outside the box. 

“I Googled ‘open gardens’... and just emailed the owners if they’d be willing to have us! ended up only costing $2000 [£1,493]”, they wrote. 

Others used Airbnbs, community centres, and out-of-season summer camps. 

Event centres and even observatories, as well as mates’ homes if you’re lucky, work too. One rule, though: avoid anything explicitly marketed as a wedding venue, Redditors advise.

Considering average venue costs are roughly £6,040 without catering, this is likely to be your biggest saving.

A second-hand wedding dress can be a beautiful thing, as u/red34278, who found a brand-new gown with tags in her local charity shop, found out. 

Online reseller sites can be a goldmine, too. 

And remember: tailoring is always an option, and costs far less than the £1,500+ price most brides can expect to pay.