Ideas for casual wedding celebration

lizzizzie

My partner and I are considering getting married. We have always wanted to get married abroad, but we feel that it's not fair to ask friends and family to pay so much to come to our wedding. Also, it's likely that quite a few close friends and family members wouldn't be able to make it due to work commitments, health reasons, etc if we it abroad.

What we're thinking at the moment is that we will get married somewhere sunny, just the two of us, perhaps next summer. It'll be very low-key and relaxed. Then when we get back to Ireland we'll have the party!

We're looking for ideas of what to do. What we don't want is your typical formal sit-down meal in a hotel. At the moment, I think it could be fun to have a BBQ along with a buffet. Maybe have it kicking off around five or six in the evening, and perhaps have a band there for a bit. I wouldn't be keen on having a DJ - might get a friend to do up a playlist for after the band, or something.

Anyone got any experience with doing something like this instead of the usual wedding reception? Some questions I'm wondering about ...

• What sort of location would we have it in? We're located in the North West, but would consider having it elsewhere, maybe. If we go with the BBQ idea, it would need to be somewhere that, if the weather was good, there'd be plenty of outdoor space, but that there'd be plenty of indoor room too if it rained. What about renting a marquee? We'd have the land for it, but insurance would probably be a concern? Probably a lot more organisation involved too.
• Do catering companies etc even do BBQs for events like this? Food poisoning would obviously be a major concern! Is it worth the risk?
• Would it be worthwhile getting an event organiser for something like this? It's an extra expense, and we do want to keep costs down as much as possible. However perhaps they could get us discounts with suppliers etc? We have no experience in arranging anything like this, and it would be nice not to be stressed about last minute problems while we're away on our wedding/honeymoon!

If anyone has other suggestions for the celebration, I'd love to hear them! Key requirements:

• Casual, relaxed, laidback environment
• Within a budget of ~€5,000 (I don't know how realistic that is, we could quite possibly revise that upwards quite a bit, but really we're hoping to do all of this for as low a cost as possible.)
• Provide a decent feed for everyone, as people will be travelling
• Suitable for all ages, from kids to elderly relatives
• We don't want to be tied to numbers. We'll probably invite 100-150 guests, but I don't want to be chasing up on RSVPs, and equally I'd like to be able to invite extra guests at short notice if the situation arises.

We've only begun to discuss this the past day or two, so sorry if this post is very vague! I'm just looking for inspiration really!

Borderfox

Sounds great, for catering I have seen and tasted food from these guys www.hogroast.ie they fed over 100 people from one and it was superb. For a Marquee check if it comes with or without a floor (without a floor chair and table legs dig into the ground) see if they do furniture rental also, portaloo hire too.

I had worked at a wedding that had a BBQ as the meal in a hotel in Dublin, maybe someone from the North west would know if there are any hotels that can run a BBQ for you with a function room?

Theresa Dublin

Can highly recommend hogroast, they catered at a function I went too and the food was gorgeous!