I did everything I could to avoid "wedding taxes." I used my sister's wedding dress (she had two, and we're about the same size), and bought a $100 ballgown skirt on Amazon. No one could tell it was cheap – everyone said I looked great!

My husband and I chose a venue that was both nice AND affordable, and because we had a bunch of guests flake last minute, the venue gave us a lot of extra stuff. I loved them. They were awesome.

Our invitations and most of the decorations were DIY, which cut down the cost /a lot./ We opted for fake flowers instead of real ones (which I'm allergic to anyway). We also followed the Chinese tradition of accepting envelopes of cash as wedding gifts instead of a registry. So we ended up spending about £10,000 in total but made back about half of it.

Our cake designer also made a mistake on our cake, so we ended up having extra cake at our wedding!

Our wedding was very special. We had about 50-60 guests and everyone had a great time. My husband, family and I often say we wish we could turn back time so we could experience it again. It's only bank-breakingly expensive if you make it so.