Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A bride-to-be has gone viral after revealing she canceled her £23,500 (approximately $30,000) wedding and instead chose a more intimate ceremony that better reflected her vision.In a TikTok video, the woman explained that she and her fiancé began looking at venues after getting engaged in November. Initially, she had wanted a small wedding, but after touring locations, she gave in to the pressure of planning a large-scale event. She decided to pivot from her expensive 2027 wedding, explaining it in a video that reached over 315,000 viewers.”I feel like you just get swept up in it, and also there’s pressure—I don’t think from anybody else but from yourself,” she said. “Like, you only get married once, like, it should be this big affair.”
A Big Decision With Big SavingsDespite having already booked Cornhill Castle in Scotland as their venue, she realized that the grand wedding wasn’t for her.”I was looking into it all last week and I just knew in my heart, I was like, ‘Do you know what? This isn’t for me,'” she said in the video.Initially worried about canceling after telling people about her plans and booking vendors, she ultimately decided to move forward with her change of heart. Fortunately, she was able to move many of her vendor bookings to her new, smaller wedding, losing only a £1,000 ($1,296) deposit in the process.Her fiancé fully supported the decision. “He was like, ‘Listen…we should do it if that’s what you want to do,'” the woman said.And save they did. By canceling the large wedding, the couple kept £14,000 (approximately $18,000) in their pockets.”If someone had this in your hand and said, here’s £23,500, do you want to spend it on one day? I would be like absolutely not,” she said.Many commenters praised her decision.
Stock image of an outdoor venue set up for a wedding.
Stock image of an outdoor venue set up for a wedding.
Dmytro Duda/Getty Images
“I feel like weddings are so materialistic nowadays,” one person wrote. “We were expected to have a big wedding and invite all these people, but we’ve stuck with what we want and having a 30 guest ceremony…people lose the whole point of a wedding, which is the commitment to the love of your life with your most important people.”Another user, who works in the wedding industry, applauded her choice.”Good for you! Huge congrats! We always tell our couples, don’t get swept up in the wedding industry. If, at the end of the day, you’re married and you’ve had an amazing day with those closest to you,” the business wrote.New Plan, New ExcitementNow, the couple will tie the knot in 2026 at the City Chambers in Edinburgh, with a much smaller ceremony followed by a big party for all their friends and family later in the evening.”I’m actually more excited about this than I was about this huge, massive, lavish wedding day,” the woman admitted.With the new plan in place, the bride-to-be is embracing a DIY approach to their reception.”So yeah, a little City Chambers wedding and I’m definitely going to be in my DIY era, because I’m going to try and do the sort of party venue myself,” she said.Her final message to others? “If there’s even a tiny [inkling] in your heart that thinks, ‘You know what, I might not want to do this big huge wedding day’…do it, because I cannot tell you the relief that I felt.”Newsweek reached out to @brookemcfarland2 for comment via TikTok.
