Oh my word has it been a big week over here. Not only did I get engaged and get quoted in the newspaper, but yesterday I sold another one of my ducks to Lauren (I hear he’s going to be very tasty), and had another six ducklings born. Now I’ve just got two ducks left sitting on eggs, so a minor duckling explosion is likely to happen again soon.
I’m still very excited about getting engaged, although I started researching prices of things and had to walk away from the computer. I have a budget, it’s very tight and very tiny and I will get married and it will be fantastic, regardless of the fact that we won’t be having white linen napkins and a sit down dinner.
Considering the Internet is very clever and appears to be populated with women and men who have married someone, I would love to ask for your wedding stories if that’s possible?
What did you do that worked brilliantly and you loved?
What did you think you would love, but it didn’t work out so well?
And what did you do to cut costs?
When I say I’ve got a very small budget, think tiny. Teensy. Like, I’m planning on getting married for under $1000 if I can do it. Also, if you’ve got suggestions for where to buy cheap things, I’m all ears. I priced wedding invitations and somehow, I think I might be making and printing my own. Ebay looks good so far too.
I guess the big thing is a dress of some description and enough good food and company to have a fantastic party afterwards.
And in unrelated news, my garden is going relatively well, for dirt that hasn’t had anything done to it for years and therefore, has no nutritional goodness in it (yet). (Watch me plant the entire thing in green manure crops this winter)
Tiny female pumkin flower – the first one on this particular vine.
Not sure what type of pumpkin this is, my seeds were a heirloom variety for cooler areas. It could be a butternut. It looks delicious though. It’s about 20cm long at the moment.I’ve got another two bigger ones on different vines, both different types.
And my tomatoes are doing well enough, even if the plants are smaller than what I’d hoped for and the fruit is steadfastly refusing to ripen up yet. A frost a few days ago killed the tips of some of the plants, but they will survive. As a side note: Frost? In February? Come on Tasmania, I know we haven’t had a summer, but really?! REALLY?!
Anyway. Wedding tips. Give me all you’ve got.
I bought my wedding gown from this eBay seller for less than $120 – http://stores.ebay.com.au/aprilbridal
They’re custom made according to your measurements and super cheap. I can definitely recommend that seller!
Thank you! Exactly the kind of thing I need.
If you’re not attached to the idea of a white dress you can get some lovely ball or coctail type dresses much cheaper. My dress was actually purple. We also did our own invitations which was fairly simple with a printer and nice paper.
A friend had an afternoon tea reception, saved having to provide a full meal, and of course the cake can double as dessert.
I’d actually prefer something that isn’t white! I’ve seen a few nice things about, but the prices have still been more than I want to pay. I’ve got a fair bit of time however.
I’m not sure what you mean by “tiny” but by traditional wedding standards our wedding was that. We spent about $2000 all up.
When we got married the standard advice was to have your wedding on a day that doesn’t start with “S” as they tend to be the most popular and therefore the most expensive. We got married on a Friday in Roma Street Parklands which I think we pay under $100 for the higher of. It really was beautiful, the ceremony took place under a Moreton Bay Fig tree and I did my walk while the clock at city hall gonged (which was coincidental and happen because the In Laws were half an our late despite staying 500m away).
The reception was a finger food morning tea held at my uncles place. The decorations were made by yours truly and consisted of a wrought iron candle holder with fake ivy wrapped around it and hot glued to the table cloth (when your done hot glue just peels off). I also bought and hot glued some butterflies from a junk shop on to the tables and candle holder.
I also saved a lot of money by buying Stargazer Lillies from a florist warehouse rather than a florist and getting my uncles partner to arrange it. They cost me $30 instead of about $90 florists wanted.
Lastly, if you don’t want a big fruffy dress check out the bridesmaids gowns. You can pay as little as $80-$90 for your dress.
OH!! A bit one, with the exception of your celebrant DO NOT say the word “wedding”. Call it an event 😆 I know it’s sneaky, but there’s no reason why things should cost more because it’s for a wedding rather than any other event.
Also CONGRATULATIONS!
Tiny is tiny, probably 1k all up if I can swing it. Because we’ll be doing the ceremony and reception here, I won’t have to stress about hire fees (yay!) and yes, I’ve seen the huge difference between “wedding” stuff and “party” stuff. Insane!!
WOW what a busy woman you are! Why not use the KISS technique Darling.
A dress you love, a simple ceremony in lovely surroundings, then out to dinner where everyone pays there own tab, that way only the people who truly love you will want to cough up. You guys shout the wine for the dinner. That’s what we did in the 60s when it was unheard of!
I’ve been telling my girl for years that I’m savings the wishbones and painting them silver for the place cards … she’s eventually twigged I’m stirring ;~)
Make sure everything you do is all about YOU and Your Darling ??
I am very very busy, hehehe.
We would do that, but we’re out in the middle of nowhere, and having to drive an hour afterwards is what I’m trying to avoid. I think that we’ve just about got the food organised.
Best of British with it, Veronica. It seems whenever you mention ‘wedding’ nowadays, the price doubles. I was married in 1999 so things have changed a lot in Hobart since then.
Do you have a photographer friend you could ask to take photos? That would save you heaps.
We also had a video done (it would be a DVD now) and I’m so glad we did as it captured the spirit and vibrancy of the event so much better than the static photos. Maybe you have a friend who could record it for you.
A tiny thing we did which I treasure is that we had each other’s names engraved inside our wedding rings (so mine was in his and his was in mine) and our wedding date – it’s a lovely tangible reminder of the big day. There’s also no excuse for forgetting your anniversary ?. J x
Mum and I both have decent cameras, so I think we’ll make do with those, and ask everyone else to bring cameras and snap photos too.
I like the idea of engraving the rings.
Congratulations to you 🙂
We’re not legally married so I can’t help with that much. Although I seriously considered renting my prom dress instead of buying to cut costs and there were some nice options. (at least in the US)
Thankyou very much!!
Yep, you said it. Ebay. And Gumtree. If you take away the photographer, my wedding cost $2500 – including the dress/makeup/shoes, flowers, ceremony, DJ, cars, suit hire and a sit down three course meal (with wine) reception for 75 people. No one knew that ours was a budget wedding – just because it’s cheap, it doesn’t have to look cheap!
My tips: if you are booking a function centre, don’t mention the word wedding – say a party or a gathering – the price often changes even though it’s not meant to.
Check out YouTube for some great videos of ‘do it yourself’ makeup, bonbonierre, flowers etc – though it can be a bit stressful to do it all yourself, so maybe get a few friends to help 🙂
Best of luck, Veronica! Have fun x
Yes, I’ve seen the different prices for things based on weddings, how insane is that?
Have a look at etsy for invitations (some really really nice pre-made ones).
My friend bought a dress from eBay for less than $100 and it was great. Was from one of the places in south east Asia that make dresses to order. The postage is sometimes more than the dress.
I eloped and wore a $20 dress from big-w and the paperwork cost under $3 (although this was in Phuket).
Check out eBay. Check out etsy and get as many people as possible to help you.
Exciting!
Ebay and etsy have so much stuff! Thanks 🙂
One of my aunties made my wedding cake, it was a fruitcake with royal icing. It was her gift to us. If you know someone who is willing to do that for you it would be a big help.
My friend is doing my cake and cupcakes and I’m so pleased to have that under control.
We had finger food, as inspired by another couple, and it can be filling in itself. That or a spit. I waited at a wedding where there was a spit and everyone was enjoying the food there. Plus it’s easy to have set up in the backyard.
I also went an evening dress instead of a wedding dress. 13 years ago my dress cost me $150, shoes about half that. We paid for the clothes for the bridesmaid/best man, and we dressed the bridsemaid (including underwear!) for under $200.
Is there perhaps a beauty/hairdressing school salon somewhere not too far away? Not sure if they do weddings, but they are always a lot cheaper. I had my make-up through the Body Shop, and they came to the house and cost much less than other places.
Consider if you need a photographer. EVERYONE has a digital camera these days, if you trust enough of them to take decent photos of the wedding then let them, then let them trust someone to do family photos, etc after. Sharing files is a lot easier and cheaper than hiring someone.
Same with video.
For the reception we left disposable cameras at the various tables. Some really silly photos, but that captures the moment and the true nature of the people you have chosen to have there.
I’ve been looking at evening dresses too – tbh, I’m not a fan of white, so avoiding the whole white foofy skirt thing works for me.
Disposable cameras are a good idea too!
i agree with everyone else, but you know that!
You can google invitation designs then go to artery and pick up some cheap pretty paper to copy them. Artery is actually cheaper than the craft section in spotlight and ive even picked up some cheap things from chickenfeed!
I always make my own invites, if you print them on fancy paper and print each persons name onto it, it looks professional.
I think that’s what I’m going to have to do – it’s too expensive otherwise.
It’s been a while since I’ve commented here but I haven’t stopped reading and I wanted to offer my tips as I married my true lurve in October last year.
I spent a lot of time researching and tried to do everything as cheaply as possible by doing a lot of things myself. I found so many ideas by checking out blogs like: http://greenweddingshoes.com/ and joining websites like: http://www.theknot.com.au/. I’d save images (like a virtual scrapbook) and then find tutorials on how to make the certain things I liked e.g. organza roses I used on our invitations.
As someone mentioned above – I used Etsy (also great for ideas) for a lot of things too; jewelery and clutch handbags for myself and the bridesmaids and our thankyou favours were ordered off there too.
My dress I ordered from China on: http://www.dhgate.com/
I tried on so many dressed at bridal stores but I couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars on a dress! I was skeptical at first, but I ended up with my dream dress for under $200. I send them my measurements, it was delivered in 4 weeks and it’s such good quality material and all hand beaded. I took it to a dressmaker and she made the final alterations for me as I was losing weight as the day approached (probably not a problem for you though!). If you’re interested I’m happy to show you the picture of the dress I chose and the finished product of me wearing it.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the glamour of it and can be depressing when you’re trying to stick to a budget, but at the end of the day – you’re not going to remember the tiny details as the day is over in a flash and you realise afterward that they don’t really matter! I don’t remember paying much attention to the flower arrangements on the tables, or the napkins, or the bows on the chairs etc…. but I sure as hell remember the look on my now husbands face as we stood saying our vows, it was as if he’s won the grandest prize of all 🙂
Best of luck with all your preparations <3
Do you know how much time I’ve spent on DHgate since you left me the link? Gosh the dresses are nice! And cheap too. Thanks very much.
Firstly congratulations! I can say as someone who already had children before getting married that it is really lovely to dedicate a day to yourselves as a couple and to indulge in some time out AKA honeymoon! It also completely rocks out that your children can be there for day, I love looking at photos of our little boy on the day with us.
As for budget, we went budget, well kind of, we started out intending to spend $2000 and I’m not gonna lie to you it ballooned out to just over $5000. But I got a bit carried away creating the atmosphere I really wanted. The bulk of that cost came from the catering/venue/ceremony hire which amounted to about $700 in-itself. The country hall where we had the ceremony
I reckon if you’re doing it at home and you have helpers you can get away with having a big afternoon BBQ or picnic lunch. You can even get everyone to bring a plate and then you guys can provide alcohol and dessert. That’s what we wanted to do but our rented house just wasn’t gonna work in this way.
Other ways to save cash: think DIY for everything or think of all your creative loved ones and get them to help in some way as a wedding gift instead of a pressie. Get someone who loves baking to bake a whole heap of cupcakes. Or the person who loves graphic design and art to design the cards. Or someone who sews to do up your dress or table cloths. Or one of your friends who is a fabulous cook to make big bowls of salad or mixed platters.
Ways which we saved cash was to do all our flowers ourselves as well as the bouquet. If you have flowers in your garden just use those. Florists charge a heap of money and often you can make homestyle arrangements that look even better I reckon.
As for dress, i just brought one in a department store and had it altered to look like a stunning gown! saved myself hundreds/thousands. I wanted to go vintage but with my top heavy body I couldn’t find anything that fit. I know of many people who have scored their dress for $50!
This is a good website for some handmade, DIY ideas: http://offbeatbride.com/
Happy wedding planning, it is so time consuming and all-absorbing but so much fun too..
Big picnic lunch/BBQ is what we’re aiming at, casual and fun. And I love Off Beat Bride, thankyou for the link!
Craftzine had a DIY wedding series at http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/01/diy_wedding_projects_roundup.html Some great templates on it from memory for invites etc. Other tips – get someone to make a small ‘wedding’ cake (iced fruitcake or similar) then order a slab cake from a bakery (don’t mention its for a wedding) and use that as dessert. +1 for the getting flowers from a distributor and keep them simple with a bow to keep together. And have fun! Our ‘key indicator’ of success for the day was that we ended up married – everything else is just the ‘icing on the cake’!! (excuse all the brackets and quote marks in this – and hyphens – my punctuation is crazy at the moment)
Oooooh, I like that link!
Re cake – my friend is making me a small cake and then cupcakes for the guests. Yay for friends!
Congratulations!! I’m loving all of the ideas above. My best advice is to take people up on their offers of help. People love to help out with things like the cake, photos, decorating and it will save you a fortune.
Enjoy yourself, planning a wedding is so much fun!
Oooh yes, letting people help has to be the best money saver.
We had a lovely wedding and I’m so pleased with what we did. I didn’t buy a traditional wedding or bridesmaid dress and instead bought two cocktail dresses that were about $500 each. We took people up on their offers to help and their artistic skills in regards to the cake, flowers, photography and invitations (sure, they weren’t super professional looking but they were lovely and we just weren’t willing to spend a lot of money on one day). We chose a special spot (cliff overlooking Coolum Beach) which was a gorgeous location. We hired a restaurant and dj. I think it cost about $9000 in total. We focussed on good food, nice location and keeping it simple and FUN. We felt and have heard that it was a great party that everyone enjoyed. I regret not putting anyone in charge of filming the ceremony or speeches as it would have been nice to have a record to watch but oh well. Can’t wait to hear all about your plans – it will be wonderful!
Yours sounds like it was lovely.
My entire wedding was about $200-$300. But this WAS way back in 1971. Mum and mum-in-law just took over and roped in all their friends to cook their specialties, decorate the hall with flowers from their gardens, mum even had a friend who worked in a bakery, so the wedding cake was a slightly mis-shapen fruit cake with royal icing in two layers-half price. I didn’t even get to choose it, mum said it was taken care of. For the wedding tables, mum and me made a few dozen tissue paper flowers and scattered them around with some greenery from god-knows-where. Both mums are dressmakers, so my dress and the bridesmaids dresses were homemade, with me stitching buttons and hems. I did carry a bought bouquet of orchids in white, (mum insisted), and the bridesmaids also had orchids in a pale green. Very small bouquets, because they were cheaper. My veil was a metre of netting gathered onto a headband of fabric flowers.
I don’t remember exactly what food we had, there were various salads, party pies and pasties, sausage rolls, and sweet pies. My mum made her specialty which was caramel tarts, my new brother-in-law loved them so much he ate an entire one, then kept leaving the dance floor to get more pieces. All of mum’s friends were out in the kitchen cleaning up dishes as they were emptied and bringing more food from the fridges. Really it was more a huge party than a reception. When we cut the cake we took pieces out to the kitchen for all the helpers and later they took off their aprons and came out to join the dancing.
So I’d say, rope in as many people as you can to cook simple foods that you know will get eaten, that way you can spend a bit more on a wedding cake if you really want one. Or do a BBQ and have guests bring a salad or sweet. (You may have to monitor this in case you get a table full of sweet and no salad or vice-versa). Another tip, copy the men, who usually hire their suits, and hire your dress. It’s much, much cheaper to hire than to buy.
Making your own invitations is a great idea. Using disposable plates and cutlery helps too, no washing up. My daughter had the disposable cameras on tables for her wedding, she got some great photos that way, but a few of the guests kept their cameras.
I laughed at your BIL, hehe. I like caramel tarts too, rather a lot.
We bought some gorgeous stationary from the newsagent and printed our own invitations, just use a cursive font and they look fancy 😉
Don’t overlook places that sell catering supplies thinking that you’ll be too small. You never know what they might have or do for you. It is perfectly acceptable to use a big of paper tablecloth to cover your tables. Keep an eye out for specials on decorative things as you go but cheap balloons, streamers and candles will look just as nice as expensive flower arrangements or table settings with a bit of thought. Plant flowers that will bloom in spring to decorate with. We didn’t have suits for the blokes, just black pants, white shirts and ties. We hired the pants, shoes and ties for the ones who didn’t have them quite cheaply.
Are you involved with or do you have any family involved with an organisation or church that would hire your their chairs and tables for cheap? We often used to hire our fire stations tables and chairs for a much smaller donation than what it would have cost us through a hire place.
One thing I would suggest to make sure you have is a marquee. Garden weddings are lovely, but if the weather turns on you you’re screwed.
Oh and don’t forget to factor in the cost of your rings and the celebrant.
I think candles and balloons will be the extent of my decorating – that and flowers in pots that I can move around.
I’ll have to ask around for chair hires, I’d like to have enough chairs for people to sit on at least. Hey, if that doesn’t work, I’ll get some hay bales, LOL
OMG – hay bales is the cutest! I remember seeing this done before and found the link to the wedding: http://greenweddingshoes.com/real-wedding-lydia-joshuas-backyard-wedding/
They’ve used flowering plants in pots for decorating too…. so so cute! <3
The great thing about getting married on a budget is that you involve your family and friends more. We asked friends to drive us to the wedding, to usher at the church, to take photos, to play and to sing at the service, as well as to do the readings and pray. We were surrounded by the people we loved and who loved us an used their talents for us. You might have a friend who could bake/decorate your cake or make your dress or provide a couple of lambs for the spit at cost, or play music for you.
Expect that not everything will go as planned. I remember a wedding where the two tiny flower-girls were overwhelmed by their audience and didn’t want to walk up the aisle. The bride held hands with them and they all came up together — much sweeter and prettier than the conventional thing!
One of my friends had a morning wedding with morning tea at a public park (she worked at a bakery/cafe which provided the food at cost), and a small lunch-reception just for family. Morning weddings are usually cheaper, and as brides are up at the crack of dawn anyway, it’s a less exhausting day.
I’d also caution you not to write your own wedding vows — even the home-made vows of otherwise intelligent people tend to sound like Oprah wrote them!
I think involving friends and family can only be a good thing too, if someone else does *this* then I don’t have to think about it.
The smart thing I did about my wedding was to let my (now) husband do almost all of the planning. If you can’t get away with that, I’m not sure that I have any advice. 🙂
I sure do like your ducklings though.
Nat isn’t much of a planner, he tends to let me organise everything and just go along with it. I think cos we’re having it at home, that takes a lot of the stress away. I don’t have to worry about making sure function rooms aren’t booked out, that’s for sure!
Ducklings! I had another 13 hatch yesterday, so we’re all covered in yellow fluffy cuteness.
We had a tiny wedding – the major costs involved were flying to Hobart (it was a ‘half-elopement’, in that it was just us and our witnesses, but everyone knew about it) and the accommodation while we were there. Oh, and the rings, of course.
My dress was from Birdsnest (http://birdsnest.com.au/) and was end of range/season from Charlie Brown and super cheap. It also just happened to be white, which was a nice touch. I had to get it altered slightly to fit, but that wasn’t particularly expensive either. ($200 all up).
Our wedding day was on a Wednesday in the middle of winter in Hobart, so entirely off peak for major costs. We were also able to have the wedding in the courtyard of the hotel we stayed at – and ended up by chance being the only guests there that day! Because it was an ‘elopement’ session (3hrs), the photography was much, much cheaper than it would have been for a ‘real’ wedding (12hrs).
I have to say though, Chookie, we wrote our own vows and we were much happier with them compared to the stock standard ones.
Sounds like your wedding was lovely! Although winter in Hobart? *shudder* (I hate winter, I hate being cold, hate hate hate). I’m hoping that late November will be warm!
For my first wedding we did a breakfast thing – mainly cos it was cheaper!
Over here the venues are cheaper in the morning and the food is cheaper AND there is no alcohol so also naturally cheaper 🙂
And its better with kids – no tired kidlets crying and stressing parents out!!!!
I think cos everything will be done at home, it shouldn’t be too bad with the kidlets. I can always lock them in their bedrooms anyway, hehe.
If only from our own experience, I can recommend eloping to another continent, and narrowly avoiding a colossal hurricane.
Avoiding hurricanes is on my list. I can’t imagine being blown away would be any fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA
I loved this. Love.
I so could have cut costs at our wedding! We did serve appetizers in stead of a meal, I did not pay for a cake, I had been to many wedding the summer we got married and I did not see anyone really care about the cake. We used actual potted mums for centerpieces, and in the states we have Free Cycle, a place where you can “recycle” things you no longer need. Lots of people put things on there. My dress was made for me, $300, the hall and food $2500 (CRAZY!) we had to rent the church ($400) and I would totally skip that next time. Found an inexpensuive photographer ($100, and I got to keep all the proofs) and our DJ cost $600 (best money I spent, he was GREAT!) I also printed my own invites ($75 including the ink, for 400 invites) Go simple, be creative.
If I had to do it all over again…..I would have gotten married on Halloween and had a theme wedding. It was a blast, we had fun and danced and danced and celebrated, but I could have done it cheaper.
Wow, the hall and food cost that much?! I’m hoping my neighbouring farm can provide a lamb for the spit, and I’ll have some ducks roasted too, so food shouldn’t be too expensive for us.
I love freecycle.
Yes, and by US standards, I did it cheap! It’s your day, I turned into bridezilla for a little while on the rehearsal day. My mom was being bitchy and my Dad’s new girlfriend was too. But, I’m over it, and they don’t remind me 🙂
I think I spent too much, but it was fun.
Well, I pulled off a wedding and reception for around $1,500 but I don’t think I could have done it for a thousand or less. The main reason I was able to pull it off so cheaply is I was SUPER LUCKY and won an Ebay auction and got my dress for $50. My wedding cake was made by a relative and was her gift to us so we didn’t have to pay for our cake. The food was all finger type foods in crock pots. Hot Wings, Meatballs, Lunch meat trays, rotel cheese dip and chips, more chips, finger sandwiches. The food cost the most. We rented a country club for the reception for $150 and the church we got married in was free since someone we knew was a member there.
I think because we don’t have to hire a church or venue, then we *might* be able to make it.
Ooh I loves me a wedding! Congratulations 🙂
This site has heaps of ideas: http://www.snippetandink.com/. Some full-blown wedding explosions, some beautifully simple and inexpensive.
You have the right idea already; it’s a celebration, a party. I recommend a laptop with a massive playlist for the music, paper lanterns and fairy lights to set the mood, and hunting down some decent local cleanskins for bulk wine purchases.
I made my own invitations for my wedding; came up with a ridiculously fiddly design involving $80 a metre beaded fabric, lace, and ribbon, and realised halfway through what a waste it was. I’ve made heaps of invitation since on my home printer using graphics from a vector search of http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml, printed on 6×4 photo paper. They come up a treat.
Photos can be quite a big ticket item, and you do want to have some lovely shots to look over in years to come. Would you consider offering some advertising on here to a photographer to keep the price down?
We had a polaroid camera and guest book at our reception, and asked people to pose for a photo and leave a note underneath. It was a nice and inexpensive way of getting photos of our guests.
Good luck and have fun!
I would consider offering advertising to anyone who is willing to help out, or do things for me – that’s the joy of having a blog!
I’m completely envious of the heirloom pumkins. I’m adding them to a to do when I have a garden list.
I am loving having the space for the garden – even if the current “big” garden has poor soil nutrition. More compost.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am not sold on the idea of a wedding, to be honest. I want to be married but I want to avoid the whole wedding drama thing. Cause, you know, I’m close to one aunt but not the others, but how can I invite one and not the others? Etc, etc…
Still, the mothers/grandparents will be disappointed if there is no wedding, and my partner really wants the wedding, so I guess there will be some sort of event. My mother offered me 10 metres of blue raw silk shot with gold the other day, which I think was a bribe!
I’m looking forward to seeing how your own event pans out, Veronica. It IS exciting!
I agree, I want to be married, so our wedding is going to be planned as a party/celebration of our marriage, with good food, good company and good music.
Things have changed since we were married nine years ago, but some elements have stayed true. We made our own invites and hired goldfish for our reception tables instead of flowers (the hire was something like $20 and then $2 for each fish that dies!! Happy to say, they all survived…).
We got married at Strahan on top of the hill. Not sure if it’s still the same, but the ceremony was on the balcony of the Macquarie Restaurant, they gave us access to the Abt Railway for photos and we booked the entire Macquarie Restaurant out for the reception – all for free!
It turned into a beautiful holiday with just our family and our very closest friends.
Have to say, because we saved on quite a few things, I splurged a bit on my dress! So, I’m no help with the dress…
Oh god, I wonder how many fish have died at other weddings, for there to be a charge on dead fish?
We were married way back in 1996. All the flowers for the ceremony were done by friends & my mum picked from gardens. My only request? Just white please.
We printed the invites ourselves on our home printer. My dress was made for a song and my mother in law (a master embroiderer) embroidered with real gold thread… I know I was lucky to be able to do that for nothing! A similar dress at the time was sold for $5000 – which is INSANE! My sister made me porcelain roses to attach to the dress too… handy having artists in the family!
I bought a pair of shoes for $4… because I knew I’d never wear them again and the week after the wedding they were in the dress up box in my classroom!
We had no wedding photographer, instead we just asked people to please send us copies of any photos they took. We didn’t have a video of it, nor did we want one.
A family member made our cakes. The priest who married us is a family friend, so that was a gift too.
We had a small (by wedding standards) guest list of people we knew and loved. Much easier on us all! We used people we knew for everything… I sat in the church as Mum & friends did the flowers, entertaining a small child as I did so.
I did my own make up, so I looked like myself! I splurged and had my hair done, because I am crap at putting my own hair up!
I guess the thing is, do what you can yourself, and get family and friends involved as much as possible. On the morning of our wedding day our house was filled with people doing flowers etc.. it was a joyous morning!
Wow, you were lucky with your dress!
So, I’m not married although I’m living a long engagement and my eventual nuptials will be very different to what I once dreamed of. That said, I do have some ideas from others I’ve seen and ideas of my own. One brother had a very small wedding – immediate family and spouses only. Including the bride and groom, there were 17 people. Now I realise that given the internet has been invited, your may e a little larger! same bride and groom had the cake made by my Mum. It was iced plain and decorated with fresh flowers. Easy to do and cheaper than paying for the extravaganzas that some cakes become.
Do your own invitations. You’re savvy on the computer; you can do that. Search out some pretty paper and come up with a design. Mail merge and away you go!
I was going to have rhododendron blooms for my bouquet from a neighbour’s bush for my wedding (many moons ago). It was always in bloom in around the planned wedding date and I thought two or three balls of blooms tied with a ribbon would be pretty.
As I suggested to your Mum for her hat, have you thought about tapping into the university community to see if someone would like to make your dress/hair piece/shoes? What a fantastic opportunity for a upcoming designer to create something special that will be seen not just in a portfolio, but in a real life wedding. You seem to be getting a bit of profile on radio down there – time to capitalise on it?
Talking to the uni community or fashion design classes is a bloody excellent idea!
I bought my dress at a department store in the UK for less than $200. My Mum made our invitations, my cousin married us in my parents garden at home, my bridesmaids and I did all the flowers and we asked everyone to give us a cd with their photos from the day! It was lovely, perfect for us and not fussy at all. We spent our money on the things that mattered to us: food and booze! Everything else was just details!
I think ours is going to be pretty similar somehow!
We had a ceremony and picnic in the park. It was a lovely big park which didn’t require booking or hiring. (I imagine small inner city parks probably need to be hired.) My mum baked and decorated the cake as a present. My husband’s family contributed the picnic baskets and enough wine for a few glasses per guest.
People brought blankets around. My brother and brother in law took charge of the blankets and ushering. We also borrowed two camping chairs for two elderly guests.
I bought the material for my dress (around $50) and mum made it (i was going to, but had a Csection and new baby and life got a bit hectic.)
We didn’t have an engagement ring, and our wedding rings were very simple.
We paid for the celebrant.
We printed our programs at home.
We managed for $600 and it was a lovely lovely wedding.
I would think – you are inviting family and friends and they will all want to contribute. Think about what you want and don’t be in the least bit scared to ask for contributions to the wedding.
Here are the things we didn’t have
flowers
church
reception venue
bridesmaids
wedding car
gifts for bridal party
suit hire
any professionals other than the celebrant
wedding planner
professional musicians – I have a musical family so we certainly had lovely music
after the wedding the partying types went on ‘out’ and had a good time apparently. We went home quietly with our new baby!
Here’s the amazing thing – the celebrant stayed for the picnic afterwards and said it was one of the lovliest weddings she’d ever been to. Which proves it just doesn’t have to cost much!
It sounds absolutely lovely!
Congratulations Veronica!
We had the most amazing reception/party…….we had our reception in the back yard and we asked people to bring a plate of their favorite food. The food was incredible. We hired tresses tables, table cloths, chairs, plates, cutlery, glasses and a little cool room on a trailer. We spent our money on alcohol. The folks we bought the alcohol from lent us a huge esky – sort of like a fridge on its back. People could just help themselves. We had around 120 people and it was just too much fun. People got to mingle, dance, enjoy the most unbelievable and incredible array of food. We were outside. It felt really special and the food thing enabled everyone to contribute.
The next day we just scraped the plates and packed everything back into crates and took it back to the hire company.
Oh, we hired a juke box instead of a band. People liked being able to choose the music they wanted to dance to. The good thing about the bring a plate thing is that you end up with more than enough food. It guarantees there is SOMETHING everyone will like, and you don’t have to limit the number of people you invite based on cost. You can be expansive and that is nice.
Our mothers were horrified/dubious about the idea, but they liked being able to invite everyone they wanted to (even those distant rellies you only just remember) and we could invite all our friends without worrying about cost, and we ended up with a rather embarrassing array of serving platters. It was just a great party – heaps of people, kids, food, fun – no restrictions.
I remember my mum being horrified that I hadn’t organised a wedding cake, so I suggested she bring a wedding cake instead of a plate, which she did!
Good luck with the planing.
Duckie
I love the idea of everyone bring a plate of their favourite food to share. I think that’s a fantastic idea!
First of all — CONGRATULATIONS *confetti and balloons and streamers*
I LOVE weddings — love marriage — and I’m so happy and excited for you.
Second of all — trust me, the things you’ll remember most will be Nathan, the kids, the guests, your family, the love and laughter. So don’t stress about anything, and delegate as much as you can.
I bought my dress from Rockmans for $80. It’s red with gold thread embroidery in the bodice, and I totally loved it, but I knew I would never wear it again. My shoes were black and also cost $80, but I wore them for years afterward.
My BF brought me tiny rosebuds from her garden for my hair, but I did pay for makeup and hair to be done professionally.
And we bought hubs’ suit knowing he would wear it many times in the future.
We drove ourselves to the wedding in hubs’ banged up old car, the wedding was on the beach; I had no music, no flowers, no attendants, no arch or chairs or decorations — and we were there to greet guests as they arrived. Very simple and lovely.
We paid for a sit-down dinner in the restaurant on the beach, and I bought a few packets of scatters (stars) for the tables.
So what I’m saying is, cut corners where you can but splurge a bit where you think it matters, to make it that little bit more special.
There’s a gorgeous website called Snippet and Ink that will give you some amazing ideas for slightly different (non-froufrou) weddings.
Your wedding sounds lovely and relaxed! And yes, I’ll be cutting corners here and there, and spending on stuff I really want (good food for one).
You can get some great scrapbooking supplies to make your own invites. Also, I am planning on getting my mum to make my wedding dress! She can sew, there are some very basic but extremely elegant patterns for formal/wedding dresses if you look hard enough. Or, try second hand as you can usually guarantee they’ve only been used once.
Have you thought about a spit roast for eats? Or there is a guy who makes Pizza in a wood fired oven on site, we did that for my FIL’s 60th. I guess it depends on how many people you are inviting but I was planning a fairly small wedding and reception came in well under $500.
My father taught me to sew – he’d been taught on board a fishing boat, where the ability to sew clothes and fish nets back together was a much needed thing. Aside from basic stuff, no one sews, so I’ll be looking online for a dress.
Spit roast, we’re definitely doing. I can hopefully get a sheep from next door and slaughter it ourselves and then spit roast it for hours (Oh god, I’m hungry now!)
If I lived near you, I would totally plan your whole wedding for you. You could just tell me colours/themes/idea’s and I would MAKE IT HAPPEN. I love planning weddings.
Ebay ebay ebay. For invites, we bought plain but nice cream cards and envelopes from an ordinary stationary shop and printed them up ourselves. If you want to do something quite fancy, search ebay for nail-art pearls/gems and use those to decorate them. I’d imagine that for $40 you could get enough gems and cards to make invites for 50 people.
I got fake silk flowers and my dress had cost £10 from a vintage shop years before I got married. I’m not sure what the facilities are like near you but if there are any second-hand/charity/vintage shops, go there first to look for a dress. Do you have a crafty friend who can sew and would be willing to make you a dress to spec for the price of the fabric? Alternatively, ebay is full of chinese shops with cheap as chips dresses. In fact, I tried on a dress in a bridal shop that cost £1,880, and when I googled it to see if I could find another stockist, I found a shop that would make the exact same dress to measure for £120.
Write LOADS of lists. Lists of what you want, lists of ideas, lists of people, food, decorations, dates, anything at all that may be relevant, write a list. Get a notebook and use it for all wedding-related things. Have a section for lists, a section for idea’s and a section for things you’ve bought/booked/finalised. Put EVERYTHING in the book and carry it with you whenever you’re doing wedding-stuff. I made the mistake of thinking I would be organised with just bits of paper and computer files and I ended up buying some things, putting them away ‘for safekeeping’ and then only finding them when we moved out of the house, three weeks after we got married.
Most of all, if you are finding it overwhelming, rope in some help. Don’t want to search through 50 pages on ebay looking for the cheapest nail-art pearls in the shape of butterflies? Get someone else to do it for you. Delegate. People won’t mind. Don’t take on the full load yourself, you may just collapse and it might suck all the fun out of the planning process.
If you lived near by, I would totally let you. I hate that you live so far away.
congrats on the engagement!
i’ve been spending a lot of time on the martha stewart’s wedding site (don’t shoot me, okay) – and there are loads of awesome decor/gifts/stuff that you can make for your wedding – am totally going to be doing the same thing…
good luck with the planning – keep it simple, and it can’t go wrong, right? xx
Thankyou very much!
And I almost got stabby with the mention of martha, but I figure everything that helps can only be good. Hehe. I’m planting lots of plants to be growing decorations hopefully.
LOVING all the answers, and they all seem to have given you all the links I was going to for the DIY weddings. I love wedding blogs for inspiration for my photography.
One site no-one has mentioned is http://www.rocknrollbride.com -very different ideas and most of them are DIY
Then instead of printing images or storing them in bookmarks… use Pinterest.com (let me know if you need an invite), it allows you to start many pinboards with images you like.
More sites that I like include http://www.weddingchicks.com/ and http://www.stylemepretty.com and http://junebugweddings.com/
Have fun with the planning 🙂
That website is pretty cool!
And thankyou for the links.
First of, Congrats on the upcoming wedding, I’m so happy for you!
As to your comment about registries (I’m not sure if this has already been mentioned), our local DIY stores in the States have gift registries. Since they have gardening sections, hopefully your locations will as well and/or gift cards? Perhaps even the local nursery might be willing to work with you?
Again, so happy for you!
I’m not sure ours do – the nursery that I’d want to use is pretty small – that said, there is no harm in me asking them!
Hi Veronica,
I’m so excited for you!!!
If you would like some help with invites, I would love to help. I’m a graphic designer so can help you design an invite if you wish. With the artwork file, you can take it to any printer you want.
What is your timeframe? I’m having another baby in 3 weeks so I might be a bit busy in the next month or so but if you have time, I can definitely help with designing something after that.
Ronnie xo
I would love love love your help! The wedding is in November, so invites wouldn’t need to be done by July, so loads of time.
And hey! Another baby! How exciting.
Yeah, I know – exciting and a little bit scary!
Anyway, definitely keep me in mind then for your invites. If between now and then you can collect images and clippings of invites that you like, that will be a great place to start!
Take care,
Ronnie
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