My daughter got married recently. We did all our own table flowers and used a variety of props we sourced from family – rustic chairs, throw rugs, ladder, pretty much anything we could get our hands on. Looked so good.

Friends of ours got married and for the reception, they asked guests to pay $30 for the 3 course meal. No one minded, it was a fantastic day

We organised it totally in the hall from our church. Catered for food & drinks ourselves, designed printed and wrote the invites ourselves, decorated ourselves, had the church band playing and bought the cheapest wedding band for each other

Wow, lots of interesting and varied answers.

Ebay and diy shop around and do what you can yourself

Don’t get married. I think it’s an unecessary, old fashioned out dated ceremony. You don’t need to marry for any other reason then your choice.

I hope your wedding went well and didn’t break the bank.

Try and make as many decorations yourself. There are some gorgeous and very easy DIY wedding decorations, especially centre pieces. You could save a bunch by making as much of it as you can.

I’d check out another venue where you can do BOY and cancel the booking you have. That will be a big saving.. (and at the end of the day you want to save your money for the rest of your life, not one silly day!) We went to a church hall ($50), had a buffet (local ladies helped out for around $200) and did get a photographer (most expensive item at $400) but really wished we had just asked some friends to take snaps….don’t look at the photos now; they weren’t that nice anyway; and we have FAR too many…. Really don’t make a fuss of it.. just enjoy the day.. and save your money for the little one and all the other wonderful thingls you’ll want to do!

If you are buying a wedding cake and only have one large level you can ask for a birthday fruit cake instead of wedding. It is basically the same ingredients but a lot cheaper. You can have fancy icing, then you can put your own wedding decoration on it. Two weddings we went to the bridesmaids and groom’s attendant’s outfits were hired. Price Wedding Dresses. You may be able to buy what you like cheaper at a sale than you can buy the material to have it made. I know of one such case. I think hers may actually been sold as a beaded bodiced evening gown or debutanee gown. It wasn’t heavily beaded. It had enough to take the plain look off it. She didn’t have a veil. She didn’t consider It appropriate as she already had a daughter from a previous marriage. She didn’t have one the first time either as she doesn’t like them. If oyu have anybody you know who takes good photos check around as some that advertise on-line what are supposed to special deals are more expensive than others. She found that out too late. Get shoes you can wear afterwards at some stage. Hopefully the bridegroom will do the same.

My friends mum made the cake,a friend took the photos,we supplied our own food ,a smorgasbord.Hired a hall for $100.Got my own dress made.Done my own flowers.

Isn’t the wedding all about the joining of two kindred spirits? So why not cancel the venue, get a refund, and have a good old backyard shindig!

It is good reading the comments and interest to this!

just do your research, get lots of quotes

I had a lunchtime wedding. Other people have a weekday wedding. A second hand dress. People to pay for own meals instead of giving gifts.

My sister did a bit of DIY stuff at the wedding. My sister made gifts for the guests , tassels on the tables.

Think about whether things really matter to you and/or your guests, if they don’t, forget them.

For us, centrepieces were something that clutter the table, and stop you from seeing across the table, so we simplified it by spraying some wine/embossed beer bottles and sticking a gerbra in.

The invitations/stationery were DIY.

Do you know any family or friends who are good at these things? If so ask them to do it for you as a gift for you. Also decor do it yourself! Ebay is amazing,

Hope you had a lovely wedding!

Weddings can be inexpensive. You may like to alter the venue as the food and drinks are what eat up the budget very quickly. You can save by creating your own invitations. You can supply guests with those disposable cameras or have some friends take photos. Then you can pick what you want from those. Do your own hair and makeup or have a friend do these for you. What is more acceptable now is for the guests to be asked to no gifts and they are invited to just the ceremony, and if they wish to join you at the reception at a restaurant, they book and pay for their own meal and drinks. You may provide drinks for toasts only. You may like to have a reception with some finger foods, tea coffee and fruit punch.
The ceremony is the most important part of a wedding. If the reception is indoors. You can save on many things by enlisting family and friends to help create bouquets, table decorations etc.
If you are having a church wedding ceremony, often churches have a hall that is most suitable for a reception.
You may like to visit some of the op shops, as they have many wedding gowns and other items given to them by bridal shops. Does it matter if your gown is last season?
For bridal and bridesmaids cars, if this is what you want, you can ask some friends who have nice cars for this. You can cut costs in so many ways. The costly wedding cake can be replaced with a small wedding cake and a tower of cup cakes. Think about combined ceremony and reception location. Remember it is your day and you get to have the final say in how and where and just keep within budget.
Wishing you every happiness on your special day and life together.