DIY weddings

The Knot team had an email from a bride today with a wedding budget of $10,000.

My own wedding budget is $30k, but we’ve also had to employ lots of money-saving tricks to stay on budget.

Instead of having our invites made, we’re DIYing them. A designer from work tidied up a design I had done myself, and a company in our complex offered printed them for free. All our materials were from Eckersleys, who give a 10% discount for every 100 sheets of paper you buy. This has saved us about $700 so far.

A friend used Vistaprint and saved even more!

Negotiate on your quotes – we saved about $800 on our wedding photography by doing this. If you’re in Sydney or Melbourne, a great value, high quality company we visited was Dreamlife. We didn’t end up going with them, but they offered us a fantastic quote.

We’re not too fussed about the cake, so we’re just getting a small cutting cake… or a "cheese’ cake made of different types of cheese. Still TBA on that one!

Would love to hear other Knotties money-saving tips!

our placecards will double as bonbons – they’re gingerbread men.

we’re also not having a bridal party as such so don’t have to worry about dresses, shoes, makeup, hair, jewellery and suits for other people.

and instead of bouquets for the girls we’re having wrist corsages.

we’re not paying for cars either but are using family members’ BMW and audi A4. another way to do cars cheaply is to hire a luxury car from a rental place.

get married in winter or on a weekday. saturday spring and summer weddings incur premium prices.

We had a free vintage wedding car that fell through so I emailed all of the Brisbane vintage car clubs (as I didn’t want to pay $650 to hire one!) and have had several lovely peopole offer to drive me in their very cool cars (we’re leaning towards a bright red morris minor with white leather interior at the moment.)

Our wedding invitations are partially DIY.  I got quotes from all the big wedding invitation designers in Bris and determined the style that I wanted.  I then took a copy of the paper and a mockup of the invitation to my small local printer.  He’s supplying the card, printing and scoring it all for $65 as he can print it on HUGE sheets and get’s the card wholesale.  I’m putting the ribbon on, printing my own RSVP cars and Wishing Well cards to insert.  All up I’ve spent $98.  The next cheapest quote that I received came in at $540 so i figure thats a good saving

The last big saving is our flowers & decoration.  The wedding is going to be fully decked out, much more than I even would have planned.  I’d anticipate to pay someone for the bouquets, centerpieces, room decorations and setup I’d be looking at $3000 or $4000.  Instead, I offered to build a new website for the florist and lodge her BAS (I’m an accountant who’s also a bit of an IT geek) so she’s doing it all for free, including set up on the day!  Barter goes a long way!!!

We’ve got a budget of about $20,000 (hoping against hope that we can keep it within this number). 

We aren’t actally sending out invites at all!  I’m sending save-the-date magnets with a website address on it which we’ve set up as a wedding website.  On our website, you can access all the wedding info, rsvp, access the registry, and keep updated with our plans.  The website cost us about $50.

Our flowers are a gift from my grandmother, who is an avid lower arranger.  My hair will be done by my sister-in-law who is a hairdresser.  It pays to access the help of people around you!

Instead of paying a fortune for a cake, we’re buying three plain tiers seperately, then having my aunt and grandmother stack them with flowers in between each layer.

There were certain things that meant a lot to us, like the venue, photography and dress- which we weren’t willing to compromise price on.  Buy cutting other things that just don’t mean as much to us, we’ve been able to arrange a really classy wedding for less than we thought it would cost.

Big things are set in stone and i’m working on minor details now.    BY THE WAY i gotta say I’d been using the budget tracker on the US knot since the moment my fiance` and I announced we were getting married way back in 2007…  I’ve transferred everything over to Aussie Knot now and it’s working really nicely! 

 BON BONS/PLACECARDS/Invitations
Our place cards are our gifts to the guest.  i’ve bought little silver photo frames for $1 each and will place in each an Early photo of the Guest with either my Fiance` or me with their name and a cherry blossom motif I’ve photoshopped in too.  HOPEfully it’ll be a bit of a talking point where each guest can show off the embarrasing or otherwise photo that they’ve had taken with either of us.    Bon Bon’s I’ve saved $100.

I’m DIYing the invitations and programs.  We’re having a seafood buffet lunch so a menu isn’t necessary.  (I had drop meals… I always end up with at least one of the courses tasting like cardboard!  Fiance` is pretty picky with his food too and this was the best thing for us)  Unsure of the saving as I’m yet to pick the final papers… 

RECEPTION
we’ve booked a reception at a resturant that has the meals, venue hire, table clothes and decorations I LOVE included at under $90 per head.  (base price is 69 per head but I’m paying extra to get SEAFOOD!!!  YUM!!!)  within 2km of Brissie CBD, and less than 2km from ceremony site and photos site.  It’s about 8000 in total for food, 2000 budgeted for drinks (not a package as my family may drink too much whereas my Fiance` family don’t drink!)   Saving of about $3000 compared to everywhere else I’d looked for what WE wanted.  The resturants got a very very very good reputation for seafood… (I should know… one of my cousins sells them his catch!)  and I actually can’t beleive the price they’re offering.  (not discounted!!)

CEREMONY
We’re being married by my family’s parish priest (who I’ve been good friends with since 13) at my fiance’s high school chapel which is ONLY availible to past students.  Ceremony will cost under $600 for both Celebrant AND the venue hire.    Saving – about 150 compared to a celebrant and about $300 compared to using a church…

MAKE UP
I’m using my regular skin therepist to do our make up for the wedding.  She only does wedding make up for existing clients so her prices are VERY cheap in comparrison to other places I was looking at.  (plus one of the photographers I range reccommended her…  Pretty good to know that a photographer I’ve never met reccommends someone I already know!)   Saving, Approx $150 for both me and my Bridesmaids.  Going to go towards hairdressing I’m sure!

 SHOES
bargain of the century – budgeted according to the knot budgeter aprox $180.  My shoes cost $10.  I’d been looking online and in shops for months but in QLD too many NICE shoes are stilletto and sandals… I’m getting married in Winter and due to a problem with my ankle I can’t wear heals higher than 5cm… They’re the same colour as my dress (Pale pearl pink) and they were EXACTLY what I had in mind.   Closed in toe, small heal with a large surface area.  
 I almost bought TWO pairs they had that many of them in stock!  I love factory outlets!!!  Saved Approx $170!

DRESSES AND SUITS
I’m incredibly grateful that my Cousins own a few Bridal and Formal Hire stores.  She HAD the dress of my dreams, I tried it on and didn’t like it but I found another that was a slightly different cut that made me cry.   I’m getting for wholesale price.  She’s promised to give us the best price on the Suits, bridesmaids, MOB, MOG and my Grandma’s outfit.  I cried when I realised how much we were saving!!!   I don’t really want to say how much exactly because I realise not everyone knows someone who owns a bridal store… 

CARS… I agree with LaceyJ in that if you can get a vintage car club on board – DO IT!  The guys and girls who own these cars love showing them off!
Fiance` and his dad restored a car when he was in high school.  It’s a beautiful red little thing and suits our Pink and Red colour scheme perfectly.  THAT’s our escape car.  We’re now enquiring with FOG’s car club to borrow cars for me, my and my bridesmaids to get there on the day.  We’ll be paying for professional polishes and give them some cash for their help.  But they’ve known FH and his dad for such a long time.  Saving – Between 200 and 800…. 

light_sabe_r - LOVE the bonbons idea! I hope I have as much luck as you when i start hunting for my shoes.

We are getting married in a local church with a reception on our property in a marquee. As it turns out, a marquee wedding is NOT as inexpensive as I thought, so I have had to find other areas to save money on.

Stationery: All from vistaprint and save the date cards, invitations, thank you cards, return address stickers, 2 large canvas banners for the lolly bar and photo booth, place cards, table numbers, programs, menus etc for 100 guests with matching envelopes- total cost $300 inc. post. Fabulous service and good quality for the price.

Wedding dress: I bought my wedding dress on ebay. I have been poo-pooed by many for choosing this option but I got a Paloma Blanca wedding dress that has never been worn as the bride ordered the wrong size from the US and did not have enough time to have it altered before the wedding. Total cost including a pair of gorgeous vintage style shoes and a Steven Khalil veil that both look brand new…$350. The lady I bought the package off paid US$1800 for the dress, $300 for the veil and $250 for the shoes so I saved $2000. It’s not for everyone, but I had been looking for months when this one came up I went for it and got it for $300 and it fits perfectly. I asked her if she would be interested in selling the shoes and veil and she threw them in for an extra $50.

Bridesmaid dresses: Another area I have saved on is the bridesmaids dresses. Originally they were going to buy their own, then I saw dresses that I loved in Big W on sale for $50 each (sounds crappy, I know but they are from the line Peter Morrissey designed for Big W and they look really classy I think). We are having them altered a little and the girls are paying for this (an extra $50 per dress) and they are wearing shoes they already have.

Decoations: I am getting my vases and bomboniere bags from a local discount store and I have purchased table runners and pew decorations off ebay USA for less than I could make them for myself.

There are plenty of bargains to be found  if you have enough time to shop around and scour the internet.

Budget is about $10 000, parents will pay more but H2B and I don’t want it to cost too much….my parents have 4 daughters to do this for!

Number of people at reception limited to 94 people. Ceremony is an open invite to all friends, co-workers, fellow church attendees etc. I expect at least 150 people at ceremony so reception would cost way too much for all to come (and we’re not super close to the mall anyway).

Invites, Programmes and Menu cards are DIY

All flowers and ceremony decorations are DIY (some artificial and some will be bought the day before from the local markets)

Reception centrepieces are DIY and cost less than $10 per table (8 tables in total)

Bonbonnieres are DIY and cost less than $2 each and double as extra table decorations (potted plants)

Reception is at lunchtime so no big alocohol costs

Reception is at a place that is VERY good value (only $58 per head for canapes and 3 courses alternating!)

Bridesmaids dresses are from eBay and cost $200 for 3 of them (and they were made to fit and fit beautifully!)

Future MIL is doing all makeup for free. We’re doing our hair ourselves (most important thing to me is too look like me and not super glammed up and if I do my hair myself I can achieve this)

Boys are getting suits from Roger David at $155 each. They look so similar to the $280 ones also from Roger David but are so much cheaper. Cufflinks are coming from ebay and cost $6 for each set.

The Pastor who was at our church all my teenage years is doing the ceremony for us.

Since neither of us like dancing and reception is at lunchtime we’re not having a band, just background music provided by the venue.

H2B is making the cake himself, we had a trial one over Christmas and it was SO much better than any wedding cake I have ever eaten!

Oh, and cars are being borrowed from friends and my cousin who is a wedding photographer is doing the photos for us.

laceyj- who was your local printer? also, the vintage cars are a great idea! could you possibly give me the list of vintage car clubs?

thanks

placecards are pink origami girraffes with a diamante eye( getting everything form spotlight)