Planning & etiquette

Hey girls,

I am looking for BTB’s on budgets and would love to hear how you are planning your weddings and going about certain etiquettes and to get some advice regarding mine.

Let me put it this way; I am handmaking all save-the-dates, invites and place-cards, my wedding dress costs less than $800, I am handmaking beaded wine glass charms for bomboniere and all my centrepeices as well as my bouquet, 4 BM bouquets, flowergirl bouquets, buttonholes etc, my BM’s and GM are paying for their own everything (yes, this means dresses, suits, shoes, hair, makeup….everything)…..I am not being unreasonable, I will explain if i can find other BTB’s in similiar situations that i cant chat to about planning and how they are going about things.

=) you will make my day if there is someone, just one person even who can relate!

Thanks guys

hey there springchicken!

although i’m not as budget conscious as you are, i was very cost savvy when pricing things out initialy. THis is where the internet and google are great tools – comparing different companies, their products and costs.

Some of th things i’ve done

I’m also getting married on a Sunday which is lowering costs.

We’re serving our cake as dessert – we’re getting an AMAZING (pricey) cake made, and i didn’t want it to sit on the side table with coffee for the oldies and not get enjoyed. We’re actually saving about $800 by serving it as dessert!

Got the bridesmaid dresses from DFO for $40 each! Shoes for the boys and girls were also from outlet stores and we got the boys suits all in one transaction for which we got a substantial discount.

I made the invitations, placecards and table numbers (printed photos from OS adventures at Kmart) – a couple of days hard work, but worth it in the end.

We’re not having a DJ – we’re not really dancers so we’re just making an Ipod playlist and letting it run through the night. We’re getting a photo booth instead which i think will be more entertaining!

We discovered the same thing about serving cake as dessert but we are cutting costs even further by having cupcakes so no cutting fee! I would loooove to buy the BM’s dresses, i have found so many nice ones!! The only thing is that the girls aren’t too forgiving when it comes to their dresses and im not sure how me buying them and then giving them to them to wear on the day would go unfortunately so the other side of the coin is that they get the freedom of choice of their dress at their own expense so long as the dress is within the guidelines (black, full length gowns are pretty easy to come by). We are paying for lace sashes to be made to be added to the dresses though, and i am handmaking the headpieces; shoes can be anything so long as they’re black (also very easy to come by and most girls have them already anyway) hair is the only thing i am specifying that be the same for all of them. They don’t have it too bad, and i have given more than a years notice and will continue to make sure that all notice for any changes is given with plenty of time.

We’re actually getting married on a saturday, but to help in the cost department we are having an outdoor ceremony at a historic park under a gazebo in the late afternoon on the coast and the reception is at a beautiful club room with a deck overlooking the canals. The original plan was for to be married in a vineyard but the reception cost was staggering!  

Im not too sure what to do about the entertainment though. My future SIL just had an ipod at her wedding but the PA system was playng up all night and it didn’t work out too well. Make sure you get a good one and test it!!

Im scared to get a dj because my FH and i are very old fashioned in our music tastes and are having a vintage themed wedding so we’d like frank sinatra, billie holiday, tony bennet, louis armstrong etc and im not sure how that would go. Maybe we should just go with an ipod too?

Hey Springchicken

I have an incredible low budget for the wedding. Our wedding for 60 peole is going to cost less than $5,000. The first thing we decided was to have a destination wedding to cut down the guest list (we are both from a family of travellers so for close family this wasn’t a problem and lets our o/s family and friends come as well). We planned to honeymoon in America/Hawaii/Mexico so choosing Vegas was easy! Were aren’t really traditional anyways so this type of wedding really suits us. The ceremony is costing us $405 and dinner will be at a buffett which includes beer and wine for $30pp. We can even afford to provide transport for guests which is a bonus. Our most expensive thing was the photographer which is costing $850 but we get all rights to the photos and 150 prints so not too bad.

We are making our invites which will cost $100 (we are doing passport invitations so a lot of work but worth it compared to the quotes we got), my wedding dress cost $300 (brand new not secondhand), bridesmaids dresses were $50 from target, shoes for me and BM’s from payless shoes ($28 each after their 2nd pair for 50% off). We plan on getting the mens stuff from local stores during the stocktake sales and have bought converse for them to wear from the US for $34 each including postage.

FI says he wont wear a ring so we are just getting one off ebay for $20-$30 for the day and my ring was $249 on sale (we got it when I went to get my engagement ring resize to fit…it was the matching wedder and was discontinued so was a perfect find).

Other places to save money would be looking at the guest list, cutting out favours (I usually chuck them out or give them to the charity bin) or doing something like smarties etc which can be cheaper. The best favour i ever got was a plant which the bride and groom grew themselves off cuttings. If you wanted to do something like that talk to your local garden club.

Also using local clubs can save you heaps……..can the local CWA do your wedding cake, is there a local school band that might play the wedding cheap or a young DJ………would you consider an apprentice doing your makeup/hair………..is there a TAFE nearby with a catering school that could cater your wedding…….is there a lcoal gardent hat you can hire fromt he council to have you reception in etc. Also local car clubs for cars.

Also catering can be an area where you can save heaps. A spit and salad/vegie buffet can be a good choice depending on where the reception is (you mentioned club rooms but do you have to use their catering?). Also catering from local community groups can be good…especially if you are open to cuisine from other cultures (think indian, african, thai). Most will have food handling etc for taking part in local festivals etc. Also try local restaurants as soem will do catering. I even went to a great wedding that served fish n chip shop bought food for the dinner and it was great (casual beach wedding held in a surf club)

If you want to cut down the cost of photgraphy why not just hire one just for the ceremony (again try the local TAFE or university for a student wanting to expand their portfolio) and the first part of the reception (our photographers end 1 hr into the reception and we are doing the cake cutting first!) then put disposables on the tables and let people snapp away…..I have heard hit and miss things about this though……..but someone on one of the boards said that there are companies that hire digital cameras for things like this now too!

I hope this information helps you or someone else…..I hate that as soon as you say wedding they add a couple of 00’s to the price!

Im on a very tight budget myself, so im making everything i can, invites, RSVP’s, place cards, menu’s, programs, bouqet, button holes, the cake, bonbonniere, thats all i can think of at the moment, my dress cost me under $500 because it needed a few beads sewn back on, the photographer sent me a very competative quote for $700, the venue Ive chosen has given me a great price because its the last wedding before theire reno’s and then ill still be cutting out desert so everyone eats my cake

Im making the centerpeices which are candles, ohh and the table cloths (venue charges $20 per table, and i can do them cheaper than that) shoes the BM are buying and ive given them the same option, if they pick the dress then they have decided they want to pay for it, same as shoes, im paying for jewlery as a present but thats just going to be from Diva or something, my MOH an i will be doing the hair, (except mine) i have a friend who works at inglot to do the make up (you could always do it yourself) the boys already bought their suits for my daughters christening last month, and we are just renting cars and my brother will be driving ours (his a car freak so he finds it more of an honour than a request) and then we can have it for the day and night

My budget is because i have to, and i dont see why you should start a marriage being in debt, but i dont want it to look or feel like its a cheap wedding

If you would like any info or help ill be happy to give my advice

Happy hunting!

hey there

ours was supposed to be around 15k (20k the most) as we plan on inviting at least 100 but because both mums want more people we’re struggling to put our numbers down (its up to 170 now including kids). our budget is now 25k

all the big stuff is booked and secured (ceremony, reception, photo, video & limo). which leaves us less than 5k for everything else…

reception would be the most expensive and unless our mums stop hassling us to invite more, it will keep going up and reduce our budget… we didnt want to skimp on photo n video but we didnt wanna pay more than 7k for both of them (most of our friends paid 8k-10k). limo wasnt in the original plan bu FH really wanted one so i couldnt say no to him plus they’re provding the boys with free transport from where they are getting ready to the church. church wise, the only spending we need to do is for the decorations as its free to get married in our church.

we’re only using a laptop for all our music and entertainment (videos and photo presentations). still need to speak with the venue again about the sound system and hire of projector and stuff.

do you think its possible to budget less than 5k for everything else? so thats my gown, FH’s suit. bms dresses, gms suits, fgs dresses, ring bearer’s suit, flowers, decorations for reception n ceremony, cake, and bonbonnieres…

I am a ebay bride through and through. I have found so many bargains and beautiful things. Although my wedding is over a year away I have found that paying and organizing certain things now should reduce the stress later. My budget is just over 5 thousand so hopefully I will manage.

Hope this may help a little bit

Yes! Ebay is fantastic! I got the cufflinks and ties for the boys.

I also stumbled upon Etsy – a conglomerate of crafty people all over the world selling their handmae items. I got my table decorations, coathangers and bags for my Bridesmaids…

Hanz - honestly i think you might be stretching the 5K to cover all those things. I imagine a cake for 170 would be fairly costly, let along your various outfits for the bridal party. I suggest checking out places like DFO, or speak to sales staff in stores about a group discount/free alterations. There’s also a great site called stillwhite.com.au where brides sell their gorgeous dresses at a massive discount…

thanks for the tips bronzilla i can prolly skip on on the cake since we have a dessert buffet in our package. also found some nifty ideas for the bonboniers and other stuff on etsy

i found a dressmaker here that can get my dress made for $650 max depending on the material. but her prices for bm dresses r still a bit pricey at $200-$250 depending on the style. will be going to sydney next week and my friend told me to go to cabramatta to see what they have to offer. my girls are buying their own shoes. If we really cant find dresses we like or within the budget… I’ll probably just ask my bms to find black dresses and I’ll provide their purple accessories to go with thir outfit

With the guys suits, the we’re only putting $100 for each suit and the gms are paying for the rest since they too want to get a suit for keeps. Roger David is willing to give us a group discount.

but probably the best solution is… to make our mums stop whinging and be happy that some of their friends are invited.  i don’t see that happening soon though

My wedding is on a super low budget. We are having around 140 guests, but our reception is stand up with lots of simple finger food, we are putting on all drinks with the money we save on a sit down meal. My invites were through vista print along with the save the dates. and my dress was only 650! My flowers are dried and i have them already

I shopped around everywhere, especially the reception as thats the main cost. I have sacrificied alot of things i thought i wanted, but now i have a casual beach wedding, and the reception is across the road at a pub/hotel with lots of food and alcohol so people will be happy! Its my perfect day!

My bridesmaids are paying for everything themselves, they are wearing maxi dresses that they will wear again.

I have been selfish with the guestlist especially the grooms side as there are far too many of them, its the only time you can be i guess!

It just comes down to realising costs that you really dont need mine comes to $7000 all up and thats for 140 ppl!

Good luck!