Ok, just wondering...

DF and I finally sat down last night and started to discuss wedding stuff, but we kept butting heads on certain things (if it were up to him, it would never happen haha)... So I thought I'd ask for some input from those who have done it all before

So how did you come up with your wedding date, how much did you allow yourself to play with (money wise... We've got close to $8,000... Including help from our families) and how did you determine what you'd splurge or scrimp on?

I know I want to invest in a quality photographer - NO DOUBT... But don't want to be spending an absolute fortune on one... I did think of just having friends/family with good quality cameras snapping up everything, but it's just not the same (no offence to those who have done that ) Nothing beats those gorgeous professional photos that you keep for the rest of your life! So can anyone reccommend an awesome photographer who doesn't blow the budget?

Also, did you find hiring a venue and caterer separately or hiring out a venue complete with catering cheaper/less stressful? Obviously I'm going to find this kinda thing out myself when I really start making enquiries, but always good to hear others opinions

Thanks in advance,

Serenity

Edited by Serenity

Thanks for that

The other thing we're doing to save us some $$$ is to have it in low season, at this stage, we're looking around about July/August... The way I see it, we have such fickle weather that there's no point in picking a specific season, lol. And if it makes it cheaper, then why not?

Yeah that's kind of what we did. By April the wedding 'hipe' was pretty much over in Palmy so it made things easier.

There's loads of ways to save some $ though:
- cars: get friends/families nice cars (we used my parents friends cars)
- flowers: pick them up from the market is waaaaaay cheaper than florist depending on what you want
- invites: make them urself. we spent $50 on the paper for ours rather than getting them made for us.

I love wedding planning!!

DH and I set a date the night we got engaged. We didn't want an overly long engagement, it'd already taken 4 1/2 years to get engaged so we decided on 12 months. DH chose 16th Nov because my birthday is on 16th Sep and he figured that way it's be easier to remember the date

We paid for our own wedding too and did it on a budget I can't remember now how much each thing cost but in total our wedding cost about $4,000 (including hotel for wedding night and mini honeymoon afterwards).

Here's what we did.

* Ceremony & reception: We had the ceremony late morning and a lunchtime reception so people wouldn't drink as much and we could serve finger foods instead of a full sit down menu (also meant I didn't have to worry about seating plans).
* Flowers: got the florist from New World to do them all including posy for on top of cake. Was very specific with her and she did a brilliant job at a supermarket price (I think she was actually delighted to get the chance to do a wedding).
* Bridesmaids: I made their outfits as my gift to them. They did their own hair and makeup.
* Wedding dress etc: I designed my dress and my mum made it with the help of my grandma who sewed tiny little beads along the 3 metres of hem (total cost was approx $200). I got my lingerie from the bendon factory shop and borrowed white shoes from a friend. I wore a family heirloom lace veil.
* My hair & makeup: I did my own makeup and my mum did my hair.
* Groom & Groomsmen: We hired their suits and bought their shirts
* Alcohol: We bought 4 cases of bubbly (nothing else) and the wine glasses were loaned to us for free by the liqour store.
* Food: We self catered. I bought everything and friends and family helped prepare it all.
* Waiting staff: we hired students through student job search and asked one of my mums friends to be their boss.
* Cake: This was a wedding gift from my sil
* Photographer: used student job search for this too and got a student photographer who was finishing her art degree. She was really good, but cheap because she wasn't experienced yet. Plus we got to keep all the film afterwards and she got to use our pics in her portfolio.
* Venue: Hired a hall and decorated it ourselves the morning of the wedding

My one extravagence was $400 on a classic Jaguar as the wedding car. I loved it and it looks great in the pics.

We had a wonderful wedding day and the only thing I would change if I could go back is that I would organise a casual BBQ or something similar for the day after the wedding so I could spend more time with my family and friends that had travelled to be there.

We got married 7 weeks after we go engaged (long story). We were married in June so everything was available and hence cheaper. Flowers can cost a lot but keeping them simple is just as nice. Shop around for photographers and negotiate on their full package details (we got several items removed from the package to reduce the cost).

Some of the most special / memorable weddings I've been to are the simple ones.

I made my own invites and still love them. It did involve doing about 100 bows but that seemed fun at the time!! LOL.

I just had one bridesmaid and that saved $$ too.

I always wanted an evening, candle-lit wedding with a dessert reception (didn't get it...again, long story) but that would also enable you to save $$ as the reception is usually the most costly part.

for the photographer, pick one that  will provide you with a CD of the photos so that you can get copies for friends and family. Saves HEAPS in reprints

Serenity, a friend of mine is a WAHM who does photography.

I've had her to my house to get photos of the girls. She doesn't charge a sitting fee.

I know she does weddings as well, here is her website Cheeky Chops There is no price up there for Weddings but it's definitely worth contacting her when the time comes.
She's looveellly and will definitely be excellent photography for a good price!

Oh yeah, cakes are shocking. Don't tell the person you're look for a wedding cake and I'll bet they'll charge you less!

I didn't actually find planning the wedding stressful at all so did doesn't have to be stressful, even on a budget :)

just been the through the process about 2 months ago..
if you can get married in offpeak season so worth it.. you can cut cost heaps.

remember to ask around friends and family we ended up getting BM dress made from aunty for free just material.. cars for free - pressie from a freind. and they were mint cars. favors free from another friend..

also if possible look for a venue that does BYO - cut cost heaps.. we spent $2200 on booze just shop rates worked out venue prices would have been nearlly $5000.. huge saving

you dont have to have flowers and things like that.. totally up to yourself really :) and budget

even look at a lunch thing or something like that.. less on booze or even a sunday night thing... :)
good luck

I made/did almost everything to do with our wedding, we self catered, it was BYO, I bought my dress, veil and shoes second hand off TradeMe, made the invites and all stationery, made table runners and napkins etc etc.

We did hire a professional photographer but I made our own digital album from the Frogprints website and I'm so stoked with it and it only cost $135 all up as opposed to the $1000 or more to get it made(took some time though!)

I also found a fabulous florist who only charged $250 for 3 bouquets, 7 buttonholes, table flowers, hair flowers and rose petals.

Another way we saved heaps was getting 3 different flavoured and sized mudcakes from The Cheesecake Shop and putting the cake together ourselves - it easily served 80 guests (and a lot of people had more than 1 piece) with almost the whole bottom tier left over and it only cost about $120 and was sooo yummy

Like others have said shop around, try not to say wedding if you don't have to and for me TradeMe was my best friend!