Weddings - Help Please

Well DF and I have decided that we should start thinking about our wedding. I would like (cost premitting) to get married in 2007. I have never been to a wedding before and I have no idea what to look at. We are planning a "cheap" wedding. Nothing fancy just family and close friends.

Could you let me know:

What your budget is/was? A break down would be really cool.

Also what are the necessity items that someone who hasn't been to a wedding would miss.

Yep I agree with you sarah beth, make sure you make it YOUR wedding and don't let everyone else force opinions on you. In saying that My mum organised HEAPS of ours (got married in CHCH but live in Dunedin, mum in CHCH) She was really good and knows what I like BUt she Stresses HEAPS so in hindsight wasn't such a good Idea.

Budget wise we spent around $12k, but had large wedding party (3 bridsemaids and junior bridsemaid plus the 3 groomsmen) and also had a 3 course sit down meal, I'm a chef so food was kinda important to me.

Look at websites on net they can be really helpful. And marriage celebrants (or priests/vicars etc) can tell you about ceremonies etc. But shop around cause prices vary heaps!!!

Ohhhh how exciting for you!!!!

I bumped the wedding topic for you...hope it helps!

Sorry if this isn't 'allowed', but Lizzle .. there is a discussion board esp for weddings (www.nzweddingplanner.co.nz) ... a few of us on here are actually from there. Plenty of great advice on keeping costs down etc.

Good luck with your planning.

Pepsi - dh and I want to renew our vows in vegas! Can't wait but will be awhile away me thinks

You can really do anything you like... we spent about $8k on our wedding but I think that excludes the almost $2k my folks spent on the reception. A couple of things I learned:

Outdoor weddings can be hugely less expensive but that's so long as you can borrow whatever sound/music gear you want off friends (we got all of that free including the venue)

The honeymoon, reception, and photos are the biggest expenses (generally speaking). Budget your honeymoon first and the ceremony second. Photos are important but there are some people out there who like to do photos for friends and are really good at it (make sure you do a dummy run or something so you're sure you'll get a good outcome).

Reception - talk to the manager at whatever restaurant you want to go to about arranging a limited menu - so for most courses there are 2-3 options not the whole lot. That way you can often get it cheaper per person. Drinkies - we paid for the first drink for each person and then it was up to them to pay for additional drinks. Lunch menus are heaps cheaper but it means an early morning for the bride! Some people are happy to gather in a hall for their reception with a finger food lunch put on by friends. We went to one of these just this month and it was still done very tastefully (no pun intended).

Watch the bridal party costs. We had 4 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen and a pageboy. Half of them were family. But the costs to dress and flower them mounted up. I ended up sewing all the girls' dresses which saved us a whack! but was a bit stressful considering there is a lot of things to do close to the wedding time.

If money is really tight but getting married soon is a priority for you, get married at a registry office with your close family and friends and then celebrate with nibbles and drinkies at someone's home.

We're getting married in October, and Rod has just given me some more money to spend *yay*. our original budget was $5000, which I thought was fine, but we hadn't taken into account his mates are real boozers, and Rod dosen't want to be "restricted" by a "small" bar tab.... Anyhoo, I digress.
We are getting married at 7pm, for a couple of reasons. 1, we will be providing finger food only, as at 7pm, guests won't be expecting a sit down meal. It's still costing about $25 a head, but it is a nice spread. 2. I don't really want to have kids at the wedding, sounds harsh, but you still have to pay for them. By having a "no kids" reception, it has cut about 30 off our guest list,as we aren't having anyone's teenagers, either. Everyone with kids has been more than fine with this, by the way! 3. Getting married at 7pm, means that the reception will be about 3 hours shorter than if we got married at 4pm, so that is 3 hours longer that the bar tab will last, lol!
We are getting married outside, poolside at the hotel where we are having the reception, candlelight and all that sh*te. The hotel is just price per head, and no booking fee (some places, the average is about $1500 before you even get to menu and booze)the booze is same as everywhere else, so not dearer. We will be providing tap beer, House wine, Lindauer and non alcoholic. We are having one bridesmaid and one best man, and a flower girl, so that cuts down alot of expense. I have a lady who is a customer at my work who imports bridal gowns from the usa. I was just going to hire one, but to be honest, it can be quite dear, and I am expecting to pay about $1500 TOPS for my dream dress. I got my bridesmaids dress from principals, $149! A hairdresser friend will be doing my hair and my bridesmaid will do our makeup (beautician!) The biggest exoence is the photos I think, and I have nearly died at asome of the quotes, however, it pays to really shop around and ask at camera club, and alot of foto labs have photographers on staff who will charge you under $1000. I do scrapbooking, so will make my own album! A friend of mine owns the chocolate shop in town, so she is doing me a deal on chocolates for "favours" and also a cake couple. Cake will be free, mum and dads' friend is making it FOC! chocolate mud cake. I am havng Paeonies for our flowers, and our florist at new world is doing them, very reasonable. DJ is $300, and am doing own music for ceremony. Hmm, so to sum up; Food $2500 - $3000, Dresses and Suit hire $2000, photos $800, Favours, cake, balloons and flowers $500, music $300. i think that is about it? Hotel room is FOC for the day and night, Jakes caregiver will look after my kids overnight, not having cars.

We got married in March this year and I think all up we were about $8000 for everything including what our parents paid (and I know my parents ended up paying about $3000). One thing we didn't do was go on a honeymoon, we did a "minimoon". We were given a house at Lake Taupo to stay at for free so our costs were food, petrol (that was expensive back then $1.53 a litre I think) and sightseeing. Being up there we did a few touristy things - went up the gonderla, hot pools (2 big costs) and we did the free things as well with all the hydro stuff being there. It was only 4 days away but it was fun for us without Andrew. So if you are looking at cutting costs there is one way of doing it. We do fully intend on going overseas for a real honeymoon but that will probably be an anniversary thing for us.

I was going to say above, keep a bit extra in your budget for last minute costs.

As for kids at receptions, it is generally accepted practice to invite "breastfeeders only" - they only get bored and tired anyway

And for our honeymoon we half-tented, half-hotel/moteled. We basically went touring the central North Island - that's what we wanted to do. It was laid back and fun.

ooo if you want fresh flowers, make sure you check what is in season. That makes a huge difference too.