Help! Want to get married, CHEAP!

[YoungSupaMum]

Hi!

My partner and I have been engadged now for 2 years! Our bubba is 7 months now, and we would love to get married before we have another!
The only problem is we don't have any money, and everywhere i look i see $$$$.
We don't want that many people, maybe 50. I really want something thats not going to be stressful too. I have been thinking of having the reception at my mums place, but we live in Sydney and i've always dreamed of being married on one of the points in the city over looking harbour bridge etc. But then my mums is about 45-1hr away from there...
I dont know just wanting some help! :confused:

[poshBecks]

Reality is wedding overlooking the harbour will cost many squillions!! :o

I was going to suggests a nice dinner at home. Have a bbq or get spit roast people in. Thats what we did. Though we had it in a hall. Our wedding was really nice.

Its all about atmoshere..... some nice decorations make all the difference. Drape white fabric about the place & fairy lights. Just cheap $2m fabric from spotlight does the trick. And its looks so romantic. :) Oh & candles ;)

[Seekrit]

We were married on the cheap (about... umm.... $4000 all up?)

We got married in a council park, I had my dress made by my dad's DW - same with the bridesmaids dresses, we had the reception in an RSL and chose to have finger-foods and drinkin' rather than a sit-down buffet :)

Our photos were done by Chris' sisters who are both fantastic photographers and looking back I wouldn't have it done any other way!

Good luck!!

[bronny-jane]

we had a backyard wedding....
we had a bbq and shouted spirits beer and wine.......

it was just a gathering of family and mates...very casual..:D

[mum2bubba]

Is there anyway you can cut the guest list downeven more?
Maybe have everyone pay for their own meals instead of presents?
Make your own decorations and don't have that many
If you have friends/family that can help you out with things (eg hairdresser, someone to make your dress etc) then maybe talk to them.

[TabouliRasta]

The big money issues are usually

- reception venue

- dresses

- catering and drinks

- photographer


If you can get non-professionals for all of these then you'll cut your costs a lot.

Good Luck!

[*~alegna~*]

Good Friends of ours are getting married in March. Ceremony will be on the beach & reception at the Ma & Pa's. Guest list is like 30 0r 40 & they're just having a "cocktail party" sorta thing, very low key.

They've just had a little girl last week so $$ issue for them too.

Hope that helps some.

[Hels*Bels]

My niece is getting married next year and she has bought alot of things from eBay or secondhand. A wedding in a park or backyard can be nice with a celebrant (they cost about $200) You could also make your own flower arrangements or go silk/fake, they look just as good!
Also, a spit roast is a great idea as you can chose a package/price per head that suits your budget. Or even go for a cocktail party with finger foods. Do you have an aunty or granny who could do a nice cake?

[bronny-jane]

and you dont have to wear a traditional dress......theres some great evening/cocktail dresses out there.....if you do want to though, theres a few sales a year:D

[library-laksa]

we are having a backyard wedding in just over 5 weeks and i've found the most expensive thing by far is the alcohol (prob coz lots of our mates are p!ssheads lol). maybe you could have byo drinks to save money?
i'm not having a "wedding dress", got a beautiful dress from a boutique for less than $300. we're not having a professional photographer either - everyone has digital cameras now so we will give out blank CDs so they can send us copies.
food is actually quite cheap if you go with like a spit roast place (we're getting a finger food menu for about $10 per person)
hope that helps!
37 DAYS TO GO!!

[spoon]

How much are you looking at spending? I am an event manager and know some really cool cost cutting tips. but it would be better if i could have a figure $$$$ amount.

[abeckaj]

we had an evening wedding and hired a small room at a pub/ bistro and just had finger food - sooo much cheaper than meals.

I also wore a pale purple dress that i said was for a formal dinner - much cheaper than sayng i want a white wedding dress.

I did my own flowers - just a few little posies. We put a small amount of money on the bar tab for beer & wine and then put on the invites that drinks were at bar prices.

Our photographer (which we found in teh local paper classifieds)also took photos on digital camera and then gave us the disk so we could copy it for everyone else and also print at will the photos - also much cheaper.
Where we got married was in front of a firplace downstairs in the pub (privately though) the staff put fairy lights and candles all around.

Also our celebrant was from a local church that doesn't charge for weddings - they just ask that you make a donation to the church (we donated $50) so that is also something to look for.

Hope some of this helps!

[MilkOnTap]

Hey - Congratulations on the engagement!

We had a cheap wedding which still came together really well.

1. I bought my dress off the rack for $350 (including alterations)
2. Made own invitations using nice paper and own printer
3. Told a cake maker what I wanted and how much I had to spend ($120) - got a fantastic cake!
4. Asked guests to pay for their own meals instead of giving gifts or cash
5. Had a small bar tab, but once that was gone then people paid for their own drinks
6. Had the wedding on a Sunday. Celebrant was cheaper, as was room hire for the reception - plus people were working on the Monday so less alcohol
7. Had the reception in a pub with a separate dining room for us. Once we were over and done with guests could hang out in the bar! Lots of fun!
8. No bridesmaids or best men to keep $ down - but had my bestie make a speech
9. Used our own CD player and music instead of a DJ
10. Made table arrangements myself

Dont be afraid to tell people (dress-maker; florist; cake-maker; reception-owner etc) that you are on a budget. Tell them what you want and how much you are willing to spend and then work it out from there.

Best Wishes!

[Adria]

Yes as others are saying, depends on the dollar figurre you have in mind, i think ours was under $4000, mind you that was 6 yrs ago as well.
We did everything, made the cake, found a yummy choc mud cake recipe, got the white icing, from the bakery section of supermarket, few trinkets, doves and rings...and voila.
I made the dresses myself, we borrowed cars from family and friends.
We made the invites and name tags, and bombrie gifts.
One thing we did was had a lunch reception, it meant a lot of people didn't drink much at all.

It depends on what you have in mind and what means a lot to you?
Can you get some photos taken over the harbour bridge before your big day or during the day. I think spend on what is important to you, and ecomise on other things.
Also when talking to our photographer, we said we didn't want lots of photos just a handful to remember the day. Most of my family unfortantly have seperated and others very few a displayed or rarely seen after the wedding.
We ended up with about 30, but he was the photographer i always wanted and think it was $350.

[mochridhe]

I see you are in Sydney - could I make a suggestion?

We were married nearly 6 years ago now, and I couldn't justify the amount of money places seemed to want to charge me for flowers!

So I went down the the Flemington Markets at 5am on the morning of our wedding (not like I was sleeping much anyway!!) and bought all the flowers there. My bridesmaids & a friend or two helped out, and I did only want simple arrangements (just stems for the bridal party - no big lavish bouquets or anything) and I got change from $50!!

This is what I got for my money:

- Enough dark & light pink gerberas to make a large bunch for myself & a smaller bunch for each of my 3 bridesmaids
- Daisies for the buttonholes for DH, the 3 groomsmen & 2 fathers
- Gerberas for the corsages for the 2 mothers
- Ferns to complement the buttonholes & corsages
- Daisies, gerberas & ferns for the flower girl's basket (added to with a few small blooms & leaves from my own garden)
- Lilies for across the archway we were married under
- Wire to wire the stems of the gerberas & to make up the corsages & buttonholes
- Florists foam for the flower girl's basket.

All up it only took a couple of hours to make these all up. I got the directions for it all off the internet & it was easy! :thumbsup:

[mummyof5]

Check out ebay for dresses, was a bridesmaid for a wedding last month where the bride wore a dress she bought for $300 aus, including postage. Tried on a similar one in a shop for $800, and she would have had to pay for alterations. Hers was made to measure!
When I got married, we just used the stationary packs for invites, place cards, thank you cards etc. The whole pack cost about $50 or so. You used to get them from Myer. I also made my on bombinere (sp?), and bought all the stuff for it at a stall in Parklea Markets, cost very little.
I used to work in Birchgrove, and on Louisa Road at long nose point is a park at the very end where a lot of asian cuples used to either get married or have photo's taken. Might be worth seeing wether you like the view from there, and then checking out the cost of local halls around that direction, and doing a reception on the cheap as some of the other posts have suggested.
Good luck with it all.

[YoungSupaMum]

Thank you for all ur suggestions! They're great! Keep them coming!! Oh and we cant spend more than about $2000 (maybe a little more...2500, No more than 3 though) As we have no money ATM! Im going to do this!!......Somehow!

[hippychick]

Just thought I would make a suggestion..
Not sure if you like the beach though?
Its free to get married on the beach...beside the celebrant...all you have to do is get permission from the council..Im sure they wouldnt say NO to a couple in loveeeee :p

YOu could always get the marriage certificate at a registry..Then SPEND the dough on a nice reception!!
Get everyone to meet you at the reception after?And have only a couple of people at the registry as witnesses...
Im planning now...
We live in WA...we were wanting a beach wedding ,as we loveee the beach-not caus its free:D (we arent churchgoers-and i think if you dont regulary attend church-then why get married at one?!)
And maybe having it down south, and pay for our guests instead of presents..(but us being italian-highly unlikely!!)
My dress wont be a wedding dress as I want to get married on the beach ,i dont want to melt in the heat
BUT will still look verrrryyy nice..
Our honeymoon will cost more...
Italy, or Thailand (thailand being cheap)

Good luck
xxxxxxxxxxxx

[mochridhe]

Oh, and speaking of honeymoons, DH & I had everything we needed before we were married (couple of oldies tying the knot!! ;)) and our family and friends were all up in arms about what on earth they were going to get us as a gift.

We considered just telling people not to get anything at all, but knowing how guests don't like to turn up empty-handed (I know I don't either), we decided it was better to give them an idea than end up with a heap of identical "just because" gifts we really didn't need.

So we had a registry with our friend who was a travel agent & ended up on our dream honeymoon in Hawaii for 10 days courtesy of our wonderful friends & family! It was really the only thing we wanted.

Just something to consider!

[neeky]

these were things my mum was doing to cut back costs.

1.had my deb dress altered and turned into her wedding dress.

2. was going to be married in park.

3. for alcohol, said one drink per guest on them, after that pay for your own.

4. the car hire people said if you get married on a sunday, often the car hire can be done a little cheaper as they already had to do the major clean and polish on the saturday.

5. finger foods rather than a sit down dinner. ie the wedding was going to be around lunch time, have mid afternoon nibbles instead of a meal.

6. get own decorations for tables etc. try cheapo shops often can find nice candles etc.

7. make own invites.

i think there was other things, but thats all i can think of!
but most importantly dont be afraid to shop around. tell people what your after tell them what you can afford and see what they will do for you. and ask several places the same thing and see who will give best value for money!

good luck!

[melbryan]

We got married in Vanuatu


Arifares/Accom/breakfast and tourist things $1300 each
It cost us $600 for the wedding included dinner flowers, champagne, shirts.
Dress cost $500 mum paid

Had a party when we came back $2000 invited 60 people.

[jade21887]

We got married on Sydney Harbour on a boat at sunset for about $4000 all up. We only had about 30 people, and it was a brilliant night.

[aardvark]

We went out for an early BBQ lunch one day, and were sitting eating our bangers in bread when the mothers of the bride and groom started unpacking a wedding reception at the other tables in the rotunda we were sitting in at Silvan reservoir. We got to talking while they were setting tables.

Apparently the bride and groom had organised a cheap garden cermony in the parklands there, and the mothers were so appalled at the idea of no reception that they bough table coverings, serviettes wine, wedding cake etc, and had organised all the guests to bring a dish.

The bride and groom knew nothing about all of this. It was all a huge surprise.

We finished our meal and moved off so the mums could take over the whole rotunda. I would have loved to have seen the look on the faces of the bride and groom when the surprise was sprung on them.

[wa mum of 4]

Hi:wave:
Have you heard of a sponser wedding?
You go around to different buisnesses and ask them to sponser your wedding and in return you will tastfully have advertisments at you wedding, table cards, sponser board ect.
You dont have to get them to cover all but charge them advertising space :laughing: for a reduced cost.
You may get a few or a heap of buisnesses to do it, it has been done and gone quite successfully.
Hope this helps you get your special day...
:hugs:
Sarah

[Trumpet]

We had ours at home too and I went to our local bottle shop and told them what we wanted and how good a deal could they give me and we got 12 cartons of beer, 2 cases of Brown Brothers Red, 3 Cases of Brown Brothers white and 1 case of Champagne for $1000 and they delivered it to us for nothing.

[hayles86]

Hi we had ours at a nice restaurant. We had the ceremony and reception at the one place. So then the guests didnt have to go any where. I also went to a wedding where they asked every one to pay for there own meals instead of a prezzie. Also id shop around for your dress as i got one for just under $400 and it was beautiful. Last seasons stock but hey it was nice. Flowers i noticed are expensive so i got my nan to pay for them as our wedding prezzie. Maybe if you asked your family to pay for something small instead of a prezzie. That might help out heaps. And i made my bridesmaids and groomsmen pay for there suits. Well kinda they were all in a another wedding a month b4 so we just used those suits and just changed the shirt :).
Maybe do your own invites on the comp its really cheap and they come out really nice.
I hope this helps a little. Good luck.