All you wedding planners out there!

[jenjams]

Well DF proposed to me a few weeks ago. I now have the ring (which I picked). Now we need to start doing the wedding planning.
We are both people who dont like a lot of attention. We are both into simple and intimate. We are only going to have a very small wedding with family and close friends. We are not into the whole formal thing. We just want a nice and cosy thing!
We are thinking of central Vic as a lot of our families are around that area. We are thinking either spring or autumn (which most people do!)
My mum is going to make my dress. I will be having probably 2 bridesmaids.

All we are after is simple and fun and very cost effective. All you wedding planners out there, what tips can you offer?

[saslia]

We had a small wedding aboout 40 guests - a ceremony near the beach and dinner at a near by restaurant (it shut for us for the night!!)
We had a set menu at $30 ($10 for kids menu) and we provided our wedding cake as dessert. We asked that instead of gifts people paid for their dinner.

My parents bought white wine and beer and DH's best man the red wine. My parents paid for the soft drinks.

We had my maid of honour's BF take the photos and my SIL made table decorations (whisky style glasses with tealight in them and the heart from our invitations on paper around it. Her sister videoed the ceremony for us.

We had lolly bags ( quite a few kids!!) and DH burnt CD's for all the guests. He also did some mixed CD's for during the "reception". That's about all I can remember ATM

Congratulations and good luck!!!

[clairem]

Hi Jen

Congratulations on your engagement! I think a small wedding is a great idea, we had about 50 guests at our wedding and it was lovely, I definitely prefer smaller weddings. To save money we had CD's playing during the reception instead of hiring a DJ or band, and this worked well as the mood was very laid back and mellow.

I made the invitations myself, which saved a bit of money and borrowed jewellery from my mum. You're lucky that your mum can make your dress!

We had a winter wedding which was a bit cheaper than other times of the year, but I think Spring or Autumn are definitely the best times of the year for a wedding. We also asked that if guests wished to give us a present, they give us money, and this enabled us to pay for pretty much our entire honeymoon!

BTW, I saw on another post that you live in Sunbury, and I also live there so if you feel like having a chat sometime, let me know. It would be great to meet some other mums in the area. I'm not sure how to PM, I don't have an icon to do so, so if you want, you can email me: claire_inc@hotmail.com. Your daughter is such a cutie by the way! I have a nearly 15 week old baby boy, Harrison, so they're pretty close in age.
Claire

[Sammiejane]

Firstly congrats!
here are some of the things that we did to cut some of the costs...
*friends to pictures, we had a few with good cameras and they did the main ones, then ad disposables on the tables so we got pics of what the guests were doing.
* the wedding cake was tiers of cup cakes and the guests were served thats as desert
* made the invitations
* made the table centers, got some cheap black candelabras, made beeswax candles and scattered flower petals around them
* included with the invitation was the RSVP card, on it, it asked guests to list their top 5 songs that they would get up and dance to - we made CD of all of these and played that at the reception
* we paid a friends daughter and her friend to be waitress's (they bought bottles of wine and beer to the tables)
* we bought clean skin wine in bulk from a winary when we were on holiday in SA and served this at the wedding
* the wedding and reception was at Mum and Dads (they live on a beutiful prperty) so we hired a marquee for the tables and we got caterers in and they did fingerfood followed by a spit roast that each guest had to get up table by table and get (like a carvery thing) - everyone loved this part of it as it was more laid back and people felt like they could mingle and it made the atmosphere even better the dance floor was in the outdoor area that we call the Pub (it looks like an outback pub) - and was next to the marquee

this wouldnt change the cost, but thought i wuld mention it... we all loved to party (the days before having lkids!!!) and hated the fact that weddings just got going and then it was time to leave - so we had guest put up tents on the property (out of the way) and we had an all night party - i think i crawled into bed at 9 am after Mum and Dad had cooked bacon and eggs for everyone that was still up, or waking up at that time

Oh yeah our wedding was in december (start) so the weather was better which meant that the weather was good for the evening meal

Good luck and congrats again