Wedding Help

[ElleJay]

Our wedding is in 8months 1wk and I'm really struggling on what to do - whenever I look at wedding things, this is all I want to do :
I feel like that because I really, truely and honestly don't know where to start. We (DF and myself) made an agreement that each month we'll take care of something else - this month was supposed to be reception and catering but we've emailed the place where we want to have the reception without luck (My job is now requiring me to work all different kinds of shifts -- gotta love shift work -- and my DF is a school teacher who's usually working when I get home from work myself and doesn't stop until he's ready to go to bed)
I'm just struggling to find motivation to plan anything else. We've got the celebrant book (who's coming over tomorrow) and we've got the wedding venue booked. We've got the reception venue HOPEFULLY booked if we hear from the place we want it done in the next few days.. My questions are, where do I go from here and how can I continue to make things cheap-ish?
Our reception is going to be a ****tail styled reception (less expensive imo) and we have basically just gotten that. I feel like I just wanna pull my hair out because when I'm not working I'm sleeping and when I'm not sleeping, I have to be cleaning or shopping and I don't ever get time to organize and plan it (even with DF saying 'There are more hours in a day than just working')
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated

[Phteven]

Hmmm your wedding is supposed to be fun and all about you.
If it's making you stressed out and crazy maybe you need to sit down and re-evaluate what you want.

How about enrolling your Mum, your sister and/or your bestie for ideas, motivation and help.

I saw a TV program once about a couple that had an ebay wedding - now I'm sure you don't want to be that cheap but there are lots of second hand dresses out there that are only worn once.

Maybe a couple of bridal magazines might help you but their main function is to sell the really expensive products that are advertised in there so you need to take inspiration from there but not use it as a guide IYKWIM.

What about wedding expos - once again to suck you into spending money but lots of stalls have freebies and competitions so if you go you might get inspiration and win something.

If it all gets too much jump on a plane and go to Vegas - that was my dream wedding.

You could hire a wedding planner...

[tiggerlinda]

LJ - Keep it simple sweet

We had wedding venue, reception and photos and I got my dress off ebay.

The other things I can see are:
- Photographer search online
- Dress
- Suits
- Bridesmaids

We did not have table gifts or a cake and no one missed the GL and

PS forgot the wishing well instead of gifts

[myboysmumma]

Your wedding should be how you want it.

I would write a list -

What We Want

Celebrant - booked
Reception - possibly booked
dress
suits
flowers
cake
bombonerie
etc

and just say to yourself - today I am calling cake places, our budget is - ie $300. Go through the yellowpages and call 10 places, go and see the ones that sound good and book!

Cross things off your list one by one. There are some great wedding forums like belly belly out there, I would suggest googling "Australian Wedding Forums" and seeing what comes up. I was a member of a really great one buit can't post it here I don't think!

Good luck.

[Kristin27]

I'd make sure you book the big things that need a date set and can get booked out so you don't miss out, e.g. celebrant, ceremony and reception locations (which i know you are finalising), photographer, entertainment (band, dj or just play cd's/download a music mix of your choice to play at the reception?)

Then as the others have suggested:

Dress (you and bridesmaids) Veils are so simple to make if you have someone who can do a bit of sewing? It's just two semic circles of fabric (most often tuille sp?) gathered and sewn together at the top, with a comb sewn on.

Shoes (Novo are cheap and nice range)

Hair and make up (you could do your own)

Suits (cheaper to hire)

Flowers (try a wholesale outlet or market for something cleaper - someone may have to get up early on the weddng day to pick them up from the market - perhaps a brother or dad?)

Cars (use family members cars or check out car dealers - they sometimes will allow you to borrow their cars for the day. My girlfriend got hers from Subaru)

Gifts for attendants (perhaps give the bridesmaids the jewellery you want them to wear for the day? You can get some well priced items from Sportsgirl, Diva, Jaqui E)

Invitations and order or service booklets (you could design your own and print them at work whilst no-one is watching?? Naughty naughty!)

Book your accommodation for the wedding night and honeymoon.

Because you're having a ****tail party I wouldn't worry about bonboniere or too much table decoration if your trying to save money.

That's all I can think of for now, just make a list and chip away at it. And rope in family to do jobs if you're not too much of a control freak (like me!).

Good luck this is an exciting time for you!!

[satya]

Some cost saving ideas for you.

When I got married the first time around we had a friend who had an interest in photography take the photos. We supplied all the film (back in the days before digital cameras) and he handed them over and got them developed and had some blown up etc. My intention is to do the same when I marry my DF. I never regretted not having the fancy expensive photos. We ended up with a great album and lovely portraits for the wall.

Cake - get someone in the family to make it or get a Cheesecake Shop one - they are way cheaper. A friend had one at her wedding a few years ago and it was the best wedding cake I've ever eaten - white chocolate - yum.

Don't have bridesmaids or groomsmen. Have a witness each and let them wear whatever they want at their own cost. Saves a lot of money and people are happy to do this.

For music you may be able to get away with just having CD's put on at the venue. We did this - the MC provided by the reception place just changed the mixed CD whenever it ran out.

Don't be concerned about buying a second hand wedding dress. Remember it's probably only been worn for a few hours so it's almost new but will cost far less.

Cars - try to use family members cars if you can.

My ex and I did all of the above and it was a very cheap wedding but a very nice one just the same. We even supplied all the alcohol ourselves and the reception place just served it for us - saved heaps - only some places will do this.

[Phteven]

For photos you can provide guests with disposable cameras and get them to leave them behind as they go - you'll get lots of great shots that a photographer wouldn't get.
And a few shockers too lol.

[AngelPunks]

we did a wedding at home (well my brother's place), I gave my bridal party material for their dresses (bought wholesale) & they made their own, the boys were just in black pants & white shirt (including groom - but he had a waistcoat made out of same material as my dress). We used one of those spit roast places (they actually did a better priced wedding package than if we'd done the bits separately), we also hired extra chairs/tables off them. We bought the alcohol on sale (and got a discount on top of that for the bulk buy). One of my best friends drove me there in her car, she also drove us all home afterwards, we didn't do a hotel that night because we couldn't see the point, we just went home to our own bed. We found a photographer who had a great deal for the photos & we got them on CD plus an album - I've just printed additional copies since then for friends etc. Most expensive thing for us was my dress (which I've worn since) and the bonbonieries (individual hand-made glass african animals).

One of the best weddings I've ever been to was actually an engagement party in which they went and changed half way through the night and got married, none of the pressure of planning a wedding.

Good luck with it all, have fun!

[ElleJay]

Thanks ladies, you've all helped me with my 2nd wind about this weeding.. For the first time in a while, I'm actually excited about our celebrant meeting tomorrow!

dachlostar - IF my mum can make it from Melbourne,she's happy to do makeup for me, and she said she's help with photography. I've been suspended from eBay, though I did see a few nice dresses on there that I wouldn't mind picking up. The killer for wedding dresses for me is that you need a 40% deposit and a few of the dresses I've been looking at to get have been around $800 - $1,000 and the 40% would be most of my pay (after paying rent) I've only got one bridal magazine, but I threw it under the bed when I saw how much things were in there :P We've been to three wedding expos (all of them I've had to drag DF to because he's not been too keen on going - too girly for him he says) and I basically enter EVERY competition I can there to see if I can win SOMETHING! Vegas doesn't sound like a bad idea to be honest! Hehehe! And the disposable cameras - that's an idea we've had from the very beginning, though we wanna hand them out during the wedding and they have to basically make them last until the end of the night. How many would you suggest for a guest list of 60/70? Thanks for everything!

Linda - Good luck with your EPU! DF and I have thought about a wishing well, but making our own to save the money (how we'll do that is beyond me) but also have a small registry for those who still want to buy a gift. We're probably only going to have a small cake, tough luck for whomever doesn't get any :P Thanks heaps!

myboysmumma - Thankyou for the idea about the list, I think I'll write one out in powerpoint - If you can remember it, please PM me the link, I'm sure you won't get in trouble for that :P I was a member of one, but the site was too confusing to use

Kristin - For entertainment, we're thinking about just buying another 4GB iPod and putting all kinds of music on the iPod and plugging it into the reception place stereo system. As for hair, I'm HOPEFULLY going to have my hair restyled a day or two before the wedding, so I don't need to worry about having my hair done on the day. I do like the idea of making my own invitation, I'm guessing I could get online and see how to make the invites? I'm not too much of a control freak, as long as things look nice for our big day, that's all I'm hoping for. Thanks heaps!

Kimnastics - DF has a friend who's an AWESOME photographer and she's already said she'd be honored to do the photos, which I thought was awesome, she only said that if we want them professionally made up, it will cost us. Your lucky you had so little to organise! I'm thinking about dresses the girls can chose whatever dresses they want, but they have to be the same color - is that what you mean?

Satya - Thanks for popping in my dear (I've been following your pregnancy in the other threads ) A white chocolate cake sounds great, I didn't even know the Cheesecake shop DID wedding cakes! I'm starting to think that maybe I should just use a family members car, because I've looked at prices for limo and they're just ridiculous! Thanks for everything my dear

Punkin - I wish we'd thought of that for our engagement party! We basically didn't have to plan anything for our engagement party! Thanks for the ideas!

I'm definitely going to be taking everything said to heart, because I know all you ladies have either been through it or are going to be going through it too. It's just so hard when I'm working 10 out of 14 days and the days I do have off are days that I've got too much on!

[tiggerlinda]

LJ - Google wishing wells heaps of pics on the web. Also I found a great bridal receyle place to get my veil and shoes and hoop from it was great! Also sweet we asked for no gifts and everyone joined us for dinner at a restraunt for our reception

[Lisa]

For our wedding cars... we had a white SS commodore, and there were a few other guys in our home town who had the same cars... so we approached them and asked if we could borrow them and their cars for the day... they agreed... so we had 3 white SS commodores and all up it cost us $200 because we filled up their cars and gave them some extra money as a thank you.

For music, you mentioned an Ipod... why not ask you guests to fill their Ipods with some romantic type music and some fun music, and play from different people's Ipods all night?

I agree with Cheesecake shop cakes... my sister was quoted $200 for her cake from there which was 3 tier... she was having it topped with flowers to match her bouquet. My friend got hers from a local bakery for $100... it was gorgeous.

Bomboniere... we had chocolates (baci are a nice choice as they have little love type notes in them) and we made up a CD of all the songs we had on our wedding day and songs that meant something to us during dating etc... our guests loved it.

Hair and makeup - I did my own makeup and a friend straightened my hair, and I then had some loose curls put over the top of the straight hair... we married on the beach so I wanted a casual look.

I understand how stressful it can get... when DH and I were planning our wedding, we were both working fulltime, and getting reno's done on the house, plus having to organise our 2 older kids everyday too... but our wedding day turned out beautiful... and it wasn't because everything came together, it was because I married the most wonderful man that day... and all I can really remember about it was him... it was like everything else faded away and it was just he and I and it was beautiful.
Wishing you all the best hun

[Mel A]

Hey
There are some great ideas on this thread too. https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...-2009-a-2.html

I recommend doing what ever you want. There are no rules that you must follow, so make it up.

[OldMate]

Hey LJ. Having read all these other posts, there is not much I can add. However, DW and I were really happy with our wedding, so I thought I would back some of these other ladies' opinions with my experience.

DW organised tiers of cupcakes for the wedding cake. We chose the icing colours and the wrappers to fit the wedding theme. You can either look at having a homemade job (probably done by friends and family) or ask a cake shop. I think we paid around $4-5/cupcake which wasn't too bad. We got a small top tier cake to cut though!

Bonbons (as I called them, much to DWs disgust ) were cheap, coloured shotglasses filled with wedding-theme coloured jelly beans and wrapped in celophane.

Music - We got the 2 piece band that we knew quite well from our local pub. It was one of the bigger expenses (apart from the reception centre) but well worth it. I have been to weddings that use mp3s and iPods, and they usually work quite well, however, it can sometimes be a problem plugging them into the reception places sound system, may not be loud enough, and when guests get a little tipsy, they may start skipping through the playlists to find the songs they like (I've seen this happen before....Metallica is not good wedding music)

We got a friend to do the photography, but didn't pay for an album. I know people who have spent hundreds on just the album layout. We got all the photos on a CD and, although we still haven't done it, we will make our own album.

The disposables are FANTASTIC but make sure your MC points out that they are not to be used in the toilets....oh, tell them not to take too many photos of the two of you. We had around 25 cameras and each of them had about 10 photos of us.....way too many. We would have preferred lots more of the guests.

Thankyou cards - I have had a number of friends do the same thing we did and they said it was a great idea. Get your bestman/bridesmaid/attendant to stand at the door of the reception place with a digital camera. Then, you and DF (DH then) welcome each guest or group of guests as the enter. You all turn to the camera person, they take a photo, and then the next guest comes in. That way, you can develop those photos, write your thankyous on the back, and send them as a reminder of the day. I still walk into friends houses and there's the photo of all of us on the wedding day stuck to their fridge.

Good luck with all your plans. Also, remember to take the weather of the season into account (wind/rain/heat/etc)

[Lisa]

Thankyou cards - I have had a number of friends do the same thing we did and they said it was a great idea. Get your bestman/bridesmaid/attendant to stand at the door of the reception place with a digital camera. Then, you and DF (DH then) welcome each guest or group of guests as the enter. You all turn to the camera person, they take a photo, and then the next guest comes in. That way, you can develop those photos, write your thankyous on the back, and send them as a reminder of the day. I still walk into friends houses and there's the photo of all of us on the wedding day stuck to their fridge.

What an absolutely brilliant idea!!!! I love this!!!!

[MrsBump]

LizJessie,

We too are planning our wedding on a budget, We have lived together for almost 5 years. Our date is nov 22 08. What i have done is this...

*DF's aunt is helping pay for the celebrant (she offered so we didnt refuse)
*I am going to a shop where they have "discontinued wedding gowns" and getting it from there (saw a beautiful one for $250 disc from $1400+) I loved it but seen as tho i am so preg i didnt want to purchase it coz i didnt want it to not fit
*We have 12 in the bridal party (inc us) so the groomsmen and the bridesmaids are paying for their own dresses/suits, BM are paying for their hair and makeup which i have got for $100
*Just haveing something simple for the bonbonierre, shot glasses with a wooden peg (scrapbook peg) with a glued on butterfly and 2 heart choccies in the glass... cost me about $90 for the lot, inc choc
*We have a wishing chest we bought it from a nice shop where i got the BM bouquets from, all up for the chest and 6 bouquets, and 3 lots of rose sprays it was $95.


Hopefully that helps. Plus we are doing our own invites (well one of my BMs are she handy with comp) and all the thankyou's etc. Oh and our cake is $300 max but thats for a 3 teir cake, bottom white choc, middle caramel choc and top mud choc... MMMMMMM

Goodluck with the planning....