Wedding Planner

[Babushka Doll]

Ive just finished planning my own wedding for Jan 07 - we are getting married in Port Douglas QLD - personally I found the 'wedding planner' in that area to be obnoxious and rude and super pushy. I had time to do my own investigating into prices etc, and found that i saved $1000's (and i am not kidding) by booking things directly myself. Yellowpages was my best friend for months!
I enjoyed the organising. But if you don't have the time and money is not really and issue then for sure, a wedding planner may be the best thing for you.

HOpe this helps
X

[Beckibee]

Emz, if you don't have the time or dont' need the stress, I think a wedding planner would be a good idea. I did everything for our wedding and although it was stressful, I know that I couldn't have done the full thing for the price that I did, if I had used a wedding planner.

If you do want to save money and have the time (and patience! *L*), then there are actually wedding plan books you can buy from the newsagent and places like that. There are also online sites you can go to which will lead you through the things you need to organise. HTH!

And remember...negotiate, negotiate, negotiate! (Never take first price as gospel, most can be bargained with especially if you are prepared to have your wedding 'off peak' - we did ours on a Sunday in July)

[Violet Star]

And remember...negotiate, negotiate, negotiate! (Never take first price as gospel, most can be bargained with especially if you are prepared to have your wedding 'off peak' - we did ours on a Sunday in July)

I think some places are already cottoned on to this idea and there is no difference in price between a saturday or sunday. Saturdays are more popular still, but can be booked out years in advance. I know someone who so desparetly wanted a venue had the wedding on a weekday

[Lisa]

My best piece of advice would be not to spend too much on a photographer... or just not have one.
I wish now that DH and I had spent the money we had on a great camera for ourselves and got someone in our family to take the pics (or hand it around to different people to take pics)
We spent $2100 on a photographer, who was terrible!!! She didn't get pics of the bridesmaids and groomsmen at the wedding, and not one pic of our wedding cars!!! We were so super pi$$ed off about that!!! The pics our family members took were so much more beautiful and natural.

[Mother Goose]

My best piece of advice would be not to spend too much on a photographer... or just not have one.

I totally agree Lisa! We had a very good photographer who took some wonderful shots... but the best ones we have are those that were taken by FIL (whose hobby is photography and has been for years) and from other guests. My sister took a GREAT one of me with my best friend which was so natural. My advice? Put a little disposable camera on each table at the reception and get guests to take the photo's. Get a few friends/family in the crowd to take photo's at your wedding and afterwards. You can still have posed photo's but it's the ones taken when you're not aware that really show the day

[Janie]

I loved planning my wedding, and would love to do it all again!

We discussed what sort of wedding we wanted, but we both already knew that we wanted it to be fun and relaxed, not too traditional. As in, we didn't do things for the sake of tradition if we didn't want to. We didn't have a bridal party - my BF and FIL were the witnesses. I wasn't given away (too much drama) so DH met me halfway down the 'aisle'. I wore a red dress (always wanted to!). It was a ****tail-type function, but good fun and relaxed. Lots of food, lots of drink, and we partied 'til we were ready to leave, no one kicked us out. Lots of good music (helps that my brother is a muso).

The best bit of advice I can give you is to enjoy every minute of it! Accept that things may not be 'perfect' on the day, but at the end of the day, as long as you end up married, you have accomplished what you set out to achieve!

My DH and I had the most wonderful day, we still talk about how good it was now. Just relax, go with the flow and ENJOY!

[Schmickers]

We had a wedding planner, and it was great. We were getting married in Piort Macquarie, and arranging it all from Sydney - it was just getting too hard. We were chatting to the events coordinator at the resort where we were having our reception, and she mentioned that she was planning on starting her own coordination business, and offered her services.

She was great. She had heaps of fantastic ideas, and saved us a fortune - she managed to negotiate a discount on the venue for our ceremony from the ridiculous $1500 that the owners were asking, down to $300 (!). and she only charged us $35 an hour for the time spent on the wedding day - so, from about 10:00am when she started coordinating set-up for our ceremony, through unti 6:00pm, when she handed over to the Mc at the reception. I think we got a special deal, though, as she was just starting her business.

Highly recommend it.

[Lisa]

Schmickers... you didn't happen to have your reception at Sails Resort did you?

[Schmickers]

Ye-ess ... it was at Sails Resort.

[Lisa]

We had ours at Sails resort also!!! It is so gorgeous there.... we had ours under a marquee by the pool.

[Violet Star]

My best piece of advice would be not to spend too much on a photographer... or just not have one.
I wish now that DH and I had spent the money we had on a great camera for ourselves and got someone in our family to take the pics (or hand it around to different people to take pics)
We spent $2100 on a photographer, who was terrible!!! She didn't get pics of the bridesmaids and groomsmen at the wedding, and not one pic of our wedding cars!!! We were so super pi$$ed off about that!!! The pics our family members took were so much more beautiful and natural.

Photographic memories are forever!
Im going to disagree about not having a professional. They usually know what they are doing and have a lot more equipment than the normal person has. (although you might know someone) But do your homework beforehand. We were lucky enough to have had photos taken previously by the person we used. It was a lot less stressful knowing she could already make us look really nice. To make sure you get all the shots you want write down a list of the must have photos you want. eg: perfume shot, shoes, bride with mum, bride with dad. Then there is written evidence that you asked for all the shots.
We also had table cameras , you can pick them up quite cheap BUT consider the price of getting them developed which is around the $10 mark AND there will be at least one moron who will take a photo of their naked atonomy for you. ( :evil: I was furious when i got my photos back). You also cant edit them in any way.

If we had our time over, we would buy some cheap digital cameras and have them on the table again. Maybe not one on each but one between a few. If you trust the guests as there is always someone trying to pocket something! You could always resell them after. but it comes down to the money you have beforehand.

I also, personally took photos for my friends wedding (I was also in the wedding party) ROFL Their photography was a > insert mean words< He was rude to the bridesmaids, and had a very made manner. We also commented that we were having trouble with our dresses eg: they were made, and one was too big on the shoulders and kept slipping off to show the nude coloured bra strap. Kept pulling it up, but didnt notice to fine details like that. I guess a good photographer would be saying or moving your clothes to make it look the best. Their proof shots were awful. the colour of the dresses were completely from one end of the colour spectrum to the other end. She has in her house the photos enlarged that I took of them as her main photos. I really feel for her as what if i hadnt taken my camera on that day and took all these shots for her.

[lovemybubs]

Thanks for all the info everyone...

We dont really have a clue what we want.. even to the point of tossing up if we should have the wedding or just use the $$ for a deposit on a house and then get married and have something similar to our engagement party- a sit down dinner for 50. It only costed about 5k.

We just dont know...

Any simple wedding ideas would be appreciated... like different types of venues etc
xx

[Violet Star]

Different types of venues:
Beach wedding
Garden Wedding
Park Wedding (Someone had one in a National Park and all that had to pay was a donation which was tax deducatble too! bonus)
Zoo
Golf Club
Hall
Hot air ballooning
Bungy Jumping
Chamber Cave Wedding
Underwater wedding

Most places in say the Brides Diary are the places which charge a fortune (although some dont). Look maybe in your local paper for advertisments.

If you had your wedding and reception at the same place that would save transport costs for moving from one place to the other.