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Winter wedding much cheaper ... My sister got married in a church but the reception was cheap ... my sister had her Wedding 3rd week of August and the reception was at a local hall she hired & in the morn she decorated the hall herself with fresh flowers & her partner printed up a paper scroll with a ribbon around it placed on each guests sitting with what the menu consisted of.
They hired a company that does a buffet that was a set price per head who came to the hall.
Two friends volunteered to wear a bow tie & shirt & served drinks from a little table in the corner of the hall (done up nice).
My Mum made the cake & my younger sister decorated it ... my Dad worked at a printing company so invites were done free from him.
Our Uncle drove his nice car as the Wedding car in which he tied the Wedding ribbon to the front.
My sister bought her Winter outfit in Summer on special.
The bridesmaids bought their own outfit but were asked to NOT give a Wedding gift instead.
Wedding bands were bought in a secondhand vintage shop.
A friend was the photographer and another friend the video person.
She did her own makeup & hair.
The most amount of money she spent was on a band to play at the hall.
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We just got married on Jan 16th, and it cost us less than $2,000.
Celebrant - $375 included table & chairs to sign the certificate, microphones, speakers, CD player, ribbon for knot tying ceremony & 25 booklets for the guests to read as the ceremony was progressing.
Bombonniere's - $110 as we bought some simple little picture frames from a $2+ shop and used some thin silver ribbon/thread to tie little 'Thank You' cards onto them. I decorated the ends of the ribbons with some beads that I had in our wedding theme colours.
Men's Suits - $260 included DH's shirt, vest & tie (he already had the pants) as well as the shirts, vests, ties & pants for the two groomsmen. (it helps when you know the sales rep who deasl in them all too)
Men's Shoes - They all wore their motorbike boots lol so FREE
Reception Hall - $560 but we got the $200 bond back in the week after the wedding.
Ceremony - FREE!!! We held it on the beach, and it didn't cost us a single cent!
Food & Drink - We had a BBQ. My aunt donated the meat from a cow she had (tmi?) slaughtered, we spent $15 on salad items at our local fruit & vegie market (we know the mother of the boss, who still works there, and she gave us a discount as a wedding gift), and just bought a box of tea bags, a jar of coffee and sugar, a bottle of milk and requested on the invite that anything else was BYO (from alcohol to soft drink).
Wedding Cake - DH brought the ingredients (cost $30) and his older sister made it with his recipe (a white chocolate no-bake cheesecake).
My Dress - total $70, corset off E-bay for $40, and skirt for $30.
My Shoes - $99, down from $200
Alcohol for us - $60, 2 bottles of melon liquor from Aldi & 2 6 packs of johnny walker red from the supermarket where we held the wedding.
Soft drink for us - $10
Wishing Well - Free from in-laws who had one made for both their daughters weddings.
Invites - SiL made them, we just had to pick out what we wanted and it just cost $100 for the materials.
Gifts For The Bridesmaids - $70, included 2 x necklaces and 2 x Broach/Hairclips (could be used as either). Third bridesmaid refused to let me get her anything, instead she got big sloppy kisses from DS the night before the wedding lol
Bouquet(sp?) etc - Total $125. Included 1 main bouquet, 3 smaller bouquet's, 3 pocket things for the men and about 8 extra stems for emergencies.
Photo's - We got someone to take photo's with our camera and requested during the speech that everyone send us their favourite photo's that they took. That way our wedding album would be from everyone's perspective and not just one persons. So they were FREE too.
My Nails - FREE one of my bridesmaids is a nail technician and did them for all of us as a wedding gift to me and DH.
My Hair - Again, my bridesmaids were all involved in it and took turns doing it while getting ready themselves.
My Makeup - I did it myself.
Temporary Liquor Licence - $87, paid in advance.
Cook - A mate of the best man offered to do it when our original cook went AWOL and we couldn't find anyone else. $200 cash in hand, and he got to join in with the party.
Total We Spent - $1,871
It can be done! And it was perfect! (Except for the wind that messed up my hair lol)
