My "Budget" Wedding

From the very beginning, Hubby and I decided we didn’t want a big expensive wedding.  For one, it just wasn’t in our budget, and it just wasn’t “us”. We had the marriage celebrant picked out so we could have the Wedding where ever we wanted to really. We looked around at a few places and decided on the little non-denominational church set in the cute heritage village near our house. The lovely old buildings would be a perfect backdrop for our wedding photos, and the hire of the church was very cheap.  We got a good price for the photographer and the boys suits were beautiful black wool suits that the shop assistant gave us at a remarkable price. But, the BEST thing... my wedding dress cost only $200. I bought it off a mark down rack and it was perfect. Nothing big and Poofy, just nice and simple. It was actually only the third dress I tried on. LOL! My sister was stunned. Apparently she spent months looking for her dress. (Very scary 80’s dress)  The car that drove me to the wedding was free cause it was my Daddy’s nice white Ford Falcon. The Girls dresses I got were only $80. And they are the kind that they can wear again. No I mean REALLY. They were lovely. Black with crème. I made them fascinators for their hair. I also made my bouquet and the girls' as well. I used these gorgeous fake roses that looked real. My son was the ring bearer and I bought his spunky little suit off eBay. He looked so handsome. My little niece was the bridesmaid and she already had a pretty little white dress. I made her a white basket to scatter the fake rose petals, and a ribbon beret for her hair, that matched the ribbon roses on the top of my veil (Which I also made myself). Hubby’s sister played Pachebel Cannon in D on her violin, when we walked into the church. Hubby cried... (LOL)

The reception was another matter. After researching the hiring of a hall and caterers, we decided to do it ourselves. At first it sounds crazy but we had the perfect house and back yard to have it in. Our house was a low set brick with a back patio running down the entire length. The yard was nice and the whole thing overlooked a river and country side beyond that. None of the neighbours houses or yards overlooked our back yard. So it was the perfect choice.

A friend of ours, who is the CEO of an organization we are clients of, gave us for free the use of the chairs, tables, white table cloths, cutlery, crockery, glasses, urns, BBq’s and two gazebos. I set up the tables down the length of the patio. The tables had the white cloths with red runners (that I had made) running down the middle. I made a candle centrepiece for each table in clear glass bowls. The two gazebos were set up side by side and strung with fairy lights. Under these we had tables set up with two huge Baine maries. One with hot food, the other with the cold.

Hubby loves to cook, and entertain. So he made all the food. We had a lady looking after it on the day for us. Hot food consisted of roast chicken and roast vegies, veggie bake, fried rice, and steak and sausages. Cold food was a couple of different salads, and lots of fruit. Drinks were BYO, but we did provide wine for toasts, and an esky full of canned soft drinks (sodas). Plus tea and coffee. Desert was the wedding cake. I made that to. It was a two layered square chocolate mud cake. With royal icing and red sugar roses (which I also made).

Only two dramatic things happened that day:

1. I was LATE. I am NEVER late. It's was the girls fault, and a popped button on the flower girls dress.

2. Meanwhile, back at the house, a snake apparently wanted to make a deposit into the wishing well, but was politely moved on.

All in all it was a perfect day.  One we wouldn’t have done any differently. One also that all of our married friends said they wished they had done the same. Sure it was a bit of extra work, and we were too buggered at the end of the night to do anything frisky, but we had the wedding WE wanted and it didn’t cost us more than $3000.

 Seriously.