Now that the excitement of our wedding is over and I am finally past the post-wedding blues, I want to help others plan theirs! Because I was a bit of an organise freak, I feel a lot of my planning could help others because this was all done through a tonne of research and things that I found hard to find myself. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, my day was absolutely perfect and stress free. Every detail was how I imagined it, if not better and I definitely think organisation and pre-planning well in advance helped to achieve this. It is important to note that even if little things do go wrong on your day, in the end they won’t matter to you because you will be enjoying it so much. For instance, I totally forgot to wear my garter!
Today I am going to share with you the things that you need to put together a basic wedding and where you can possibly cut costs. Now when I was planning my own, I constantly searched the internet looking for lists of what not to forget and all the small details. Obviously every wedding is unique and everyone has different ideas so this is the basic necessities that you would want for your wedding and then you can of course tailor it to yourself. I have also added in some costs for you all so that you get an idea of how everything adds up. Of course these will also vary widely for everybody but again it is important to do your research.
A guide to planning your wedding
A venue for ceremony and reception
You could also hold this in the same place to save on costs but a lot of people marry at a church and move to somewhere else for their reception. Remember to book these 18 months in advance to ensure you get the date you are after.
Ceremony: This is the place you will officially become husband and wife. Many choose to do it at a church. We chose a small bed & breakfast with the most beautiful garden for our outdoor ceremony with the most stunning view. You do have to factor in weather and a back up plan for outdoor weddings if it does rain. Our hire included marquees for that, which was a good option although thankfully we didn’t have to use them as the weather was beautiful!
Cost: $950 including hire of chairs, signing table and tables for food afterwards.
Reception: We hired a hall as I wanted to decorate it myself (I had a vision! ) but if you are doing it at a place where the venue, food and everything is included then of course it would be much less work but also might not be the theme/style you want it to be (the cost would also be much higher as it includes everything). This hire also included tables and chairs but the chairs were green so we hired our own white ones to match the theme. Having it at a hall also meant we could buy our own alcohol and made it much cheaper. There were restrictions on hire time though and we had to be out by 11.30pm so you would need to check with your venue on times as some may allow you to go later.
Cost: $2185
A Wedding Dress
Well duh. This is obviously something you’re going to need and we all have a vision of what we want for our wedding day. Many of you have probably had it since you were a little girl. I knew I always wanted a princess dress but not over the top. My words of advice here are set a budget and have an idea of what you want but be open to changing. Make sure you tell your budget to your consultant so they know to avoid any over that, that may pull on the heart strings. Also, when you start trying them on you may soon realise that what you thought you wanted has totally changed because they look so different on you than off the rack. Make sure you visit a few stores and you may need to do a few different day trips to find one you really really like. You will need to do this a year in advance because they take at least 6 months to be custom made and then you need to allow for alterations. If you’re buying off the rack then you can get a last minute dress but otherwise you definitely need to give them time. You could buy online to cut costs but I have mostly heard horror stories so if you do order online, make sure you do in advance so you can have a back up if it goes wrong. For shoes, I wasn’t fussed but I did want a small heel as I knew I was going to be standing and walking a lot so I found the perfect heel and they went perfectly with my dress. I didn’t want expensive shoes because ultimately I would be wearing them for one day but if you do want to splurge, make sure you can wear them again!
Cost: anywhere from $1500-$6000 but mostly sitting around 2-3k. Shoes should be under $100 (mine were $40)
Bridesmaids Dresses, Suits & Ties
I always intended to buy my bridesmaids their dresses but I know a lot of people ask their bridesmaids to buy their own to save money and that is totally up to you. I also had all my bridesmaids in different parts of the world and totally different sizes so my best option was ordering online. I searched the internet for ages looking for dresses and sent them to a group message with all the girls in it. I read reviews of websites in hope that I would find one where the dresses would actually arrive as shown in the pictures. I ended up ordering from For Her and For Him because they had a huge range of dresses, a huge range of colours and also a great range of sizes that would cater to all my bridesmaids (and mostly good reviews). After we picked a design, we chose a colour (light pink, what I had always wanted) and then I got all the girls to measure themselves. When they arrived they were a beautiful colour and great quality. I was worried about sizing and we did have to get alterations for half of them, especially the hems which you will expect with most bridesmaids dresses but ultimately they were great. The only thing I didn’t realise until the day before when my bridesmaids and I were all together with the dresses were that two of them were a slightly different pink. I was pretty pissed off but in the end you couldn’t even tell but definitely check this as I could have changed it if I had time. Ultimately when you are ordering online there is always a risk. We were pretty lucky and due to our circumstances of everyone being so far apart, online was the only option. I also found prices were cheaper online as well. We also did the same for the suits as again, all Chance’s groomsmen were in different countries so we ordered online from Hallensteins. Luckily they had all of the sizes we needed for the guys bar one of them who had to get his custom made. They had a dark grey, which we wanted and we ordered pants, waist coats and blazers. I also found the perfect pink ties to match the girls dresses and they all looked absolutely stunning on the day together. The girls bought their own shoes all in a similar colour and the boys bought their own white shirts and shoes.
Cost: $200 per dress. $200 per suit. $100 for ties.
Wedding Rings
I almost forgot this but of course you need wedding rings and this can be quite a nice thing to do together when going to pick them out. It’s also special for your husband as they probably haven’t worn a ring before. Chance and I went to Michael Hill as that was where he bought my engagement ring and I got the matching band for my ring and he got a gild and silver plated ring. Men’s rings are much cheaper than women’s of course. You could also opt to go for a simple gold band to save costs but I figured that I was going to have the ring for life (hopefully) so I wanted it to be the beautiful matching one which did cost a little more.
Cost: Ours combined were $2399 but you could get it cheaper it you go plainer. Also, ask for a discount as we got 20% off.
Hair & Makeup
It goes without saying that you want to look the best on your wedding day and that means having your hair and makeup done as well as your bridesmaids and flower girls. You will need to do some research and read reviews to find a good one and many come packaged together which might save you on costs. I found most of them were all priced quite similar and it is a big cost so you really have to go for who you really like. Again, make sure you check out previous work and reviews. They also usually require a makeup & hair trial prior to the wedding but due to us having a destination wedding, I didn’t do this and mine turned out perfectly so I wouldn’t say this was absolutely necessary especially when budgeting. I sent through pictures of the hair style I wanted which my stylist Tina nailed on the day and also makeup styles I wanted for the make up artist. I also sent through pics for the bridesmaids hair styles so we could be organised and ready to go on the day. You might have a friend or family member who is in the industry who could help out here as well.
Cost: Makeup $110 bride and $80 bridesmaids . Hair $150 bride AND $120 bridesmaids
A photographer
You DO want to invest some money in to this as these are your memories! I hired a friend and professional wedding photographer. She had a number of different packages to suit different budgets. I wanted her all day up to the first dance, as I figured after that it’s really just partying until the night finishes and it made it slightly cheaper. My package also included two photographers for the first half of the day so that one could photograph Chance and his groomsmen while Nicole (the main photographer) was with myself and the girls. I would suggest following someone’s work prior to your wedding to get a feel for the photo styles they have and if they align with what you’re wanting as they can be so different. It is also important to share some of the photos you want with your photographer leading up to the wedding so he or she has some ideas for the day. Don’t be too obsessed about getting every single photo you want though as it can take up a lot of time and you also need to trust your photographer with their ideas as well. I also set up a shared Pinterest board with my photographer where I put ideas in for her to look at. We didn’t obviously take all of them but we definitely did a few! A professional photographer is definitely worth the money and ours also included Thank You cards. You MUST book this in advance.
Cost: $3299
(for all day up to first dance, two photographers and thank you cards. If you’re looking for someone awesome in New Zealand, check out my photographer Nicole here)
Videographer
When researching I found this was the one thing most people regretted NOT getting. I loved watching wedding videos of other people (a bit creepy right?!) up until our wedding so I definitely wanted our own. This was something I had to squeeze in to our budget but I managed to get a great deal for a 5 minute highlights film and also a 20 minute video. Your videographer will mostly mirror the photographer and you won’t really notice them too much which is great! I can’t wait to see our video and I will definitely share it with you for some ideas.
Cost: $1650.
Invitations
This is something I did not want to spend money on because after getting a few quotes I soon realised it would cost around $700. The invitations were not that important to me so Chance designed them himself to cut down on costs and we bought card and string from a stationary shop and put them together ourselves. We also designed our Save The Date cards ourselves as well and got them printed ourselves to cut costs. Probably the most expensive part of our invitations were the postage costs for overseas which you don’t often think about so I would suggest cutting down on the costs of designing your invites if it’s not a big deal for you. Message me if you need any help with designing them as my husband does them at a great price.
Cost: Just over $100 including printing, stationary and postage
Celebrant
We are not religious so we didn’t need a priest or anything. I chose my celebrant based on reviews and she was wonderful. She was relaxed and organised so I could leave everything in her hands. We liaised with her in the months leading up to the wedding and she sent us copies of vows to help us write ours and also helped us with our own. We kept ours a surprise from each other so she worked with us to ensure they flowed nicely without giving away what the other was saying. She wrote up a great programme telling everyone how we met and what we loved about each other before moving in to the vows. Everyone commented on the ceremony and how unique it was and the celebrant definitely helped to create that. Make sure you find someone with a bit of personality. She also sent us a keepsake of the vows after the wedding, which I keep on my book shelf.
Cost: $500.
Caterer
Our reception was in a hall so we had to hire our own catering. I got a few different quotes and many of them were similar but in the end I went for a caterer who offered a shared menu option and it was AMAZING! They were also really reasonably priced at $65 per head excl GST, which included bar staff as well. A shared menu means that the food is dropped to your table and everyone gets to pass it around and share. It was hugely popular at our wedding and the food was divine.
Note: If you do hire a caterer you will also need to hire cutlery, plates and glasses. Most caterers will not supply those so be prepared for the extra costs.
Cost: $65 per head excluding GST so all up for 85 people it was about $6500.
Day-of coordinator
For me, this was worth every penny. Having a destination wedding meant I couldn’t be there to organise flowers or decorations and Kelly, my stylist organised it all for me and put everything together on the day. This meant every bit of decorating she was responsible for as well as helping me with extra hire items (like cutlery etc) and flowers. She also had a great range of hire items herself that I could use as well. The best part about Kelly was she worked with my budget and helped me cut costs where I needed. She also told me what I could do without (to save money) but made sure I had everything to make the day perfect.
Even if you were not having a destination wedding, a day-of coordinator should be included in your budget so that on the day you do not have to be stressed or doing last minute preparation. It is your day and you should be enjoying it. We helped Kelly out with some of the decorating the day before and then on the wedding day, it was all up to her.
Cost: To hire her it cost me $1000. If you are looking for someone, I would definitely recommend Kelly from So Sweet Hire
Decorations
Again having our wedding in a hall meant we had a lot of decorating I wanted to do but even having it at a venue you will still need to do a few decorations like flowers on tables. For us, we decorated with draping, fair lights, flowers on tables, candles, arch to get married under, parasols for guests at the ceremony, chairs, tables for our ceremony food platter, drink dispensers and so on. All of these things add up so be prepared to add this in to your budget.
Cost: We spent about $3000 on all hire items including the cutlery, plates and glassware for catering.
Flowers
Again, something that can become quite costly very quickly and especially with six bridesmaid like I had. I decided on a really simple but beautiful bouquet with baby’s breath and in the end my stylist Kelly did them for me to help me save on costs. She made mine a bit bigger to stand out but she did them exactly as I wanted for a much cheaper price. We also needed flowers for the tables, for the cake and petals to line the aisle with at the ceremony. Make sure you get a few quotes for these to see what the best price is and maybe opt for a more simple bouquet to save.
Cost: $1000 for all flowers (and that was a big saving!)
Favours
This is something that is becoming pretty optional at weddings these days because no-one rarely takes them home or uses them and they become a total waste of money. However, I really wanted something for the guests to enjoy so I did a small candy table with cute personalised gift bags where guests could help themselves. It worked out really well and I saw people eating candy throughout the night as well as taking it when they left! I found cute white & gold gift bags at a cheap party store and ordered personalised stickers from Ebay for $20. I bought bulk candy to make it cheaper and the jars were hired through my stylist. Another awesome idea would be to buy every person a small jar and fill it with jelly beans and stick a personalised sticker on top. That was going to be my other option but I ran out of time. You can find cheap small jars online and order bulk jelly beans online as well. You can even pick colours to suit your theme!
Cost: Just under $100 for all lollies, hire of jars, gift bags and personalised stickers.
Cake
This is really optional these days as a lot of people just do a dessert table or a simple naked cake and I think that’s a great idea. I found a gorgeous simply cake early on that I wanted and I found someone to do it for a reasonable price. It was four tiers but each tier was quite small as we only had 85 people. It was white and pleated and then decorated with some of our flowers. It looked absolutely stunning but guess what-no-one ate it because after dessert we were too busy dancing. We ended up eating it the next day, which was great but I would definitely put a cake down as an optional item. You really only use it for the cutting of the cake photos or another option is too skip dessert on your catering menu and just serve cake which would totally be adequate enough and save your costs!
Cost: $480 (not including flowers)
Alcohol
Because we had our wedding at a hall, we could bring our own alcohol which saved us on costs. The only problem was figuring out how much to get and we ended up having a lot left over because I was worried we would run out. A good indication is using this function calculator here, which will give you a great indication of how much you need. It’s OK if you live in the same area to have left overs as you can continue to use them later on but for us and having a destination wedding we had to leave it behind and it was an extra cost we probably didn’t need. We had drinks for after the ceremony and I did two dispensers of punch and then beer and cider in a bucket (I didn’t serve wine here as I didn’t want everyone getting too drunk early!). I also had soft drinks and bottles of water.
For the reception we chose one type of beer, a light beer, two white wines (sav and pinot grigio), one red wine (pinot noir), sparkling (moscato) and champagne for the toasts. Don’t go too overboard and stick to a red, white, champagne for toasts, beer and a signature drink is usually perfect (optional). Also, don’t forget your non-alcoholic for the drivers (we had a punch!)
Costs: We spent about $1500.
Transport
How are you getting to the ceremony and who is taking you for bridal party photos? This can add up really quickly and especially if you have a big bridal party like we did. Luckily I found an old rustic looking bus that could seat all of us (16 including photographers) so that we didn’t have to organise separate cars (because there would have been a lot!). We used the bus from the ceremony to go and get bridal party photos. It also dropped Chance and I to the helicopter, took the bridal party to get more photos and then came back and picked us up to take us all to the reception where it ended. The bus also picked up all the bridesmaids from our house to take them to ceremony and I managed to find a cheap enough old school ford falcon to take myself and my brother in so that at least we had something quite cool to show up in. I wasn’t really fussed about this but it was actually really fun but I could have easily gone in the bus as well if I needed to save more money.
Cost: $600 for bus hire from 1pm-6pm and $150 for half-day for my wedding car.
Other bits & pieces:
Now there are also so many small things that pop up that you may not think of. I have listed them below and you can of course take what you need from them!
- Cake Knife-something you don’t often think about but you usually need
- Marriage Licence-I almost forgot about this and you need to order it in advance
- Transport for guests-How are your guests getting from the ceremony to the reception?
- Guest Book-We did a Polaroid guest book and it worked out amazing.
- Wishing Well (for cards)
- Buttonholes-for the groomsmen. Your florist can make these, or you can order online.
- Jewellery-what are you going to wear with your dress?
- Garter-I forgot mine, haha!
- Gifts for your bridal party-totally optional but I knew how much help my girls would be so I wanted to get them something small which was pearl earrings to wear on the day. Chance bought his groomsman a small bottle of rum, coke and a cigar in a little package. It was our way of saying thank you, on a budget!
- Transport & accommodation for you and family if you’re having a destination wedding
I hope this has helped you as you start planning what should be one of the best days of your life and definitely will be if you stay organised! Remember to book as much as you can in advance to ensure you get the dates, places and dress that you want! Write everything down in a book, write the costs and what suppliers you are using and tick everything off as you pay it. This will keep you on track. Make sure you keep extra funds for last minute costs and lastly, enjoy the planning! I found it so much fun planning my dream wedding and I wish I could do it all over again, a hundred times (without the price tag of course!).
Please let me know if you have any questions, or need any help with your planning as well. I will always do my best to help you!
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