Dont Break the Bank on your Wedding Day
Read this post to find out more from Sarah Wild a 10 year elopement and destination wedding photographer, and videographer about how to create your magical wedding day, and still save money!!
Bakers Hill wedding location, for a cheap venue idea in Perth Western Australia. small elopement wedding venue fit for a lawn ceremony, and a nice park across the street with gorgeous waterways.
Fremantle Power station for those outback nature adventure lovers, looking to get a cute engagement session done. check out this location for beach shots, and a cool abandoned building location with graffiti and sand dunes.
Getting Married at a festival secretly so you can be with all your friends and family, but also save costs on the venue... only price to pay is your ticket to the festival! food is usually catered, amazing locations are all set up for photos... its perfect way to save and still have all your friends, and all the fun and decor and amazing location, as well as camping included!!
Get married at a festival!
Save on fees for your guests eating, they can get their own food from the taco truck on site, or rations saved for their weekend warrior fun. Everyone dresses up anyways, so a wedding dress adds to the vibe!! You will fit right in with everyones fun loving expressive costumes!! All your friends will be there already, no need to send invites or RSVPs! YAY! Save money on decor, its already set up! No need to rent the venue, you are already there!!
Find a budget venue
Finding a budget-friendly wedding venue can be challenging, but there are several ways to find affordable options that still meet your needs and expectations. Check out this Blog post for how to find a budget venue! Traditional wedding venues like hotels and banquet halls tend to be more expensive. Consider alternative venues like community halls, parks, public gardens, or cultural centers. These venues often offer affordable rental rates and can be decorated beautifully with some creativity and personal touch.
Hikes, National Parks, Gardens.
Not everyone in the city needs to know your getting married. With over millions of hideaway spots, and parks to choose from, a hike you can take where no one knows your there... The only fee you may have to worry about is a national parks fee, call ahead to the national parks and double check, for their fees to host a wedding but typically this will be less than a few hundred dollars!
ELOPE
This goes without saying, that if you really want to save money on your wedding day, choose to forgo all the fuss and frills, and find a beautiful spot either around the world, or local to your area that you and a celebrant and your 2 witnesses can attend, and your photographer.
Have a Weekday wedding
Consider weekday or off-peak time: Choosing a weekday or an off-peak time can help you save big on venue costs as these times are often less in demand. Also, venue owners are more likely to negotiate on price during these times, and your chosen vendors will likely be available these dates.
Less people, more savings!
Trim the guest list: One of the biggest expenses of a wedding is the catering and accommodation costs for guests. Consider trimming your guest list by inviting only close family and friends to help reduce these costs. This also allows you to be more open to cheaper venue options and locations that maybe suit your interests more, rather than trying to please all of the guests.
DIY everything
DIY where possible: Consider getting crafty and tackling some of the wedding decor details yourself, such as creating your own centerpieces or homemade wedding favors. Make your own seating charges and welcome board, create your own flower boquets even out of buttons or paper, or even fake flowers you have kicking around. Get friends to help you build everything and have some arts and crafts days!
Wedding at the Vines Resort in the Swan Valley Perth Western Australia.
Outdoor ceremony by the pagola and vineyard at The Vines Resort in Swan Valley.
Cocktail wedding
This doesnt necessarily mean drinks, but we will get to that too shortly.
Opt for a brunch or lunch wedding: Serving a light meal like brunch or lunch can be less expensive than serving a traditional sit-down dinner. Plus, it allows you to incorporate fun and unique food items like a donut wall or mimosa bar. I call these Cocktail weddings. You just serve small tapas, and when people get home they can have their own big feed. Only supply enough to snack and nibble.
Something Borrowed
Borrow instead of buy: Don't waste your money on expensive decor items that may only be used once. Borrow from friends and family members or consider renting decor items or furniture instead!! Another alternative, if you keep the packaging.. you could return it when your wedding is over if you buy it within the 30 day/14 day return policy. ONLY do this is your super skint, I promise I wont tell anyone...
COLLABORATION
You would be surprised how many vendors would get on board with your wedding day for SUPER cheap or FREE if you start to think like them, and offer something in your wedding that they might want for their business, whether thats choosing the decor/location they want, or offering for them to have the photos from your photographer for their business, or even offering to exchange your own services you provide to them, if there is something that might interest them, offer it!!
Negotiate
Use your negotiating skills: Don't be afraid to negotiate with vendors for the best price or package deal, especially if you're booking multiple services with them.
Sometimes you can even get lucky with choosing a venue they want, or booking on a certain day that works best for them, if your able to be flexible with the dates. This can save you money too! Just dont be surprised if you dont get responded back to, as some vendors do not appreciate this method. Please be weary.
SCRAP INVITATIONS! Have a wedding Website
Instead of paying for invites and thank you cards, RSVPs to your bridal shower, your hens and your bucks nights... Save on alllll of this and more, by just directing all your guests to a wedding website with all your details! This way you dont have to have the hassle of individually organizing everything, getting addresses, sending things in post, paying for printing and postage and designing your cards... you will save not only money but also time, and any printing errors and mistakes along the way. Dont worry about whether your invitations paper is thin enough or spelling errors and missing details, you can edit your website live, and send updates to everyone so they can keep posted!! a Good wedding website hosting recommended by BRIDES Check the link for more details and pros and cons on all these websites and costs and what they can offer.
- Best Experience: Joy
- Best for Planning: The Knot
- Best Registry: Zola
- Best Variety: Minted
- Best Customization Options: WedSites
- Best for RSVPs: Riley & Grey
- Best Design Templates: Bliss & Bone
- Best Free Website: Wix
Click the image for a link to this venue, Maddington Hall Community Center. Turkish weddings are infamous for seeming loaded, but actually are quite cheap. This bride saved money on her hens night costs by hiring a tiny hall with gymnasium style flooring, cheap tables, and only providing peanuts and donuts for snacks. the only costs for this was her dress, and venue and the photo rental setup!
Click the image to see the best Air BNB venues! HOW GORGEOUS! even complete with a pool!! Dont disregard choosing Air BNB for your wedding venue, but be sure that you are able to bring multiple guests as some venues have issues with weddings due to liability. Asking around in the bride community is a good way to find out what Air bnbs will let you.
Ask your friends and family if they might have a property you could use for your wedding venue, or even if they know anyone. This venue is a friends property of the bride. What a lucky poolside score!
Purchase your Dress minimum 8 months out
wedding dress timeline concerns, so your worried about your weight, and you may gain or lose weight, and the cost of alterations can be expensive!! however, add the potential for alteration costs, and any Rush fees can add up really fast. In order to avoid the cost pile-up, ordering your wedding gown at least eight or nine months ahead of the wedding to "avoid rush fees of as much as $500 and last-minute alterations of $100 to $300" can really make a big difference on the budget!!
Purchase your dress online!
While it may be concerning to you, a lot of women have had a LOT of success purchasing cheap dresses off of temu or even your wedding accesories on Amazon, or Etsy, or Shein or even wish! Just make sure to post in some Fb groups, or triple check the reviews!! if you ask around and see who has the style of dress your looking for and where they got it from you might be in some luck and find another bride who ordered a dress just like yours and is in your size, and can send you a link!
Get in touch and lets discuss how we can make your wedding day perfect!
Wedding EXPOS
Many vendors offer deals exclusive to wedding expos!!
They will also have giveaways and amazing contests and freebies for you to take home! so many ways you can save money at an expo, I highly recommend if your interested in attending a Perth wedding expo, check out this blog post I made on all of the wedding expos in perth!
Flowers everywhere
Your florals from your ceremony can also be used later on in the evening for your guests gift table, or your food table, or even the bridal party table, you can also set them up around the base of your table settings too for that extra pop! Dont hesitate to even use a mix of used flowers from a previous wedding that weekend, or even contact some local flower suppliers and see if they have any offcuts, or flowers that are soon to be expired and maybe not good for sale. Using fake florals as well, is a great way to be able to sell your flowers afterwards. You can also try your hand at some wildflowers and using bits of nature and bush to create more greenery and fill up the space.
USED wedding items
Most brides buy their wedding items with the intention to sell them, while you do take that risk of not being able to sell, and having to find storage for your random items, there are plenty of buy and sell pages for brides that you can post your content to! Its great because you can budget a bit of money to your decor and wedding items, that you may also get that money back! Look out for great prices and dont forget to strike a deal, chances are the bride is happy to lose a bit of money on purchasing the items, and reselling. So this can save you on shopping and collecting and you will get some money back!
Book your Photographer 1-2 years advance
Sometimes if you are lucky, with the right photographer if you book in advance you will likely get to pay cheaper prices, as every year photographers increase their prices, sometimes you get the lucky chance to lock in your pricing early, and not worry about the costs going up in the future!! So book your deposit as soon as possible to ensure you get the cheapest prices before they decide to price jump.
ALCOHOL BUY BACK
Did you know that with some alcohol retailers that are like breweries, or small town wineries will actually offer to purchase the alcohol that you didnt finish on your wedding day?? No more guessing or worrying about whether you bought too much!
ALSO, I highly advocate for alcohol, as most weddings that do not supply alcohol, tend to lose their wedding guests very early in the day, so if you want that dancefloor bumping, but you dont want to pay too much for your alcohol consumption, then definitly look into a Buy Back option!
FOOD & Favors
Everyone loves food. Instead of giving them a useless item that you dont know if they will appreciate or enjoy or use or not regift or throw out, just consider offering a yummy take away food as everyone is leaving, and this can be your little favor, and thank you gift. Custom cookies, or custom sweets, even custom jams, or something you can make yourself at home cheaply and in bulk! We have seen chocolates, honey, jams, and custom sweethearts!
Hire your videographer and Photographer Duo
Finding a videographer and photographer that is skilled in shooting BOTH at the same time, is gonna save you thousands of dollars then hiring 2 seperate vendors, or businesses. Save on having more people on your day being the paparazzi, and have 1 creative genius like me shoot your day like a fly on the wall capturing everything you dream of, and more with prestige and creativity and seamless style from video to photos. This way your storyline will also be consistent, across all your photos and videos, it will tell the same version of your wedding story.
FAKECAKE
You can choose to forgoe the fancy cake and get a fake cake entirely, you could even make this yourself!! Or if you really want the yummy sweets of this celebratory cake cutting, then go for cupcakes, and let the flowers and greenery do the talking instead of fancy cake making skills. Whats cool about a fake cake, is you can keep it for years and it wont go moldy!
Destination wedding
Honeymoon
Combine your honeymoon and your wedding into one, and just go to an all inclusive resort with your lover, invite your guests to come and purchase their own tickets, and skip the fuss all together and just party with your family and friends for a week instead!! Often you would be surprised how much cheaper this is than planning a local wedding!! Especially if you want it to be planned well, and organized FOR You! So much less stress!!
BOOK me as your photographer and videographer, and I will shoot everything with me myself and I! You will save up to $1000 on my packages when you choose to have only me shooting solo!
