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Make your low cost Wedding appear like a money-no-object!
The Chief Bridesmaid went to a fabulous wedding at the weekend, one of her dearest friends from Uni and his girlfriend. It may have been an unpretentious, country wedding but it nevertheless was amazingly grand with breath-taking flowers and entertainment. To the untrained wedding planning eye, it could have been perceived as a money no object affair. But to a budget obsessed Bridezilla like the C.B, the wedding was a wealth of money saving ideas - and the typical guest would never have guessed a thing!
So, a typical guest might have assumed that the bridal car - a convertible Citroen 2CV covered adorned with pretty flowers - was expensive retro wedding transport.
In reality, a wedding saving expert would spotted that in fact the Bride's car was her own (so free of charge), driven by her brother (again free, yet adorned in a chauffeur's cap to look the part), that the flowers were taken from the Bride's parents' garden (free again) and arranged by friends of the family (yes you've guessed it, free!)
A person looking at the couple's wedding photos might have supposed that the wedding took place in the grounds of a costly wedding venue.
In reality, the wedding was held in the Bride's parents backgarden - they'd just been gardening VERY hard over the last year or two! The couple did have to spend on a wedding marquee, but they because the wedding was held at home, they saved money on venue hire fees, corkage and the catering costs came in slightly cheaper than what's typical of venue catering costs.
None of the wedding guests at the big day could have failed to have been astounded by the beautiful, beautiful flowers!
In reality, a practised budget bride would have noticed that the couple were actually incredibly, incredibly wise with their wedding flower budget:
- The big bunches of rustic, countryside flowers were sourced from the local area and were in season - a far cheaper option than sourcing exotic flowers that have to be flown in from further a field.
- The table decorations were long trails of ivy (sourced locally from the area - for free) enhanced with the odd gerbia slipped in at intervals. Gerbias are not only low cost, they're quite large and so a few go a long way. The couple were also incredibly savvy to find the ivy themselves from the countryside because buying greenery can be surprisingly expensive.
- Rather than costly pedestal flower arrangements, the couples simply erected trestles onto the side of the marquee and decorated these with fairy lights (bought from ebay), ivy and the odd single stem gerbia.
The grounds around the marquee were stunningly decorated with fairy lights, candles in jam jars and a bonfire that was set light when dark fell. It looks absolutely stunning in photographs - particularly where the orange glow is set against the backdrop of the marquee (n.b the fire and the canvas were a very safe distance apart).
The wedding entertainment was country dancing, an evening cabaret and a disco. Surely this would cost a fortune? But no! The cabaret was put together by the couple's friends and family so cost only time, not money. The country dancing caller and DJ were friends of the family and so came at a reduced rate.
So there was their wedding day - a beautiful day that to an outsider would have looked like a big budget bonanza - but in reality, was low-cost, simple and very, very effective.
Congratulations you guys - I had such a good time at your wedding day. Hope you're having an amazing honeymoon together.
with love, The Chief Bridesmaid xoxo
Article posted: 2009-06-04 17:28:11