How It all began - wedding on a budget

I often get asked why I first became interested in event and wedding planning. Well is goes back to when my fiance proposed to me in early 2010. At the time we were living in Sydney, Australia. I was so excited, I instantly got to work on planning our wedding. As usual when you are getting married, it is an extremely exciting time. All you can think about is what type of dress you are going to have, the theme, the cake, the photography, the wedding cars... the list is endless!


But we were faced with a huge set back. In March of that year, I had a 'No Further Stay' placed on my visa therefore, I only had 3 more months with my fiance, before I had to return to England. Even though I was heartbroken at the time, to take my mind off having to be separated from my finance I decided to get to work planning the wedding. My new visa meant that I was not allowed to work, so during the day would be spent planning our wedding, which was now set for just under 12 weeks away, and money was very tight! 


However, it seemed friends and family were all there to help, and we had to make the best with what we had. So we got married at the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages in the center of Sydney. The room itself is really nice. It has a church feel to it, as the seats are set out like church pews in a dark wood colour, the walls are a romantic red. 

NSW REGISTRY OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES. I LOVELY VENUE,
GREAT IF YOU ARE ON A BUDGET

We had our reception in our back yard, as it was a huge space, with a great covered area for parties, and it was completely covered on the off chance it rained. However we were all convinced it would rain, due to the horrific weather the week leading up to the wedding. On the day of our wedding, a monsoon was supposed to hit, but we woke up on the day, and for the first time in nearly 2 weeks, the weather was beautiful! Just sunshine and bright blue skies... We were so lucky, and it stayed like that for the whole day.

LEFT: MY BEAUTIFUL DRESS, RIGHT: CLOSE UP

My dress was beautiful. As there way no way I could afford to buy myself a wedding dress, I decided to wear a dress which I owned and absolutely loved! This dress became the theme for the wedding, using black, orange and yellow as the theme colours. The garden was decorated in the evening with black, yellow and orange balloons, streamers and fairy lights.

OUR INVITATIONS OUR FRONT AND BACK

So as you can see I followed the theme on here with the invitations, which I designed myself. I simply took the pattern from the dress and used that as the invitation designs. We did have a few issue's with getting them printed out on time. My husbands cousin is a printer so he printed the invitations for us free of charge. However, the first designs were far too dark as the fade in the background did have black in it just like the dress. So when the stationery were printed it was far too dark. So they had to be sent back and adjusted, which wasted a lot of time considering the time frame was already incredibly tight, and by now the wedding was only a month away. But the end result worked out great.

MINI CHOCOLATE CUP CAKES MADE BY MY SISTERS-IN-LAW.
THEY WERE THE YUMMY!

For our 'cake' we had cup cakes. Due to being on an extremely tight budget I was very happy and touched when my Sister-in-Law offered as a wedding gift to bake us cup cakes for the wedding. In keeping with the theme, she placed daffodils around the edges of the floral patterned cake stand. They were yummy! Literally after the speeches, I turned around and they were gone!

MY LOVELY FLOWERS

My beautiful flowers were free of charge and were done by a lady by the name of Rosa, who lives in the western suburbs of Sydney. She runs an amazing floral business from home, as well as chair covers. I had the pleasure of helping her out whilst I was in Australia to set up a handful of weddings, and loved seeing the events come together. Due to me helping out, she didn't charge me. The flowers were a surprise as I told her what I like, and she came up with this stunning creation! Yellow roses with a few orchids, and large Autumn coloured leaves, around the edge. The yellow/autumn colours fitted in well with the theme.

THE CARS!

Lastly, a friend drove us to our wedding and tied ribbon to the front of her car. I didn't know she was going to do this and I loved it! 


To all future brides and grooms out there let me give you one bit of advice. When your wedding day arrives, after months of planning, researching, tears of frustration and stressful moments that you lost sleep over such as worrying if you have the right colour napkins, and that you are worried it might rain, that relatives who don't want to sit together, or if your wedding band doesn't show, the only thing that matters on the day is that you are marring the person you love, and that is the most important element of your wedding day. 


We spent so little money on our day, and I was so sad to go to bed that night - at 3am! We didn't want to go to bed! - I just didn't want the day to be over. I loved every minute of it. The only down side was that none of my family were there to celebrate with us. Therefore we have decided to have an English blessing next year. Just a small celebration with close family and friends. This time around I will be wearing a white dress, hiring a venue and going on a honeymoon after the wedding. 
We can't wait, and I will keep you post about it!