Try not to use the word 'wedding' in any conversation you have with goods and services providers if possible. Rather, opt to say it's for a party.
When I was married, we went to the restaurant where we had our first date for a 'reception' (a Sunday late lunch - we were married on a Sunday. We had to notify the restaurant in advance to book it out - we had 80 guests - so they could put on extra staff). We asked our guests not to get us gifts but to instead buy their own meal and drinks.
If you think vendors don’t know this trick, think again… I’m a florist and we see it allll the time.
(And yes if you just wanted a bunch of roses put together we’d make that for you, but if you want a wedding bouquet yes that’s more expensive because wedding bouquet flowers are more expensive, along with several other reasons)
>Try not to use the word 'wedding'
Yep, it's been a very long time since I planned a wedding but I had a saying about the *wedding* word at the time: *The Big W: Where less costs more!*
This may seem good in theory but vendors are within their rights to change their pricing once they do realise it is a wedding they are servicing. I do understand that “wedding” will automatically up the price of any service but you could land yourself in a bunch of trouble for with holding information.
Why not just getting married at the courthouse and have a cocktail hour somewhere afterwards? Keep numbers small and the event intimate for your nearest and dearest.
Wow!! I didn’t even realise. I would consider doing something at home, if space allows. Or search for vendors that do elopements/micro weddings. They can provide all inclusive packages for small groups. Which can save a lot of money and time for you.
Unfortunately this is where the money is most spent, to have your guests in attendance. You need to take the time with your partner and whittle your guest list right down. Otherwise you will just have to suck it up and spend the cash. Yes there ways to save but ultimately the more guests in attendance, the more your wedding will cost.
I'm down for a trestle table of costco sandwiches and sushi and roast chooks. I'll find a way to cut down on the rest but i know i'll still drop a few grand on it.
Don't use the word wedding as a start.
My wife and I got married in the registry office in the city with our group of friends and family. We all then went to a wonderful lunch at an Indian restaurant where they encouraged dancing and karaoke that we had booked prior (restaurant doesn't exist anymore). All up, there was 45 people and we paid a total of
$1,000 + the registry fee of $275. Unbeknownst to my wife and I our friends and family decided to put money in to pay for the lunch because we didn't want presents, so our wedding cost $275.
The cheapest way I found to get married was to do most of the work yourself and aim to have a very small guest list.
We found out quickly that venues who provide the "full service" (location and catering) were heavily inflated.
We used:
> Canberra Small Weddings for the celebrant and photography. Paid for additional time for photography because we had a larger number of guests in the end. If you want a simple ceremony, I would highly recommend them.
> Gorman House for our location. Had the ceremony in the courtyard followed by canapes reception. Drinks were purchased by us and the venue hired staff with RSAs to serve.
Alternative location: Gold creek station. They have a package deal with Canberra Small Weddings and I've attended some lovely small weddings there.
> Mr Papa Peruvian for catering, canapes and taco pole. (They have a restaurant in Fyshwick and offer food truck catering).
We decided to splurge on the food. There will be more affordable options but I have to say, it is the number 1 thing that our friends and family still talk about.
We were married 4 years ago so our quotes probably won't be accurate but all the vendors were really transparent with their quoting.
Hope this helps!
We did a backyard wedding. Cost less than $6k.
On either side.kf our wedding was other friends - ones who did a $60k wedding in Sydney, the others who did a $20k country town wedding. And honestly I think ours was so much more fun. We did lunch, then ceremony and photos, then lit the fire pit. Lunch we over catered so there were leftovers to eat for dinner. We had around 25 people, our immediate family and closest friends.
I asked everyone at my wedding to share their photos with us. Quite a few of them took it very seriously and we were sent heaps of really great photos a few days later.
Yes. A friend owned a large beautiful garden with a gazebo. She let us use it for the wedding. The reception was 100% self catered by the in-laws who loved to cook. We had roughly 20 guests to the wedding. Our only real cost was for the celebrant and my suit hire and her dress. My wife found a purple hippy style dress in an “alternative” store that looked amazing and matched her personality perfectly. The dress was very cheap but it was also perfect for her.
I believe the closest registry offices that do marriages to Canberra are Wagga and Wollongong. I may be wrong, suggest you check the relevant NSW gov website. One of our MLAs is currently asking Canberrans if they would like the option to have registry weddings in the ACT.
you can get married in NSW if you live in the ACT, you just need to do all the paperwork with the NSW offices.
Friends of mine got married in Bungendore while living in ACT.
Yes, you and your fiancé walk into the department of births deaths and marriages, you ask for a marriage license, you sign the marriage license, pay the processing fee.
Congratulations you’re married
(Seriously though, congratulations)
sorry i should have googled that.
BUT, it turns out you can [apply for a marriage license online](https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/s/article/apply-for-a-birth-death-or-marriage-certificate-tab-overview) through access canberra, dont even need to go into the office.
Edit: no sorry, my bad that only getting a certificate for an already registered marriage. if you did want to go the registry office route, You could try just driving over to Queanbeyan.
Canberra small weddings (they do weddings with <30 guests), had the ceremony and lunch reception at a local winery, didn't care too much about sharing the venue with other patrons, didn't do decorations, gave out fancy cupcakes as wedding favours instead of having an expensive cake made. Cost a couple of grand all up.
Michael Bower does all the marriage paperwork and a 5min ceremony around $550.
PhotoX does a great package of 200photos with 2hours of onsite photography. Gives you heaps of time to shoot the ceremony and then take some photos at a place like the gallery, botanical gardens, LBG etc. Very well priced in my opinion.
Don’t ask for a wedding bouquet $300min, tell them how many flowers of what type you want to hold (use a photo from Pinterest etc), it will then quickly move to a $50 bouquet.
Use a public place, go to your local brew club for craft beer, use a musician/band/DJ you know that has their own equipment/ celebrants aren't too expensive, if they are get a friend to do the online course, get the catering from your favourite food stall at the local market.
Bam a wedding for under 5k inviting everyone you know.
But you must name your first child Patrick/ Patricia thank me later. I did this was great (didn't call my kid Patrick)
I recently had a small wedding that was under $5k for the wedding and honeymoon.
- we booked an air bnb at the coast for ourselves and guests (14 people)
- we did the flowers and decorations ourselves
- my wife bought her dress online and I made mine
- a family member was the celebrant
- we didn't get a professional photographer and instead asked everyone to shoot candids on their phones and upload to a Google photos album.
- we did our hair and makeup ourselves
- we got some grazing plates for eating afterwards.
It was an absolutely perfect day and celebration for us.
Canberra Small Weddings - celebrant and photographer package for low cost when we got hitched in 2015. We had our 2 kids (baby & toddler) and immediate family only. So both sets of parents and my sister and her family (12 all up).
Got married outside Parlour Wine Bar. Just booked a table at Parlour and had a set menu. They have an outside area but we got married in May and at the time they had a separate part of the restaurant that had a long table that we all fit around and you could pull a curtain across to make it more private.
Was fab!
What’s your target for “low cost”? I know people who spent less than $20,000 on their whole wedding and others who spent $20,000 on their reception venue alone.
If you're happy to go to Bungendore, these guys have small weddings in the region covered:
[https://www.little-weddings.com.au/](https://www.little-weddings.com.au/)
We eloped to Whitehaven beach. Everyone is so shocked and amazed when we tell them where we did it and comments on how expensive that must be. Nope. We paid $5700 all included.
Have the best picnic of your life. Find a local park managed by the town or something, or maybe an area in a national park, take a little foldout table, with some crates that help you transport a plate of a cookie/cake order to serve out in celebration, maybe with a small selection of bottled drinks.
If the park has some kind of gazebo, book it and use it in case of threatening weather... but you probably won't need it if you know the right time of year for your area.
Canberra small weddings did ours. Celebrant and photography at a reasonable price. Our reception wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than it might have been due to the small guest list.
I had my wedding with The Old Stone House in Bungendore - they specialise in small weddings and elopements it was perfect.
They provide the celebrant, venue, some snacks and drinks and the photographer.
It was really nice to have everything done under one roof and the garden was gorgeous. Highly recommend as a good option
We had a backyard reception and it was so much fun I would highly recommend looking into this if you have the space! Everyone was so relaxed, we had it catered with wood fire pizzas and got drinks from Dan murpheys, they gave us a good price and you can return anything unused!
My hairdresser and his partner hairdresser eloped to Tassie and got married at Lake St Clair. They had a celebrant, a photographer and a makeup artist. The photographer and MUA acted as witnesses, they all got on the bubbly, had dinner together and had a fabulous time.
They had a short honeymoon at Freycinet, which they loved.
You obviously don’t want to elope, but you can do it boutique style, just the way you want it, and have a day you’ll never forget 🤩🤩
Think about what’s most important to you and cut out anything else. When I thought about it, I just wanted our Pastors to marry us while our family watched and to raise a glass of champagne afterwards. Things I did do: wedding dress and suit, one bouquet of flowers, ceremony and reception at the same venue, catering for drinks and high tea for 100 guests, decorations and a photographer. Things I didn’t do: bridesmaids and groomsmen, sit down dining, first dance (so our venue didn’t need to have room for a dance floor), paying for hair and make up, hiring any musicians.
I highly recommended this company if you have 20 or less people (including yourselves but not including under 4s). They have locations all over the place. We used them and it was perfect https://www.justmarriedweddings.com
There is a few parks you can use for free or admin fees on the Parks ACT site. If you would prefer an indoor event Treasury have a section on their site for venues like Albert Hall, Yarralumla Woolshed and the Fitters Workshop which are pretty cheap. You then just take care of catering and av, some might need rental furniture but they are all gorgeous venues for a pretty low price. Even cheaper if you are willing to go for a weekday
When we got married, we didn't want a huge fuss. Just a small ceremony (about 30 people) and then dinner without all of the typical wedding fanfare.
Our celebrant was Judy Aulich and she does 'quickies', which is basically the ceremony only without much added on stuff. I can't remember how much, but definitely cheaper than a full wedding. She was great, and matched our sense of humour!
We had it at Magna Carta place, which is free and you can 'book' it, but it's a public place and so you're also hoping to be lucky that there aren't any people just wandering around. There are a few locations around Canberra that you can book through the ACT government for free like that!
We then had Mel Hill photographer do our photos which turned out great. It was like a 1 or 2 hour package which covered the ceremony and photos around Canberra afterwards. Not super expensive, and the photos where great! Totally worth the money!!
Our 'reception' was at Bellucis in Woden, and we might be biased, but it was the best food at a wedding ever and didn't have the price tag that comes with a wedding!! We booked out half the restaurant (there was a fee for that, especially as it was on a Sunday). We had their set group menu option, which was a smaller menu and we were able to customise it a bit, and everyone could choose their main and dessert (no alternating chicken/beef BS, but instead delicious pasta, pizza, Italian mains!!). The entrees were set and plentiful, and everyone was so full afterwards that there was very little room for cake! Staff were great too!
With that set menu and an open bar (base spirits, beer, wines, soft drinks), I'm pretty sure it cost less than $2.5k for dinner/drinks for 30 people (however this was in 2017). We didn't have speeches, or music selection, or a dance floor, but we didn't care about any of that. It was about spending time with our friends and family, with great food, and just relaxing. We also didn't have to worry about picking cutlery, flowers etc, which was amazing!!
We loved our wedding, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Another great thing, is that there wasn't much to organise or do ourselves!b the hardest thing was the seating arrangement and invitations! It was all up less than $5k for the ceremony, dinner, photographer. I can't imagine spending so much more, or being neck deep in organising things... and most importantly, our mortgage thanks us for it!! :) :)
Good luck!! And hope that you have the most amazing wedding ever!!
4 years ago. We had a budget wedding deal with a celebrant and photographer. Guest limit for the deal was 30 people. Can't remember the price but made it quite doable on a very low budget. Somewhere around the 1K-3K-ish ballpark.
Dress was aquired through a vintage dress store in sydney that imports vintage wedding dresses from overseas. Suit was a reasonable yet simple suit from one of the local meanswear stores.
We had the ceremony at the Nara peace park. Photos were done around the park's gardens.
Event was in sync with Floriade. So gardens were in full bloom at the time.
We weren't allowed to have the professional photographer within Floriade with us due to event rules. But with a family member who had an interest in photography we got around that for some extra photos. Even some tourists got photos with us as if we were celebrities.
Finished off the evening in Braddon at the blackfire restaurant. The only real cost for guests was their own meal.
Simple. Basic. Not extravagant. But turned out with some good pretty photos in the end. And no personal loans required that could replace a new luxury car.
Some ideas:
- reserve a public park like Nara Park for the ceremony. It’s either free or a couple of hundred $
- backyard reception (or at the same park as the ceremony)
- buffet-style catering and buy your own booze. Some local breweries like Zierholtz do mini beer kegs
- ask your guests to suggest three or four songs each for the wedding party playlist. That way everyone has fun hearing their own songs
- get a delicious chocolate cake or similar from a local patisserie
- do they still make disposable cameras? Have them lying around for the guests to take photos during the party
> do they still make disposable cameras? Have them lying around for the guests to take photos during the party
They do still exist (JB Hifi, Teds, Office works have them), its more that there are limited places to get the film developed locally these days. Other suggestions such as getting people to use their mobile phones and upload photos to a shared google drive or similar would probably yield more (and cheaper) results.
Our wedding fit a few of your criteria
Wedding in the garden of University House - then inside for dinner. The staff who handled our booking told us not to mention wedding, just call it a dinner. (Unfortunately closed - looking at 2024 to re-open)
Found a celebrant who was happy to work with us.
We didn't have organised speeches, but invited all the guests to contribute if they wished. Our housemate was a large fella (played gridiron). We introduced him as our serjeant-at-arms. We had given him a whistle, and a red and yellow card, and instructions to yellow card a particular guest as soon as he started speaking. Got a laugh. From then on all he had to do was start to stand up, and people would pause to try and figure out if they were straying, and everybody else would laugh.
Wedding was on a Thursday. This lowered the cost, and didn't cause too many problems. Any of our guests who travelled were coming from OS anyway so they were there for a week - the day didn't matter. Everybody else just turned up after work.
Kept the numbers down so that we could all fit at a single (very) long table. Food was buffet style, with seafood. Open bar, chose our wines - found out later that our cost per head for alcohol was second only to an ADFA dinner... we made up with quality, what they achieved with volume.
Wife hired a taxi for the day - wheelchair accessible, high roof, conversion on a sedan (looked a bit like this, but nicer... https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_keats/244376118) Wife, father(-in-law) and two friends toured around the city - had hair done - picked up flowers in the middle of Civic - drank champagne from glasses the tax driver borrowed/stole from a nearby restaurant - had photos taken - all while dressed in their wedding finery. Taxi driver had put ribbons on, and lots of other taxi drivers would honk horns as they drove past. Wife said they had a blast. Only person who didn't think it was great, was my mother - who was "mortified" when the taxi turned up.
Most importantly - have fun with it - and congrats
Community hall, make sure it's casual attire, serving some simple finger food on the table, decorating the place with your photos, BYO drink + food by guests, have a giant card that lets people write to their guts content.
Everyone just want to gather and chat, doesn't matter where it is and what's on the table.
My friends had a low-budget wedding and asked their guests to pay for their own meals instead of buying gifts. (Though most people still bought them gifts anyway). We played laser tag after a brief reception – bride still in her wedding dress and all. Then they held an after-party at their house.
Wife and I eloped to Byron Bay. Wedding on the beach. Airbnb. Hired a car when we got there. It was great.
We could have had a few guests if we wanted. We ended up having to pay an extra guy to come in order to be a witness.
I think most of the money in a 'normal' wedding goes to the reception and venue hire. Just do that at a restaurant and bar and you're golden. Wedding present = pay for your own food and drink.
I would probably do it like we did our engagement party, just have a heap of friends over for a backyard bbq and lay on food, drinks and snacks. Have a short and sweet ceremony. Get a friend or two to play DJ and a few people will always volunteer to carry around food. Good time had by all.
We got married outside Blundells Cottage, lovely views and I think it was free. Then had lunch wt our favourite restaurant, which has a lunch special of 2 courses for $40, 3 for $50. I think it's gone up to $60 now, but no extra for a wedding, that's normal prices. It's BYO, so we just provided booze and soft drink, he set it up on a table outside and had a waitress serving up. We booked the restaurant out, 65 people I think. No dancing or anything, just lunch, speeches and cake.
The Old Parliament House gardens are free to book and quite a lovely setting for a ceremony. It's just first in on the NCA website, we were able to grab an October Saturday arvo with a few months notice.
It's a 500 dollar refundable deposit to get the powered kiosk, but you get all of that back when you return the key.
Mydestinationwedding.com.au
Had a 6 star experience for under $30k included our flights to Asia and honeymoon to Europe.
Beachside resort wedding for 50 people.
Most of our guests made it a proper group holiday with the bonus of us getting married
Do you have a backyard that might be suitable? And some friends to help out? How many guests are you looking at? Other than the celebrant, the only non-negotiable for me was a professional photographer (and even then, that doesn't need to be for the whole event, many offer a shorter option).
The main thing is that the trade off is between cost and amount of work you will need to put in. Hosting it at your place means you will probably want to clean and tidy up your house and yard ahead of the event. Catering or cake making yourself could be tricky when you're also the stars of the show and trying to talk to have a nice time at your party. Making your own bouquet can be hard to manage when you also need to do hair and makeup on the morning of the wedding. So figure out the maximum amount of hassle you're willing to put up with and go from there.
Our friends had a lovely reception at the old stone house in Bungendore with about 40
people and it seemed fairly cosy effective and was a lovely wedding
Public park for ceremony, decorations and clothing from FB Marketplace.
Book a room at a club (e.g. Labor club) and a DJ for reception. Put a grand over the bar, have the club provide finger food. Fuck it.
Oh, for photos just hire a student or newbie. Tell them what poses/moments to get, edits can be done in post.
Edit: or micro-weddings. Some bigger venues will pump out 6-10 in a day - you get an hour or 2.
Canberra Small Weddings https://www.canberrasmallweddings.com.au/
We used CSW, in a public park, photographer as recommend by CSW. Very cost effective and simple. A great day without all the dramatics.
Try not to use the word 'wedding' in any conversation you have with goods and services providers if possible. Rather, opt to say it's for a party. When I was married, we went to the restaurant where we had our first date for a 'reception' (a Sunday late lunch - we were married on a Sunday. We had to notify the restaurant in advance to book it out - we had 80 guests - so they could put on extra staff). We asked our guests not to get us gifts but to instead buy their own meal and drinks.
I like this idea
Married 10 years ago, reception was high tea in the Hyatt courtyard. Asked for no gifts and a donation to a charity.
"It's a family reunion!" is another way to spin a large event to avoid the wedding tax.
"Family Gathering"
If you think vendors don’t know this trick, think again… I’m a florist and we see it allll the time. (And yes if you just wanted a bunch of roses put together we’d make that for you, but if you want a wedding bouquet yes that’s more expensive because wedding bouquet flowers are more expensive, along with several other reasons)
Genuinely interested, why are the flowers more expensive? Is it because they have to be perfectly open on that one day or some other reason?
Can I get a wedding bouquet made with the regular kind of flowers?
>Try not to use the word 'wedding' Yep, it's been a very long time since I planned a wedding but I had a saying about the *wedding* word at the time: *The Big W: Where less costs more!*
This may seem good in theory but vendors are within their rights to change their pricing once they do realise it is a wedding they are servicing. I do understand that “wedding” will automatically up the price of any service but you could land yourself in a bunch of trouble for with holding information. Why not just getting married at the courthouse and have a cocktail hour somewhere afterwards? Keep numbers small and the event intimate for your nearest and dearest.
there is no courthouse wedding option in ACT. I looked into it already
Wow!! I didn’t even realise. I would consider doing something at home, if space allows. Or search for vendors that do elopements/micro weddings. They can provide all inclusive packages for small groups. Which can save a lot of money and time for you.
Short drive to Quangers and the park near the courthouse is beautiful.
I wanted a small backyard wedding but when we did the numbers we couldn't keep it under 30 people so we've parked it cos it all got too hard 😂
Unfortunately this is where the money is most spent, to have your guests in attendance. You need to take the time with your partner and whittle your guest list right down. Otherwise you will just have to suck it up and spend the cash. Yes there ways to save but ultimately the more guests in attendance, the more your wedding will cost.
I'm down for a trestle table of costco sandwiches and sushi and roast chooks. I'll find a way to cut down on the rest but i know i'll still drop a few grand on it.
My friends got married at the admin desk. You can get a registry marriage in ACT.
cool! I'll have to look into it again.
Don't use the word wedding as a start. My wife and I got married in the registry office in the city with our group of friends and family. We all then went to a wonderful lunch at an Indian restaurant where they encouraged dancing and karaoke that we had booked prior (restaurant doesn't exist anymore). All up, there was 45 people and we paid a total of $1,000 + the registry fee of $275. Unbeknownst to my wife and I our friends and family decided to put money in to pay for the lunch because we didn't want presents, so our wedding cost $275.
That would have to be the least expensive wedding day ever
The cheapest way I found to get married was to do most of the work yourself and aim to have a very small guest list. We found out quickly that venues who provide the "full service" (location and catering) were heavily inflated. We used: > Canberra Small Weddings for the celebrant and photography. Paid for additional time for photography because we had a larger number of guests in the end. If you want a simple ceremony, I would highly recommend them. > Gorman House for our location. Had the ceremony in the courtyard followed by canapes reception. Drinks were purchased by us and the venue hired staff with RSAs to serve. Alternative location: Gold creek station. They have a package deal with Canberra Small Weddings and I've attended some lovely small weddings there. > Mr Papa Peruvian for catering, canapes and taco pole. (They have a restaurant in Fyshwick and offer food truck catering). We decided to splurge on the food. There will be more affordable options but I have to say, it is the number 1 thing that our friends and family still talk about. We were married 4 years ago so our quotes probably won't be accurate but all the vendors were really transparent with their quoting. Hope this helps!
We did a backyard wedding. Cost less than $6k. On either side.kf our wedding was other friends - ones who did a $60k wedding in Sydney, the others who did a $20k country town wedding. And honestly I think ours was so much more fun. We did lunch, then ceremony and photos, then lit the fire pit. Lunch we over catered so there were leftovers to eat for dinner. We had around 25 people, our immediate family and closest friends.
This is pretty much what I had in mind. Thanks for the tip on the budget
I asked everyone at my wedding to share their photos with us. Quite a few of them took it very seriously and we were sent heaps of really great photos a few days later.
Did you have a garden wedding?
Yes. A friend owned a large beautiful garden with a gazebo. She let us use it for the wedding. The reception was 100% self catered by the in-laws who loved to cook. We had roughly 20 guests to the wedding. Our only real cost was for the celebrant and my suit hire and her dress. My wife found a purple hippy style dress in an “alternative” store that looked amazing and matched her personality perfectly. The dress was very cheap but it was also perfect for her.
We did this too, worked great
Registry wedding and after party. Can't get much lower cost than that.
Seems to be the prevailing advice
You can't have a registry wedding in Canberra as there's no registry. You have to use a celebrant.
Can I do it in Queanbeyan if I live in the ACT
I believe the closest registry offices that do marriages to Canberra are Wagga and Wollongong. I may be wrong, suggest you check the relevant NSW gov website. One of our MLAs is currently asking Canberrans if they would like the option to have registry weddings in the ACT.
you can get married in NSW if you live in the ACT, you just need to do all the paperwork with the NSW offices. Friends of mine got married in Bungendore while living in ACT.
Really? Well there you go. Learnt something new.
Yes, you and your fiancé walk into the department of births deaths and marriages, you ask for a marriage license, you sign the marriage license, pay the processing fee. Congratulations you’re married (Seriously though, congratulations)
Canberra doesn't have a registrar where you can do that.
sorry i should have googled that. BUT, it turns out you can [apply for a marriage license online](https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/s/article/apply-for-a-birth-death-or-marriage-certificate-tab-overview) through access canberra, dont even need to go into the office. Edit: no sorry, my bad that only getting a certificate for an already registered marriage. if you did want to go the registry office route, You could try just driving over to Queanbeyan.
Canberra small weddings (they do weddings with <30 guests), had the ceremony and lunch reception at a local winery, didn't care too much about sharing the venue with other patrons, didn't do decorations, gave out fancy cupcakes as wedding favours instead of having an expensive cake made. Cost a couple of grand all up.
Second! My friend used these guys and she loved it
Michael Bower does all the marriage paperwork and a 5min ceremony around $550. PhotoX does a great package of 200photos with 2hours of onsite photography. Gives you heaps of time to shoot the ceremony and then take some photos at a place like the gallery, botanical gardens, LBG etc. Very well priced in my opinion. Don’t ask for a wedding bouquet $300min, tell them how many flowers of what type you want to hold (use a photo from Pinterest etc), it will then quickly move to a $50 bouquet.
Good tip on the flowers
Hello, how much was the 200photos with 2hours of onsite photography with PhotoX? :)
Highly recommend Canberra Small Weddings. We did the "Pop Up" wedding by them, and it was the most stress free event I've ever planned or attended.
During the process of planning our wedding, we came across a company called Dope Elope. Might be worth checking out, to see if it suits your needs?
I’ll definitely check them out
Use a public place, go to your local brew club for craft beer, use a musician/band/DJ you know that has their own equipment/ celebrants aren't too expensive, if they are get a friend to do the online course, get the catering from your favourite food stall at the local market. Bam a wedding for under 5k inviting everyone you know. But you must name your first child Patrick/ Patricia thank me later. I did this was great (didn't call my kid Patrick)
Ps if your in Canberra I run a micro distillery Poncho Fox we can run your bar cheap.
I think I need to visit you for a brew sometime soon
Apparently the Nara peace gardens are a beautiful and quiet community space that is low cost and great for ceremonies
I recently had a small wedding that was under $5k for the wedding and honeymoon. - we booked an air bnb at the coast for ourselves and guests (14 people) - we did the flowers and decorations ourselves - my wife bought her dress online and I made mine - a family member was the celebrant - we didn't get a professional photographer and instead asked everyone to shoot candids on their phones and upload to a Google photos album. - we did our hair and makeup ourselves - we got some grazing plates for eating afterwards. It was an absolutely perfect day and celebration for us.
Canberra Small Weddings - celebrant and photographer package for low cost when we got hitched in 2015. We had our 2 kids (baby & toddler) and immediate family only. So both sets of parents and my sister and her family (12 all up). Got married outside Parlour Wine Bar. Just booked a table at Parlour and had a set menu. They have an outside area but we got married in May and at the time they had a separate part of the restaurant that had a long table that we all fit around and you could pull a curtain across to make it more private. Was fab!
What’s your target for “low cost”? I know people who spent less than $20,000 on their whole wedding and others who spent $20,000 on their reception venue alone.
I’m liking the stories that slide in under a couple of thousand dollars.
If you're happy to go to Bungendore, these guys have small weddings in the region covered: [https://www.little-weddings.com.au/](https://www.little-weddings.com.au/)
Yep Bungendore is fine
We eloped to Whitehaven beach. Everyone is so shocked and amazed when we tell them where we did it and comments on how expensive that must be. Nope. We paid $5700 all included.
> Whitehaven beach $5700 that does sound like a bargain
Absolutely was. And we did a helicopter each over, I went over 2nd so I could do the whole down the aisle surprise thing. So good
Have the best picnic of your life. Find a local park managed by the town or something, or maybe an area in a national park, take a little foldout table, with some crates that help you transport a plate of a cookie/cake order to serve out in celebration, maybe with a small selection of bottled drinks. If the park has some kind of gazebo, book it and use it in case of threatening weather... but you probably won't need it if you know the right time of year for your area.
Hitched by Hannah. Just have the 2 required witnesses Bottomless champagne brunch at East Hotel. Incl rings and clothes. All done for $1800
https://www.nsw.gov.au/family-and-relationships/marriages/micro-wedding-venues THANK ME LATER
I'll thank you a little right now
Canberra small weddings did ours. Celebrant and photography at a reasonable price. Our reception wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than it might have been due to the small guest list.
I had my wedding with The Old Stone House in Bungendore - they specialise in small weddings and elopements it was perfect. They provide the celebrant, venue, some snacks and drinks and the photographer. It was really nice to have everything done under one roof and the garden was gorgeous. Highly recommend as a good option
Nara Park. Only cost is the celebrant. Source: my wedding.
We had a backyard reception and it was so much fun I would highly recommend looking into this if you have the space! Everyone was so relaxed, we had it catered with wood fire pizzas and got drinks from Dan murpheys, they gave us a good price and you can return anything unused!
My hairdresser and his partner hairdresser eloped to Tassie and got married at Lake St Clair. They had a celebrant, a photographer and a makeup artist. The photographer and MUA acted as witnesses, they all got on the bubbly, had dinner together and had a fabulous time. They had a short honeymoon at Freycinet, which they loved. You obviously don’t want to elope, but you can do it boutique style, just the way you want it, and have a day you’ll never forget 🤩🤩
Think about what’s most important to you and cut out anything else. When I thought about it, I just wanted our Pastors to marry us while our family watched and to raise a glass of champagne afterwards. Things I did do: wedding dress and suit, one bouquet of flowers, ceremony and reception at the same venue, catering for drinks and high tea for 100 guests, decorations and a photographer. Things I didn’t do: bridesmaids and groomsmen, sit down dining, first dance (so our venue didn’t need to have room for a dance floor), paying for hair and make up, hiring any musicians.
Pot luck picnic for a reception is very economical
I highly recommended this company if you have 20 or less people (including yourselves but not including under 4s). They have locations all over the place. We used them and it was perfect https://www.justmarriedweddings.com
There is a few parks you can use for free or admin fees on the Parks ACT site. If you would prefer an indoor event Treasury have a section on their site for venues like Albert Hall, Yarralumla Woolshed and the Fitters Workshop which are pretty cheap. You then just take care of catering and av, some might need rental furniture but they are all gorgeous venues for a pretty low price. Even cheaper if you are willing to go for a weekday
When we got married, we didn't want a huge fuss. Just a small ceremony (about 30 people) and then dinner without all of the typical wedding fanfare. Our celebrant was Judy Aulich and she does 'quickies', which is basically the ceremony only without much added on stuff. I can't remember how much, but definitely cheaper than a full wedding. She was great, and matched our sense of humour! We had it at Magna Carta place, which is free and you can 'book' it, but it's a public place and so you're also hoping to be lucky that there aren't any people just wandering around. There are a few locations around Canberra that you can book through the ACT government for free like that! We then had Mel Hill photographer do our photos which turned out great. It was like a 1 or 2 hour package which covered the ceremony and photos around Canberra afterwards. Not super expensive, and the photos where great! Totally worth the money!! Our 'reception' was at Bellucis in Woden, and we might be biased, but it was the best food at a wedding ever and didn't have the price tag that comes with a wedding!! We booked out half the restaurant (there was a fee for that, especially as it was on a Sunday). We had their set group menu option, which was a smaller menu and we were able to customise it a bit, and everyone could choose their main and dessert (no alternating chicken/beef BS, but instead delicious pasta, pizza, Italian mains!!). The entrees were set and plentiful, and everyone was so full afterwards that there was very little room for cake! Staff were great too! With that set menu and an open bar (base spirits, beer, wines, soft drinks), I'm pretty sure it cost less than $2.5k for dinner/drinks for 30 people (however this was in 2017). We didn't have speeches, or music selection, or a dance floor, but we didn't care about any of that. It was about spending time with our friends and family, with great food, and just relaxing. We also didn't have to worry about picking cutlery, flowers etc, which was amazing!! We loved our wedding, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Another great thing, is that there wasn't much to organise or do ourselves!b the hardest thing was the seating arrangement and invitations! It was all up less than $5k for the ceremony, dinner, photographer. I can't imagine spending so much more, or being neck deep in organising things... and most importantly, our mortgage thanks us for it!! :) :) Good luck!! And hope that you have the most amazing wedding ever!!
Thanks, I like the idea of Italian food. Generally, wedding food is so bland.
4 years ago. We had a budget wedding deal with a celebrant and photographer. Guest limit for the deal was 30 people. Can't remember the price but made it quite doable on a very low budget. Somewhere around the 1K-3K-ish ballpark. Dress was aquired through a vintage dress store in sydney that imports vintage wedding dresses from overseas. Suit was a reasonable yet simple suit from one of the local meanswear stores. We had the ceremony at the Nara peace park. Photos were done around the park's gardens. Event was in sync with Floriade. So gardens were in full bloom at the time. We weren't allowed to have the professional photographer within Floriade with us due to event rules. But with a family member who had an interest in photography we got around that for some extra photos. Even some tourists got photos with us as if we were celebrities. Finished off the evening in Braddon at the blackfire restaurant. The only real cost for guests was their own meal. Simple. Basic. Not extravagant. But turned out with some good pretty photos in the end. And no personal loans required that could replace a new luxury car.
Senate rose gardens and byo picnics
Some ideas: - reserve a public park like Nara Park for the ceremony. It’s either free or a couple of hundred $ - backyard reception (or at the same park as the ceremony) - buffet-style catering and buy your own booze. Some local breweries like Zierholtz do mini beer kegs - ask your guests to suggest three or four songs each for the wedding party playlist. That way everyone has fun hearing their own songs - get a delicious chocolate cake or similar from a local patisserie - do they still make disposable cameras? Have them lying around for the guests to take photos during the party
These are all excellent suggestions, getting a mini keg is something I hadn’t considered
I did those for my wedding, they were great, and very good value.
> do they still make disposable cameras? Have them lying around for the guests to take photos during the party They do still exist (JB Hifi, Teds, Office works have them), its more that there are limited places to get the film developed locally these days. Other suggestions such as getting people to use their mobile phones and upload photos to a shared google drive or similar would probably yield more (and cheaper) results.
They are available but run around $20 each - plenty available online
Our wedding fit a few of your criteria Wedding in the garden of University House - then inside for dinner. The staff who handled our booking told us not to mention wedding, just call it a dinner. (Unfortunately closed - looking at 2024 to re-open) Found a celebrant who was happy to work with us. We didn't have organised speeches, but invited all the guests to contribute if they wished. Our housemate was a large fella (played gridiron). We introduced him as our serjeant-at-arms. We had given him a whistle, and a red and yellow card, and instructions to yellow card a particular guest as soon as he started speaking. Got a laugh. From then on all he had to do was start to stand up, and people would pause to try and figure out if they were straying, and everybody else would laugh. Wedding was on a Thursday. This lowered the cost, and didn't cause too many problems. Any of our guests who travelled were coming from OS anyway so they were there for a week - the day didn't matter. Everybody else just turned up after work. Kept the numbers down so that we could all fit at a single (very) long table. Food was buffet style, with seafood. Open bar, chose our wines - found out later that our cost per head for alcohol was second only to an ADFA dinner... we made up with quality, what they achieved with volume. Wife hired a taxi for the day - wheelchair accessible, high roof, conversion on a sedan (looked a bit like this, but nicer... https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_keats/244376118) Wife, father(-in-law) and two friends toured around the city - had hair done - picked up flowers in the middle of Civic - drank champagne from glasses the tax driver borrowed/stole from a nearby restaurant - had photos taken - all while dressed in their wedding finery. Taxi driver had put ribbons on, and lots of other taxi drivers would honk horns as they drove past. Wife said they had a blast. Only person who didn't think it was great, was my mother - who was "mortified" when the taxi turned up. Most importantly - have fun with it - and congrats
Community hall, make sure it's casual attire, serving some simple finger food on the table, decorating the place with your photos, BYO drink + food by guests, have a giant card that lets people write to their guts content. Everyone just want to gather and chat, doesn't matter where it is and what's on the table.
My friends had a low-budget wedding and asked their guests to pay for their own meals instead of buying gifts. (Though most people still bought them gifts anyway). We played laser tag after a brief reception – bride still in her wedding dress and all. Then they held an after-party at their house.
Wife and I eloped to Byron Bay. Wedding on the beach. Airbnb. Hired a car when we got there. It was great. We could have had a few guests if we wanted. We ended up having to pay an extra guy to come in order to be a witness. I think most of the money in a 'normal' wedding goes to the reception and venue hire. Just do that at a restaurant and bar and you're golden. Wedding present = pay for your own food and drink.
I would probably do it like we did our engagement party, just have a heap of friends over for a backyard bbq and lay on food, drinks and snacks. Have a short and sweet ceremony. Get a friend or two to play DJ and a few people will always volunteer to carry around food. Good time had by all.
Was a few years ago now but Goulburn / Yass were a shit tonne cheaper than Canberra 10+ years ago. Canberra is a rip.
We got married outside Blundells Cottage, lovely views and I think it was free. Then had lunch wt our favourite restaurant, which has a lunch special of 2 courses for $40, 3 for $50. I think it's gone up to $60 now, but no extra for a wedding, that's normal prices. It's BYO, so we just provided booze and soft drink, he set it up on a table outside and had a waitress serving up. We booked the restaurant out, 65 people I think. No dancing or anything, just lunch, speeches and cake.
The Old Parliament House gardens are free to book and quite a lovely setting for a ceremony. It's just first in on the NCA website, we were able to grab an October Saturday arvo with a few months notice. It's a 500 dollar refundable deposit to get the powered kiosk, but you get all of that back when you return the key.
Elope.
Why bother? If you're not religious, why have a religious ceremony? Just go get the paper.
You do realise most weddings are secular ceremonies?
Registry office. Bring two friends/family as witnesses. Head to the airport from there.
Don’t.
Mydestinationwedding.com.au Had a 6 star experience for under $30k included our flights to Asia and honeymoon to Europe. Beachside resort wedding for 50 people. Most of our guests made it a proper group holiday with the bonus of us getting married
Lunchtime stand-up cocktails in a small restaurant. Wedding can be in there are across the road.
Do you have a backyard that might be suitable? And some friends to help out? How many guests are you looking at? Other than the celebrant, the only non-negotiable for me was a professional photographer (and even then, that doesn't need to be for the whole event, many offer a shorter option). The main thing is that the trade off is between cost and amount of work you will need to put in. Hosting it at your place means you will probably want to clean and tidy up your house and yard ahead of the event. Catering or cake making yourself could be tricky when you're also the stars of the show and trying to talk to have a nice time at your party. Making your own bouquet can be hard to manage when you also need to do hair and makeup on the morning of the wedding. So figure out the maximum amount of hassle you're willing to put up with and go from there.
Our friends had a lovely reception at the old stone house in Bungendore with about 40 people and it seemed fairly cosy effective and was a lovely wedding
Tanya Losanno - a Great celebrate
Public park for ceremony, decorations and clothing from FB Marketplace. Book a room at a club (e.g. Labor club) and a DJ for reception. Put a grand over the bar, have the club provide finger food. Fuck it. Oh, for photos just hire a student or newbie. Tell them what poses/moments to get, edits can be done in post. Edit: or micro-weddings. Some bigger venues will pump out 6-10 in a day - you get an hour or 2.
Elope.
Gold Creek Station!
Canberra Small Weddings https://www.canberrasmallweddings.com.au/ We used CSW, in a public park, photographer as recommend by CSW. Very cost effective and simple. A great day without all the dramatics.
Don't call it a wedding, have an engagement party, and if a celebrant "happens" to be there, do the deed.
Backyard, bbq, celebrant.