Our DIY Wedding

Our wedding day was so exciting and fun! I think it felt even more special because we had done so much of it ourselves and with the help of our awesome families. It's so easy to throw money at a wedding but when you dont have any being thrifty can be a cool and more personalised way of getting the wedding you want without having to break the bank.

I knew from the moment we got engaged that our wedding would be different. I wanted us to have a beautiful day but knew we could do it on a budget!

I love making things so it was a good chance to put some of my creative talents to good use.

We made all our own decorations, the table and church flowers, our own programs and wedding invites. These things alone must have saved us a heap but looking back on our photos I don't think I would have done it any other way! It really was fun making things ourselves and made it that little bit more special.

Our flags were made by my Mother in law- she bought the material on sale at Spotlight and made them on her weekends. The paper flowers that hung in our dance floor were handmade by one of my bridemaids Kate. The flowers were picked from my friend Bethany's garden and arranged by our friends and family the night before. The shells centrepieces were bought from a kindy I used to work at and instead of vases for our flowers we used preserving jars I covered with lace.

Our programs were handmade by James and I and assembled by our bridal party. Dad tied the 75 bows on, he was a machine! Our wedding invites were made by us on www.vistaprint.co.nz and turned out amazing. They cost us about 80 dollars grand sum total including personalized envelops (because we bought a voucher off grabone.co.nz).

The food and cake were obviously a big priority for me so we didn't skimp on them, but they weren't really expensive either. Sometimes I think simple is best, we just had regular kiwi fare- spit roast meat and salads. We had the most amazing day! Everything came together and we ended up having our dream wedding, yes on a budget!