I know a lady who used artificial flowers for her wedding as she lived in a country town and the nearest florist was 1/2 hour away. Cars and vans weren’t airconditioned as they are now. A friend of hers had real flowers few weeks before and they had deteriorated before she received them. In the photos you could not tell they were artificial. Silk flower used now look so life like that they are ideal, especially for travelling. Some look much like real ones that you have to touch them.

I actually purchased some Kmart bouquets to practice flower arrangements to then voyage to the markets and create my own fresh bundles. They looks amazing no one would ever know I made it myself. But I scored a $220 dress and managed to keep costs relatively low till it came to all the hidden photography fees.

Whenever the “W” word is mentioned, whether it be for venues, flowers or anything else associated with that day, you can expect the price to almost guarantee to double or triple.
Try a little experiment…have a friend ring around for prices on the things and places you are interested in, for a milestone party e.g. 50th, then wait about an hour, and ring those same places and ask for the prices for a wedding, be prepared to be shocked. Weddings are the most expensive single function you will ever have, but it doesn’t have to be expensive to be memorable.

Weddings are ridiculously expensive & the money spent on them these days would be better used to purchase a home. I purchased a lace fan & put pearl beads & artificial flowers on it instead of having a live flower bouquet, I also made my own wedding dress & the lace was actually curtaining which cost me less than $300. I bought a cheap white headpiece & decorated it same as the lace fan. No one could tell that it was made with cheaper fabric & accessories because it looked just like the wedding dresses available for thousands in a shop, saved me $1100 just on that. All that took me about 3 months to make & it saved us so much money. We also opted for more relaxed wedding so it was in a club room that also had an area we could use for the ceremony, I figured the money was better spent on our new home & a nice holiday.

I think there are lots of sites dedicated to reducing wedding costs.

Nice and simple ! Fresh flowers especially from the florist are extremely expensive in this country !
We kept are whole wedding simple. Had a reception / party in our church building and prepared and baked all our food myself !

I get migraines from flowers so I used hat makers flowers from ebay for my bouquet and for our centre pieces on the tables we used fish tank pebbles in vases with beautiful candles, all from the two dollar shop. The centre pieces are all still being displayed in our friend’s and family’s homes, we have been married 7 years!

This looks beautiful – wedding bouquets are so pricey to buy, this is awesome!

I saw this on one of the Kmart groups. They look good in the photo although I don’t know how nice they would actually look in the flesh