If you’re planning a quick wedding, it’s likely you’re not the type of bride who cares a great deal about finding the perfect dress. High five to you sister, you rock. However, low maintenance doesn’t mean no maintenance – it is important to still have in mind what you want – but be prepared to go shopping with a very open mind.
I ended up buying a bridesmaid’s dress – on sale for a steal at $75. I got it hemmed professionally (and lied about being a bridesmaid). My shoes were from Target for $20. I made my own veil which cost about $15. My two real bridesmaids went shopping together and bought dresses they both liked off the rack for about $50 each.
Wedding outfit $110 – bargain bride
Fortunately for the guys they can hire suits. I advise you not to leave this until the last minute as it can take weeks for suits to arrive, especially if you need tall or large sizes. Once you have your bridesmaid’s dresses you can then find matching ties and handkerchiefs for your groomsmen.
Get ready to send each other strange photos like this
After sourcing suits, dresses, shoes and accessories for your bridal party, organising flowers and decorations should feel pretty painless in comparison. We decided on the colour pink and it was very easy to find pink decorations on sale after Valentine’s day and around Easter time. We sourced most of our decorations from Ebay and discount stores (and reused the pink lanterns, poms poms and bunting from my bridal shower for the wedding).
So much pink!
Our big splurge was on flowers – we went to Fleurus for our bouquets and corsages. We also arranged for corsages for our mums and boutonnieres for our dads. To be honest, the money was probably worth the effort – I couldn’t have made them myself and they were beautiful (the yellow billy balls were my favourite!). Of course if you want to DIY, I recommend Flower Lovers in Brisbane for wholesale flowers.
the bossy bride 