A Cheap Wedding Is Possible – Economical Hard Times Increase The Search For Cheap Weddings

Cheap weddings have become a regular search term as couples look for wedding ideas on a budget. Owner of the Australian search solutions company, Shlimbo, Gabbi Murrell revealed that whilst wedding searches in their business directory are still as popular as ever, the term “cheap wedding” has become more prevalent in recent months.

According to Murrell: “Couples feel pressured to spend a lot of money on weddings, and costs can easily spiral out of control. But there are many areas where couples can save money on their big day.” With years in the event industry, Murrell has provided some helpful wedding ideas for those planning their special day whilst being able to stretch their dollar further.

“We’ve put together some helpful checklists and articles that would help couples find areas to keep costs down, with some innovative ideas; that doesn’t mean because it’s a budget wedding, it’s going to be tacky. Everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment, and it’s not just weddings, but a lot of event organisers and party planners are looking for other options that are effective yet tasteful,” said Murrell.

Murrell’s knowledge of event planning, is helping couples to save thousands of dollars, and she has some great concepts to help:

“Centrepieces – rose petals can be bought in bulk from florists and some market sellers, sprinkling masses of these in the centre with tea light candles is very effective. Market flower sellers are also often the growers and you can talk to them in advance about buying bulk flowers, and enlisting some friends to help you put them together on the day. You can also hire tall vases, or glass bowls and immerse the flowers underwater with fishing sinkers and rubber bands with stones at the bottom and put floating candles on the top. You only need a few colourful flowers or sprays for it to be effective. If your colours are green or red, apples make a great centrepiece and you can cut the tops out and put tea light candles in them. If you want height talk to a plant hire place about hiring topiary or ficus plants you can put on the table. From the leaves you can tie hanging glass candles, ribbons with love sayings on paper, or get some battery operated fairy lights and wind them in the leaves. If you’ve got time on your side check out Christmas decorations as not all ornaments necessarily look like Christmas decorations out of season, and Boxing day sales are a great time to get fairy lights, ornaments, votive holders and sometimes swags of garlands etc. at a hugely reduced price (also subscribe to the dedicated Xmas shops that sell online as they often have big sales with very cheap shipping after the Christmas season). For example, I picked up battery operated fairy lights for $2.95 down from $15.00, and a 3mtr long plain pine garland for $17.00 down from $59.00.”

“Engagement ring – this can be an easy item to spend big on because you look at it everyday and want something to remind you of your special day. Look at some local independent jewellers where you can get a custom design, but perhaps a unique filigree design in gold with your initials Monogram style. Estate jewellery is also an option as you are assured of a more unique piece of quality, rather than a standard solitaire. The best sale times of the year for diamond rings are Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and leading up to Christmas. Of course if you do want the big bling, look into cubic zirconia’s with a white or gold band, such as that you can get from Secrets Jewellery, you can get a 1ct solitaire for less than $500, and a 2ct for less than $600, it will look the part and last just as long if you look after it like you would normally. You can always get something in the coveted pale blue box down the track! One word of advise - a cluster set of smaller “diamonds” tends to look more authentic than a large stone.”

“Considering the current economic climate, it may be necessary to DIY some of your wedding ideas, but the savings can be considerable,” Gabbi recommends that couples give themselves as much time as possible to organise their day, so they can keep an eye out for bargains at different times of the year. “We love having parties, and we have plastic tubs full of decorations and items that we reuse depending on the theme. But after our own wedding I sold a lot of our decorations to local wedding hire places, wedding venues and on Ebay. The people were appreciative of saving the time in making them, and it also helped recover some costs.”

Those planning an Australian wedding, engagement party or any event, can use Shlimbo (http://www.shlimbo.com.au) to organise any event, or find any product or service in Australia with just one email. “From the homepage just type in ’Wedding’ into the What do you need to organise box, select all the relevant categories, fill out the Shopper Enquiry Form and the businesses will reply direct to you - it saves time and it’s so easy!”

Contact Information

Gabbi Murrell

Director

Shlimbo

Contact via E-mail