Tips & Ideas for Saving Your Money, Time and Resources – Top Money Saving Ideas for Australians

Get a hotel bargain deal for your honeymoon. Save time and money with accommodation bookings by using a price comparison website like www.hotelscombined.com. This site searches through multiple hotel websites (eg. www.hotel.com, www.ratestogo.com, www.bookings.com) to find the cheapest prices, hence saving you the trouble of having to crawl through multiple booking sites.
Hold your wedding reception at a restaurant. Save on venue hiring fees by holding your wedding at a restaurant which offers partitioned areas. Negotiate and ask them to decorate their venue with a wedding theme, or do it yourself frugally with flowers, ribbons and balloons.
Hold the ceremony at a friend or relative’s place. Borrow the garden or home of a good friend.

Hold the ceremony and reception at the same location to save money. Decorate yourself with the help of online party suppliers like: www.partysuppliesnow.com.au, www.vividroom.com.au, and www.pinkfrosting.com.au.
Have your wedding on a weekday or during winter. It is usually cheaper to hire venues and various services such as photographers, limousines and cameramen during quieter days and seasons. Many wedding service providers are more willing to negotiate and offer discounts during months when business is quiet, and the waiting list is also shorter.
Be creative with the wedding dress. Some bridesmaid dresses in cream or white look like wedding dresses, but sell or rent for a fraction of the cost of a bridal gown. Rent your dress instead of buying as you only wear it once anyway. Alternatively borrow a friend’s wedding dress.

Buy your wedding dress and bridal party wear online. Auction sites sell both new and second hand clothes at bargain prices. Visit an international wholesale bridal wear site which sells to the general public and delivers to Australia. www.tailoredweddingdresses.com offers a bargain with tailored made dresses shipped to Australia from $300+.
Get your guests to help finance your wedding. In the wedding invite, discreetly ask for gift cards or cash instead of actual gifts, which you may not use anyway.
Ask a talented friend or relative to double-up as your entertainer or Master-of-ceremony. Professional musicians and entertainers can easily set you back a few hundred dollars an hour.

Pay students from music and performing arts colleges to be the entertainer. Students usually advertise their services online on tutoring websites, or on their university bulletin board and careers centre. Students charge a lot less to perform at weddings and special events, and are usually highly accomplished.
Find church members to help out. It is generally cheaper for a member of a church to hold their wedding there, than a non-member. If you prefer a church wedding, look around your network to find someone who is a member of that church and ask them to contact the church for member discounts. Some churches ask for a small donation, some are free, or charge a nominal fee if you are a member.

Resell and return to stores unwanted gifts. With gifts that you don’t like, resell them immediately on online auction sites. If it is an item that large department stores like Myer and DJs stock, take it to the store and ask for a credit note. If the product is clearly unused, they will usually give you a credit note even if you don’t have a receipt, which you won’t since it is a wedding gift. You can use this credit note like a gift voucher at a later date to purchase something that you will use.
Use your local wedding registry office. Have your wedding at your local wedding registration office, the most economical and hassle free option.

Make your own invitations and placement cards. Buy premium stationery online from stores like www.artofwriting.com.au which sells designer stationery, and print using your laser printer or borrow one, for a professional look, or creat your own personalised wedding cards all printed and posted at online card sites like www.Moonpig.com.au.
Make your wedding day memorable through an adventure event organiser. www.FreemanXWeddings.com.au is an Adventure Wedding Company. Whether you want to propose in style, organise an amazing bucks or hens day, or add some flavour to a wedding ceremony, click here to see what they can do for you.
Purchase your bonbonniere gift from $2 shop. There is a multitude of goodies you can find at the $2 shop that would make perfect small thank you gifts for your guests. These range from little heart chocolates, sugared almonds to miniature porcelain and glass figurines. You can be creative and resourceful and buy small photo frames or fancy clip note holders for around $1-$3 each and put your guests' names in them – so your gift doubles up as a name placement card. Alternatively buy your bonbonniere online at stores like www.celebrateweddings.com.au, and www.thegiftspecialist.com.au
Borrow a friend’s car. Don’t spend a few hundred dollars to rent a vehicle that you end up sitting in for less than an hour. For the bridal car, borrow a friends’ white or black car and dress it up with ribbons which you can buy very economically from a haberdashery store. Ask a friend or relative to dress up in a black suit and pretend to be your chauffer.
Buy flowers in season and on the morning of wedding. Visit the florist on the morning of your wedding and choose flowers in season, they are cheaper. Don’t mention that it is for a wedding until the florist has confirmed the price, as they will inflate the fee if they hear the word “wedding”. Alternatively order your flowers from an online store like www.FlowersForEveryone.com.au, www.rosesonly.com.au, www.teleflora.com.au, and www.easyflowers.com.au.

Make your own ribbon flowers. Fresh flower bouquets to decorate the church, reception and car are very costly when all made from fresh flowers purchased from a florist. Instead of real flowers and bouquets, buy ribbon flowers, or take up a short course on how to make ribbon flowers and bouquets and do-it-yourself. There are videos on YouTube which demonstrate step-by-step how ribbon flowers and roses are made.
Ask family and friends to help out. Ask family and friends to double-up as catering staff and waiters, ushers, chauffers, make-up artist, photographers, master of ceremony, entertainers, and as the organist.

Do your make-up yourself. It is not surprising that a lot of brides and bridesmaid are disappointed with the results of their make-up artists, as no one is as familiar with your face than you are. The chances are, you will do a better job at make-up than any other professional artist on that day. You will also have plenty of opportunity to practise beforehand, not to mention save money.
Get married at a university. Many universities have lovely gothic chapels which they rent out for weddings at very reasonable prices. This is especially sentimental if you met your other half during college.
Sign up to a Bride Wedding Directory. www.kissthebride.com.au is a Wedding Directory which assists couples planning their own wedding either by contacting wedding providers by email of refering couples to wedding related websites.