There are many ways to have a small, beautiful and very memorable little wedding without having to pay the earth.  All the Travelling Brides consultants have had their input on this page so if you need more advice, please email our offices.

1.  Decide whether you want to have guests at your wedding.  If this is important to you then try really hard to keep the list to a minimum.  Just the extremely important and closest.  Do not allow moms to make up the list, because if you do, you will have a shock at the end.  Bridal couple should do this because you know what you can and what you cannot afford.

2.  When deciding on a date, ensure that your date is not close to popular dates like Valentines day, mothers day, fathers day, Easter, Christmas etc.  Flowers, venues and the like are things that are so popular over these periods and the prices go UP.  Venue accommodation prices also increase so for the rest of your life, you will be having an expensive anniversary.

3.  A breakfast wedding is always cheaper than a dinner wedding.  Guests don’t drink that much so early in the morning and breakfast menus are always so much cheaper than dinner ones.

4.  Be honest with your planner about your budget because she will go all out to try and fit things within your stipulated budget and she will make sure that although you won’t have a bouquet of 100 roses, that your bouquet is small and pretty.

5. Have a garden wedding at home or in the garden of your very favourite restaurant.  Our team ensure that the set up is beautiful.  We arrive and do the entire set up for the ceremony together with minister, bouquet, buttonhole, arch, flowers, bamboo lanterns and more with a photographer.  This will cost you less than R9 000.00 and price is negotiable and dependant on the budget you have available, and then have snack platters, a barbecue, a spitbraai, a delicious breakfast or even just cake and tea with your closest family and friends.