Start your married life off the way you mean to continue, with simple yet spectacular food that won’t send you into the poor farm.  Learn how you can plan a wedding menu that will have all your guests raving and engaged friends wanting to copy your style.

Weddings are exciting occasions and if you are smart, they don’t have to break the bank.

Here are some tips to help you plan an extremely stylish, memorable and stress free wedding.

Venue
Choose wisely as this can be one of your greatest outlays in the wedding budget. Ask loads of questions if you are looking at hiring a venue – can you bring in your own caterer, alcohol etc. Can you do your own flowers and bring in your own decorator. These seem like simple questions but when you’re excited about your wedding, it’s easy to get caught out.

Think about friendly venues that won’t cost a lot – friends, family back yards, community halls etc. If you are lucky enough to find a free venue where you need to erect a marquee, shop around – these vary wildly in price. Check out your local Mitre 10 or Bunnings – they have marquees that might fit the bill and you can buy them for under $300. Use benches instead of chairs. Have long trestle tables instead of lots of smaller ones.

Decoration
Keep it simple and natural – we live in New Zealand so we are super lucky when it comes to long lasting foliage to decorate venues and tables. Native plants are excellent and can be found easily, if you don’t leave this to a florist. Make no mistake, there is no substitute for an experienced florist,(See my favourite here) but if you’re on a tight budget, gather friends and foliage and you will make beautiful things happen!

The Menu
OK, now we get down to business. Let’s talk stunning affordable food that wows your guests, fills them up and has them talking about your wedding feast for years to come.
Think about serving shared platters of deliciousness – slow cooked lamb (shoulders with the bone in or out, shanks or leg roasts), beef (low and slow beef brisket, short ribs or cheeks are cheap and so delicious!) or pork belly, rolled shoulder or loin will serve many for a reasonable price so long as you take care where you purchase from. Compliment these with fresh, crusty breads, humus, pestos and shared roasted vegetable platters. We know of one couple who brought in the Mr Whippy Truck for dessert! How cool was that?

If the venue suits, consider adding some food theatre entertainment with a pig or lamb on the spit.

At the end of the day, enjoy your wedding from planning to completion. Have fun with it.

If we can help, call us on 0800 737 800