Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Alicia and Andrew

Even before we were engaged, Andrew and I joked that it would be amazing to have a jumping castle at our wedding… for the adults! So it was a given that we would create a relaxed, vintage style vibe to reflect our personalities on the big day. And I wasn’t going to let being 28 weeks pregnant stand in the way of a brilliant, fun time.  Budget was the only thing that stood in our way… we didn’t want to spend too much as we had a pending bundle of joy about to arrive so we set out to do absolutely everything ourselves within a $6000 AU budget.

The wedding was held at our home in Brisbane, Queensland. That saved us a lot of money not having to hire somewhere for the ceremony or reception, and we could take our time to set up a lot of things the day before the wedding. We also spent a few weeks together building various vintage signs, a kissing booth, candy bar and games for the wedding. It was actually a beautiful way to spend time together before the big day and get the groom involved in the planning too. The largest part of our budget was spent on a photographer, but I can definitely say it was worth it.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

My wedding dress was ordered from overseas by a maternity wedding gown designer, then taken to a dress maker to have altered. It was less than a 1/3 of the price to do it this way, instead of having one entirely custom made for myself.

Surprisingly it was cheaper to buy the groomsmen suits and bridesmaid dresses (instead of hire), and we later sold them on ebay. The only negative we had with purchasing online was that the ties for the groomsmen arrived in the wrong colour, but we didn’t have time to send them back so had to go with the orange colour. They were meant to be coral like the bridesmaid dresses.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

The ceremony was very relaxed and casual. My mother walked me down the aisle to our processional song , ‘The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin”.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Our vows were short and sweet, as we didn’t want our guests standing for too long. We did write each other a letter the morning of our wedding to read while we were getting ready to privately express our love for each other in more detail. My little brother was the ring bearer, which was very cute and sweet.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

After the ceremony, that’s when the real fun started. We fired up the fairy floss machine, popcorn machine, opened up the candy bar, the ‘kissing booth’ and everyone had a go on the adult sized jumping castle. We hand painted the popcorn sign to give it a vintage carnival wedding feel. We also purchased the popcorn machine from China online, as it was again cheaper to purchase than hire and we still use it for movie nights and lend it out to friends for parties. Everyone had fun attempting to make their own fairy floss. It was a little bit messy, but very tasty and got lots of laughs. Like the popcorn machine, we purchased the fairy floss machine from China and still use it most of our parties now.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Another fun feature we had at the wedding was a vintage style candy bar. Again, we hand painted the sign together and managed to fill all the jars with lollies, chocolates and biscuits for under $150. The jars were mostly purchased from the dollars stores or garage sales & markets.

The kissing booth was so much fun to make, and even more fun to use on the day. Everyone really got into the spirit and enjoyed getting silly photos around the kissing booth. And it really gave it a vintage vibe having all the drinks set up there for the guests.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

I also made my own wedding cake and cake stand. I made a jam and cream sponge cake for the top, decorated with little vintage style bunting flags and an authentic 1950’s vintage bride and groom on top. I also made some gluten & dairy free cupcakes to make serving easier and cater for those with allergies.

The jumping castle provided so much entertainment and really became the focus on the reception. It was so amazing to see our crazy little dream become a reality! Being pregnant I obviously couldn’t go too crazy on the jumping castle, but I did enjoy sliding down the slide all night.

One thing we had to cut from our budget was a live band. I would have loved to have a band for the evening, but a simple iPod dock and playlist still allowed the party to continue well into the night with plenty of dancing.

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Photo by Mark Greenmantle Photography

Despite our tiny budget, we had an absolutely brilliant day! It was a lot of hard work doing all the building and set up ourselves, but I think it made it more rewarding in the end. You certainly don’t need to put yourself into debt to have the wedding of your dreams.

Ms Gingham says: Well done Alicia and Andrew! What a staggering amount of hard work went into this day. I think it was definitely worth the effort. Congratulations!

About Alicia and Holistic Mamma Treats: Holistic Mamma Treats is family-owned and operated right here in Brisbane, Queensland. It was started because I found it difficult to find treats that were not only gluten-free, but also dairy-free due to my allergies, and organic because I’m passionate about healthy eating.