A Dream Budget Beach Wedding

Recently, Hayley, my friend from university had a budget beach wedding in Australia when she married her Australian fiancé David.

They decided to get married on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – Byron Bay. With this stunning backdrop, they managed to keep their beach wedding under £6,000.

Hayley's Australian budget beach wedding

Dresses and outfits from the high street

Clothes-wise, we used the high street. My dress was £200 in the sale from Debenhams. It was nice and simple as a lot of airlines refuse to take dresses as hand luggage, so you need something small enough to fit into a suitcase. Who needs a fussy dress when you're getting married in such a beautiful setting?

The guy’s wore linen suits which were £90 from Next. We had to buy them as we couldn’t take suits overseas if they were hired! The bridesmaid outfits were £60 each from BHS. Shoes wise, we were barefoot, but had some flip flops to wear for the evening.

Hair, flowers, invites and favours

I used a local hairdresser who charged £30 to style my hair for the day. We couldn't source our own flowers where we were, so I kept it simple. I had small bouquets of tulips for me and the bridesmaids and a buttonhole for the groom and my dad, which cost about £90 altogether. I designed my own invitations and got them printed for free by a local printer who is a friend of my dad!

The venue

The beach cost us $200 (£80) to hire for two hours - obviously, we didn't do a package wedding so we had to book directly with the National Park authority in Byron Bay. We took our own champagne for a toast, and the celebrant was about $500 (£200) - which included all the legal stuff, so it was a pretty cheap ceremony. We used David's dad's car to drive me to the beach and David drove himself there.

The reception

We had our wedding reception at the local surf club which overlooked the beach - this cost £650 to hire, including all the set up, tables, decorations etc. We had to pay for the food, which worked out at £25 per person for a gourmet 3 course barbeque - so this was £2,800 altogether for our 90 guests. This was the biggest cost of our budget beach wedding.

We could take our own drinks, so David's dad spent a year snapping up special offers on wine, and David's mum made our cake. We also rigged up my laptop to the club's PA system so we didn't have to pay for a DJ playing awful Ozzie music all night!

Our entire budget beach wedding cost about £6,000. This includes £1,000 for photos, which was my one big splurge. I’ve not included our flights or honeymoon, which our guests kindly contributed to as wedding gifts.

Hayley’s tips for a budget beach wedding

If any brides want to do something similar, my advice is to use the internet to book everything, prioritise what you want to spend on and what you're happy to save on (e.g. we didn't bother with favours). Most importantly, don’t be too precious!

It's impossible to control everything when you are so far away, so you have to trust the professionals to do their job. I left the venue pretty much to their own devices, I just asked for candles, shells and fairy lights (no flowers - too expensive!!!). They decked it out better than I could have ever imagined - it was nice to turn up on the day and be surprised about how good it all looked.

Also, if possible, go out at least a week before so you have enough time to meet the celebrant, the photographer, have a hair trial etc.

And be creative - we made our own invitations, name cards, table plan, cake, did our own music etc. and it made the wedding more unique that way.

Most of all, beach weddings are supposed to be relaxed, so turn up on the day and enjoy it!

Hayley’s got some more tips for brides having a beach wedding. Why not check Hayley’s beach wedding tips out here.