Romance

Read more Oily Rag articles  By Frank and Muriel Newman

Summer is the season for weddings and no doubt many will be planning their special day – and despairing at the cost! Over the years we have received some excellent tips and comments from readers about ways to take the cost out of a wedding. Here are two we liked in particular.

W.G, from Waimauku writes, “My husband and I have been oily raggers for years. When we got married, we had a fabulous, old fashioned country wedding. We got married in the gorgeous garden of one of our local craft stores and walked to the reception at our local hall. When our friends and family asked what we would like as gifts, we asked them to contribute to the day from what they were good at. We put a hangi down in our backyard that was transported to the hall in someone's ute. One friend made our dresses, another was our transport, another made our cake while yet another iced it. Our parents bought some beer and wine, and my husbands' workmates took photos and presented them to us later in an album. Still another person found a two man band that wanted a gig in the country for little more than a good hangi meal. We had a brilliant day for one hundred and forty guests that cost considerably less than friends spent the next weekend just on their photographer! P.S I'm still crazy about him after 26 years. I
just proves that it does not have to cost a fortune to show that you care about each other.”

Dedicated oily ragger S.W. writes, “Here are my ideas, some of which we used, and others which I now realise would have been a good idea:

Get married in summer. The weather will probably be nice enough to get married in the great free outdoors. You will also need less material in the bride’s dress as it won’t need sleeves, and the groom won’t need a jacket. Also free flowers will be abundant.

Use clubs. Car clubs, floral arranging clubs and photography clubs or students. Our local Zephyr club lent us some cars and drivers, and the only payment they required was to be allowed to take photos to display at their next meeting! The same was true of the floral arrangers using free flowers from Mum’s and her friends’ gardens, and all they wanted was to be able to take photos. Speaking of photos, hire a student from a local polytech course or amateur photography club. If you’re worried about the results, hire two photography students!

The dress. Don’t be afraid to wear second hand or borrowed dresses. After the big day it really does hang in the wardrobe for years. If you buy a second hand dress, you can always alter it to make it original. Or use the dress or some of the fabric that your mother or another special person wore. I have heard of a woman who sewed her wedding dress from an off-cut of curtain fabric at a furnishing warehouse. It cost her $20 to make the whole dress, and it looked exactly like expensive material that cost $20 a metre at a fabric shop!

Cakes and invitations. If you are an oily ragger you can bake a cake! Hire cake tins from a bakery if you want different sized tiers. Use a computer to make your own invitations. There are so many flash fonts and clip art pictures these days that it is a huge waste of money to have invites done at the printers. Deliver local invites by hand to save postage.

The gift list. Make a list of all the household and garden implements that would lead to a productive newly wed oil rag lifestyle! Organise them into price brackets, ie $10-$20, $20-$30 and so on. Then, when people ask what you want, you can give them suggestions in a price range to suit their budget. It is often less embarrassing if you let your mother or someone else to handle it.

The reception/wedding dance. The wedding reception is usually the expensive bit because you are feeding a huge number of people. Instead of a wedding breakfast, why not invite the guests to a light afternoon tea straight after the service. You can enlist the help of friends and relies a few weeks before hand to do some baking. If you have a church wedding, there will probably be a hall with a water boiler you can use after the service. Then have a very small wedding breakfast for immediate family only, either at home or at a restaurant. There are lots of cheap and fun alternatives to hiring an expensive venue and band.

There is no reason why a wedding can’t be done cheaply without looking tacky. As long as the couple express their personality throughout, and there is continuity in colour and style, and everyone has a good time, then it really can be the greatest day of your life!”.

If you have some special money-saving tips you would like to share with others, please drop us a note via our website (www.oilyrag.co.nz ) or write to Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag, PO Box 984, Whangarei.

* Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily rag tips on-line at www.oilyrag.co.nz. The book is available from bookstores and online at www.oilyrag.co.nz.