There is so much to love about today's rustic barn wedding, so I was blown away to discover gorgeous couple Niki & Bradley did it all for $15K! Captured by the talented Sweet Events Photography, this wedding will have lovers of rustic (and all lovers for that matter) inspired for sure! P.S Check out their 'unplugged' ceremony sign, a fantastic way to ask your guests to turn off the tech without making them growly. xox
Who Niki and Bradley Nash
Where Boutique Barn, Puhoi
Guests 40
Budget $12,000 (actual spend was $15,000!)
We met when we both started working at Whitcoulls in New Lynn, we started on the same day. However, we didn't get together until about four years later after we had both moved to other jobs and had been meeting for lunch most days. Bradley asked me to see Batman Begins with him, though I didn't realise it was a date until he kissed me in the driveway!
In three words describe your wedding style... Relaxed, Intimate, Rustic
Walking down the aisle - 'Bloom' by The Paper Kites
After Ceremony - 'Gone, Gone, Gone' by Phillip, Phillips
First Dance - 'Stay Young, Go Dancing' by Death Cab for Cutie
Our biggest splurge was probably the venue - as soon as we saw it we knew it was the one for us! This was offset however with us being able to self-cater food and alcohol, which meant we could have a food truck which was our number one item on our wishlist. The barn also has some amazing props and lighting, and so many spots in the garden perfect for photos so we saved in those areas.
We saved a lot by staying just down the road from the venue so we didn't need to hire wedding cars, and aside from the bouquet and buttonholes, we did all our own flowers picked from the gardens of friends and family and the rest from Bhana Bros in Ponsonby.
We did a lot of DIY. We designed both our save the dates which we emailed through Paperless Post, and our invitations which we created on Vistaprint. Neither of us are particularly creative but both websites have a huge range of designs which you can edit and change to suit you.
We also did our own flowers, and had heaps of help from our family the day before setting up the venue and putting the flowers in mason jars and milk bottles.
I also highly recommend Kmart and Look Sharp as great wedding shop destinations! They have so many things like mason jars and drink dispensers, plus heaps of small extras like mini chalkboards and pegs and bunting - we got so many great items from there.
The most difficult part was trying to find someone to cater. Self-catering almost gave us too many options, but it was much easier when we narrowed it down to food truck styled catering and then super easy when we picked The Little Yellow Food Truck, Trevor made food planning fun with heaps of ideas like pulled pork tacos, mini burgers and fish finger sandwiches (which were amazing!).
The most fun was probably wedding dress shopping - it was so fun trying on lots of beautiful dresses, especially at felicity Bridal where I got my dress from. They were so lovely and have so many style options.
Do you have any money saving tips for engaged couples?Definitely take your friends and family up on any and all offers of help - they wouldn't offer if they didn't want to help. Also decide what is important to you and don't worry about tradition - we didn't have a wedding cake, we had pies instead which suited us a lot more. We also didn't have a bridal party as we had such an intimate wedding, so we saved a lot on not needing bridesmaid's dresses and groomsmen suits.
CREDITS
Photographer Sweet Events Photography
Flowers Twig & Twine
Venue Boutique Barn, Puhoi
Catering The Little Yellow Food Truck
Stationery Created by the bride and groom on Vistaprint
Save the dates Paperless Post
Hair & Makeup Beauty on Demand
Pies The Pie Piper
Celebrant Laura Giddey
Brides Dress 'Freya by Stella York from Felicity Bridal
Shoes Windsor Smith from The Iconic
Grooms Suit & Accessories Suit, Shirt & Tie from Barkers, Shoes from The Iconic
Brides Ring Pop Ring from Etsy
Grooms Ring Walker & Hall
