Podcast: How to plan a realistic wedding budget

Don't say "I do" to debt: Tips and tricks to create a realistic wedding budget, cut back costs and avoid debt on your big day.

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Getting married isn't just a huge commitment between you and your partner, it's one of the biggest financial decisions you'll make in your life. According to MoneySmart, the average wedding in Australia costs $36,000. However, we know that many Aussies spend way beyond this average on their big day. While some couples budget and save to pay for their wedding, others go into debt to say "I do". Money Smart also found that 60% of Australians got a loan and 18% used a credit card to pay for their wedding.

There are ways that you can plan your perfect day without blowing your budget. To find out how, Kate and Sally chatted with Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman of the "I'm Getting Married" podcast. Gen breaks down how to plan a realistic wedding budget, what you should splurge on and what you can DIY as well as the common money mistakes that newlyweds make.

Mentioned in this episode:

I'm Getting Married podcast

Finder's guide to weddings

Money Smart wedding research

Read the transcript of this episode

• Episode 215 transcript

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Another way I would do it is look at how far in advance your wedding is. If it's in 12 months, how much can you save each week? Can you save $200 a week? If that's what's comfortable for you, that essentially is your budget.

  Kate Browne
  Hello, and welcome to pocket money, everyone. It's Kate here and I'm here today with Sally and we are talking all things weddings. It's no secret that weddings are damn expensive. Whether you've had one or you've been to one, you're going to be shelling out the cash and the data backs it up. According to MoneySmart, the average Australian wedding costs 36,000 but it's not unheard of for some wedding budgets to reach 50, 75 or even $100,000.

  Sally McMullen
  That is a whole lot of money and a lot of people budget and save for their weddings, but many of us also fall into debt to say "I do" according to that same MoneySmart survey. 60% of Australians got a loan and 18% paid for their weddings on credit card. Oh, that makes me very scared. Yeah, it is scary. And I read something really interesting the other day that weddings aren't just a commitment to a person. They're also a financial commitment. So I'm not married and none of my friends or siblings have had weddings yet. So I have very limited understanding of how much weddings cost, but I do know that they're expensive, and that kind of scares me off them to be honest. Kate, can you fill me in here, please?

  Kate Browne
  My wedding only cost 10 grand, which you know, and I feel uncomfortable even saying "only", it's still a lot of money. But I did things a little bit back to front. I got married after my partner and I'd had a baby and we're not massive wedding people. We're not religious. We're not particularly traditional. We wanted to have a celebration with all our friends. And for me, you know, my non-negotiables were a lot of guests because we both have a lot of friends. So you know, 120 people and we didn't have a lot of cash. So you know, my priorities were like food and drinks, lots of dancing, lots of fun. We didn't have a cake. We didn't have a lot of decorations, you know, and that that was our sort of priority but gee, it's hard you know there's a lot of expectations on people when they have a wedding. There's a lot of pressure from the industry about what you should and shouldn't do, and even from relatives and friends so you know, it is really easy to say how people's budgets blow out.

  Sally McMullen
  Whether you want to go big or small with your wedding, there are ways that you can do it without blowing your budget. So to get some of those tips on how to do it, we're chatting to Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman, the host of the I'm Getting Married podcast.

  Kate Browne
  Genevieve is gonna run through how to set up a realistic wedding budget. You know, tell us where you can splurge and where you can actually DIY to save some money. And also she's going to talk about some of the common mistakes that newlyweds make that leave them in debt after the big day.

  Sally McMullen
  Thanks for coming on the show today, Genevieve.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be on someone else's podcast.

  Sally McMullen
  So can you tell us a little bit about yourself Genevieve and how the podcast started and what it's all about?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  I work full time as a public relations manager for one of Australia's biggest beauty companies. And on the side, I moonlight as the host of the I'm getting married podcast, which its slogan is: the podcast to take you from "Yes" to "I do". So on that podcast, I chat all things weddings with vendors, with real brides. I have psychologists come on to talk about mindset around weddings. And the idea is it's a really honest, truthful behind-the-scenes look at weddings. And it came about because my wedding was great, but it was a little bit of a disaster in some areas. And I felt a bit sad afterwards. And I thought no one really talks about the real side of weddings, which can be hilarious. I was having conversations with my friends and they would tell me "Oh my god, yes! This happened to me and this happened to me". And I just thought someone needs to talk about this because I feel so much better listening to these people's stories that we can all have a laugh together. And I went out for my birthday for a couple of drinks with my husband and I thought, I'm gonna do a podcast about this. And three months, four months later, here we are, it's happened and we're in season two, so... crazy.

  Kate Browne
  And I guess weddings are such, are like emotional. You know, it's like one of the biggest things that can happen. And you mentioned that yours was a disaster. Well, not all of it. Sorry, I will redact that. A few things didn't go right. What were some of those pain points for you?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  My priest was the big one. And honestly, I should be looking back and thanking him because he really is the reason this whole podcast has happened. It was thought that my priest had maybe had a couple of drinks. On the paperwork, he married my maid of honour to my best man rather than me to my husband.

  Kate Browne
  Oh my god.

  Sally McMullen
  You're joking!

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Not even joking. So apparently, that's actually not uncommon. So that was a little bit stressful. He was a little bit mean to us at the start when we were coming through. He kind of just was trying to rush us through, so we were a bit shaken after the ceremony. It was a bit of a blur. We all kind of sat in the limo and were like what just happened? We had all the little things that rained and it's hard to get photos. And when you look back, it sounds so minimal but on the day you're so consumed by the wedding day because then you've been planning this for 18 months, right? So you've planned everything to a tee you know exactly how you want things to run, you've been fantasising about it when driving and when you're in bed, and then it happens and it's so quick and I felt a weird anti-climax afterwards. I had a great day in general. But towards the end, I was like, this is a weird phenomenon that people don't really talk about.

  Kate Browne
  Gen, there's another pain point for plenty of people, which is why you're on our show today, which is why are weddings so expensive?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Weddings can be really expensive. And I think until I started the podcast, I didn't really realise for myself the reasons why. Getting to know a lot of vendors has helped me understand why. I mean, I come from a family where my mum's always saying, you know, as soon as they put the word wedding on it, they triple the price and it's kind of true, but for a reason. So I mean, there's probably three things which I've learned. And I think the first is that a lot goes on behind the scenes of a wedding, you might not know as a bride, but all the vendors are in touch with each other. Usually, there's a whole team of experts behind your day and they're working really hard to make it happen for you. Secondly, I'd say that if you're paying for a wedding vendor, you're paying for an expert. You're not really paying, just say $500 for a cake, you're actually paying them for all the time, and the training and experience it took for them to get to the level that they're at now, which is obviously a high enough level that you trust them to be part of your big day. And I mean, I can't stress enough with weddings, you really often get what you pay for. And probably finally, for most vendors, what you probably don't realise they're not just working on the day. So I guess a photographer is probably a good example here. You'd maybe book a photographer for eight hours, and you're paying them not just for the eight hours, they're there. You're paying them for their time liaising with you in the quoting stage. You're paying for your consults, you're paying for them to go over all your inspirational images, to make sure they're on the same page as you and that they can capture the photos that you want. You're paying for their travel time you're paying for their work on the day. And then you're paying for them to go home and look through probably thousands of photos to choose the best ones for you, then you're paying them to edit them so that they look good. And then you're paying them to handle over to you and whether they're creating an album. So maybe you look at their time for eight hours and think that's a ridiculous hourly rate. But very, very rarely and this goes with all vendors, are you just paying for their time on the day. And I mean, wedding vendors work really hard to make the day come together. So I will just say that. I wouldn't be surprised if you asked for a discount and they were offended because they're working much, much harder than you probably realise.

  Kate Browne
  Do weddings have to be expensive? Are there ways you can cut costs without offending vendors and bring things in on budget?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  It's hard to give a clear cut answer but I'd say there's just so many variable factors and I mean, you could have the most amazing wedding day and it costs you a thousand dollars, and you could have the most amazing day and it cost you $200,000. It's really up to you and your expectations. I think the simpler the wedding more often than not the less expensive and I mean, that's probably not including if it's just you and your husband going to a private island somewhere in the Greek islands, that's obviously going to be expensive. But I mean, if you're looking at things like a courthouse stairway, which I guess you say a lot of the movies in America, they do that here in Melbourne, they do it at the Treasury building in Victoria. And that's $550 if you're doing it on a weekend. About $450 if you're doing it during the week, I mean, you could do that. And then you could have a small group dinner with whoever would have been in your bridal party in a private dining room at your favourite restaurant, you pay the bill for all of that everyone dresses up nice and whatever they want to wear. That would cost you less than $5,000. And that's a really beautiful day. It's really intimate. Or you could have your courthouse wedding and then throw an epic party with everyone you've ever met, and then that could cost you $30,000. I think backyard weddings are ones, I've seen some of those and they're always really beautiful, and really kind of custom to the couple, you really get a personality and a vibe through that day. And I think if you got married in your backyard, and you had all your family and friends bring a dish and you had a buffet for dinner and you had an epic Spotify playlist, you went to Bunnings. And you got some strings of festoon lights, you know, you could do that for under $1,000. And you'd have a great day. Or you could hire a huge clear marquee and you could have it on your property. And you could get fancy caterers and you could get custom hardwood dance floors, get all the trimmings and spend $50,000. So I think with weddings, it's really what you make of it in terms of budget, and it's about, a lot about, and I'll talk about it soon as well, about expectations and having realistic expectations. You can make of it what you want. You can do it as big as you want. And even if it's in your backyard, and you can do it as small as you want, even if it's in a venue.

  Sally McMullen
  I think the overwhelming part is where do you start? How do you do a budget for your wedding?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Budgets for a wedding can be difficult because, for most people getting married, this is their first wedding. If I was getting married again next year, I would probably have a better idea how to do a budget. But when you're going into it for the first time, there is no reason that you should know why a wedding dress is $5,000. You wouldn't know how much a photographer is for the day, you just don't have exposure to those prices. So it can be overwhelming. The way I would kind of do it is to look via social media to get recommendations from friends. That's always a really good one, because friends will also usually tell you how much they paid. And then you can look at websites like Ivory Tribe, One Fine Day or Easy Wedding, so directories. Without any prior exposure to cost, it can be really difficult to set a budget that is realistic, unless you've really got your heart set on a specific vendor and you say no, this is the photographer I want to use. I'd be getting quotes from around three. And just looking and seeing how much is realistic because I think one thing I did was I'd go "oh, a photographer. I think that should be 1,500 dollars". It's not I kind of made that number up because that's kind of what I thought maybe I'd be comfortable paying with but it wasn't in tune with the reality of the service. Another way I would do it is look at how far in advance your wedding is. If it's in 12 months, how much can you save each week? Can you save $200 a week? And then if that's what's comfortable for you, that essentially is your budget, you don't want to be ruining your life before, not being able to do anything social because you're trying to pay for the wedding. So you really need to be realistic. And if you can save $100 a week, that's your $5,200 budget for your wedding if you're getting married in 12 months time. So I think working within your means and living within your means just like any kind of saving or any kind of budgeting is really, really important.

  Sally McMullen
  So you've done a lot of this research Gen, for your own wedding and also from the conversations that you're having for the podcast. And there are some common expenses that Kate and I wanted to quickly run through for some of those of people like you said, who just might not know the ballpark figures of what you can expect. So, flowers. Hit me. How much are we coughing up?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Probably 7% of your wedding tends to go towards flowers. The more guests you have, the more tables you have, the more tables you have the more centrepieces you have. The more centrepieces you have, the more floral arrangements you have, therefore, the higher your flower bill is.

  Sally McMullen
  What about the venue?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Venue for including food and beverage. That's your biggest expense. Probably around 40% of your budget and I mean, that's for me realistic, I think. So I spent about 54 on my wedding and venue was around 23. So probably just over 40%.

  Kate Browne
  What about the dress Jen?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  If you're just like me, a normal everyday person you're really looking at a minimum of about $4,000. It sounds like a lot for a dress and I had set my wedding dress budget at $5,000. I went into the store and I found one that was $2,700 and I was like "Brilliant! Look at me sticking to my budget. I'm so proud of myself." However, you have your dress, but then with the dress, you also have alterations. My alterations were $1,100 dollars. Then you have your veil, my veil was $200, $300. Then if you're buying anything over a size 12, they usually charge you more money because it's more fabric. It's their plus size. I'm a 14, and I ended up getting, they ordered the dress in a 20. And then they bring it down. So I had to pay for all that extra fabric that was just then getting cut off, but what you're technically paying for there is the perfect fit. So you've got to look at it like that. And then if you're keeping your dress afterwards, one thing I did not realise is dry cleaning is like $600.

  Kate Browne
  I have to ask, what are you going to do with the wedding dress? You've still got it packed away in a box somewhere?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Literally, that's exactly how I have it. It's in the spare room. My veil I'm probably going to sell because it got stuck in the door when I walked into the church and I walked into the church screaming "my veil!" because it was pulling my head off so that I'm not attached to it emotionally at all. That can go and hopefully bring someone luck but the dress, I don't know. I'm not opposed to selling it but I just haven't thought of it. If you are looking to save some money, buying a dress websites like Still White, where people do exactly what I've just said they sell their wedding dresses. You literally wear it once, pay hundreds of dollars to get it dry cleaned. I highly recommend a website like that, you can get beautiful modern dresses and at a really good price.

  Sally McMullen
  And what about the bridal parties do you have to fork out to like pay for their outfits and an accommodation depending on where you're going and all of that?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  It depends on how many people you have in your bridal party. One top tip I can give you is the less people you have in your bridal party, the cheaper it's going to be. I had 10 in total, five boys, five girls, and we had made the decision and pre budgeted for having all of them. And I think it probably cost close to $1,000 per bridesmaid between dress hair, makeup, shoes, jewellery, all of that. I think if you're asking them to pay for themselves, which is 100% reasonable, I would absolutely not have an issue with that, you need to offer some flexibility. A friend of mine had all her bridesmaids pay for their dresses. But she just said to them, go out and buy a black dress that you love because she wanted them to wear black, buy something you love that you're going to wear again.

  The other one I'd love to touch on actually is wedding entertainment.

  Kate Browne
  Yeah, tell us about that.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  So they say just under 10%. However, if you are on a budget, god it sounds bad saying this is the budget option. But if you're paying for a DJ, you're paying for one entertainer. If you're paying for a band, you're probably paying for about five, and that's going to cost a whole lot more money. That's why there's such a difference. And here's a little thing as well that people forget, is vendor meals. So you don't really realise this until the week before finalising everything. Every person who's working at your wedding, they need to eat, right? So it can be between 50 and $100 per person and if you have a band, say your band comes in right on budget. So you said I want $4,000, I'm just making this up, for a band, and that's right on budget, but then you're paying $100 per head to dinner, and you've got five people. You've just blown up by an extra $500. And also the MC. If you're paying for an MC, who's external and not a guest at the wedding, you need to pay for them. And then you also need to pay for their food. If you want an accurate budget, there are things you need to work in.

  Sally McMullen
  What are your tips for people who think that they might go over their budget? I know in your podcast, you said that you went over yours by was it $9,000? So tell me, how did that happen for you? And what's your advice for people now looking back at it?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  It's about setting a budget that's realistic to expectations, and this is what I did not do. So if you want a 300 person, big white wedding, and you want to add an inner city venue, and you want a band and you want food trucks at the end of the night, and you want to pay for all of your bridal party, and then you want to have really nice vintage cars and you want to wear a huge beaded dress. There's no chance you're doing that for 40 grand. And this is where I went over it. I had a really clear vision of what I wanted. But I had just set a budget in my head of $45,000. I don't know why I just kind of had mentally allocated that I'd heard that the average wedding was about $53,000. And I thought, "No, no, that's ridiculous". I'm not paying over $50,000 for wedding, My number is 45. And I could have had that had I gone to another venue that held 70 people, which was going to be our plan, but then I couldn't have all the friends and family that I wanted.

  Sally McMullen
  So we've talked a lot about budgeting and savings, but I did say that there was a survey done by MoneySmart and 60% of Australians got a loan for their wedding, and 18% used a credit card. So what are your thoughts on this?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  I can honestly really understand why people do especially if you're getting married in your early or mid 20s. You're probably not earning as much as you are in your 30s. Maybe you're at uni and you're working part time. If you're paying rent and which I am I'm paying rent, we still had to budget for a wedding. Or if you're saving for a house deposit and all of that, it's quite difficult. I didn't get a loan. I was very, very adamant that I would wake up the next morning after getting married, and I would not be in debt. The best tip I can give you is to have a longer engagement. So there's no harm in getting married six months after your original date. If it's giving you an extra six months to save, that can be the difference between having to get a loan or having to get a credit card and accruing a whole lot of interest that's going to cost you more money in the long term. One thing I did do and I will be open is that I did actually get a credit card for the frequent flyer points and paid everything I could through that and then transferred straight out of our wedding savings on the same day so there was no interest accrued on the card. And used those welcome points to upgrade our honeymoon and we flew business class. I wouldn't recommend that unless you can really responsibly manage credit. And I think if you're paying cash and you're paying from your savings, there's less of a temptation to overspend because you can only spend what's in your account. You can't rack up a $50,000 fee on little things you never thought you needed, just because the money is there. So longer engagement is where it's at. To wake up the next morning and not be in debt. It is priceless, basically.

  Kate Browne
  It is scary. I had a colleague of mine, an ex colleague of mine, and her husband at my wedding and he told me the night of my wedding, which was pretty sort of low budget that I think it'd been five years since I got married, that they were still paying off the loan.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  I mean, look, a lot of people who are getting married, they've been together for ages. We've been together eight years. We actually got married on a 100 month anniversary of being boyfriend girlfriend, to be honest. So we've been together for a while. And even though, you know, you'd basically go home the next weekend and things are still the same. It is still a bit of a mental fresh start, you're married, it's a new life together as a couple. You don't want to be starting that in debt because of the wedding day. I really wouldn't recommend it. It can bring a lot of resentment and you want to enjoy the day.

  Sally McMullen
  So it's the time in the show where we like to play a little game of overrated or underrated. We're gonna give you a topic and you have to tell us if it's overrated or underrated. And if you want to quickly tell us why feel free to do so. So first one Bachelorette and bachelor parties.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Underrated. They are so much fun. It doesn't need to be expensive. Just spending time with your close friends. I guess your wedding can be stressful. It's a nice way to put the pressure on other people and enjoy yourself and have it be about you. Because even on your wedding day, you'll find it's not always about you because you're running the day. The Bachelorette is about you.

  Sally McMullen
  And what about destination weddings?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Overrated. I'm sorry. You know why? Because of your guests. We've been invited to destination weddings that we can't afford to go to. I can't take a week off where I can spend $3,000 as much as I love you as a friend. You're asking a lot.

  Sally McMullen
  What about bridezillas or groomzillas?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  You know what, I'm going to say misunderstood.

  Kate Browne
  Oh, that's very kind.

  Sally McMullen
  I love that.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  It's very easy to fall into that trap and it's usually never about the bride. It's about the expectation the bride is carrying for everybody else. It's the people pleasing, it's the family pleasing. It can be very stressful. I think don't be mean to people, obviously wouldn't recommend. However, I think Bridezillas can be misunderstood and sometimes it's okay you know what it's your day you're paying 50 grand.

  Kate Browne
  All right Gen, band or DJ?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  DJ.

  Kate Browne
  Oh, straight out of the gate.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  DJ. Sorry to everyone in a band, but they have a wider array of songs they can play. They can take requests and you're not always stuck to one style. If you want a jazz wedding and that's your thing, maybe a band's great. But if you're like me and you wanted a wedding with the vibe of mid 2000s R&B, which is when I really peaked musically. So you want your Ashanti, you want your Ja Rule, you want your Beyonce and all of that. You need a DJ.

  Sally McMullen
  Well, that wraps up our overrated underrated.

  Unknown Speaker
  Handled it like a true pro. Very, very on the straightforward

  Kate Browne
  What are tips for negotiating with your partner on the financials for your wedding, especially if you have really different opinions, because you've mentioned often one person is more invested than the other.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Yeah, look, it's important to be on the same page from day one. I think there's going to be a lot of different elements of the wedding that you might not agree on straightaway. It's usually about things that when you look back on it, it's really minimal. You need to find a middle ground and I mean, Hello, welcome to marriage. It's compromised. It's your first exercise in being a married couple. For me, I really wanted a toasted cheese sandwich van. I wanted it to rock up at 11 and everyone to be eating toasties. And Michael was like, no way. It's like three and a half grand. It's absolutely unnecessary. Everyone's eaten, they've got entree, they've got main, they've got dessert. They've got cake. No one's gonna be hungry. He forced me to look at why I wanted that. And I had to really think well, I guess the reason I wanted it is because I thought it would make other people happy. It wasn't so much about me. So I think sometimes having a partner with a different opinion on elements of your wedding is a good thing. You absolutely argue, it's totally normal. Don't think you're not meant to get married just because you can't agree on what colour your limo should be. It forces you to reflect back on the decisions you're making and why you're making them.

  Kate Browne
  I had a funny one, my best friend and her partner couldn't agree on what time to get married because Katherine's like a real Night Owl and Erica is like we call her Nana. She was like, "well, we'll get married, we'll have like lunch and then everyone will be home by three o'clock" and Catherine was just like, "No, I want to be on the dance floor to like 2am" and, and hilariously that they've been together a long time but in the end, Erica did leave about an hour earlier than Catherine, actually left the wedding, and Catherine was still on the dance floor with me and my eight year old. So that was kind of funny, too. I was like, you know, sometimes you just got to do what you want to do.

  What should you splurge on and what can you budget on in your opinion, looking at your own wedding and other people's experiences? When can you sneak a few little savings that no one's going to notice.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  I think you should splurge on what's important to you. So pick three things as a couple. For us, it was really food and music. And that's where you focus your money. Because if that's what's most important to you and going to make your day the best, don't punish yourself by cutting corners there, right? I think for me, I didn't care about cars. I really couldn't care less. I got literally the cheapest limo I could find in Melbourne. And my husband got taken to the church by his mum, his family they dropped him off. We got an Uber afterwards from the venue to The Crown. The Uber driver didn't even care that we got married and we've got in and we're like "Hello. We just got married!" and he's like "Where to? I don't care." Things like umbrellas, I got clear umbrellas in case it rained, but I just went to Facebook marketplace and got them for 50 bucks from some girl who's like "Oh, hope it doesn't rain on your wedding" and it did so she jibs me, obviously with her umbrellas. Place card, I designed them on Canva. I don't know if anyone knows this programme. It's free. It's called Canva, C.A.N.V.A, not a sponsored thing. They're just really, really good if you can't do graphic design, it's a godsend. I designed out my menus, and also place cards and designed up my seating chart and then I went to Officeworks and printed them for like $100 in total. So little savings like that can take off the pressure, big time. I wouldn't advise trying to save money on your photographer. Because at the end of the day, the only thing you really have left after all of it apart from the memories, which will fade as we get older, are the photos and if you hate your photos, you're really gonna resent looking at them. You're not gonna want to print them, it'll leave a bad taste in your mouth. That's one thing I wouldn't scrimp on.

  Kate Browne
  Are there any other ways we can make money back after the wedding?

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  If you have a wishing well, you can safely assume that you're going to receive some money. If you have a gift registry, you can safely assume you're gonna get some gifts. I actually had both. I didn't like instructing people specifically to give us cash. I didn't want to not receive cash and I registered at Myer because there was a whole lot of homewares we wanted because we'd kind of just moved into this new house. Full transparency, I think we probably walked away with close to $14,000 cash and a whole lot of gifts, which was incredibly generous of our guests. I did not in the slightest expect that. However, by the time we opened the cards, we'd already paid for the wedding. So that wedding money was gone. And I think it's better to not count on it and to look at it as a bonus, if you're gifted cash, maybe that's a bonus for your house deposit. Maybe that's a bonus for your honeymoon. I don't think you should look at it so much as a way for people to pay for themselves.

  Kate Browne
  What about things that you use once so like things you bought for the table or the umbrellas? You mentioned you bought them? Like, I'm assuming there's a big secondhand market and a lot of that stuff because it'd be pretty pristine.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Absolutely. There's so many Facebook weddings, secondhand buy, swap, sell groups, all of that. There's so many of them, and people really use them for a day. I mean, after I bought the umbrellas for $50 I then gave them to someone at work for her to use for her wedding. These will be the umbrellas that go from wedding to wedding. And also hiring things can be really good. A friend of mine actually bought a whole lot of rustic vintage crates and things for a lolly bar, but then she has hired them out to other people afterwards and sold them. So after your wedding, you can recoup some costs that way. I would sell a lot of things but I tended to actually just hire things. And a lot of people have had to postpone their weddings this year, of course as a result of coronavirus, which is so sad.

  Sally McMullen
  Do you have any tips for people who have had to do that? And do you think it'll drive up prices? You know, say in 2021 when there's like double the amount of weddings happening there.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  So I guess the tip I can give people is that like, it's okay to feel really unfairly done by and it's okay to be upset, it's okay to be angry. It's not your fault. There's a pandemic. So why should you have to suffer? I totally understand that school of thought. So don't feel petty. And don't feel like you're being a silly little bride or something like that just because you're upset. It's totally valid, I would be really pissed off myself. If it's not the date you originally planned, it doesn't mean it's not going to happen. That timeline doesn't really matter. It's just a timeline you've set for yourself. But now that we're into COVID, I think most vendors now know how to handle it. In the first few weeks, the vendors I spoke to, no one knew what was happening. There's a real lack of information and everyone was just panic stations. Brides didn't know what to do. Vendors didn't know what to do. People worried about their deposits. I do wedding coordination as well and I've had a client who has rescheduled, literally emails me, hey, I've had to postpone until next year, cool, we just move your date, your deposit stays there. It's no biggie. Now everyone's really, really good at doing it. I haven't heard from any vendors, that they're going to be upping their prices because of this. I think if anything, that's just going to make the dates more competitive. So maybe you have to just be a bit more flexible with whether you get married on this Friday or Saturday, and maybe you want to get married in March but unable to, so in August, it's really not the end of the world. If anything, it'll probably give you a bit more time to save. The only kind of price increase I would maybe see is that people tend to raise their prices annually for the rising cost of living and the rising cost of all the things that they use maybe the flowers, maybe cake ingredients, whatever it is. So that I think is fair. Hopefully, a good vendor will let you keep your price that you've locked in and paid your deposit that I couldn't foresee any vendors upping their prices, because of COVID.

  Kate Browne
  Let's hope that's the case. Yeah. I also think of people that missed out during bushfires as well in Victoria and New South Wales. You know, there's a lot of people that have had to put their plans on hold.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Vendors want you to have a great day. And also this is their livelihood. So they want to keep your business, they want to keep you on the books. And they'll be flexible and work with you. You've just got to have open and honest conversation. So you just call them and say, "Hey, I'm not sure what's going on. What do you recommend? Where's your head at." They'll be happy to have those conversations with you. They'd rather you do that and sit there and panic and make decisions that maybe are a bit ill informed. You've just got to do your research and be realistic that the two biggest tips I can give everybody and a long engagement will give you more time to save, we were engaged for 18 months, and we were able to save for a whole wedding in that time. So long engagements are a real blessing.

  Unknown Speaker
  Good advice.

  Sally McMullen
  Thank you so much, Gen. That was awesome.

  Genevieve Lehunt-Alderman
  Thank you for having me. Thank you so much.

  Sally McMullen
  So that's it. We've tied the knot on another episode of Pocket Money. Thanks again to Genevieve for coming on the show. We have new episodes coming out every fortnight so make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your fave podcast so that you don't miss an episode.

  Kate Browne
  Join us on Instagram at Pocket Money podcast for money tips behind the scenes stuff or reach out if you've got any topics you'd like us to cover on the show or tell us your wedding stories. I love a wedding story, good and bad. So feel free to hit us up with those stories. We'd love to hear them. Pocket Money as always is hosted by Sally and Kate, that's me, produced by Ankita Shetty and editing is from Brianna Ansaldo of bevvy media. See you next time.

  Sally McMullen
  Bye!

  Thanks for listening to pocket money from Finder. Head over to find a.com.au slash podcast for the show notes for this episode. The find a podcast is intended to provide you with tips, tools and strategies that will help you make better decisions. Although we're licenced and authorised, we don't provide financial advice. So please consider your own situation or get advice before making any decisions based on anything in our chart. Thanks for listening.

  Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Finder Pocket Money podcast is intended to provide you with tips, tools and strategies that will help you make better decisions. Although we're licensed and authorised, we (and our guests) aren't providing any form of financial or legal advice. So please consider your own situation and get proper advice about your individual circumstances before making any decisions based on anything on our show. Thanks for listening.

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Pocket Money is hosted by Sally McMullen and Kate Browne, produced and directed by Ankita Shetty, with editing by Brianna Ansaldo of Bamby Media.

finder.com.au (ACL 385509. CAR 432664) is Australia's most popular comparison site. We like to help, and while we understand that our podcast provides information, insight and entertainment, it's not personal advice. Consider your own circumstances and get advice before you make any decision based on our general comments and commentary.