8 Wedding Planning Tips for a Creative and Unforgettable Day That Doesn’t Drain Your Wallet

I used to think that weddings were overrated. That the whole wedding industry might as well be a glamorized scam. The idea of throwing away that much money for a one-day event that most guests might not even remember in the future sounds like a perfect recipe for a financial disaster.

These, of course, were after I outgrew my much younger self who undoubtedly had her own daydreams about her dream wedding. People have phases, don’t they?

However, at some point, when it was finally our turn to plan and execute our big day, we decided to land somewhere in the middle. An event so warm (quite literally, we’ll get to it), heartwarming, and eye-pleasing that it doesn’t only belong to us – but also to our guests. A day where everything about it is handpicked by yours truly, so that the moment our closest ones pass the entrance they’d immediately wonder how every element and detail truly resembled the two of us both as a couple and also as individuals.

We were never big on celebrations, so when it comes to the day when we finally tie the knot after exactly 9.5 years of being together, why not have fun, consider it a challenge to play with as a couple, and be creative at it?

Most importantly, we wanted to try our best to make every single penny worth it. If we’re going to dig our pocket a little deep for it, it might as well be for all the right reasons only, and as effective as possible. And since we had to stick to a fixed budget, the creativity wasn’t just all about the styling or planning, but also about coming up with workarounds for when the ideal scenario we wanted was too expensive to afford.

Of course, at the end of the day, we were unfortunately unable to realize every single plan, but we took notes on those that didn’t. So that you, who might be planning your wedding day sooner or later, may take a thing or two from our experience and get to make the best out of one the happiest days in your life.

So here it is, a few tips on how we plan and execute the wedding day that every guest that we talked to seems to have enjoyed and left positive thoughts and comments about. Might we add, without necessarily breaking our bank accounts?

And if you’re also wondering how much we end up paying for our 300-pax outdoor wedding at the heart of Bandung – keep reading!

1. Decide which items you are going to prioritize – especially those with the highest expenses.

Out of the most expensive items, stick to a plan to prioritize just a few of them, and be willing to let go of the rest.

For us, here are the items we did not want to negotiate much:

• Venue – We wanted a spacious outdoor wedding venue (mostly for hygiene reasons, since we got married right after the pandemic, but also because the thought of having an indoor ballroom wedding never crossed our minds) where at least two to three sides of it have a lush, natural backdrop, with minimum sights of neighbouring buildings.
• Documentation – We both have very specific and similar tastes in photography and videography. Ideally, they would be dreamy-looking, ethereal, almost idyllic kind of pictures with killer monochrome effects, as well as a feel-good, non-cheesy or gimmicky video with vintage and retro feels.
• Decor – When one thinks about their dream wedding, it typically starts with the decor. I happen to have very specific, non-negotiable plans and ideas about the aesthetics of our wedding, therefore we were prepared to go big in this particular item. It was especially because not many vendors in Bandung, unlike Jakarta, seemed to have done something similar to the concept that we wanted.

Together with the catering, these are the only expenses whose invoices reached two digits.

Personally, I would suggest prioritizing at least the photography vendor. Even the most ordinary venue, decor, attire, or even make-up could still look good in the hands of an excellent photographer. Not to mention that the pictures are the ones you can look at for the rest of your life, since the rest are just going to be memories.

For the rest, we tried our best to still honour our ideas and preferences while still adhering to the agreed budget. The only way is by researching the heck out of the overwhelming amount of available vendors – which we will elaborate below.

3. Research extensively. Nearly all of the time, we always found some hidden gems with a very good price considering the products and services we ended up getting.

In the end, many of our favourite vendors are the ones we hired not because we knew and really wanted them from the beginning, but because we came across them through thorough research and decided to believe in their price values – which turned out excellent.

To list some of the major examples:

• Airbrush, natural-looking makeup – I got so many compliments on my complexion because it looked so natural and it didn’t change any of my facial features. Almost all of the vendors I contacted cost above IDR 10mio, but the one I ended up hiring was way below that.
• Acoustic, almost indie wedding entertainment – This one is perhaps what surprised us the most. Both my husband and I listen to similar kinds of music, and we struggled a lot to find wedding bands that came even slightly close to matching our pop culture preferences. Ideally, we would be having Katjie & Piering or Banda Neira singing at our wedding (🤪), but since those are practically impossible, we had to find a substitute that somehow still honours our taste yet still sounded much like a wedding. We ended up with a trio that includes a singer slash guitarist, a saxophone player, and a keyboardist with a versatile arrangement, who did absolutely killer covers on our curated wedding playlist, that I ended up replaying our live stream video recording so many times just to hear their arrangements over and over again.
• Bride and groom’s sustainable attire – The moment we decided we weren’t going to customize our attire to save our budget, the brand we ended up using was actually a straightforward no-brainer for us. We bought ready-to-wear items from this slow fashion, sustainable clothing brand, with the idea that we would use these pieces for our future wedding anniversaries and other big events alike. (A year later, we can confirm that we do!)
• Low-budget but expensive-looking catering – It might be a little silly that my priority in choosing the catering vendors was to pick one that has the most elegant booth designs – so not even about the food, hehe. No flimsy tablecloth cover was a must, and preferably came in full marble-like hardwood materials. At the same time, they also need to be budget-friendly, and surely still taste good. With the help of one of my bridesmaids, I found this vendor who ticked off every single one of them – and they might actually have the prettiest booths I had seen in all Bandung weddings I had attended before.

2. If you are quite tight on the budget, consider having a non-traditional wedding (like ours was). Include the traditional element through something else in the wedding.

It’s no secret that a lot of the steps involved in traditional weddings are a huge source of expenses. Even the attire tends to cost a lot more than a modern dress and a suit.

On top of that, we also chose the more modern theme simply because we weren’t raised in households that were akin to any Indo-specific cultural values. Therefore, naturally, such a concept does not feel like representing us as a couple.

However, because we are Indonesians first and foremost, and having spent most of our lives growing up around the Indo culture owes a lot to who we are as individuals today, we still wanted an infuse of Indo-themed touches in the wedding. Therefore, we chose to introduce the Indo elements through other means, such as the attire for our akad ceremony.

4. Prioritize planning on activities rather than aesthetics.

One thing that we were not exactly super happy about the wedding was that due to the number of guests that we had (which mostly were the parents’), we ended up having to greet hundreds of them that there was barely enough time left for the activities we planned for our guests, especially for our bridesmaids, groomsmen, and closest friends.

Yes, we did the conventional Indo-wedding format where the bride, groom, and their parents stood at the pelaminan, with each guest having to come to the stage to greet us and take pictures if they wanted to. Also, my mother being the social butterfly that she is had quite many guests that we spent so much time taking formal pictures with people we barely knew. (Not that we complained about it! Just wished we had anticipated it in advance.)

Eventually, the planned activities that we managed to do were only:

• Singing in duet (where we practised just a day in advance!),
• Having a speech from a couple of my bridesmaids and his groomsman and bridesman,
• A quick game for single bridesmaids and groomsmen,
• Bouquet-throwing.

And the fun activities we had to skip due to the time limit were:

• My mother and mother-in-law singing a legendary Indo song about wishing a newlywed couple all the very best in their journey together,
• My bridesmaids singing,
• His groomsmen playing a geologist-themed song from our university era,
• A couple of games for the bridesmaids and groomsmen,
• Dance for the parents’ guests.

I would suggest discussing at length with your wedding organizer how many guests and photo sessions could you have at max, so that most – if not all – of your planned activities can be executed.

Mingling with the guests instead of standing for hours on the stage could be something to strongly consider as well. Because after standing for some time, not only you might feel tiresome and bored, but also knowing that you put so much effort and money into the event, it might not feel right to just have yourself standing there, not even enjoying food or talking properly to your guests.

For me, I do feel that I prioritized the logistics and aesthetic bits a little too much that I left out these ideas to the very end, not knowing in advance that the number of guests we were having might make it impossible to make the most out of the initial plans.

5. Be very vocal with your vendors. Let them know what the priorities are and what isn’t. When something does not feel right, always let them know rightaway.

Almost all of my vendors might have a saying or two about the level of excruciating detail I asked them about, perhaps even borderline micromanaging. But as long as you convey your inputs in a good manner, I believe truly professional vendors will understand your concerns and needs and will be happy to help you with those. After all, they know that they’re catering for every client’s once-in-a-lifetime event.

One thing I regret a little was that during the wedding day, there was a photo session I didn’t quite feel like doing because the theme was never our priority, but I didn’t have any remaining energy to tell the vendor that we didn’t really want to do that. And otherwise, we could’ve used that time to mingle with our guests.

There was also another one when we were promised by the organizer and venue vendor that we could play the Spotify playlist from our laptop from when the wedding band was wrapping up until the closing time that the venue was booked for, but the organizer somehow did not do that for unknown reasons.

Another one was that I regret not having anybody from my family overseeing the decor vendor’s work when they were doing the setup. It ended up having more pale colours than what I expected them to be, when I had specifically mentioned a few times we wanted bold colours – not white-ish. A few of the flower arrangements were also a little different from the sketch and unfortunately did not hit the marks. For the amount of money we paid for, we certainly expected more, but we chose to just enjoy the day and let the vendor know about the feedback a few days after the event.

6. Make a to-do list for everyone involved, including family members who will take over the responsibilities once the event ends.

A friendly but strong reminder to creative brides out there: It doesn’t matter how awesome your ideas are if you are the only person who understands the scheme and everything on the day!

Therefore, do create a to-do list for each vendor for things that are specific to your ideas and want them to execute. The organizer will typically ask you to fill out a document about things you want the photographers to capture, games you’d like to do, and so forth – but it can get too generic so you will still need to put some effort into creating your own list for vendors that might be involved.

For example, I regret not telling the videographers to take some footage of the many cats around the venue and include them in our full wedding video – which I know does sound quite petty, but I had had this idea since the first time we did the survey so I was a little bummed out. I even forgot to ask the photographer to take pictures of only us two with our siblings.

It’s also important to create a to-do list for family members responsible for handling all the different stuff after the wedding ends. It’s because, at the end of the day, you will have to collect all the logistics by yourself after the organizers finish their shift.

We had issues regarding where certain items needed to be brought to because my family lived in Bandung, my in-laws were going back to Tangerang, while the two of us would go to the hotel and go on our honeymoon the next day. I did label most of the stuff with the final destination whether it’s Bandung, Tangerang, or the hotel, but we forgot to assign PICs for each different logistics. Cross-check with your partner, especially regarding essential items or expensive logistics you might bring to the venue.

7. When possible, rent or DIY to save cost. Be ready to ditch anything that is not essential, and substitute things where possible.

Renting

A few of the items that we rented to save cost:

• Bride and groom’s reception attire, including groom’s shoes,
• Half of seserahan boxes,
• A lot of attire for our pre-wedding shots.

Doing It Yourself

Everybody who knows me knows it will not be my wedding without some DIY experiments. Not only that it might save costs, but these could also be interesting sights that your guests will appreciate, talk about, or get inspired from. Here are a few items I end up doing DIY on:

• Half of the seserahan boxes,
• A few decoration items, including vinyl cover, ringbearer, and trinkets display,
• The QR code signage for digital wallet gifts,
• The voucher for the unlimited photo booth.

Ditching

Did you know that these days, they have this telephone box vendor to record your wishes and messages from your guests on your wedding day? Or that they have a live painting service for weddings?

As much as I wanted to have them at our wedding to make it more memorable, we also understood our budget limitations and didn’t want to go overboard. The only way we could’ve used these is if I ditched a few other items that cost similarly, but by that time, we paid most of the vendors already that it was impossible to still try to adjust the numbers.

I would personally suggest not using the wedding car, as well as having the same bouquet, shoes, and bridal veil for both ceremony and reception, since these details are not generally noticed by anyone else but the bride herself.

Substituting

You may also substitute something with another that serves a similar purpose. For instance, we didn’t have actual souvenirs on our wedding day but we offer an unlimited photobooth for the guests.

This way, it helps publicize the wedding itself because many guests will post them on their IG stories. We also get all the soft copies of everyone’s pictures on a USB, so we have more memories of our guests looking happy on our big day.

8. Even if it’s not an intimate wedding per se, it can still end up turning into an intimate one!

At the end of our akad ceremony before the pre-reception break, we have this showing of our pre-wedding video that was going to be played for the first time. The concept was that we got interviewed separately during the shooting day, so we wouldn’t know what we answered about each other until the video was aired on the wedding day.

Unfortunately, it seems that we might have forgotten to let our friends know about this bit, so not all of them were staying in the showing area with our families to watch the video. (Considering how scorching hot the venue was around that hour, we reckoned many of them left early to find somewhere secluded to chill, so we didn’t mind.) Nevertheless, it turned out to be an intimate session because there were maybe only a dozen of us watching that utterly emotional video.

And then halfway into the reception, there were only our closest people left in the venue after the general guests left. The remaining included some old friends we hadn’t greeted in a while, so it was quite nice to have a chance to talk to them without the rush. That was also when we started the planned activities from the singing, the speech, to the game. It was unplanned but it ended up becoming an intimate wedding because there were only our inner circles left.

Bonus tip: For items that do not require the vendors to be in the city of your wedding location, consider choosing vendors located in smaller cities because they tend to be much more affordable.

After reviewing the price list of a bunch of graphic design and illustration studios in Bandung and Jakarta, we were almost sure that we’d skip the digital invitation (other than the website), even though this was one of the major things that we were excited about from the very beginning since both of us are into graphic designs. However, I was very fortunate that one of my bridesmaids came across these two artists in Boyolali and Denpasar which we immediately fell for – not only because their aesthetics are quite different from the typical sweet, romantic vibes that other studios offer, but also because of their significantly more affordable prices.

The same thing goes for my bridal headpieces and veil. I had been asking several stores in Bandung, Jakarta, and Surabaya only to be so surprised about the rental price that did not make sense to me. Then, I finally came across this store in Semarang which offered to customize the piece at one-fourth of the price that the other stores offered. The results? No disappointment!

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There it is! Those are the tips I could share regarding how you could make your wedding day as memorable as you deserve it to be, and most importantly, worth every penny. With these tips, we figured we spent around IDR 400K per person – which included all the expenses on the day.

I might write a continuing post to introduce our vendors with an honest review, especially the ones we truly recommend. (Also, maybe with a bonus of the spreadsheet we used for our budgeting. Nobody doesn’t love freebies, no?)

And last but not least… If you are looking to hire a freelance wedding stylist or planner (with a very negotiable rate because I consider myself still “on probation”), do let me know in case I can help you with that! I can serve virtual consulting anywhere but am happy to do face-to-face if you are in Jakarta.

Until next time, and much love to you lovebirds planning the big day!

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