r/AusWeddingPlanning

When I was planning my wedding one thing that genuinely started to frustrate me was not being able to bloody find pricing anywhere 😭
I completely understand custom quotes for some things, but after a while it got exhausting enquiring with vendor after vendor just to find out if something was even vaguely within budget.

I honestly just wouldn’t enquire at all if there was no starting price because the whole process already felt overwhelming enough already.

It’s actually one of the main reasons I decided to have all my pricing visible when I started my own wedding business. I just remembered how stressful wedding planning felt and how much easier it was when vendors were transparent from the start.

Curious if other people felt the same while planning or if it didn’t really bother you?

We've recently started planning our wedding. We found the lack of transparency around venue costs so frustrating. As someone who is so time poor and introverted, having to enquire with individual venues that we had no idea if they would even fit our budget, multiple phone calls and site tours before prices are released was like a full time job in itself.

Hoping that others will benefit from this without having to go through the process of each individual venue. We only looked at winery and cityside venues.

Prices are cost per head for a peak season wedding on Saturday in 2027. Most venues also have additional costs for ceremony hire, corkage, security etc. They also have minimum spends.

Hubert Estate $270pp

Coombe Yarra Valley $315pp

Stones of Yarra Valley $320pp

Yering Station $280pp

Levantine Hill $345pp

Acacia Ridge Yarra Valley $255pp

Bramleigh Estate $245pp

The Trust $250pp

Aerial $277pp

Carousel $230pp

Leonda $225pp

Luminaire $235pp

Good luck to all those with planning!

Fiancée and I are hoping for a simple/vintage style two tiered wedding cake for about 90 guests. Looking around and it seems quite pricey and it’s not something we value as much to splurge money on. What is the average pricing of wedding cakes these days? Getting married in the Southern Highlands so it’s a bit harder to find places elsewhere (metro Sydney) without getting handed a huge delivery fee.

Hey guys,

We are early in our wedding planning process and wanted to ask if you recommend going DIY or hiring a planner? How helpful it will be and how much would that cost, roughly, to have one for a vineyard wedding of 120 guests in the Yarra Valley? Our full budget is around 35k-40k.

Have fallen in love with a south coast nsw venue however their only weekend dates available are late May. As bride and groom would you prefer to have the weekend wedding or sacrifice the convenience of a weekend for the mid-week date with warmer weather earlier in the year? (Cost is not a factor here). If you have any experience of south coast nsw at this time of year would also love to hear from you!

My fiancé and I are quite introverted and are both nervous about the idea of having a ceremony in front of 80 people.
We have found a waterfront restaurant we like and are leaning towards having a private ceremony approx 11.30am followed by wider family and friends arriving at 12pm for a cocktail style reception until 4pm
We aren’t planning on having dancing and speeches , just a relaxed casual day with drinks and canapés.

Is this ok? I’m worried people may think this is rude or even boring.
We would love to have a stress free relaxed day. Any advice appreciated!

hi everyone! i see the suggestion to "ask on fb" a lot so i joined a few yesterday and they were overrun with the same vendors, with some of them just posting ai generated stuff.

i haven't used fb regularly for years, so i think i may be out of touch here 😅 would anybody be able to recommend a fb group they found to be genuinely helpful or insightful?

my wedding will be in sydney, i'm so looking for sydney based groups, but feel free to share your local for others looking!

I had this insane idea of what if we got married in Sydney on NYE at a venue with harbour views (or views of the fireworks). Anyone ever done this? Just wondering if it's even possible to get a venue that wouldn't be absolutely exorbitantly expensive 😂

as small as this subreddit is compared to other wedding subreddits, it's one of my favourites as many others are very americanised and it's easy to get lost in all their etiquette and strict guest codes (which are fine! just usually not super relevant in aus).

but i'm noticing a lot of advertising lately, to the point where it feels inauthentic? people dumping videos, images, whole marketing proposals (sometimes completely ai generated, to boot), etc. without actually engaging with anyone here. treating it as their dumping ground/free advertising space.

i've seen a rule on other subreddits that advertising should be no more than 10% of your engagement with the subreddit – could something like that be implemented here? i don't want to see all the helpful and genuine discussions drowned out by soulless advertising.

and, to be clear, i am not including the handful of vendors that tend to post here as "soulless". you guys sharing your perspectives and experiences and being generally helpful are a huge part of what makes this community so great!

keen to hear everyone else's thoughts!

Working down our to do list for a May 2027 wedding in Melb, and coming to the item of entertainment. We have been exploring our options for DJ and MCs and I am wondering what people’s experiences are with having a DJ that also does the basic/standard MC script? Does it work ok and keep everything flowing sufficiently, or is it really worth getting a dedicated MC?

Our reception will be approx 80 people, but we don’t have a bridal party or an intention of doing a big bridal entrance, so my thoughts are we would only need MC work for announcing housekeeping, the first dance, and the speeches? Would a DJ/MC be able to manage this?

Don’t want to night to be clunky or missing something, but also unsure how much we will get out of this additional vendor!

Really appreciate any insights on this :)

Hello all!

My wife and I are in a little conundrum. Strap in.

We got married 6 months ago and recently sent her dress back to the dress maker for a dry-clean.

My wife got a dress and gloves from this particular maker (hand made) and her veil at another place.

They dropped it all off with no dramas. Fast forward a month, she has received the dress back but the dress maker has "misplaced" the gloves and veil.

My wife emailed back and forward asking for them to find the gloves + veil and send them back (very politely, I may add).

The vendor asked us what they looked like, and even requested photos so they may locate them better.

After another month they said they had found them and sent them to us.

My wife opened them up and immediately became suspicious over what had been sent. On initial inspection they appeared to be her genuine original veil and gloves, but heres the kicker.

My wife suspected there was something wrong (she said the cutting around the edges of the veil was sloppy, jagged and did not resemble her original veil).

Her gloves were embodied with our initials and wedding date by her cousin, which was the clue that confirmed our suspicions.

The gloves they sent did not have any initials nor wedding date.

Despite looking almost identical, it appears they have sent an identical pair but missed that key detail. It appears as though they have been sloppily replicated in a rush after they have lost the originals.

I do not want to jump to conclusions here, but at the very least the fact is we have not gotten our original products, which hold a huge amount of sentimental value.

We are just wondering what is the best course of action here. Compensation does not seem sufficient, since we likely will never see the original veil or gloves again.

Should we call and discuss? Seek monetary compensation?

Thanks for reading.

Hello, does anyone have suggestions for an 80-person wedding reception that’s garden/outdoor theme?

We are currently looking at Chiswick Woollahra and Royal Botanic Garden. Wanting to find some other similar options.

We are only having a reception there (no ceremony as it will be in a church). Ideally want it to be during the day or late in the afternoon when the sun’s still out to have that bright and green vibe but intimate at the same time.

Thank you!!

Social media sets a certain picture, but actual experiences can be very different. From what people have seen or heard- what tends to surprise couples the most?

Hey everyone! After spending hours trying to figure out how to split our wedding budget, I realised most calculators online are either US-based or completely unrealistic for the UK.

I kept asking myself:
How much should we ACTUALLY spend on venue, catering, photography, etc. in the UK?

So I ended up building a simple tool for myself that:
- Breaks down a realistic budget based on UK pricing
- Adjusts based on location (London, Manchester, etc.)
- Highlights hidden costs couples often forget

Would love some honest feedback — does this actually match your experience planning in the UK?

What were your biggest unexpected costs?

I've had 24 hours to sit on these feelings and work through them, but I genuinely feel like shit and hate my body. I used to be a far bigger girl to the point now people are shocked when they find out how much I've lost over the past 8 years (close to 100 kgs).

I went to my first wedding dress shop yesterday to a place in Melbourne suburbs that has great reviews online. I went with my two bridesmaids - my daughter and a dear friend. I had filled out a pre info questionnaire telling them what I like and dont like (no strapless and no empire line). I was open to all other designs and settings. 8 out of the 9 dresses the assistant pulled, was damaged with boning coming out, broken or missing buttons/strings or absolutely filthy from previous girls and their copious amounts of soy sauce tits and rub. Why can't they dry clean their dresses say once a month?

But what really got to me, at no fault of anyone else, was how fucking ugly my body is. Having a back vagina with the ties, excess skin and flabby arms, "old skin" as one of the assistants said about me to her bride in her room, I just feel like shit. Plus my assistant making comments about body skin hanging over parts I could t help. I don't even feel like having a wedding, rather just wear a jumper and leggings 😭 I hate this.

I just needed a space to vent, even if no one sees/comments.