The Day of Their Dreams for Under $10,000

October 8, 2012 in
Real Weddings
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Alex and Nika Savins
alexandnika

Alex and Nika live in a hundred-year-old cottage by the sea in Rockingham, Western Australia. Alex is a pastor and Nika is a full-time student.

Alex and I were drawn to each other from the start. We met in high school and remained friends (albeit slightly awkward ones) for six years until we finally told each other how we felt. Looking back, both of us had an unshakeable sense that we would be together one day. Our love is bigger than us, beyond us. And in the winter of 2010, the time was right.

18 months later, we were engaged. We had six months and less than $10,000 to plan our wedding. Luckily, we also had a lot of loving family and friends who were willing to get creative. We wanted everything to be simple, meaningful, and fun. We cleaned out our local op-shops (and then some) collecting, sewing and sourcing. Planning our wedding and bringing it to life with the help of our community was one of the most fun things we’ve ever done.

Both our houses were filled with DIY wedding materials for months, but our housemates were very gracious. We drew our own invitations and made a drinking jar for every guest with lovely rustic name tags and lace. We spent weekends cutting bunting triangles out of pretty bed sheets and pillowcases, ironing them and spraying them with starch for our reception. We ordered an abundance of dried wildflowers for the bouquets from a farm just outside of Perth.

I bought my dress, veil, ring, and bridesmaid gifts online. The bridesmaids and our flower girl (my beautiful little sister) wore simple cotton dresses, each in a different shade of green with a small floral print. We bought the fabrics from Spotlight and our friend Theresa sewed them for us. The whole wedding party went shopping together for Alex and his groomsmen’s outfits. Their shirts and pants were from Jack London and the shoes were from Roger David. We searched everywhere for the right brown tweed waistcoats. Eventually we found them in Dangerfield but they were too small, so we bought some brown corduroy and had them adjusted by a local guy in Rockingham City. Our friend Michaela made the green tie and bow ties. We made the boutonnieres from billy buttons, lavender and twine.

Since I love words and have kept journals all my life, I decided to work on a secret project of my own leading up to the wedding. It was a handwritten book of journal entries from the years since Alex and I met. I gave it to our friend Matt to deliver on the morning of the wedding. Alex loved it.

We had the ceremony at Fairbridge Chapel in Pinjarra. We didn’t do much in the way of decorating because the chapel is beautiful as it is. We made some wooden signs for out front, tied cardboard love hearts to the trees and secured dried lavender to the pews inside. We also made our own little handwritten programs out of cardboard and twine. Our bridal procession song was “Nothing I Hold Onto” by Will Regan & United Pursuit. The ceremony was perfect – seeing each other for the first time and exchanging vows were two of our favorite moments of the day.

After the ceremony, Alex and I drove around with our photographer Tim spotting nice locations and jumping out to take photos while everyone else went straight to the reception, which was at the Nanga Bush Camp in Dwellingup. The reception location was the best find ever – it had fireplaces and balconies and long jarrah tables all surrounded by trees and stars.

Walking into the reception was our other favorite moment of the day. We arrived to 150 loved ones on their feet, clapping, cheering, blowing whistles and playing little instruments. There was so much color and warmth that we both felt overwhelmed with joy. We set everything up the day before with our friends. Each table was different, and topped with mismatched vintage tablecloths. We topped the tables with plates, jars of wildflowers, pretty trinkets, candles, menus and programs made from cardboard and twine. We put the seating arrangements on two pretty windows we got from the Balcatta Tip (which is a total treasure planet). We strung the lights and put couches and rugs on the the veranda. We also hung photos of us taken over the years with sentences from our favorite poems, books and songs.

The food and desserts were a collaborative effort. We hired Bella Pitsa Catering Company to make all-you-can-eat wood fire pizzas, which were fantastic. Our friend Susan made caramel and cashew brittle and my bridesmaid Anna wrapped them in brown paper bags and decorated them beautifully. We gave our friend Jenny a picture of what we wanted for our wedding cake, and she made an exact replica – it was a delicious chocolate cake with white chocolate icing. Our friends Nicole, Kirsty and Sinaed made 150 cupcakes to match. We had a red love heart we made out of felt, stuffing and string for our cake topper. Other friends made chocolate brownies and sticky date pudding, which was so good.

Our reception had quite a lot of speeches, which are one of our favorite parts of a wedding. Our friends and family spoke in duos or trios and we gave them each one of our favorite poems to read at the end. We danced (very poorly, ha!) to “The Book of Love” by the Magnetic Fields.

After more dancing, we were farewelled around midnight with hugs, sparklers and cheers. It was a day we would happily re-live again and again.

All photographs by Tim Coulson.

Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods
Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods

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