Getting married in the garden...help!

[Teenybitsad]

We are thinking of getting married in my MILS garden next December...they live in Australia so it will be summer.

We want a low cost but fun day....in our mind the budget should go on good food and drink...we think it will be around 70 people...I was thinking of having it begin at around 12.00 with some shelter from the sun...a simple ceremony and then lunch with drinks....they party pretty hard out there...and I am a lightweight, I don't want evryone drunk before the evening...so how do you space things out a bit? There will be kids there too...ours and others.

Shuld I have it begin later? What drinks do we have apart from Champagne and soft drinks? Beer? Wine? Punch?

What food would be good? I was thinking that we could hire caterers who will barby for us.

Should the evening food be diferent? How? What about music?

I am crap at this kind of thing! We live in the UK and MIL will help alot..she loves parties etc....but I want some formed plans s she doesn't make it all up herself!

I canll her MIL even though we're not married! then again I can DP DH too!

It might be nice to offer tea and coffee during the afternoon, some people might be gagging for a cuppa! Make sure you have a lot of ice for cold drinks. Could have a non-alcoholic punch for children/drivers/pregnant guests, or for those who are simply thirsty. You could have someone in charge of the alcoholic drinks, in a non-paying bar set-up, which will control how much is dispensed to some degree. Don't bring out all the drink at once, if people see seemingly limitless amounts of booze, they may well over-do it.

If you hire caterers who will do a lunch bbq, will it be expensive to have them cook in the evening too? So you could have cold buffet then.

I think limiting the time available to get drunk in would perhaps be best. Extreme heat and alcohol don't mix well, I think starting later in the day if possible might be better for everyones comfort!

Yes girly...I think we might have to pay someone to do drinks or it'll turn into a nightmare.

Maybe as you say, a cooked lunch and then a cold buffet in the evening...with music etc.

I'm wondering how MIL's neighbours would feel about live music....maybe we'll have to invite them for the evening bash!

At my 18th my then boyfriend's parents had a company that rented out catering equipment so let us have a slushie machine for free for the night - might be worth seeing if you could hire one cheaply?

Once you've got the machine you just buy the sugar syrup stuff - we also got little cups with dome lids and some slushie straws, but you don't need to. It meant there was a fun non-alcoholic drink that was really refreshing during the dancing, meant that children/pregnant people/drivers had something more exciting than juice and you can also add shots of rum/tequila/vodka to make frozen cocktails.

Not so much related to food and drink, think about little vanity baskets to put in the loos - we had tampons, face wipes and moisturiser in the girls' loos, you could maybe leave a few bottles of sun cream just in case people forget? I know the Australians are religious about it, but if you have any guests from the UK it might be a useful reminder...

Oh thanks Double...what a fab idea. Not sure if they'd have that possibility in South Oz but you never know! They do love their slushies! Kids would love it too... so much sugar!

www.stylemepretty.com/2010/05/18/australian-wedding/

Beer, wine, pims and lemonade soft drinks IMO is all you need.

To me, food is the priority, so a really good caterer. I've been to a wedding with buffet, with a huge range of salads, salmon, ham, roast beef, home made quiche - all delicious.