Turning Back Time: Wedding Planning Before Planners Existed in Perth

Let’s turn back time to an era when wedding planners didn’t exist like they do today. Oof! I was married all the way back in 2007, I was just 24 years old, working full-time as a Property Manager at Acton Real Estate and cleaning the RAC building in the evenings from 7-10pm. In the midst of planning our wedding, my husband and I bought our first home and an investment property that needed renovations. We were time poor and tired already with the day to day let alone trying to find a venue for 140 people, dress, book vendors and make the big decisions. A few months in, I just wanted to elope, it ended up taking us 2 years to plan our wedding only because I didnt have the time to plan it.

Don't get me wrong, I loved planning my wedding, that’s exactly why I’m a planner today but juggling everything was hectic. There was no such thing as a dedicated wedding planner because trust me, I looked! Venue coordinators existed, but they worked for the venue, not the couple as they still do. The stress was real.

How We Booked Vendors Before the Digital Age in 2005 - 2007

With no Instagram, Pinterest or business Facebook pages (DMs were literally messaging on someones wall for everyone to read not private at all), inspiration came from wedding magazines and bridal fairs. Booking vendors was a slow and painful process. We literally ripped out magazine pages and stuck them to an A3 sheet from the newsagency because Officeworks didn't have a store. 

This is an example of the process of booking our wedding videographer back then. I opened the Yellow Pages, wrote down possibly 10 videographers and called them all on my lunch break, some businesses didn't even have email let alone respond to them in 1 business day. If they were available, they’d post a DVD for us to review (yes, post! Because dial-up internet wasn’t cutting it). Then, we’d sit down and watch them on TV, pray no one took our date before we decided and then sign up and pay our booking fee. Editing took a full year because they had to put 18 hours of footage together in a 2 part DVD worth four hours of watching time plus a highlight video.

Wedding Costs in Perth, 2007

For reference, here’s what some of our wedding cost back then:

Appetiser with a three-course meal with beer, wine & soft drinks: $95 per person

Top-tier videography: $7,000

Photography: $6,500

Cake (3-tier fondant): $600

DJ - $1200

Our total wedding budget in 2007 was $55,000 and we went over by $10,000

Things lIke this:
Cake: We were entering the era of chocolate mud cake, moving away from traditional fruit cake. We were even told to freeze the top tier and eat it on our first anniversary but honestly, we should have just had a recovery party the next day and eaten it then! However back then we went on our Honeymoons the day after the wedding. So we had that to plan too.

Design & Styling: We didn't have options to use hire companies for cutlery, crockery and glassware. You only used the hotels inventory. 

Chair covers were white or black and we had a choice of "Chair Sashes" at $4.50 per chair. Flowers or floating candles with rocks at the bottom were the centerpieces. I went completely rouge and had black and silver sticks in tall glass vases. There was no such thing as having 2-3 styles of centrepieces, 1 stock standard one for every table. I still have one because I paid the decorator for 2 to keep, one broke over the years.

The tea lights were all around the bottom in silver liners because there was no such thing as a tea light in clear liners like today and I may have even had those clear pebble rocks spread out over the table. Overall I cringe because it wasn't my dream wedding but what was available in my time, if I had what is available today, I would be in heaven and not be speaking like this today 

The Reality of DIY Wedding Planning | Some things Haven't Changed 

The things that went wrong because I didn't have a professional planner to advise me

• I was sorting out place cards in table order the week of the wedding.
• I was chasing RSVPs three days out.
• Guest dropouts would happen last-minute, but I’d still have to pay for them.
• The DJ would annoy me all night after three in-person meetings because he wasn't confident enough with his own work 
• Our welcome sign that the hotel made us would have my name spelled incorrectly. Yes as the Bride, it still infuriates me today.
• I wouldn’t see my reception until guests were already seated by then, everything had been moved and my photographer never took photos of the setup.
• Where I needed flowers or decor. My signing table was literally that, a signing table with no decor.
• We weren’t running on time all day because no one was managing the timeline. I didn't ever make a timeline because I didn't know I had to
• Every vendor would want my time in the last week because they were busy 
• My dress would be delayed and not in until the week before the wedding not giving me enough times for alterations. Then having to find shoes to make me shorter because my dress was too short. (I literally took off one shoe and stood on the floor barefoot for our family photos so that my dress would touch the floor) 

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely but with a professional and experienced wedding planner.

What I Wish I Had Back Then

When I launched Vicky Rahmic Events, I built my business around what I needed but didn’t have. If I could go back, I would have wanted:

• Someone to manage RSVPs and follow up with guests.
• Someone to coordinate vendors & create a proper timeline and be open with me about what works and what didn't.
• Someone to guide me on which vendors were trustworthy.
• Someone to proofread and check everything before guests arrived (so my name wasn’t spelled wrong!). I would have rather that sign not be there.
• Someone to show me my reception before guests walked in so I could take in what I had worked towards for 2 years.
• Someone to prepare me for inevitable last-minute changes.
• Someone to take behind-the-scenes photos/videos for my own memories.
• Someone to be there on the evening so the DJ and anyone else who needed guidance could bother them and not me
• Someone to advocate for me when I felt overwhelmed.
• Someone who had been through this before and truly understood.
• Someone to simply hold my bag while I was walking down the aisle, instead of hoping it will be there at the end. 

 

Weddings Have Changed and So Has Planning

Today, planning a wedding is completely different if you have a reputable experienced wedding planner who understands and been there in your shoes. Yes, Technology like digital RSVPs, vendor directories, seating charts, personalised welcome signs and instant inspiration at our fingertips has made it easier. However, working full time there is still a lack of time to do the ground work, those same mistakes will still be made unless you have a Wedding Planner that understands how to coordinating logistics, what to ask vendors and managing a last-minute crisis without you even knowing, it is simply no longer the couple’s burden to carry alone.

This is why wedding planning is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity for couples who want a seamless, stress-free experience. Because at the end of the day, your wedding isn’t just an event. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment that deserves to be fully enjoyed, not endured and it's certainly something you do remember for years to come, Im 18 years this year and still counting.

💍 If you’re planning your wedding, let’s make it everything you dreamed of without the stress and burden. Your time is valuable 

VICKY RAHMIC EVENTS