The crazy ways people are funding their weddings

Kristy and Brendan Oates turned their stunning wedding into a profitable business.

Gone are the days where the bride's parents exclusively foot the bill for a big wedding. Now many couples are funding their big day themselves, or making a significant contribution, and have to dig deep to come up with the $65,000 the average wedding now costs.

Here's just some of the inventive ways couples are making cash to foot their lovefest bill.

"WE HIRE OUR APARTMENT ON AIRBNB"

Beck and Joel are funding their November wedding by renting out their home on Airbnb.Source:Supplied

When they noticed the big bucks their friends were making by renting out their home on Airbnb, Beck Rocchi, 30, and her fiance Joel Olsen, 29, decided to advertise their one-bedder in Windsor, Melbourne, to save some pocket money for their November wedding.

"The first time we were going away for three weeks and the apartment got booked straight away," wedding photographer Rocchi says.

"Then we started renting it out when we were still in Melbourne and just went to stay with my parents who live 15 minutes away."

They've managed to pocket about $13,000, which they're putting towards extra entertainment, styling and better quality food.

"It's such a big chunk of the wedding and takes a bit of the financial pressure off," she says.

Airbnb, travel like a human

"WE DO ODD JOBS EVERY WEEKEND"

Shane and Lucy are advertising themselves for odd jobs on Airtasker to pay for their wedding in May next year.Source:Supplied

Shane Mackaness, 39, and his fiancee Lucy are doing everything from gardening to business admin to save up for their wedding on the Sunshine Coast next May.

The couple advertise their services on Airtasker and have done more than 94 odd jobs, earning hundreds of dollars a week.

"We do a lot of jobs together so even though we are using our days off from our fulltime jobs to do this, we are still spending time together," Mackaness says.

"We have worked seven days a week for months, so sometimes we have to block out a day or a weekend for a rest."

The elbow grease is paying off though — they estimate they'll cover half the cost of the wedding, plus make a substantial contribution towards their guests' accommodation costs.

"OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS HELPED FOOT THE BILL"

Jacob and Nicole used crowd-funding to fund their wedding in Nevada last month. Picture: Makena Lee PhotographySource:Supplied

After meeting in a bar in Brooklyn in May, Jacob Rossignuolo, from Melbourne, and Nicole, from New Jersey, US, fell in love and decided to get married in September.

Jacob had been travelling for 18 months and maxed his credit cards so created a GoFundMe page to ask friends and family for a bit of help for the $1500 they'd need to hire an Elvis impersonator to marry them by Lake Tahoe in Nevada, plus pay for a hire car for a honeymoon road trip.

"We saw it as a gift for the wedding. I specifically asked people to just give what they could — anything would make a difference," Jacob, 27, says.

They had a few friends in attendance and planned to get them to take some photos but in a stroke of good luck, a wedding photographer saw them on the day and offered to take some photos for free.

Now they're planning wedding parties with all their friends and family in Melbourne over New Year's and in the States in February.

"It was like the wedding in Tahoe was the ceremony but we are having two different receptions in each country," Jacob says.

"WE MADE A BUSINESS OUT OF OUR WEDDING"

Cute! It's no wonder Kristy and Brendon are making money from renting out their vintage wedding props.Source:Supplied

Kristy Oates, 33, made all sorts of vintage props for her wedding to husband Brendon in 2014, then created a business, The Collection Vintage Props, after their wedding to pay themselves back.

Now they hire out the lawn games, vintage photo booth and even crockery to other couples who want a vintage-looking wedding, and get to recoup the cost of their wedding.

"Brendon was getting annoyed that I was buying so much stuff for the wedding but I kept saying I would hire it out afterwards so I had to stick to my word!" Kristy says.

"I'm a graphic designer so I just set up the website, did a couple of ads and it's spread via word of mouth."

"I STARTED AN ETSY STORE"

Jen and Curt are getting married next April, so she started an online invitation business to help pay for it.Source:Supplied

When graphic designer Jen Berries, 28, couldn't find wedding invitations she liked, she decided to design her own and open an Etsy store to raise funds for her marriage to Curt next April.

"Whatever I earn from my store She Fox Invitations is strictly for our wedding," she says.

"We'll use it to buy the materials for building the arbour to get married under, plus use it for gifts for the bridal party and for our honeymoon."

"WE TOOK A SECOND JOB"

Jessica Moorhouse took on a second job and worked harder than she ever has in her life to pay for her wedding in 2013.Source:Supplied

As Jessica Moorhouse's wedding approached in May 2013, she and her husband took on second jobs to help fund the day.

For Moorhouse, who writes the award-winning Mo' Money Mo' Houses blog and works fulltime as a digital marketer, it meant freelance writing and running the teleprompter for the nightly TV news, while her sound engineer husband worked nights doing sound for events and theatre productions.

The extra work ended up funding about 25 per cent of their wedding, but Moorhouse admits it was exhausting.

"I can't remember a time I've ever worked so much or so hard in my life," she says.

"But I knew it was only going to be like that for a year or until I earned enough money that I wasn't worried about wedding costs anymore."

"MY HUSBAND SOLD HIS MOTORBIKE"

Poor bloke. Richie Langton sold his motorbike so his wife Robyn could get the dress she wanted. Totally worth it mate.Source:Supplied

When Robyn and Richie Langton tied the knot in 2013, he offered to sell his beloved motorbike to give her the day of her dreams.

"Our son Zac was a toddler then and Richie was never finding the time to ride it. As the price of the wedding soared he said he would sell it," Robyn, 36, says.

"It paid for about half of the wedding and without that we would have had to curb our guest list and other things. This way we didn't have to skimp — and I could get the dress I really wanted!"

Source: The crazy ways people are funding their weddings