Advice on a cheap wedding?

My step sister got married technically at the side of the road along the highway between Vernon and Kelowna, looking over the lake. It was beautiful, and I'm pretty sure she reached out to the rangers/park service or whatever, and because of where it was and how small the wedding was, they didn't even need to pay anything for a permit... they were just told to clean up after themselves or they'd be fined.

I would look into what public parks are around the lake down in Kamloops. If it's a small wedding, you can totally get away with a standing ceremony with a super picturesque background of the lake/mountains!

Good luck!

View quoted message My fiancee is Ukranian/African and tells crazy stories about her giant Ukranian family so I get that 100% lol
Your wedding is going to be so giant! It's really cool that many people want to celebrate your love though that's amazing!
A LOT of family on both our sides wouldn't come. We're okay with it honestly I'd rather they not come than show up and be rude. I offered my mom and stepdad an "out" because while they love my lady and are very excited I know they won't be completely comfortable and that's gonna be a bit weird. My sisters and parents will be there, her siblings and parents will be there, and we each have a few friends coming. Extended family would be hateful so they can be hateful alone without roast lamb and craft beer and our love. Doesn't bother us any, you get used to it

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Lol All good, I figured that's what you meant

Ya, 250 is crazy right? I would LOVE to have 28 people!

And to think that my Mom and Dad had 500-600 people at their wedding!!! Stupid Ukrainian family over here and my Fiancé has an Icelandic family... I would say that he takes up most of the list though so I blame him!

If it was up to him and he was paying for the majority of things then it would be a 400 people wedding though. We are actually going to have two sets of invitations in hopes that if people RSVP no then we can invite others.

But wait, some of your family won't attend because it's a same sex marriage??? For real??? They need to get their heads out of their you-know-where's! I only have a handful of people that probably won't be coming but that's because a) we aren't getting married in a church (FH doesn't do the whole church/religion thing), and b) we are having an adult only wedding (18+) and family is bitter about it.

View quoted message A park is our "plan B" for if none of our Farm venues work! $100 for a permit isn't bad at all, we could totally make that happen! We're basically JUST having a reception and we're going to work the under 10 minute ceremony into it. No aisle walking, just everyone gather around and we gon' get married then y'all can go back to your food.

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Have you considered doing a park ceremony? in my town, you have to pay for a permit (and chair rentals if you want that...but for 28 people i wouldn't). and the permit fee is around 100.

and for the reception part you could even do it at a restaurant. or back at someones house/backyard too.

a wedding is what you want it to be. i think with a lot of the tasks its the "this is generally how a wedding goes". for me i am of the mindset of you do what you want. and who cares what anyone else thinks.

View quoted message Ugh we both COOK for work. Heckin' phone...

View quoted message I don't even know 250 people!
I think it also helps that it's a same sex wedding, most of our extended family wouldn't come anyway so they're not invited. Our guest list is at 28 and we both cool for work so 28 meals is nothing hahaha!
My bouquet is made of buttons and hers of brooches, all vintage thrift store scores!
20k means you're gonna get your dream wedding though so I hope you and your man have crazy fun and love every minute of it!

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I totally know what you mean - I'm trying for a cheap wedding and our budget is still ridiculous ($20,000)! At least it won't put us in debt thouhg so there's that.

As for 5k, I can't even find somewhere to feed 250 people for much less than that 😂 I mean, if my guest list was smaller I would love to make the food but... ya, I'm not down for that many meals!!

Cheap weddings are easy if you don't mind a small wedding, lots of DIY, and know the right people so you should be fine once you find a venue!

Happy planning!

View quoted message Thanks! We've looked at a few farm venues as well as the smaller ones tend to be cheaper.
I don't understand all of the insanity that WeddingWire thinks we need to do. We don't need an engagement photo shoot, party favours are for children, we have no need for a band as we are both capable of making a playlist and pressing play, and so much more. I swear half the "tasks" I'm supposed to have completed are the reason the average wedding is 30k+.
Our friends got married at a rhododendron in Stanley Park in 7 and a half minutes. Her dress cost $60, the boquet couldn't have been more than 20, he wore dress pants and a nice shirt. The officiant cost 78$ and the marriage license was $100. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been a part of, they were deliriously happy, there are 8 million polaroids of it and they got to start their lives right away without anyone going into debt. AND with so little to do NOTHING could go wrong. We wanna celebrate our love and our lives together, we don't want to break the bank lol

Well congrats on the engagement and welcome to the wedding wire community!!

I tried searching on here for park weddings in the venue section but came up with only one in Salmon Arm and none in Kamloops. Here is the link to Tin Poppy Retreat: Park Wedding in Salmon Arm (Tin Poppy Retreat)