Are we spending too much?

We had the same amount of people 72 exact and paid about little less than $20K. You are on a good budget as other places could be more expensive. Décor wise, I did spend less on renting backdrop, centerpieces, floral ball and money box. Other items were mainly purchased online saving tons of money than retail apart from favours and husbands outfit with accessories and my suit.

I mean, we had a weekend wedding here in MB and it cost us just over $20,000 after tax, tips, etc. so hearing that price tag for a morning weekday wedding I think it is a bit overpriced - but if it's what you want and can afford it then I would just say to go with the flow. You only have one wedding right? (Hopefully!)

Otherwise I would say to maybe make it a cash bar, see about getting a dress from a consignment store or online, and don't forget that most weddings you get presentation from guests!! Although you can't rely on it - you should be getting at very minimum $25/head from guests = $1,700 (68 = taking you guys out of the equation). You may get some that don't give anything because they are rude and might not get that weddings cost lots of money - but you should also get more like $100/head from aunts and uncles (at least in my family).

Its up to you and what you can afford. if you have to stick to your budget more keep off all the extra people. but that seems fine price wise!

Omg Banff! What a dream !

Our wedding will be about 70 guests as well. Our budget is a little less, $10K.

I know it is hard to filter out who you should invite, however the best question you could ask yourself would be "would i pay this person's dinner on any other given day?" if your answer is "no, but..." then Do Not invite!

Also, think about what you can do with the extra $2K-$5K you will save. You can take a longer or more extravagant Honeymoon, save for a House or household items, etc!

Remember this is Your day, and do what makes you happy. Do not do something that will make someone else happy!

View quoted message Aww he sounds like a great guy! Best of luck in your studies

View quoted message Yeah, you may be right. Thank you! I'm really happy with all the aspects of the wedding other than the spending (but I guess that's the same with most brides!). We've already cut most of our unnecessary spending too. It's just so tough right now because I'm a student and I feel so terrible that I'm not able to contribute as much. My fiancé says I shouldn't work while school is on because he knows how important grades are to me. He even wants to find a second job but I keep telling him that our family time is more important (we have a 3 year old) than money. So yeah...


Ah, sorry for rambling too much. And thanks for listening! I feel a bit better now. 💕

View quoted message I understand where you are coming from. Its definitely hard to "pick" one friend over another. It sounds like you are happy and are maybe just having some buyer's remorse. Maybe sit down and figure out how much money you will need to have by the wedding day so you can try and plan to put extra away now. Cutting back on extras like unneccessary spending/shopping, food, etc will help overall as well because the money you saved can go towards the wedding. I'd hate for you to have to use your credit card, that will leave a bad taste in your mouth for your wedding if you're still paying it after the fact. Or it would first me at least

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A toonie bar is when guests pay a toonie for a drink, and you pay the rest. I'm not sure how this works with the venue though - you'd definitely have to talk to them I think.

View quoted message We really wanted to do a destination wedding in Banff. I guess the most important thing to us really is to have our family and close friends. The thing is that most of our close friends share all of our mutual friends (we hang out in a big group) so we felt bad just picking who to invite. Our budget really jumped once our group got too big for our original venue for reception so we had to get a different one with a minimum F&B spend that added an extra $3200 to our budget. At this point i think it is too late (and rude) to uninvite people so we are just going to try and cut back from other expenses (no limo, no wedding giveaways, diy what can be diy-ed).


We've saved up quite a bit for this wedding too so we are hoping that we don't have to resort to our credit to pay for the rest. Anyway, we don't typically host big parties or anything so we're really looking forward to this. I guess I'm just not used to spending a big amount like this.

View quoted message It includes florals, decor, food and alcohol. Dress and accessories aren't included so that would be another $1k. If I'm being honest this is probably looking at around $20-25k all together including our airline tickets, car rental, hotels, and pocket money (it's a destination wedding).


The toonie bar sounds like a good idea. How would that work? We are paying for a minimum F&B spend at the reception instead of a fixed price per head.

I agree with Amelia. You asked if you were spending too much, I think if you can afford it and are happy then the answer is no you are not spending too much. If you've answered no to one of those I would personally try to rethink things. Really ask yourself what it is that's truly important to you and your future spouse and what in ten years won't really matter that you can do without.

I'm not familiar with the pricing for weddings in Alberta but I think in Ontario that would be considered high for a midweek morning wedding.

Is 16k your total budget including dress, florals, decor, accessories, food/alcohol, etc.?

Could you change the open bar to a toonie bar? You could save some money there for sure.

Is there anything you have booked that you can change at this point? For example can that open bar become a cash bar, or can 70 guests be trimmed down to 50-60? If so I would seriously think about trimming. Everyone wants to go to weddings because they have no idea how much they truly cost (or they do and they want to come to a party with free food and booze!).
Is there a family member who might chip in here or there?
If you can avoid starting a marriage with all that financial stress and debt I would try.