Average costs

We are getting married in march on a friday evening. we are doing a buffet dinner that costs $98/ person. this also includes 4 hour open bar and 2 glasses of wine each with dinner and also a cocktail hour. our biggest expense is the venue and it was still the cheapest we could find that also was not a dive..lol we are getting married in oakville. having our ceremony and reception at the same hotel. our total cost of venue is $7000 and that encludes dj supplied by them. the lady is a gem to work with. and i am also doing or have done most things myself already. make appointments and talkl to people.

We are getting married in a low costing season (Jan-April) in the city of Vaughn. Our hall is beautiful and very modern. The price we are paying for is 150$, which is low for what they wanted for peak season in October. This includes a antipasto bar, unlimited and premium bar/alcohol, a meat and fish, pasta, dessert and fruit, as well as late night menu of poutine, ice cream and porcetta. My guest won't stop eating so it seems lmao.

If your going to a hall in Toronto, be prepared to spend money, unless you go out of the city.

Our venue was free as it was family property. Our catering cost about $54/person I think. That was for 3 types of hors d'oeuvres during the cocktail hour, buffet dinner with roast beef, chicken, 2 veggie sides, mashed potatoes, 2 salads, dinner rolls and a few vegetarian meals, and also a late night snack of sliders.

We booked our local agricultural hall which is 15$/person for buffet dinner. This includes one meat, mashed potatoes, vegetable, salads, pickles, dessert, coffee and tea.

O ur budget is about $10,000 and the majority of it went to our photographer at about $3000. I always wanted a barn setting and the hall inside actually looks like one so that worked out well! And the hall runs the bar, which will be a cash bar, we are making our own wine at about $4.50/bottle for table wine to serve with dinner.
I called around to all of the local vendors before deciding and making sure I had a checklist of what I wanted so they could price accordingly.
If you're doing a hackyard wedding, I would look into and local BBQ vendors, they seemed to be a cost efficient vendor

Hey Everyone!!
Thank you all so much for your advice, kind words and information. I live in Beamsville but my parents live in Rockwood. I am open to getting married anywhere from here to there really.

I know I want a rustic style wedding so outdoor ceremony and maybe reception in a barn like setting. I have the option to get married in my parents backyard they have ten acres which would be great.

I love the style of Cambium Farm but if I choose them as a venue I have to choose their caterer which starts at $150/plate (7hr open bar included in this price, three course meal all the tables chairs cutlery and gratuity). It seems like alot of $$.

I have a draft of our guest list and it is at 160 people! I have been trying to cut people out but it is hard to do.

Our venue is $1600 and that includes ceremony and reception location, tables and chairs for both, the wait staff, wedding coordinator, our hotel room for the night, rain plan for the ceremony, napkins/linens/drinkware/cutlery for the reception, set up and tear down, bartenders, SOCAN fees, wedding insurance, complimentary 1 year anniversary dinner, audio equipment for speeches, and rehearsal dinner space.

Per person we are paying $40/adult and $20/child for the 4 course meal and and $20/table for wine (one white and one red).

We also have our DJ, caterer, officiant, videographer, open bar, outfits, cake, stationary, transportation, flowers (bouquets, boutinnieres, corsages) and wedding party gifts in our budget.

Overall with all the costs we have confirmed right now we are looking at spending $10,000-$11,000 on the wedding unless we upgrade our videographey package or other stuff

We are paying $64 a plate and getting married at the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory. Congratulations on your engagement. I’ve been doing a lot of research and this suited us best. We choose the brunch wedding. So we are getting married in the early morning. Keeps cost down. Should you like to chat, I’d like that.

Congratulations!

We're getting married at a Vineyards/Sugar Shack and sharing our special day with under 100 other people.

We're paying $40/pp for a mechoui-type buffet with all the fixings. We're also paying $26/pp for 1 cocktail after the ceremony and wine at dinner. To secure the venue, we're paying a $3,000 rental fee. Oh and don't forget to factor in taxes and gratuities, because those can creep up on you!!

The WeddingWire budget tool is really helpful, as you can customize all you want. It'll also show you how should distribute the money overall.

Happy planning

Also my venue is only $150 and $25 for the bar license. (Community hall) it comes with all the tables/chairs/table clothes/plates/utensils i'll need. And if i opted to have them cater it would be $13.50 per person and everything i listed would be included in that total price which would be $945.

I dont know where you live but caterers around here (nova scotia) range from $13.50 a plate and up.
We have 70 people invited and we're having a brunch wedding so i opted to do all the cooking myself and ask my family to bring a few dishes too, our total budget is $2500 for the whole wedding.
Which i get alot of odd looks for because people dont seem to think its doable, but it totally is!

My cost per plate is quite expensive ($100/person), but I know that's on the pricier side of weddings. We chose it because included in that price is the venues amenities (Casino/Hotel) and many perks for us as the bride and groom (free bridal suite, free stay the night of, choice of linens and candles included), so that's where the extra money went to.

A few other venues were quoting us around $30/person for a family style with appetizers and 3-course meal (salad, main course and dessert). It really depends on what you're looking for and where you'll be.

When are you getting married Jacqueline? It says you live in Rockwood. Is this near Eden Mills or Guelph? If so, I’m from Eden Mills. We live about 7 to 10 minutes apart. The average plate for our area is anywhere from $100 to $200 depend on what kind of venue you pick. It can be done cheaper. I’d be happy to meet up with you and we could talk about wedding stuff.

Forgot to mention that mine includes a 7.5 hour consecutive bar, too!

It depends on what kind of caterer you get. Some fancier catering charge around 75 a plate. A small under the table caterer will usually do a wedding for way more reasonable like $1500 for a wedding of 150. But that means you’ll have to get plates and cutlery. BBQ is a less expensive way to go as well, usually you can get a pig roasted for around $500 and then have family and friends all make a few salads the night before or morning of!

View quoted message Thanks for the info!

View quoted message We are at Carmens in Hamilton, Ontario. The price has gone up for this year, forgive me if I miss quote the new price, but I think it's $78.00 pp For 2018. We locked our price in last February 2017. It is also off season.

Congratulations to you!

I couldn't agree more with a wedding binder - it has been the easiest way to keep track of everything! As well as a spreadsheet to keep track of ongoing expenses and deposits/final payments to vendors.

Our wedding budget is approximately $30000.00 for 200 people in Alberta! I'll list some numbers below for what we are paying so far!
$35.00/person for a buffet meal including appetizers, 2 salads, buns, roast beef, garlic roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, maple glazed carrots, pickle platters and an ice cream Sunday bar - works out to about $7000.00
$4000.00 for photography
$1200.00 for videography
$3200.00 for ceremony and reception venue - includes big top tent and the majority of the chairs/tables and decorations$600.00 for a cutting cake and cupcakes $2000.00 for liquor
$500.00 for two bartenders for 8 hours
$700.00 for hair and makeup for 5 right at our hotel
$2200.00 for wedding dress, accessories, and alterations
$400.00 for evening guest shuttle

Hope you have a ton of fun planning!

My picture didn’t show up!

”The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner and Organizer”

Congratulations on the engagement!

The first thing I did after getting engaged and telling everyone was purchase a wedding binder, IT HAS BEEN MY HOLY GRAIL. It’s provided me with ratios on how much of my budget should go to what items and whatnot (and I cross off items we’re not including in our wedding).

I use “The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner and Organizer” (see below)


As for for how much I’m spending, I’m getting married in Woodbridge, ON and have seen venues from as low as $70/head up to $195/head. It really has come down to research and expectations. What I’m most-likely going to go with will be $107/head (plus tax), which will get us:
- antipasto bar
-cocktail hour
- four-course meal (salad, pasta, main, dessert)
- late night station

We’re looking to spend no more than $35000 tops on everything.

View quoted message Where’s your venue? That sounds amazing for what your paying!

So.. we didn't start with a concrete big number budget.

We literally went through each item (I use a pre-set up Google Doc that's available) and thought about what we thought each item would cost.. Example:

Flowers - 1500 probably

Photographer - 2000 was comfortable

and so on.

If we weren't sure how much something would cost we googled a few vendors to see what they were charging. All in our overall budget is just under $30,000 with our venue taking about 50% of that. We looked at more expensive venues.. no banquet halls as it feeling intimate and having good food was important. I also didn't want to have to do any of our own set up.

We are having 185 guests, 4 course meal; late night buffet with poutine, pizza, cookies, crepe flambe, and sweets; cake included, DJ included, limo included, Cocktail hour with apps included, and open bar included. 70.00 pp, Saturday night during off season. We are get married this March 24th!!!

We are paying $45/per plate for a buffet. That includes 2 meat options, two salads, three sides, rolls, a couple dips/hummus and pita chip, as well as a variety of dessert options. This does not include wait staff though, so double check if the fee includes the servers/bartenders. This is the middle buffet price for our venue. This also does not include alcohol. We are looking at 100-120 people.

We are also offering a late night snack, which is $9 per person.

Our venue/food is actually almost half of our budget (because we had to factor in alcohol--no cash bar at our venue). But, venue, food, (and photography) was where we decided to not skimp.

Our budget started at $15 000 but we raised it $18 000 when we decided on this venue.

Depends on how fancy you want your dinner, how many courses you are having? Mine is a 4 course dinner the cost is $45 a plate.

1st course: Ceaser Salad

2nd course: tomato bisque soup

3rd course: steak (don't remember the cut)

4th course: creme brulee ($1 extra for this type of dessert but dessert is included in the meal plan, because we have a specific req was the reason for the extra cost)

Told the venue we would have about 115 ppl there they gave us an estimate of $5,060. This only includes food so no booze yet. We also have a late night snacks 40 servings each of taco bar and martini mash potato bar total came to $880 for those items.

Congrats girl! It honestly allllll depends on the type of venue you book at for your ceremony and the type of meal you want to do. We decided on a sit down dinner. We had originally thought of a buffet but it was roughly the same price to do a sit down. Our meals range from $32-$36 per plate. This also gets them a starter and a dessert.

As for a budget, our wedding is in a hotel from start to finish, for anywhere from 80-100 people (but I'm really hoping to have no more than 80). The original budget we had set out was $20,000. That was our scary number and we didn't want to go over it. We then realized that it wasn't feasible and had to increase our number. This all had to do with where we were holding the wedding and the cost of everything there. We decided on a cash bar to help save on money. We live in a small city where vendors are hard to come by so they can increase costs because they know people will pay the prices to have that particular person hired for their wedding. We increased our budget to $30,000 and I can honestly say that we keep getting closer to that number almost daily.

Before you decide on a number, sit down and go over everything you pay for bills monthly. Meet with somebody from your bank to help you figure out what a good number would be for the two of you. Don't just try to come up with a number on your own. Definitely ask for guidance. It's what we did and really helped us see the overall picture while planning the wedding. Good luck!

Congratulations on your engagement! Deep breaths now as you get started planning!

As far as budget goes, that’s going to depend on your household income plus any help you might be getting. My budget is based on my fiance’s savings per month over the course of the time between now and our wedding. Our plan was to stay out of debt as much as possible. You can have a wedding at really any budget, you just have to be willing to make as many sacrifices as that budget requires. So find something comfortable for you. If you put that amount in the planner on here it’ll give you a fairly reasonable breakdown on costs. You’ll probably reshuffle based on your wants but it’s a good place to start!

For us we are spending almost $4000 on food for about 100 guests. We decided that food was important to us. So that is a big part of our budget. I think it will be about $45 per person.

My per plate cost is $26.95. It has salad, pasta, chicken and a dessert. I feel like that’s fairly average!