Budget brides

We decided at the very beginning that only the essentials are what we would spend on because at the end of the day, most people won't remember the small details of a wedding, so why spend on those things.

Flowers are being limited to the brides bouquet, flower girl petals, Groom's boutonniere. We're still undecided on whether the MoH, Best Man, and ring bearer will have the equivalent, but odds are we're going to skip them or find a cheaper alternative.

We're having a small wedding and found a planner with an all-in package that includes most all of the essentials, so we're definitely saving on costs that way too.

Very beautiful congratulations! Budgeting on mostly everything. The venues are the biggest cost so it's sale hunting and making centerpieces and greenery etc. A cut here a cut there but it could all still be beautiful without it requiring a body part.

ouch! that's so crazy!! We've seen some around here that offer 120$ per person all inclusive (so includes rentals, decor, food, etc). But that's just crazy!

Wow thanks for the info! How reasonable!!! Restaurants in Vancouver want a $20,000 buy out and $110 per guest as food and 2 drinks.. sucks.
I'm still looking

Wohooo, Im very happy to know your bridemaids said yes!

Choosing the venue is not an easy task, buy Im sure you could figure it out with theses advices:

5 Things Every Couple Should Know Before Booking Their Venue

Also you couls talk to Lindsey taht was also asking the Community about some saving tips

The date wasn't super important, just something we looked at the calendar and settled on. I think FH was a little iffy on changing it last night, but once he realized the price he jumped on it So they date will likely change to a week later, which I'm fine with! It's a very beautiful location, I used to go there a lot when my dad would golf, and a few years ago they had to completely redo everything due to a fire. So its beyond beautiful now! Really can't beat the price though! And the catering is reasonable as well, everywhere else we were looking at 40+ per plate, and here we're looking at roughly 30.

That is BEAUTIFUL I love how bright and open it feels. Was your date very important to you? I feel like changing just a week either way would be totally worth it for the price and based on these gorgeous pictures!!

Written by Yoko:

Cited message

Written by Caitlin:

We MAY have found a venue! I love it, it's beautiful It's not quite what I was looking for, but it looks wonderful, and the price is right! The only downfall, is we'd have to change our date. We'd have to go a week later, or a week before.

What venue did you choose and what's the price associated? Is there a view? What's the capacity? And min spend?
Do you have to decorate and set up and take down?

The venue is Deer Run Golf Course. It's 500$ to rent for the reception with a $500 non-refundable deposit (so 1000 total), plus 500$ for the ceremony. Includes set-up, take down, cake cutting, tables, chairs, linens, podium, microphone (even has wifi...). Their food is very reasonably priced (approx. 25-35$ per plate depending on what we order).

It's definitely a beautiful location. The capacity is up to 250, which is great considering we are staying around 100. !
We also have a choice of bar as well.

The grounds

Inside example

Inside Example

What venue did you choose and what's the price associated? Is there a view? What's the capacity? And min spend?
Do you have to decorate and set up and take down?

We MAY have found a venue! I love it, it's beautiful It's not quite what I was looking for, but it looks wonderful, and the price is right! The only downfall, is we'd have to change our date. We'd have to go a week later, or a week before.

Thank you!

We are struggling with finding a venue in our price range, especially since there are only 2 wedding venues in our location, and the rest are halls , which I'm having a hard time with LOL.

There is a huge dress sale in London/Sarnia I plan to go to and get my dress, up to 90% off designer dresses! So that will help out drastically!

Preparations are going... we picked out bridal party and my girls all got their invitations and said yes
I'm stressing out a little about a venue, where we now plan on getting married (Chatham, ON due to all our family being there) has very little in choices for venue. There are only 2 venues that are actually really nice that I want, but the costs are a little steep for deposits. A little tough , but we'll figure it out

Wow, Nigara falls! super amazing place

Maybe it wasn't how he planed but, the Sky Wheel is also fabulous, you would never forget it! Im so happy for you too Caitlin

And how are you preparations going?

Congratulations! Your color scheme and decor choice is romantic and beautiful! I want to incorporate some fairly lights as well (but i haven't gotten too in-depth with my decor planning yet)

I am under my budget for the venue by having a friday wedding, and under my budget for photography as well. I am opting out flowers like you and incorporating more leafy greens instead and limiting my centrepieces to be no more than $25/table.

The venue we choose is beautiful by itself, so we will probably have minimal decorations. (But again, those fairly lights look beautiful, I NEED to somehow incorporate that!)

I think you can definitely save a lot of money by buying an off-the-rack wedding dress. I ended up ordering one... lol. That was not the plan, but it was still a lot of $$. At least I'm under the budget I allocated to the wedding dress.. or at least that's how I justified it to myself

Sending out e-invites, and buying bulk flowers from Costo would be my other suggestions for cost savings.

best of luck! please keep us updated!

We are doing is going with prices for things in our budget and have also save money by getting items like bouquets, invitations, bridal accessories on sale.

I tease my FH all the time by saying the theme of the wedding is "not what I wanted any way, so now we are going with the cheapest option possible"... To save money I bought my dress off the rack on clearance, omitted save the dates, cash bar, buying flowers from Costco in bulk and doing bouquets and centerpieces our selves, cutting the photographer (a family member will do portraits), DIY invitations, getting the local Girl Guides to cater, and taking advantage of any special skills or talents our friends and family may have... I wanted an intimate court house wedding followed by a barbeque in his mom's back yard (would have cost $1500) he really wanted and is getting the large family affair so saving by cutting guest list is not really an option... Since the footprint is so much larger than my original vision, I'm also trying to be socially responsible by using recycled paper choosing a venue where all profits go back into the community, picking a not for profit caterers, we are also looking into donating the florals to the old age home the next day.

Oh! Good idea!!! I'll definitely start looking for them!

Thank you!

My proposal was amazing. He took me to Niagara Falls for the first time, his boss paid for our dinner at an amazing restaurant. The weather was really crappy, so how he wanted to propose didn't happen, but I prefer the way he did it. He was going to propose in front of the Falls. But the roads were SO icy we were having a hard time walking on them. So we went to the Sky Wheel, and when we got to the top he kissed me, pulled out the ring and said "Will you marry me?". It was simply perfect. I don't think he was nervous at all, usually he stumbles on his words, or actions, but he was so confident.

Hi Caitlin, welcome to the WW Canada Community!

Im so happy for your engagement, congratulations , you have amazing ideas for your big day so far and we are very happy to help you with everything you need.

Staying under budget is not an easy task, I recommend you these tips to avoid goging over budget:

10 Ways to Avoid Going Over Budget on Your Wedding

5 Easy Ways to Save Money on your Wedding Dress

And since you are looking for a hotel reception, here are the Ontario hotels.

I love the color palette purple and gray, these disscusions are perfect for your wedding:

6 purple bouquets

Who is getting married in purple?

Wedding colour trends 2017

I'm so happy to read you here! I just can't wait to hear all about the rest of your wedding planning!

How was you proposal? Was he very nervous?

That's so exciting! Keep us posted and take lots of pics when you visit venues! Can't wait to hear more!

That's so great your FMIL is such a help! We love crafty brides in here!!!! Best thing to do is get fairy lights now! Because then they're "Christmas lights" not "wedding lights" and they will be MUCH cheaper!!!

It definitely is very magical! I absolutely love the idea so I'm going to play around with it a little and see what I can come up with I can be pretty crafty, and between me and my future MIL, I think we have a great shot of coming up with something amazing with fairy lights! The lighting they give off is awesome too, which is why I'd love to incorporate it into the draping!

It's going. We have a few appointments set up for the next month to try and find a venue we like. I fell in love with one, but its sadly out of our price range . So we're looking for another. I did really like another option, and we have the option of going in while its all decorated for a wedding so we can see the whole shebang! So I'm looking forward to that for sure! Trying to stick with hotels, but the ones we've looked at have all been "eh" and really dated. Hopefully next month we have our venue and we can start searching for vendors!

Looks gorgeous!! I LOVE that draping! Hopefully your venue allows it (though I don't see why they wouldn't). And I love that second centerpiece, it was in my inspiration pics before I changed my mind... they just look so magical *swoon*

Haha that's good! Purple is my favourite colour too and we did plum and charcoal. How's your venue search coming along?

I hope so! Purple is my favourite, and I just love the way the lilac and grey looks! It's very soft, which is what we're going for Getting my red-necked FH onboard was actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be , he loves it!

Ooo I love the lilac and grey theme! That will be so lovely!

head table

centrepieces

These will be a lighter softer purple as our theme is Wisteria/Lavender and Grey. And likely won't have the flowers, still playing around with that. But I love it

OR

centrepiece 2

theme

And I'd love to do this if the venue allows!

Yay happy to!!

Agree with Val- Pictures please!

I"m also planning lots of fairy lights and soft lighting- so romantic!

Whoa- I'm sending you a PM! It sounds like ur plans might be pretty darn similar I would love to bounce ideas off you!

OOOOO let's see those inspiration pics!