Budget brides

Thank you so much, and congratulations to everyone as well !

We are having a lot of out of town guests, so we're looking for a venue at a hotel, I figure it'll likely be our best route.

Fiance is dutch, so his dutch-blood comes out full force when I talk about costs of everything. We're hoping to go with a soft-romantic theme, lots of candle-lights, fairy lights, that sort of thing. I was recently looking on pinterest and found the cutest centrepieces with stuff from the dollar store, so we'll definietely be doing that to save costs as well! Most of the venues we've been looking at have supplied the linens, tables, and chairs which will also help costs in the long run as well!

Congrats on the engagement ! I'm newer too, just got engaged a week and a half ago and I'm already planning like a mad woman!
To cut costs we are not doing a sit down multi course dinner, doing an outdoor public park ceremony (hopefully), and going to be using a venue we have connections to, which will (hopefully) reduce the overall cost of the reception venue, specifically food! Hopefully having my MOH as head chef will pay off

Firtsly, congrats and welcome to the community!!

We cut/reduced:

Flowers: all flowers used will be made out of paper by me. That freed up a MASSIVE amount of money.

Cake: We're only having a small 2 tier cake, as the venues catering includes a HUGE dessert buffet (which everyone raves about how amazing it is)

Decorations: The venue is beautiful so I'm keeping decorations to a minimum and anything we do have will be made by me

Favors: Rather than cutting them completely I just made them myself, overall they're only costing me $25 for about 100

Guest List: We reduced the guest list to provide a better experience for our closest family and friends

It pretty much comes down to your budget and what's important to you. We wanted an open bar, videographer (for a portion), good photographer, and a gorgeous venue with good food. So we just picked a date in the off season and trimmed where we could. But what's important for me isn't what's important for everyone. It's all about keeping an eye on your budget and not getting carried away, while keeping your guests in mind (ie don't cut into your food budget because you over-spent on your dress)

Congratulations!!!! And welcome to the best online community you'll ever find

I am making my own cake too- so I'm with you all the way saving money there!

I'm not sure what your vision is, be we aresaving money by not hosting a full meal. Our ceremony is private, but later that night we are having a party for freinds and family to celebrate with us. We are begining the celebration at 7:30 (after meal times) and being clear on our invite that drinks, apps and dancing can be expected. We were quite set on hosting an open bar, so our budget for food was reduced.....we are making sure to have lots of apps, and a late night menu, but omitting the formal, served dinner did reduce the food budget.

The more things you cna buy second hand, the better too! I am on several wedding buy/sell groups on facebook, and have got some good deals. AND when the wedding is over, I can re-sell and hopefully make a little money back!

If you are in the GTA check out the brde project for a dress too- it is a great cause, and you can get a beautiful dress without breaking the bank!

Again, welcome! I am looking forward to hearing about your plans as they unfold!

Congratulations Caitlin on your engagement! I hope you're enjoying this wonderful time with your fiance!

We used paper flowers instead of real flowers and that cut down the cost a lot. We also didn't do a lot of decorating for the ceremony space (just an aisle runner and some bows on the chairs lining the aisle) and our reception space was already nicely decorated so we only had to add table decorations. If you sign up for email coupons for stores, you can wait until the things you need go on sale! I was in Michaels like every other week armed with all my coupons! We ordered our Save the Dates through Minted but waited until they had a sale. We ordered our invitations off of Etsy and they were a lot less expensive than some of the fancy paper stores.

We did not make our cake because we're not that skilled but we did a 2 tier display cake and the rest in sheet cake. Sheet cake is a lot cheaper, tastes the same and they pre-slice it so the guests don't know the difference! Also, don't be afraid to ask vendors to work with your budget! The worst they can say is no! We heard of a photographer through a family friend and we loved her work but when we reached out, her prices had increased since our friend's wedding so we asked if she would honor the same price and she said yes!

I hope you have a wonderful first holiday season with your FIANCE! Congrats again!