Budget friendly

We are doing a lot as cheaply as we can.
My sister is making my flowers out of books. My dress is technically a prom dress, so it was cheaper. We were going to do a potluck, but we've changed that (still up in the air as to what). Favours will be made by my mom. Decorations are going to be DIY.

The only thing we are not doing cheaply is the cake and cupcakes. We want good cake lol.

Hello Faith,

Our numbers got knocked down from 70 people total to 46 guests. We really want flowers, so the plan is to order them through Costco Floral (bulk to use for DIY table decor and bouquets and boutonnières).

We’re saving on…

•Music. My fiancé’s cousin that’s attending the wedding will be playing DJ for the night. We will be setting up a few playlist to play from.

•Invitations. Invitations were digitally made with Canva, where they were sent virtually via text messages along with the website created.

•Find your seat. Will be creating and printing own table information using my small Canon printer. Also, no programs being created. I might create one menu sign and place on welcome table.

•Videographer. We’re not having a videographer. We will set up our camera on a tripod and record the ceremony for others that could not make it.

•Favours. Favours are being made (calendar cookies) and the person making them is not charging us.

•Cake. A family friend is making our cake (3 tier, bottom foam) for travelling purposes. She does not want to charge us either.

•Table decor. DIY bottle project. Spray paint 30 plus wine bottles and will add flowers.

•Makeup. My cousin in law was supposed to take care of it. But it turns out that she cannot make it for personal reasons. So I will be doing my makeup with some assistance from my bridesmaid on my eyeshadow (I normally do one colour 😂).

•Photographer. Our photographer charged $600 for engagement photoshoot and wedding photography. Wedding photography is not his focus. But photos are photos 😂 So that will do for us.

We bought some decorations from Kijiji that were really great for ceremony and reception areas.

For the ones that are taking care of certain things without cost. We plan on giving them a token of some sort.

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That's wonderful that everything worked out for you!

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My husband and I were like you, and didn’t care for video since it was so expensive. However, we booked it last minute, a week before our wedding. It was cheaper to book for the important parts of the day so we got someone for 5 hours to cover ceremony, reception entrances, speeches, first dance. He put together a nice 90 minute documentary edit for us - it includes candid footage of our guests arriving at the venue and mingling during cocktail hour etc. This cost $1300 after taxes and was so worth it - the day flew by and our parents loved it. We also shared the video with 150 guests we had to uninvite due to Covid and many of our relatives and friends said they felt like they were there after watching the video. It was better than doing a livestream and having to sit in front of a computer to greet virtual guests lol.

Good call on opting out of favours. I never take home the random trinkets as they seem useless and junky most of the time. If it’s a food favour, I usually forget it at my table. I’ve also seen guests leave food favours behind if they have dietary restrictions or allergies or just don’t like the item.
I did mini hand sanitizer bottles placed on each guests plate, and they were actually used during the meal and all taken home! We figured if there’s any left behind, it was something we could use up ourselves very quickly.

We opted out of the venue's dessert course and getting a second starter. We then served wedding cake as the dessert. Everyone I know had too much cake leftover and this ensured people ate the cake.


For the wedding cake, we only got a single tier cake for display instead of stacking two, three, or four tiers. Guests got pre-sliced versions of the cake which made it easier for the venue to serve. It also allowed me to order the exact amount per flavor as oppose to having leftovers.
We opted for no printed invites and mail costs by using digital invitations.
I personally am able to video edit so I saved on videography by hiring someone to only shoot and not have to piece together highlight reels and films for us.

My fiance and I saved money by opting out for favours since half the time guests forget to take them home. We also opted out for a videpgrapher. Both my fiance and I agreed that it was a waste of money since we have our photographer for 12 hours. We also saved money by buying things from our local wedding sell/buy groups on facebook as well as buying a few of our decor from Dollarama and Home sense!

We saved on the costs of flowers as artificial floral ball on square vase per table opposed to real for centerpieces. Transportation was another area which most guests made the drive or rented cars at the airport upon their arrival. The time to travel would have been over an hour due to the summer cottage traffic. Guest favours cost less than $5 each as my friend did inform me of a sale coming up at the time to save more of what i was looking to get and going out of stock soon.

The invitations, menu cards and Thank you cards were of the same pattern and colours incorporated with 50% savings on vistaprint site.

View quoted message Awesome thank you so much !!!!!!

We cut out a lot of little things that don’t add anything to improving the guest experience or enjoyment of the event. We saved money, but also time with less stuff to work on /less to plan.
Due to Covid, we reduced guest list to 55 guests (it was 200 originally last year), so that really kept costs down!
We had the wedding/reception on a Wednesday in July, due to vendors/venue being fully booked for summer 2021 weekends. Some vendors gave us a weekday discount, others did not. It never hurts to ask!
We didn’t rent anything - venue was all inclusive with staffing, furniture, tables, nice chairs, linens, dishes/cutlery, and even table numbers.
We reduced video costs by hiring a videographer for just 5 hours to cover ceremony, entrances, first dance and speeches.
We minimized stationary. No paper invites, no wedding programs, no wedding/welcome signs etc. For $55, we used Appy Couple for e-vites/RSVPs/website. We designed dinner menu cards ourselves and printed at a local shop - $35 for 60 menu cards with simple black/white design on white cardstock.
No wedding cake, no guest book, no photo booth. No signage like welcome signs/take a seat signs etc.
Our decorator used mostly silk florals for the ceremony/reception. This reduced décor costs by 50% compared to fresh greenery/flowers, and you can’t tell the difference in person or in the pics. The only real flowers were my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, boutonnières, cheap centrepieces and an arrangement on our sweet heart table.
We saved on centrepieces - for $17/table, our decorator did a few hydrangea stems in a tall hurricane vase.
Our favours were $2/guest and they were useful - we did mini bottles of hand sanitizer (custom label from Etsy). They were a hit - everyone used it during dinner and all guests took them home.