Budget Woes

I am also in Alberta, I though I was going to be able to stay around $8000 and we will probably double that, wow was I ever wrong lol. Thankfully we have lots of help from my parents though. I was so shocked when I started looking at photographers and caterers especially. DJ's and the venue were about what I expected. then I went way over on my dress... oops, that was my fault though, there definitely was some that fell within budget I just loved the one that was double the budget of course.

If I have learned one thing throughout this whole engagement it's that the word "wedding" is synonymous with the phrase "this is a lot of money" lol

We try to save where we can without comprising our vision but it can be difficult.

We talked about getting married but because of the cost of it we waited...and waited....and waited lol. We have been engaged for about 7 years. The cost of the wedding has been no surprise. There are quite few ways we could have spent less but we decided that some things are more important to us than others. We wanted open bar and great food. So we have our winter wedding prices with the top of the line summer menu. It works for us. Honeymoon in tropical destination all anniversaries will be in tropical destinations how could we go wrong.

Yes, and for this reason we have doubled our budget...ooops

YESSSSSS omg. we are paying for ours ourselves and cant believe the insane cost of things!!! its such a rip off for certain things too. so we have been more aggressive with vendors about pricing and all our vendors gave us additional discounts but still!

Yuuuuuup. We had a budget in mind and by the end of the first week of booking/planning we had to bump it up by about 50%. It was just was not realistic at all, and there were things I was not willing to compromise on, so that brought it up. But then we found a few ways to save some here and there. That being said, focus on the things are important to you to have and not what "you should have". For example we are not having a cake at all and we are DIYing our own music.

View quoted message Exactly! I think people get caught up in what they think they need to have. If its not important to us we just arent having it.

My fiancé and I came in kinda knowing weddings were ridiculous expensive, but we have our minds made up that our budget is 10,000 for everything. we did some research on the venue and ended up finding a nice little gem that is all in and it will cost us just over 4000 that’s doing a toonie bar and plated service. But we will cut cost on invites, flowers and we are only have one person each in the our wedding party. I got a great deal on a DJ from wedding wire and the cake is on the smaller side and I’m using a baker who is just starting out. My dress I’m going to keep under 1000 I’m buying either used or from a pop sale and no honey moon.
Ontario

Yes, I am finding that. Some of the things that aren't included in budgets are additional travel costs for your vendors. Try to get as local as possible. And do what you can for DIY, enlist your friends & family. And shop for used items, I've actually found a lot of used wedding items on Facebook Marketplace because people don't want to hang onto everything after the wedding is over.

YUP! My DH was in that boat - he thought we would be able to have a wedding for like $10,000.... HA! Luckily we were able to stay away from the average of $40,000, avoid the most common of $30,000, and go with a wedding that cost just over $20,000!

Expenses related to Wedding term does go sky high because of the event. Costs for vendors don't make it easy for couples planning.
Using the terms event or anniversary will give a lower pricing and as many more options. It was on a show that was studied with 2 ladies going to the same vendors and inquiring pricing and option limitations.

View quoted message YES. We are all about travelling as well! We are definitely cutting corners where we can.
Food, venue and photographer were our top 3, and yes they were $$$. I am so pleased with all three though, we just have to save money elsewhere!

View quoted message Yeah I wanted warmer weather for mine too. Florals we found were similar DIY than getting a professional, especially when we considered our time + sanity haha. We are doing silk florals. We have bought some second hand stuff off Facebook which has been great. Plus our expensive venue is naturally beautiful so we aren’t adding much to the space!

I knew they were expensive, but my idea of expensive and the reality were far off. I had found so many people online talking about their budget weddings with breakdowns of $3-5k and the more research I did the more I realized we needed a bigger budget or to make some sacrifices. One venue we looked at was our whole budget.

It's doable, you just need to do more searching and be a little flexible on the less important stuff. Don't be afraid to ask what your budget amount can get you (for example we're only doing 5 hours of wedding day photos instead of the traditional full day)

We're aiming for $6k. We are having a Friday evening wedding with no dinner, just apps and cake with a cash bar (we're thinking of springing for a champagne toast if the budget allows closer to our date). We're keeping the guest list under 75. Our photographer and my dress are almost half the budget($1250 for the photographer, about $1100 after alterations for my dress). We got our venue (linens, chair covers, bar staff included) for $700 because it's not a traditional venue. We are also skipping the DJ, and keeping light on decor.

View quoted message We did something similar, unfortunately the important things are usually the expensive things. We like good food so we weren't willing to eat somewhere where we weren't happy; a photographer was the other important one. Like Kelsie said, there are definitely ways you can save money. We aren't doing a lot of the traditional things (and are having an overall pretty untraditional wedding) and are doing some small DIY things. We both agreed that we would rather save on the wedding and put the savings towards our honeymoon/another trip so that's what we're doing instead.

View quoted message Usually you get better pricing in off season aka winter. I couldn’t have a winter wedding personally so I knew with my July wedding we’d see dollar signs!


I think if you can DIY florals and decor you’d save a lot too but I just don’t have the time or creative energy for that either.
I think there’s lots of ways to save on a wedding it just depends on what you’re willing to do I think.

View quoted message Cakes are SO expensive!! We are opting for a single cupcake from a local bakery for us to cut and then having the venue + our three moms supply other desserts.
As far as vision, I just wanted something that wasn’t a community hall. But I had never researched costs behind these types of things.

View quoted message That’s awesome you found a cheaper place that has meaning for you both!
We went through all the major costs and picked our three priorities out .. unfortunately they were the three most expensive items. It is what it is now, I just never really wanted to spend so much on a single day.

I think it depends on your vision. I wanted to get married at a venue that wasn’t a banquet hall (we ended up picking a golf course) so I knew we’d have to have a healthy budget to make that happen.


Things like cake though - I was shocked at how expensive they can be. I’m in the wrong business lol

Yup. We knew weddings were expensive but didn't think they were stupid expensive. SW Ontario here and all the places around us were minimum 3000 to 4000 just to rent a stupid place. Still have to rent linens, chairs, etc. It makes me cross lol.


We are getting married at a conservation area we have always hiked at (and had one of our first dates at). It holds a special place in our hearts and it's not costing us a fortune this way so we are really pleased 😊