Budgeting

We’re cutting the DJ, wedding favours, just wedding invitations and no save the dates, and no cake! But things like my dress and the photographer were things I didn’t want to cut out so it’s all about balance!

The most important thing I have discovered, is figure out what’s important to you. If there’s an element that you know you’ll be upset about looking back, you can cut other elements back to make it work for you (for example, cake and “live band” or even a DJ as not super important, we’re doing a playlist, but photography’s important) instead of wedding cake, doing desert table with an assortment seems like a great way to go. Not everyone eats cake, and everyone has different things they enjoy for desert. Going to Costco eve and getting thinks like cookies, tarts, puff pastries, and other random things is great, but can still have a mini cake for you to cut.
Also don’t underestimate the value of thrifting. Something I really wanted to do rather than renting plates was so mismatched China. So far I have more (much more, won’t bring up the storing thing 😂) dinner plates, salad plates, and desert plates than I could need, but instead of renting for .50-$1, I’ve bought them for .25-.50. I love the mismatched China look, I know it’ll be beautiful and I plan on selling them after so I’ll make back some, if not all of the money. Thrift store finds are great for eclectic mix, including vases and such (find out when they have there 50% off day, pretty much every one does)

We cut flowers and limo. i bought a ton of decor on aliexpress.com a year and half out from my wedding and my bouquets and bountineers and stuff as well. for transportation we are doing uber cuz we are close to the venue and church!

Decide what's most important to you and put your money towards that! It sounds like you've already found some great ways to save. Some of our wedding budget has been picked up by family as wedding presents. I ordered flowers from costco and my mom is thrilled to put them together. Facebook marketplace for other decor, plus keep decor to a minimum. No wedding favours. Cut the guest list, if possible. The best wedding I've ever been to was at a community centre with a keg and ribs for dinner.

Wedding budgets over other events held over the year is the most expensive and ways to help cut the costs for things not to over spend.

Vendors - Complete your team with those that will make your vision come true. You seem to have a good start on this part and that is great to hear.

DIY - all the printing for the Welcome bundle was done at home so that each room got the essentials along with the Wedding day schedule of location and timing.

Shopping - online sites of amazon and ebay are great to save on the lower end pricing oppose to retail shopping of higher end price. The plus side of this is that items can be returned for refunds based on product not satisfied or arrived on time. Amazon has great customer service since I am a regular shopper.

Vistaprint - this site is has great variety that offers colours and patterns to your style. Additional text boxes and pictures can be added where needed. From invitations to gifts can be ordered and savings of half price when you receive emails. I still order from this site for other times. The invitations/Thank You cards/Menu cards and labels all matched looking nice.

Rentals - This area saves a lot of the costs of storing and reselling after your day is done. The retail value of centerpieces and backdrops can add up easily. Renting cuts half the price for décor/backdrop and saving on the effort of the space to be used at home.

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No problem!! I didn't either but my friend got hers form Costco and they were gorgeous so thought why not!

Congratulations! We were fairly flexible with our budget (and in a much different place in life then students!) but we still cut corners where we could. Self DJing, No Cake, Cash Bar (with 4 complimentary drinks between cocktail hour and table wine) and DIY decor. I think just find what works and figure out your important aspects. For us it was a fabulous 4 course dinner and a really dialed photographer. The rest we have been shopping around for.

For us I am 22 and he is almost 30, but going into it we for sure had to budget. We are lucky enough to live in Manitoba where it is a no brainer to have a Wedding Social which really helped with our money. That and since we had both had credit cards since we were 18 we had good enough credit to not only buy a house but get a line of credit. I know - debt. But with the amount of presentation we got at our wedding with the amount we profitted from the Wedding Social we ended up breaking even and then were only out of pocket for the honeymoon! And a Wedding/Bridal Shower is always a bonus and I highly recommend having one even if you don't need items. You could always ask for gift cards for home reno's or ask that they contribute to your honeymoon fund?

We cut out favors (most people leave them behind, and unless we found something super personal we didn't want them), we decided to do a Friday evening to skip serving a whole meal (instead we will have passed appetizers sometime between the toasts and the cake cutting).


You don't need to do a fancy cake or fancy cupcakes. A coworker used McPhees bakery for her cupcakes and they were $1 each and there were none left. The next best quote I got in Saint John was Wild Flours at about $2.25 each (we picked them for the flavors).
You can save a lot of you're flexible on your venue. Meeans Cove rents out their beach house for an amazing rate (it is closed for renos in 2020 or we would have picked it), the Union Club uptown gave us a great price and it includes the staff and bartenders, linens, chairs (and covers) and we have the whole building so we can get ready there too. There's a spot on Hammond river I've heard great things about too, especially if you want a little more rustic.
You mentioned skipping the DJ and that is a huge savings! I've been to weddings where I didn't remember there wasn't a DJ until I asked the bride who they used.
If you want to save on decorations, try to break the "rule" that you need giant centerpieces on every table. Keep most of them simple (Costco sells flowers at an amazing bulk price!) and don't feel like every inch of the venue needs a decoration.
I would also recommend making a new email just for wedding subscriptions like Vistaprint or Minted and any other wedding site you fall in love with. That way you can get their deals, tips, and signing discounts without flooding your regular email.

Simple, DIY decor is a way to go. We got a lot of our stuff from Facebook marketplace and then we are buying the the rest instead of renting. Renting is easier for sure, but we didnt want to pay into a black hole. This way if we buy, we can sell the items after the wedding and at least get some of our money back. Plus it helps out another couple for their wedding.

View quoted message I’ll definitely have to look into the digital downloads. Thanks!

View quoted message We are hoping to do the same with a venue. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot in my town that I can find that aren’t super expensive. We also want to DIY everything! I think it will be a lot of funny and a good way to relax and do some crafts in the middle of all the crazy planning!

View quoted message I didn’t know you could get flowers at Costco! That’s awesome, thanks! And we definitely want to have a lot of food! That’s a lot of help. Thank you.

Hello Brittany

Congratulations! Our venue is a historical site and they offer their own standard decor items (e.g., white table clothes, steel table numbers, etc.) so we stuck with that. We've included flowers in our budget as well but we are not splurging. We are trying to honour our vision and also stick to our budget (it can be difficult at times).

Apart from the venue, the photography/videography is the most expensive vendor in our budget.

We save where we can - again, without compromising our vision. In terms of DIY projects, we have found digital downloads (e.g., of save the dates, invitations, menus, signs, games, etc.) on Etsy. We use Vistaprint for the invitations and I print off everything else myself (after having invested $18 in a nice paper cutter from Staples!). We also ordered favors from Weddingstar.

We were in the same boat when we started planning. We cut dancing altogether and have a small guest list, DIYed practically everything and got our dresses on sale. We also got a venue that included a lot in the price so there was little else we had to book.

Hi Brittany!! Congratulstions!
I found that decor was really easy to cut back on. I ended up saving sauce bars to use as vases and bought my flowers wholesale from costco. I managed to get 20 centerpieces, my bouquet, 4 bridesmaids, plus extra for under $300. It's simple, and can be really inexpensive depending on what you want and as long as you're happy to arrange them yourself.
Whenever I've gone to a wedding I've remembered the food and the music so personally I have put my money towards food but also my photographer as I'll be looking at those for the rest of my life. I haven't heard many people comment on amazing centrepieces or evening snacks etc when talking about weddings they've been to so haven't bothered Signage we made, guestbook I spray painted a kids large jigsaw puzzle and painted a picture to match our theme which cost next to nothing.Digital save the dates and a facebook event was a great way to cut costs down on stationary too.Hope that helps!!!!