Budgeting Woes

$15k seems like a lot of money just for food for 100 people, but I get it. The majority of the catering quotes I received from wedding-specific caterers in the greater Toronto area was around the same. We found savings when we reached out to local food trucks and small restaurants. We ended up going with a local healthy food caterer, who actually can cook whatever we want at a cost of $40 per person for food stations. For a buffet they quoted us even less money. They were also open to cutting our wedding cake that was only $200 from my favourite local bakery (again, does not do the typical 'wedding' cakes). I found that the caterers/restaurants who didn't regularly cater weddings were the cheapest and easiest to deal with.

We're plugging in a ipod to a sound system and running a playlist from Spotify
Also... pizza for dinner is always a good idea! (my friend served that at her wedding. It was a hit)

I am unsure where you are planning your wedding, but I know that our venue is all in one. We paid $1500 for the hall, food is $55.00 a person and that includes cocktail hour, dinner, late night snack and our cake ( we have been together for 15 years) so we are not doing a traditional cake. If you look around you might be able to find something that is all inclusive. We are also have 100 people coming and all in we are looking at around the $7000.00 mark for food and venue. Some places don't always advertise things like this. Hope this gives you a little help.

As for all my flowers and centerpieces I am doing that all myself, had a girls night with some wine, all my friends came over and helped me out. It was a great time.

Flowers can get very expensive, I contacted some of my local grocery stores that sold flowers and asked them if I did a bulk order if they would give me a discount, I am going to be able to get 8 roses for only $2.50, just going to make my bouquets simple with ribbon covering the stems.

We have postponed our wedding but still working on the DYI projects as we will get married next year.

Hope this helps

#poorbride.

I feel your pain. We're in the other majorly expensive city in Canada (Toronto) and I get shell shocked with every catering quote. We decided to do a later in the evening cocktail reception rather than a full dinner to help with the catering costs and reduce photography time. Our budget is $25k but I can see us going over.

I agree with the others that you should research your heart out. Keep searching and it will pay off in the end with what you can find for a better price.

Find a venue that offers variety of wedding services. We booked our venue and they include appetizer,main course, dinner late night buffet, unlimited alcohol, dj and wedding ceremony hall. Our total for it was about 19K with 100 guests. Try to find a venue outside the big city.

Check this page...I was just looking what can you get for lower price! I guess it depends on the season! Maybe you need to go with low season and price will be lower! And this place example includes so many things in package, that you dont pay extra for service!

https://www.fraserriverlodge.com/weddings/wedding-packages.html

our Package includes:

• Overnight in our Honeymoon Suite with double-jetted Jacuzzi Tub & Gas Fireplace
• Champagne & Chocolate-covered Strawberries in your room
• Ceremony in your choice of location with elegant white bistro chairs
• Gourmet Reception Buffet Dinner - Choice of 2 Menus
• Your choice of Reception location - Riverfront Banquet Hall (includes tables, chairs, linens, dishes & cutlery, etc)
• 2 individual dressing rooms for the couple to prepare
• Sound system for ceremony/reception (background music, speeches, slideshow)
• Cake Cutting
• SOCAN/Resound Fees
• All labour to staff your event - including bartenders!
• Wedding Coordination
• You always need to check more option! Often if you go with place who gives you package, location, food will cost less. Also you have ceremony at the same place!
• 
  

I don’t have advice but just wanted to say I totally understand I went into this thinking we could easily do a wedding for 10k... and I was wayyy wrong, 30k later. It’s sad how much it can cost to honour such a special celebration

One thing you can do and it is a lot of work but if you plan accordingly it can work out, make either all or some of the food yourself and get family and friends to help, it will cut the cost down a lot! my fiancee and i are doing that and we went from 13k to just under 3k! and pay for just servers or get volunteers to help serve or do buffet style.

another thing you can do depending on if you havent chosen a venue yet is to really search around in more less popular towns, banquet halls are crazy expensive but you can find some not as known places for cheap!

hope this helps

$15K for 100 people is actually very reasonable for a major city wedding like Vancouver but if at that rate you have to sacrifice cocktail hour and dessert just to make it work, then that's pricey. Since you're needing to pay for external staffing like waiters, it seems like logistical limitations of your venue is the culprit for eating up your budget with nothing to show for it. How attached are you to your space? You'll have to decide if your space is worth the costs associated with it. Labour charges can eat just as much if not more than your food budget depending on how you go about it.

Also, what kind of food service are you getting based on that $15,000 quote? Is this a full sit down meal? Other than staffing, does that quote encompass anything that takes away from the food budget, like utensils and glassware? At $15K for 100 people, it's not that unreasonable to see a full service open bar, cocktail hour, and a three to four course meal that includes dessert.

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Our caterer is Dutchman’s. We were also looking at Catering Visions and Sugar Mountain. All had very similar prices and came highly recommended by our other vendors.

A few things ive done budget wise (so far under 6k) (im small town in ontario)
1) you either have time or money (all inclusive may be cheaper but sometimes its not just easier)
Ceremony - we are hosting in our backyard, but public parks and other city properties tend to be affordable because they dont make profits just up keep fews
Reception- halls or community buildings (okay some are super ugly (all the ones near me) but i have seen cute Legions, with a little DIY it can look 100x better plus you can usually set up before as its just a community building. Fair grounds are an option as well may be able to have ceremony and reception there
Less people will for sureeeee cut costs (for us my mom has people she really wants to come however we cant afford 10 more people so i asked her to pay for the meals of ppl she wants)
Research research research and DIY We are creating a venue from nothing so we have to think about tables, chairs, linens, for explain im buying our table lines from Uline.ca as its will save $30 and i am going to resell them afterwards Napkins we are going to make fringe napkins
Finding the right caterer is key. One thing about all inclusive that don't has include catering is there partners they require sometimes are crazy expensive
They are a bunch of things, message me if you want more tips though may not all apply
Also check out JWcoordination on youtube AMAZING VIDS on everything

Finding an all inclusive venue might be your best bet. They usually have catering partners and decorators they trust who give them deals that are passed down to you.


Trimming the guest list saves money, but it's not easy to cut friends and loved ones off the list. Some people have tried inviting some people to the ceremony and dance only to avoid feeding them the full meal, but that has mixed reviews from people on this site.

We're having a less traditional reception without a full meal and that has saved us so much money. Our reception is on a Friday evening with appetizers, drinks, and cake. The wording on the invites needs to be clear so people realize we aren't feeding them dinner, and the time of day also helps let them know. I realize this isn't an option for everyone, but I thought I would put it out there!
Also, have you cut the open bar yet? Switching to a cash or toonie bar could save you a bucket of money, and it's more common now. In my adult life I've never been to a wedding with an open bar.

Do you have a venue yet? Our venue was our most expensive item but it was all inclusive - it included drinks, food, decor, chairs, etc.


It was expensive but it helped us a bit as we didn’t have to go to different vendors to get food, bar, utensils etc. I still did a bit of decor just to spice things up but I found it handy to have the all inclusive venue.
Like Rayanne said having an “off season” wedding will lower the cost, as will a Friday or Sunday wedding.
Another popular thing I’m noticing is brunch weddings! Something to look into as well if you’re interested in that at all.

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Who's your caterer (If you don't mind me asking)? I agree our quote is SUPER high but I don't know how else to cut it down beyond cutting cocktail hour and desserts. Our quote is for a buffet, which we prefer.

Our biggest saving is having our wedding in the off season. We are saving about $6000 by having our wedding in February. It has a lot of pluses for us besides price. We don't have to worry about it being prime time for vacations and a lot of our guests work in healthcare or the tourism industry. Getting weekends off during the summer is very difficult for us and our friends. Good luck finding something that works for you.

We're planning a 100 person wedding for roughly $20,000 in Vancouver this November (hopefully). So far we're on budget but I'm expecting that we may end up going over $1,000 to $1,500 in the end.

It took A LOT of online research into affordable venues and caterers, as those tend to be the most expensive vendors. If you're looking to save, these are the areas that will make the biggest impact.

In my opinion, $15,000 for catering for $100 people is really high. Our caterer has excellent reviews online and including tip we expect to pay about $5,500. Our caterer is also providing dessert and I will be baking a small wedding cake for us to cut. Keep in mind this is for a buffet, but most of our friends said they would prefer a buffet to a plated dinner anyway.

I've also heard of people renting food trucks and that seems to be a popular, more affordable option. The downside to food trucks is that they probably don't supply things like place settings or cutlery so that could be an additional cost.

To keep costs down even further we are not having a band or DJ and will make a spotify playlist instead. We are going very minimal with decor and I'm doing most of it myself. My biggest tip to save on decoration costs is to find a venue that is already beautiful on its own and doesn't require much.

It sounds like you've already done a lot to try to save in areas that are less important to you so I definitely think you should shop around a bit more with caterers and find someone more reasonable.