Cutting Costs

View quoted message So cute!!

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It didn’t attach my inspiration photo’s :b will for sure post my photos when the time comes

View quoted message This is such a cool idea! Please share photos when you have it all done .

This reeeeeeally depends on your style, but I personally live the look of the mismatched China. It has a very romantic feel to it, and I find it looks really beautiful when you make sure that every plate follows a same sort of theme or colour tone. I’ve been collecting plates since last summer and buying them at no more than $.25-$.50 a plate and often buy when the thrift store has the 50% off. I’ve also been grabbing goblet style glasses at an average of $.50-.$75 a piece, and cutlery at $.10 (hey, there used if your renting them) and I’m going to dip dye the intricate handles a matching colour.
For each person they have
-dinner plate .50-salad plate .50-dessert plate .50-Goblet .75-fork .10-knife .10-dessert spoon .10
It’s about $2.55 per person, compared to renting which is like $4-6
Here’s my inspiration photos

Definitely see if you can pull off fake flowers, or a mix of real and fake. My friend for her wedding had fake flower bouquets for all the bridesmaids and centrepieces (except baby’s breath which is inexpensive) and she saved a lot of money! Also creating her own centrepieces and doing as many DIY projects as possible!!

We made a budget and then listed our top three things that were important to us. From there its just a case of can I afford this? Is this really important (ie: will I regret not having it in ten years or will I not care?)


It's so easy to get caught up in the things you think you need to have, that you forget it's a celebration of the two of you and all those other things dont really matter. I'd rather save money on a lot of things in the wedding and put it towards our honeymoon or another trip where I feel we can enjoy it a bit more .

Take time to think about everything. I have made a game out of it when someone tells me a price it’s like a personal challenge to find/make it cheaper.

Use a lot of new people for photos and videos, dont get a limo, buy decor online like on aliexpress things are ssooo cheap, dont hire a wedding planner, and shop around a lot. if someone gives you a price haggle with them or find another company and see if they can do it cheaper

- Look into rentals instead of buying items, especially for centrepeices (like candleholders!).

- I bought 20 lace runners from ebay for $50. Amazing. And I'll be able to sell them after no problem. Worth checking out the deals on there.

- Do online RSVPs, and save money by putting the RSVP and other info on the back of the invitation instead of on separate info cards.

- buy rolls of stamps at costco

- Use kijiji and your local wedding facebook group for cheaper decor items that other couples are selling after their weddings. I managed to snag table numbers and a seating chart. Also handy for re-selling your items after your wedding!

- Don't fall into the Pinterest hole! You do not need 40 signs to direct your guests (unless you actually NEED to direct them to the right place). Have your officiant tell people its an unplugged ceremony before it begins. If there isn't a sign telling people where to sit, they'll just find a spot, they'll be fine. They don't need to be told to take a treat, just have your MC tell them dessert is served. And unless you're really going non-traditional or there's HOURS between your ceremony and reception, you don't need an order of events. People know the drill: ceremony, food, dance. Simple.

The only signs we're having are a welcome one, because it'll confirm for people they're at the right wedding lol. And then I made a super cute menu board. We're not doing menus on the tables (so that's saving us some money).

- Skip favours. Only half the guests will take them.

- Online save the dates

- FH really wanted paper invites, so we're making them ourselves. Pocket fold with coloured backing and three inserts would normally be $6-$8 per, but ours are $2.80.

- Went to an outlet for the dress. Saved over $700, but could probably have even gone cheaper.

- Making our own centrepieces. FH is a welder so he's making them from off-cuts from work (see my post in the DIY section for pics)

- Venue is all-in-one. Only thing I picked up is chair covers for $1 ea (venue wanted $6.50). No rental fee for the space which includes pergola for ceremony, patio & reception room and bridal suite. They even have large white pipe and drape for a head table backdrop. I might add some coloured tulle. Have to use their in-house catering which is where 50% of the entire budget is going lol! (but food was a priority)

- Cash bar (but we're paying for wine with dinner)

- Probably not getting a wedding band for myself. Not really a jewelry person.

- Main decor is signage. This is just an idea right now, but I'm thinking of printing love quotes on little pieces of cardstock and putting them in alligator clips on little bases and just leaving them all around. A bit of a fun game as guests look for all the different quotes.

- Finding as much stuff used as possible: votives & holders, table runners, charger plates and special chairs for me and FH. All that for under $200. Still looking for more votives and greenery.

- No flowers. Not a big flower person and my sister is making pomadors for the BMs. I'll probably splurge on a bouquet for me, but it won't be huge or expensive.

- Making all my own signage, place cards, etc. Frames will be FH's thing

- No favours. Doing a donation to the Humane Society instead.

- No cake.

- Friend with experience is the DJ. He's doing it for the free meal

- I work in theatre and have access to a sound system and lighting (for free). So I'll get uplighting, professional sound equipment with a mixer and wireless mic for free.

I've prioritized food and guest experience on the day. Which is why signage and printed materials are kind of important: letting the guests know what the timeline is, what the menu is, things like that. Still working on trying to fit a consumption bar, but with the all-in-one venue, we're paying $8/drink, which can really add up.

I'm making my own centerpieces, cupcakes/small cake, bouquets, doing a candy bar for thank yous (though many people are forgoing thank yous all together), we have the ceremony and reception at one venue so we don't need transportation at all, looking at an on-line wedding invitation place and waiting for their semiannual sale, going to check out pop up bridal sales to see what I can find and there is a store close that seems to have some reasonably priced dresses. It all depends on what is important to you and what you can do without...

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OMG! Paying cash ... what a great idea and very practical. Thank you so much

We are also cutting costs as much as we can - in addition to all these other suggestions we have saved a lot of money by paying cash with some vendors and saving the tax. We did this with our photographer, DJ, and decor so far. We have already saved $1000+

View quoted message Great ideas Katherine! Thank you so much for sharing, the pictures especially helped to give an idea of the details.

Here’s some ways we are saving money:

- hired a photographer who is relatively new to the industry so he doesn’t cost as much
- only hiring a videographer for the ceremony
- one of our friends is making the wedding cake
- we are having our ceremony and reception at the same venue and they provide chairs, linens etc.
- I’m going to be making the centre pieces to keep cost down
- we are having a small wedding of 50-60 which will keep the cost down (typically you pay cost per plate for dinner aka the more guests you have the more you pay)
- purchasing our invitations from vista print (cheap price starting at 0.50 per invitation)

this is what we have so far and we are looking for other ways to cut costs as well

I also just did invitations through WeddingWire, and we are doing three ice cream cakes from Marble Slab instead of a fancy cake. Got each cake for $22 on Groupon with extra discounts 😃
Also bought bridesmaid dresses from DressLilly, and as a first time user I got a bunch of discounts which brought the price of each dress down to $30. They turned out great, too! I also bought gold belts and earrings off of Wish, and they were so cheap ($4 earrings, $12 belts), but look fantastic. Got to order way ahead of time from Wish though as things can take months to deliver. In the posted picture is one of the bridesmaid dresses from DressLilly, with the gold belt from Wish. In the other picture are earrings and hair pieces I ordered off Wish for super cheap for my bridesmaids.

Make your own centrepieces and favours
i am making centrepieces from mason jars (got 60 of them for $25 on Kijiji) with water pearls inside (cheap off Amazon) and collected pine cones and sticks. Will probably do one jar with a flower inside. Then for favours I made fire starters; bought wax and wick off Amazon, and cloves, rosemary and cinnamon sticks on a deal at the grocery store, and collected pine cones

We saved a lot of money having our wedding at a restaurant. No venue fee, we just payed per person.. We didn't need to decorate much because the space is already beautiful... no muss no fuss.

-Diy decor. Bonus if you can get materials second hand.
-restaurant reception (won’t even need much decor)
-fake or no flowers
-student photographer
-cash bar
-online invitations
-have a friend or family member make the cake or cupcakes
-Spotify playlist instead of DJ
-do your own hair/makeup or enlist a friend to do it
-second hand wedding dress

We wanted a venue that had a good package so we didn’t have to rent a lot or hire a ton of vendors to keep track of. Our venue does both ceremony and reception (some places you have to pay to have your ceremony there and then chair rentals), they do all the decor (centrepieces, table linens, card box), along with food and booze.
For your cake, not telling them it’s a wedding cake will save you a ton.
Look on Facebook groups for them selling wedding items for cheap!

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I love it! Good thinking ... i think i'll be finding that on pinterest

Perhaps a venue that is organically beautiful so it won't require a lot of decor? ) provided that you haven't booked a venue yet). a lot of DIY, smaller cake with cupcakes, toonie bar, lesser guests = lesser food costs

View quoted message In case you were curious this is what my centrepieces are going to look like.

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Hi Brett! Thank you so much for your ideas, I really like what you did with the centre pieces specifically. Really appreciate your input

We are only doing supper for the wedding party and parents/siblings not everyone. Maybe grandparents too not sure yet. I have bought everything for my centrepieces used, so am only spending about $5 per centpiece. And will likely sell them once done. My mother in law is doing my makeup. My bouquets are artificial and used, and again will probably sell afterwards. And we are having an evening ceremony at the same location as our reception so only one cost there

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In the end it was $400 of something we both wouldn't even eat and was only there for the photo. We tried to do cupcakes and small cutting cake but didn't make a difference in price.

View quoted message Thanks Tori! That’s quite the cut from the original quote! I will definitely be looking into outside catering now

View quoted message Thanks so much Becky! Very good points in here ... I was also thinking about cutting out the cake but wasn’t sure. Thanks again!

For me it was getting outside catering - much cheaper than paying per plate! (I will be paying closer to $20-$25 a person instead of what I was quoted using in house people elsewhere for $50-$80 a person.)

Photography/Videography - found a friend to take pics and am only getting the ceremony recorded. Plus I waited till 8 or 6 months till the wedding to book the videographer so they would be willing to come down in price as they either take the job or don't make any money that weekend!

I looked at my budget- saw things that I didn't really want but felt like oh its traditional we should do it. We ended up cutting the cake/cupcakes and still keeping the desert. We were able to find volunteers for the clean up and late night lunch instead of paying them- its peoples kids we know that need volunteer hours for high school. We found decor instead of renting so cut down on rental costs.