Downsizing Vendors

View quoted message Original date June 6,2020. Postponed date May 15,2021. In august 2020 we decided that things were probably not gonna get any better, didn't wanna wait any longer and we pushed forward to have it on September 25,2020!! So happy with our decision.

View quoted message Sounds good!! When was your wedding?

View quoted message I'm thinking it must be sit down apps. I haven't really looked into it just looking at what their website is showing. I think the whole wedding takes 2 hours, we'd go with a Sunday afternoon since most Saturdays will be booked for the next little while....

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How is your venue handling apps during covid since you can't have people walking around serving free-hand? Would your guests still be seated and they serve individual apps like it's a plate?

If we have only 25 or less, we would probably do something that resembles a micro wedding (it's not an official package from the venue, but it's basically ordering off their menu to make it a small-ish dinner party). We would likely end up killing the hors d'oeuvres and just keeping it to a simple 3-course meal (4-course if we're feeling generous).

View quoted message If we end up with the microwedding the entire menu changes. It would be more apps and crepes, the full bar would change to wine, champagne, beer and juices....since it would only be a couple of hours instead of a whole night it makes more sense.

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Yes definitely! There could also be changes to the colour zone restrictions by then. Things seem to be changing day by day here in Ontario.

We had to downsize by only 1 vendor as another vendor photographer was hired. The décor vendor wasn't needed after thought out of the simple work that was being done by us.

We cut an entire room worth of decor from our wedding no problem 🙈


If you cut the decor tho will you still be completely happy with the look? It’s so hard to know where to leave things where they are and here to cut

View quoted message It also depends on the colour zone we're in. In some cases, we have to be out by 10pm so definitely no late night snack if that happens.

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I am not sure what our options will be yet. The late night buffet in our package includes pizza and pastries but with no buffets allowed, I am not sure if the venue will just do a plated pizza and pastry (which might be kind of odd), have it boxed up to go or just allow us to get rid of it all together? We will also be ending our reception by 11:00pm, since there is no dancing. I can't see too many people being hungry by 11:00pm since dinner ends around 8:30pm. I guess it is better to keep guests full than hungry though!

Yup! Did that for most vendors. Surprisingly I didnt have to renegotiate anything it was sort of just assumed or happened naturally. The decor was reduced by 50%, our original quote was for 140 and we ended up having 70. Flowers were reduced too because of the amount of tables, before 14 tables, after 8 tables, photographer and videographer less hours and we cut the second shooter/videographer for the reception since there was less people, venue reduced the min. Spend. The DJ was a bit hesitant to reduce hours so he just threw in something for free that we were going to pay for anyway, so No one really had an issue. Hope it works out!

We actually upped our photography coverage, but split it between our 2020 ceremony and our future reception. As our plans get less clear I wish I had just used all our original time in 2020 with the plan to book more later for our reception.

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Are you keeping the same dinner package (minus the late night buffet) or are you tweaking it with the reduced group?

We likely won't be able to have more than 25 (if we even get that) and it would feel really weird to have an open bar, especially when the parents are not big drinkers.

Same here! Wedding is in August, hoping for 50 people. We scaled way back on decorations. Pretty much just center pieces and important signage. We hired a friend for a DJ so that background music could at least be played during dinner and as filler but didn't have to spend a ton. We are meeting with our venue in a few weeks. Our original food package included a late night buffet but obviously that will be changed so we are hoping to scale back there as well.

We’re actually thinking about this now - we haven’t done it but we will be requesting to renegotiate the contract because of downsizing our event.


What a pain this all has been...

We are getting married next month and we have downsized everything! we will be using our venue for a 3 hour window elopement style and there will be 10 of us. We forgoed our caterer and decided to reserve two tables at a restaurant and since indoor dining isnt allowed we have now been moved to the outdoor patio that is only large enough for 2 tables of 6 (which is what we had reserved) but now we have our own private covered balcony patio! so thats super exciting. Im pretty sure we will be cutting back hours with our photographer as well. Other then that we cancelled it all and all rentals.

View quoted message Right! It would still be 50 people but i don't want to postpone a whole year again. I think a microwedding in may would be lovely

I think we're going to cancel our DJ if we have to cut our guest list down again. We only had to put down a $50 deposit so it won't be much of a loss for us if we do.

Other than that, I think we're keeping it pretty similar no matter what. I still want the pretty decor during dinner (might just be less tables to decorate) and day long photography coverage no matter how many people are there. We aren't going to do a delayed reception or anything like that, so I want to get the most out of our day.

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After planning a pre-covid wedding and then replanning so many times throughout the pandemic an all inclusive micro wedding sounds amazing!

Our photographer let us shorten our time with her which saved us some money.

I think most vendors like decor companies will let you downsize your package as long as you're still covering the initial deposit you paid, but obviously double check with them if you haven't already signed a contract. I'm sure tons of people are in your position so there should be lots of packages available that are just for the ceremony.

If we can't do our wedding next Jan we are going to change everything. There is a microwedding option that our venue has come out with that looks like it would be amazing as a second choice... We would no longer need to decorate, the photographer and officiant would be included. There would be live music that is included and no DJ. The food would be more of a brunch type of event rather than a full wedding dinner party. If I can't have the day we want we will have a nice very scaled back day instead. Most likely a Sunday afternoon type of thing. It would be a dress up and show up with a licence which after all these years of preparation is not sounding too bad at all.