Is a backyard wedding more affordable?

View quoted message We looked in Burlington and Mississauga. Lasalle and RBG had reasonable rates compared some of the more popular wedding venues in the area. Unfortunately their dates didn’t work for us this year, so we chose Glenerin Inn & Spa in Mississauga. It’s an inn as well so we’ll have the ceremony, reception all at the same place and any out of town guests can stay overnight

View quoted message I think max it'll be 5-6k if you include the cost of my dress aswell.. it really does! I also have DIY a lot of the decor, floral etc... we made backyard games for guests and my family member runs car shows so they happen to have the tables,tents, music dj so alk i had to do was order chairs. (I'm also from BC not Ontario)Biggest cost is the photographer/videographer for us. I'm also getting a smaller boquet more like a bridesmaid size and goinf through a bakery for the cake rather than a wedding cake place.
There definitely is no limit to wedding costs!!! It can be so very expensive. Are you thinking backyard route? I would suggest tally up the costs and even a pros n cons list?
Good luck with your planning ❤❤

View quoted message You're right. It's a lot more planning on our end on an already stressful day. Thanks for the well thought out answer!

View quoted message Oh wow, that's not as bad. I haven't gotten a single quote back for under 30k. We've been looking in GTA, Durham, and Kawartha Lakes area. 22k is much more reasonable, which venues did you take a look at?

View quoted message Oh wow that's an amazing cost! I think you are right, at the end of the day it can cost as much or as little as you want it to...there is no limit to wedding costs so planning is important! We have a big family so would be roughly 130 people but I still feel we'd have more flexibility with costs organizing everything ourselves. I hope we don't overwhelm ourselves going that route though 😄

View quoted message Absolutely. I do like the aspect of needing to be less involved with the execution of it all if using a venue as well.

View quoted message That's what I worry, it's hard to price everything out ahead to truly compare! The nice thing of hosting outside of a venue would be more flexibility with a caterer. I find that most venues food packages are over $100 a person and you have to use their in house catering.

A backyard wedding will cost the same as a venue given for what you have to get and do yourselves.

The only thing that can save you on the costs is to do lots of DIYs with the wedding party and family help. Pot luck may be an option if your considering a personal chef cost to serve your guests.

A venue does offer a lot to do on their end to save you to get the set up and time/effort to put into the wedding itself and vendors to get on time for the day.

Ontario bride here...we're planning a backyard wedding for Sept in the Georgian Bay area and are fast realizing it probably would have been cheaper to have chosen a venue. But the fact that you have a barn available is amazing - the tent & floor we're having to rent is our biggest fixed cost.

I think it depends how many people you re having... we went through route of backyard as my uncle has tables/tents and Family is cooking the food. so were on track for about 4k for the wedding with about 55 people.

We are also not serving tons of alcohol and it's BYOB ...
I would suggest tallying up the cost as a backyard was cheaper for us but may not be for others!

22k (based on our 110-130 size) was the going rate when we were looking around the GTA. We thought a backyard would be cheaper, but from what everyone told us it was going to be the same and a lot more work to pull all the vendors together

The only real advantages of a backyard/personal property wedding vs a venue is the lack of a minimum spend and the lower cost for an open bar.

But let's run a hypothetical scenario: say you want to host a wedding for $13K for 150 guests at your barn instead of $25K at a hall, saving almost half if you stay home. Here's how it can go down.

8ft banquet round tables (holds 10) x 15 = $225

Chivari Chairs x 150 = $1200

Linens for 15 tables = $150

Plates (salad+dinner+dessert) x 150 sets = $300

Cutlery (Dinner+dessert fork, knife) x 150 sets = $225

Drinking glasses (Water globet+wine glass+coffee cup) x 150 sets = $300

Napkins for 150 people = $75

Staffing: 5 bartenders @ $25/hr for 6 hours = $750

Staffing: 8 bartenders @ $20/hr for 5 hours = $800

Basic power generator rental (good enough for a basic PA system) = $100/day

Average bottle of 750ml cheap red and white wine costs $12, so 15 bottles of each per table = $360

Average case of 24 is $50. For an open bar, you want 6 drinks per person throughout the night so that means 38 cases of 24. That's $1900.

Let's also throw in a 2L bottle of pop and carton of juice per table. That's an extra $60.

That leaves you with just over $5K left to feed 150 people, which is roughly $33 per person for dinner. A quick google search for options in Lindsay yields us this caterer that can do buffet weddings for <$30. This Greek restaurant can get you a starter salad and entree for around $35. This pub can get you an appetizer and entree for $33. Since you know your area better than I do, I'm sure you can find more options. Just keep the salads in the fridge and the hot food in an oven until ready to serve. It's not the same as hot and ready gourmet meals made to serve at a venue but that's the trade off if you want to opt out of a venue.

So yeah, it certainly can be cheaper and potentially can work if you're willing to put in the extra effort and do the legwork that a venue takes care of for you. That being said, does the property have enough parking for 75 cars if people choose to drive? How about porta potties? Last thing you want is to have a lineup for that one guest bathroom in the house (or for someone to mess up the master bathroom). Do you also want that many people roaming your house? And if anyone makes a mess, that's up to you to clean it up.

I don't think a backyard type of wedding would save much, if anything. You'd need generators, lights, tents, decorations, bringing in a sound system, if you wanted a dance floor, bathrooms so many things to worry about. You may even need a planner if you are doing outside. I'm going with a venue I couldn't imagine all that you'd need for a backyard. Good luck. Hopefully someone else has more information that might help.

Hello Ashley,
This was one of our option. The only thing that made us decide to find a venue was that we had to take into consideration tent. Tents were so expensive, then we decided to look for a venue and the cost of our venue was the cost of a tent. Also, the venue was small and holds 70 people for seated dinner.

So I think try to tally up every thing to do a cost comparison.