Minimal Spending

I decided against flowers are the wedding and that cut down on a lot of costs, making my own centerpieces instead, and my bucket. We splurged on the venue a little because of location mainly, but thankfully they are full service so their costs are all in. i shopped around on the little things, like cake, limo and so on. I regret booking my photographer because they are quite pricey but my friend recommended so we went with them without doing our shopping around.

We cut the engagement pics from the cost of photographer but splurged the most on that. Doing a buffet instead of plated saved us quite a bit (49.00 each). Im not doing a veil or garter to save cost on that. Getting a cheaper dress. Max $500-$700 with alterations if needed. Going to wear flats so i dont spend alot on that. Fiance made the invitations via photoshop and having them made by eprintfast. Making our favors as "hug & Kisses" candy to avoid the large cost. cause it adds up fast. No bridal shower to avoid others having to spend on food or gifts other than what we would want at the wedding. Paper name cards. Nothing fancy. Our guest book is a plank of wood that we are going to cut. Getting my flowers from Costco.

Also, go to wedding shows, vendors offer discounts and one I just went to had 70 sample dresses for around 300$ !

We looked around at different venues and caterers and we ended up choosing the local agricultural hall, they cater for 15$/person, full buffet, tea, coffee, dessert, set up, clean up and they run the cash bar. Also, no hall fee when they cater! I am ordering flowers from Costco. We splurged on the photographer because pictures are the most important to me. The local church is across from the hall and it is already beautiful so we will have minimal decorating. for our signs, I asked friends that have barns if they had extra barn boards or any wood that would work, I will stain it and write on them myself. I designed our invites early and waited until vista print had 50% off to order them.

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We're lucky to have a local caterer who is the cheapest/if not one of the cheapest in Manitoba. We are having an outdoor wedding but normally they do not but because its us and we know them they are doing it for us. We just have to supply an extra tent for setup/prep of food for them.

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$15 a plate?! That's incredible! The lowest I can find is $100 a plate. Our reception is in a hall.

We started off with 200....than 225.....than 250 and that's where I'm hoping its going to be capped. Do lots of DIY decorations. Flowers if you do real go with Costco. Wish.com has lots of great deals for things. Take advantage of sales. Do your research. Our caterer is only 15.00 a plate including tea and coffee as well as dessert. However renting a tent Oy Vay its expensive but something we wanted. But definitely research on which company was the cheapest and even then we are trying to get the price down for mileage as its expensive. Might take part of our business else where if that's the case.

This may seem a bit strange but I found that I was going to be spending alot on flowers and it just didn't seem worth it so I actually bought all my flowers on eBay. It cheap (some were cheaper than what I would find at the dollar store) and I wouldn't have to worry about making sure the flowers aren't wilting throughout the day.

Making a lot of your own decorations and food will help and also making your own playlist instead of hiring a dj. Try getting married on a non-popular day of the week and do brunch or cocktail reception as others have suggested.

2nd hand decorations I find are the general way to go, or hit up your local dollar stores. Michael's generally has good deals on their items as well.

Have a Friday or Sunday wedding, lots of venues give out discounts for those days.

You could do a brunch as some suggest, or you could do a cocktail hour reception...get married at say, 7:00 p.m. and serve hors d'oeuvres instead of a meal. The entire affair would be shorter so less food, less liquor, less money spent!

You can save by being selective about your bar offerings, as well. Some people will do a wine and beer bar only. Some do wine, beer and signature cocktail.

View quoted message Love the Sunday Brunch idea! I did that for our engagement party and it went over really well!

Most of the time , guests remember food, open bar, and entertainment! So put most of your budget towards those items and save in decor, flowers, attire , transportation, stationary, favours etc.

Often times couples try to save money in areas where the guests are concerned and that usually doesn't end well. It costs alot for your guests to be there as well. It's about you, your finance and your guests that you chose to spend the day with you.

We are doing almost everything on our own. We are getting married in 2019 but are starting to get things done now. We are planning on doing our own centrepieces as well as I am making the favours, I am even going to be making my own wedding cake.
We are very fortunate because our venue wasn’t that expensive and it includes food as well.

The more ore you can do the more you can save.
Mandy

Depending on what you're ready to splurge on, here are a few ideas on how you could save money:

- Fake flowers + DIY the bouquet and arrangements

- Wedding invitation templates from Etsy + printing through VistaPrint; super cheap and the envelopes are included

- Brunch wedding on Sunday morning

- Ask vendors if they give a discount if they were recommended by a previous client.

- Go to wedding shows. It's a zoo in there, but vendors often give out huge deals that aren't available elsewhere.

- Check facebook groups like "Ottawa Wedding Items for Sale". You could find some decorations or other miscellaneous items for cheap.

A wedding not on Saturday is typically cheaper. No alcohol or a cash bar if no alcohol is a problem. Have the wedding a bit later in the day/into the evening and serve appetizers or dessert instead of a dinner.

Same problems here. My fiancé has a huge family and it’s hard because we are having a winter wedding. So it has to be indoors

We are doing a 180 person wedding hopefully under $10,000. We werent intending on having as large of a guest list, but it kinda just kept growing....

Some key areas where we are saving $$ are:
-doing our own catering (pulled pork, salad and corn)
-backyard for a venue
-cheap wedding dress ($250)
-diy decorations($40 for 24 centrepieces)
-no DJ, we are making our own playlist

Im having the same issues!! My husband has a huge family, and if I miss anyone on the invite list... Well we all know how family can be..lol But we are not wanting to spend a truck loads of money