Reasonable price?

Hey Kristina, congratulations on getting engaged!

I feel like a "reasonable" budget is really what you and your FH feel comfortable and can afford to spend. I'm also getting married in Southern Ontario and our venue is costing us $120 PP for our August wedding. That was a really medium price I found when looking at venues within the GTA.

If you’re looking for numbers, I went with a hall after looking a lot of estates. We went in willing to pay max 140pp but once we crunched numbers with taxes and table rentals and everything else we wanted, I talked him down to around 100pp. We went with paradise, which is a banquet hall but with a separate entrance for each room and private washrooms. It was around 80pp and with the add on stations we added it came to just over 100pp but we have soooo much more food than we could have had at an estate or private hall. In total we came to around 18-19k taxes in for 180 people. I would suggest looking at a banquet hall if you’re trying to save money, have a place where everything is ready at your fingertips and the planning is way easier than bringing in a ton of outside vendors. Totally your call though.

Congratulations on your engagement!

Honestly, your budget is 100% dependent on what you "need", "want" and "must have" if you need to have an open bar, or a videographer, or a designer gown, your budget is going to need to be much larger than a DIY bride, who wants one photographer, and cash bar...

My wedding will have about 100 people (just over), and we have rented a 'hall' type space, with two different areas, so the ceremony and reception are in the same building. We are doing a full buffet dinner, one photographer, DJ, wine on the tables, and a welcome cocktail, followed by cash bar, and I splurged on my dress (about $3,000 with taxes and alterations)... Our budget will finalize around $19,000...

I would say for 150 people, with a hall venue, you would probably need to budget between $****.

Also look into your "must haves", and go into your Wedding Wire budget tool. If you put in $20,000, for example, it helps give you a "suggested breakdown" of traditionally the percentage of budget that goes to certain aspects (dinner, dress, decor, etc).... see if that lines up with what you're thinking, if you're noticing all of the individual budgets are off (too high, or too low), then adjust your overall budget.

Your reception, (venue rental, food and alcohol) is usually about 40-50% of your budget.

Congratulations! If I lived in Kitchener I would have easily chosen Hacienda or Roseville Estate (mind you these are DEF on the pricier side, but I would have had to cut everywhere else lol) but kitchener has beautiful venues! I have also heard that whistle bear golf course is stunning! I do realize you want a hall, but for your guest count I think that a hall might be too big unless you are ok with sharing the space with another wedding as most banquet halls do. I looked at about 17 venues across GTA, Kitchener/Cambridge area and Niagara region. Cheapest plate with open bar was about 120ish and most expensive would have to be Hacienda at 255 (insane I know but its so pretty 😭😭). Just think of what is important to both of you and go from there! Distance was a huge priority for us so we chose to stay in the Niagara region but if distance is not a problem for you, family and guests sky is the limit! You can look for venues that maybe allow your own catering or dont have to get the full package.

View quoted message Hi there Rebeca, congrats on the engagement and welcome to the wedding wire community! Although I located in Winnipeg and have never even been to Toronto I figured I would swoop in and at least give you the link to the Toronto venues here on Wedding wire

Wedding Venues Toronto

I would say that seeing as how you are looking into a hall it should be able to keep it anywhere between $15,000-$20,000 but it all depends on what kind of food you go with, a DJ or band, photographer skills/ time and videography, etc.

My wedding is in Manitoba and our guest count is 250 with a budget of $20,000 that I think we will be able to either just fit at or go a little over if we want to add some entertainment.

Congratulations on the engagement by the way and welcome to the wedding wire community!!

Congrats on the engagement!!!

it truly depends on your wants. For us food, open bar, music were important.

so when I started looking at venues, I priced out the difference between halls that were bring your own booze, or where they had to run the bar. by us finding a venue that would let us bring our own booze in, its an estimated savings of about 5K (we have a 200 person invite list and a lot of drinkers! haha).

the 3 halls that lets us bring in our own booze. weren't as fancy as the others. so we will spend a bit more on decorations. but not much. about 500 more than I originally wanted.

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Yes! Oh 100% worth it! We have been twice and got discounts and freebies both times! I have been recommending it to all my friends getting engaged!

Hello brides and brides-to-be!
I am newly engaged as of Dec 14-2018! So excited to plan the wedding! Im looking to do a small intimate wedding - preferably at a restaurant but music and dancing is an absolute must for us! Does anyone have any suggestions on a Toronto venue?

Congrats! I see you are in kitichener. It really depends on what you guys want. When my fiancé and I were looking around, we found most places ranged from 115-150 for a package that includes dinner, apps, open bar etc. If you don’t want an open bar we found most places would charge around $40-65 a person for dinner depending on what you pick. Now that’s just for the reception. But since that’s your biggest expense I would start there.

View quoted message I’m going to the bridal show in January! Good to know it’s worth going to as I wasn’t sure if it would be worth my while.

Yes it strongly depends on what you guys absolutely need and what you can go cheaper on! For us food and hall was #1 so we spent a little extra there but have been able to save on a bunch of other places!
Also check out the Canadian Bridal Show in January if you're around Toronto! Toooooons of vendors have great deals at the wedding shows and weve been able to save a few thousand dollars that way! Also sign up for EVERYTHING!!! We have also won a ton of freebies!!!

Merry Christmas and Congratulations!

The budget depends on what you guys want and since "reasonable" is very subjective, I'd suggest sitting down with your FH and listing what you want your wedding day to feel like. Try and hash out what you want to include (DJ, flowers, bar, food, decor/theme) or nix from your special day. From there, you can do a bit of research to determine your budget.

Happy Planning!