Setting up the hall

If you don't have access to your venue the night before, you could hire a "day-of" coordinator. Wedding planners typically offer this type of service for couples who need help setting everything up and making sure everything goes smoothly.

Are you able to get into the hall a day early? All the weddings I've been in or helped out with, they had the hall the day before and the wedding party, family, friends all went in to decorate, then had the rehearsal, then the rehearsal dinner.

If not, I would suggest a church or non-profit might be willing to help out for a donation. My friend hired a youth group at a church in her hometown to prepare and serve the food at her wedding. She let them know before they committed how much she would pay and what she expected them to do and they were willing to help her out to raise money for a mission's trip.

I arranged it so that we could get into our venue the day before to set up - we had help from a few people in our wedding party and it only took a couple hours, at most. It saved us a ton of money and i got to make sure everything looked exactly as I wanted it to.

My husband, his groomsmen and family and friends set up our wedding during the day as I was busy with hair and makeup. I would suggest finding people you know who don't mind helping out to save yourself some money.

View quoted message Wow that’s super expensive. I’m in Toronto and was able to get a month of coordinator for 800. She’s going to set everything up on the day of.

Have you actually talked to the we party and family? Some may be willing to help out and you can put together your own little team. Offer to buy them dinner or something like that. It may save you some money. Often when you hire a decorator they may just have a team to do all that for you with a small extra charge.

My uncle and his side of the wedding party set up their decorations and everything while my aunt and her bridal party got ready the morning of their wedding. The guys were all going to go out and do something together that morning anyways and he really liked surprising my aunt with a few last minute touches he added to the decorations.

There are plenty of day of coordinators that can set that up for you but it’s expensive in Montreal. When I looked around, the cheapest quote I got was $1500-$2000 which was not in my budget. My Husband, My Dad and the Groomsmen helped set up the venue the day of the wedding.

I am sure there are DOC on the Vendor section of this site.