Sticker Shock

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It is still a long way to go! I booked mine a year out and felt like it was a good amount of time. Just be sure that these florists show you their instagrams and it's their work! I had a linens company who was breaking into the floral world try to bamboozle me! All the florals I liked on her Instagram weren't hers, so there was just nothing to base her work on.

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Thank you! I did get a 2nd quote back that was a fair bit cheaper, which has me concerned haha because the two florists are across the street from each other so I wonder why one was so much cheaper! Gonna hold off on confirming anything for now. Still have 1.5 years to go! Sounds like a long time.

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Good luck with your search for a florists! I had quotes from 3 different florists and I went with not the cheapest, but the one that I had the most faith in (that also had good work).

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That is a great way to look at it, important things first then go down with the budget as you go. I feel that we had the same perspective. Also $5000?! For Dishes WTH.

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I agree about the cake! We also have dessert included in our dinner.

Delivery Fees-yeeees. I feel so lucky that so many family and friends have offered to do all these things for us the day of (like pick ups) so that saves some!

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Great advice thank you! I am working with a couple florists to see different price points, I'm not too attached to specific flowers and am happy to go with what is in season so we will see! I totally agree with going with a trusted option over cheap.

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Oh that is fair! I have had lots of free offers from family and friends for decorating so pretty pleased that does not need to be apart of our budget.

I was so happy when my florist came in under budget! I’m not sure if this is because I’d over budgeted after dealing with other vendors or if my flower choices are cheap! My biggest WTF moment was getting a quote for dishware ...$5000!! Nope. We found another vendor that could do it for under $2000 including linens and serving dishes. I think I’m more ok with putting out money for services that matter to me - food, bar, photography but the other stuff although important is not thing I’m really going to care about so as long as it’s taken care of I’m doing it low budget

YES! Literally so many things. If you look at websites for like hair & makeup vs wedding hair & makeup. Or photographer vs wedding photography. Everything for weddings jumps up soooo much.

We ended up cutting a few things, wedding cake (we have a 3 course meal with dessert included anyways), wedding favours....I mean we are already spending over $200 pp so that should be good enough lol. I also cut back on some of the flowers I wanted. Also if you pick up your own stuff (cake, flowers etc) you'll save a ton on delivery fees. I never even took into consideration a delivery fee.

Yes, absolutely the cost of florals is shockingly expensive. If you really like this florist's work, and you had a budget in mind, it might be worth going back to them and saying while you love everything in the proposal, the cost is over your budget. Then ask what changes can be made to make it work with your budget. If they're good at their job, they'll be able to suggest cheaper but similar blooms, smaller bouquets.

We had dreams of this lush garland for the ceremony, but it was almost the cost of our entire floral budget. She came back with about 3 suggestions that were similar, but scaled back and WAY most cost effective.

Also consider that every person in your wedding party is an added cost for florals. We completely nixed boutonnieres for the guys, and none of our family members will have corsages or anything.

One thing I've learnt planning a wedding is that its more important for me to hire people that I trust and whose work I love rather than the cheapest option.

Cuts were made and floral wasn't one of my expense to go out in whole. For a small set up of the reception, I was going to get a decorator and pay her to do the job. At the end, it was decided she was cancelled due to not needing her and getting the remaining of the half of what was paid back due to contract.

Flowers were a big shock for me as well! Mostly because I had been told that greenery and bunches of baby's breath would be the best way to save money but I was very surprised to find out that these have gone up in price because of the demand for them! Little things like a toss bouquet that I hadn't thought of also brought the price up. We thankfully chose a venue that is naturally aesthetically nice, and so we definitely cut down on flowers. Cake also surprised me and we have had to make some adjustments for that (our cake is smaller than we originally planned).

View quoted message Oh I love the go pro idea. That would be so cool to have! And cheaper than a videographer lol.
You bet I booked that florist right away! She just left a big company and started her own. We caught her after about a couple of months being on her own. So perfect timing right there! Plus she did the flowers for my step moms wedding and was amazing then

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there were a few things I wanted to eliminate (cake, flowers, favours) but alas I’m getting them 😂

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Oh yikes! That better be one fancy golf course. Good thing that wasn't THE venue???

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Awe man!!! We skipped the cake, we did have some push back from MoG and my aunt, and one of my bridesmaids on that hahaha. But neither of us eat cake, and we are having two different desserts between our dinner and our favours. So enough said.

Just seems like one after another eh?

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13K?! *Falls off chair* Say what now? Is that for full floral decor? I mean even 8K! The things we do for our vision lol. My MoH warned me about the cost of florals, when she decided to go all fake flowers for her wedding. I didn't really believe her, I do now.

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Yeah! Those are all great ideas. I have two bridal expos lined up for September and January, so holding off on Florals and Officiants and such in case we can snag some deals or gift cards or something for that. Might as well for now.

I love when I hear people re using wedding supplies/decor! I fully plan to utilize this as well once I decide what the heck I want. It makes so much more sense. There should be like local bridal swap meets twice a year where people can just put out all their stuff and make an easy exchange haha.

View quoted message Yeah! But honestly it was a bit silly for us to think he should know. As much as he works weddings he never asks pricing of any the vendors he works with.
We did figure out the best way to get some much better deals was bridal show specials and booking early. We got our photographer for almost 1000 less then normal cuz of her bridal show special. And got our florist price locked in with 2018 pricing for our 2020 wedding. Also the facebook wedding buy and sell groups are awesome, I bought lovely gold chargers from another bride for $0.5/piece, when our venue wanted $2 a piece to rent them for the night.

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WHAT! That is an amazing price for all of that, wow lucky you! I hope you snapped up that deal quickly, signed sealed (not quite delivered ). Good for you

A videographer was never really on our radar, and after photographer sticker shock, we didn't even discuss it. But this past weekend we saw a promo video our venue posted of a wedding held there, and it was REALLY dialed. I think both FH and I just gave each other a look that was along the lines of "Do not even mention how awesome this looks." Haha.

We do make GoPro videos of our travels and such, just for fun, so we might hand that to a trusted friend for the day and just have a relaxed video and see what happens!

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Yes! I agree, my MoH and I discussed this yesterday after I got the quote. If I had a garden and we actually got proper seasons, I would be down for this.

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I feel like I am in the minority of being ok with spending that much on food Ha Ha. It does seem like ALOT for 100 people though. I hope everyone enjoys it to the fullest!

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My godmother is the head decorator and will have some helping hands!

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It really makes you want to just grow your own flowers and spend no money on them

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Oh interesting! Your FH is a videographer and was still shocked by the photographer prices? Then there is no hope for us lol!!!

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YUUUUP. This is me to a "T". Mind you I have only gotten one quote back so seeing what the others come up with. Good luck!

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Thank you! Same to you.

Sounds like you got a great venue package, nice! Half our wedding cost is food and drink as well hehe but we were ok and 100% prepared for that. Still reeling from the floral quote, we are just using real flowers for bouquet and such as well and still. Ugh.

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Yeah! Good for you!

We also locked in our venue & photographer at 2019 prices It pays to be prepared for that reason. I've had so many offers from friends and family to be my decorator for the day that I don't know what to do with lol. I trust them all but I feel like one person needs to be in charge and the rest can be the workers.

Oh another was when we first started looking for venues... and we checked out a golf course! BIG MISTAKE! Not only do they not allow people to take shots at the bar, and the bar is only open for 4 hours... BUT THEY WANTED $180.00 PER PERSON FOR DINNER... PLUS TAX... PLUS GRATUITY.

Lord help me.

Omg the first place we went to for decoration REALLY SHOCKED US! We saw the place at the bridal show and they had some stands that we LOVED! SO we made a meeting with them!

For 24 centrepieces and a few other things the quote was almost $6,000.00...... FOR FLOWERS! omg... It legit took all of my strength to not scream in the moment she slid the quote over to us on the table hahaa!!! Needless to say, we shopped around and found something very similar and almost half the price!

For us venue is #1. We knew it would be pricey but we were expecting 10,000-15,000 less.

my cake price shocked me this weekend. I didn’t even want a cake but my mom was insistent.

Cake for us, cupcakes for the guests.

cant wait for my flower quote...😩😩😩

F.L.O.W.E.R.S. The first quote I got was 13k!! And then everything else has been around the 8k... it’s insanity.