Wedding cost

I was trying to stay under $10K (for 50-60 people) but I have quickly realized it is tight, especially considering most venue rental costs are $****+.

We have settled on about $15K at this point. What is nice is that a lot of costs can be taken care of up front and by the time the wedding comes around you'll have a much lower bill than your original estimate!

How exciting!!! Congrats!!

We came up with an ideal budget and then started looking at venues (which can take up the bulk of your budget, depending on what they include and where they are). We live in the Niagara wine region and a lot of people come here just to get married - so sadly our venue fees here are super inflated (and they don't offer a discount for locals).

I would personally say come up with a budget, figure out how many guests you would like to invite and then go from there. It really all depends on what you're comfortable with.

Generally the cost depends on how many people you have and what is included in the budget. For example we didn't include wedding rings in the budget because it was already purchased. All things considered like SOCAN fees, hst, etc we're looking at around $20,000 for 80 people and I wouldn't even say we're having an extravagant wedding. The big ticket items so far for me have been venue, rental company, photographer. For example I did not want to do diy decor and have to figure out who was going to set up and tear down. However, ive cut costs with transportation, e-invites, my sister will do my makeup, free officiant, family friend musician for ceremony, etc

Congrats on your engagement!

WW Checklist and Budget tools are great to use for your planning. Checklist has by months to mark off boxes once the tasks are done. Budget allows you to compare the set to actual costs of what your putting toward each category of details. A realistic budget set can go up to $40K.

Your guest list will determine the cost of venue when searching of food and bar setting a realistic budget per person as it will be your highest amount. One location for both wedding and reception easier for guests. 2 different locations as wedding at your choice and reception at the venue may add up more.

Major vendors following would be photographer, videographer, planner (upon deciding), and florist costs will be costly depending on what colours you want and packages.

Décor details to follow up your concept and invitation choice to go with the style.

Alberta and British Columbia have price ranges that can range from $1500 +

The budget set of our wedding was $20K and came under without going for flowers. Rentals was a cost saver for reception décor along with a backdrop which was done by us personally.

We are having our wedding in June 2022, in Toronto with around 80-90 people and we are estimating we’ll spend between $25,000 - $30,000 when it’s all said and done. You can do it a lot cheaper or a lot more expensive, it really depends on what you want, where it is and how many people you have. We are having an open bar and sit down meal which makes it more expensive, for example a buffet style meal would be quite a lot cheaper. Plus we are getting married on a Saturday in peak wedding season, whereas it would be cheaper on a Sunday in off-peak time. Happy planning!

It all depends how much you want/can spend, and also what is important for you to have. I thought 10,000 was plenty but my dress, photography, and the Venue was super important to me which all ended up adding up to 10,000 alone so I bumped our budget up an extra 5,000. Hopeing we can stay at that. Also having your wedding in 2022 gives you more time to save which is nice!

Congrats!!!

We spent about $26,000 all in for our wedding of 100 people. We did not go too crazy extravagant (we do have an open bar).

My advice, budget at least $4000 for Misc. stuff. So many things are going to come up that you don't even think about, and it adds up!

Congratulations, Darian and welcome to Weddingwire.

Here are some Toronto area numbers that could be comparable to a major city like Calgary. It's a rough estimate but something for you to reference and play with as you research.

Officiant - $200-$500 depending on the area and denomination

Marriage License - $40 in Alberta

Food - this depends on your style and formality. A traditional multi-course sit down formal dinner at a hall will be the priciest option compared to a buffet (covid permitting), a daytime reception such as brunch, or a cocktail party style reception with passed around hors d'oeuvres. Entrees at these venues tend to range $40-$80 per person depending on what you get (chicken vs surf and turf).

Bar - An open bar will cost $40-$60 per person (basic vs premium). If you do consumption bar, it averages $2-$4 for soft drinks and coffee/tea, $5 per drink for bottled domestic beer or glass of cheap wine, $10 for shots and cocktails, $15 for harder drinks like scotch and bourbon.

Typically at halls with in-house catering, you can get a package that includes cocktail hour, a 3-4 course meal, a 5-7 hour open bar, and maybe a late night station for around $100-$150 per person + tax and gratuity. But if you don't need all the frills, you can trim the price by eliminating a course (three vs four), give everyone chicken/vegetarian instead of a choice for beef or seafood, shortening the bar, limit drink options, remove late night station etc.

Clothes - this can be as cheap as $200 - $5000+ for both the suit and the dress. Rentals for suits and tuxes are around $250. If you're getting a regular suit instead of a tux, I highly suggest buying instead of renting as the price difference is minimal (unless you're getting a fancy bespoke suit) and it's a much better investment when buying.

Wedding Rings - $50 - $10,000 depending on the material and the bling

The above are the basics you need for a wedding party. Everything else like DJ, band, photography, decor, cake, additional events like rehearsal dinner and showers, and other add-ons like dress changes and video will depend on what you want and the skill level of the vendor you hire.

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Oh yes especially this year!

I hope this helps and I hope you enjoy planning as much as I did! I'm now just sitting and waiting until next summer! If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

Congratulations!


I would recommend figuring out two things first: how much you are willing/able to spend (including any contribution from others) and how many people you want to have. The two go hand in hand since the more people you have generally the more money you spend: on a bigger venue, more place settings, more servers/bar staff, more food, more invitations (you get where I'm going).
Then I would figure out what the most important things are to both of you. Do you want a fancy photographer and videographer, or maybe you want to have amazing food, or the DJ is where you want to spend your money. This will help you determine where to splurge and where to save. You might also realize that each of you wants a different splurge, and that may mean being a little more thrifty elsewhere so you're both happy. For us we splurged on photos but opten for an evening reception with appetizers and dessert instead of a full meal.

View quoted message Okay good to know! I guess I didn’t think about how fast things may be filling up!

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You really just need to research everything from venues to photographers, djs, cakes, ministers and find the best match when it comes to price. My fiance and I did that with all of our vendors for upcoming wedding. Which was supposed to be August 8 but we've postponed until August 7 2021 because of covid.

I would start booking your venue and vendors as soon as possible! Because us brides who've had to postpone our weddings this year to next year or even into 2022. Dates fill up very fast with venues and vendors. If you can get them early enough, you sometimes can lock in a early deal (price) because prices sometimes go up the following year.

View quoted message I figured that’s what the answer would be, just not sure how much things cost yet! It’s definitely hard to plan a wedding right now because we want to wait for COVID to be over before the actual day. So we aren’t sure when to start booking venues and services!

Congrats on the engagement!!

It really all depends on what kind of wedding you guys want, how many people you're wanting to invite and where you want your wedding to be. Once you guys figure that out, then you can kinda budget. You can have a wedding for $5000 - $50,000. It all comes down to how much you want to spend.