What is your budget? :d

View quoted message Bless your kind soul. 😊 I'll take a look!

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Hi Lyssa, If you need any information or advice on how to slash your expenses, I'm the lady for you. I've been known as the queen of bargains. Even when you're an older bride like me, you don't want to spend all your retirement money on a one day affair. We've kept it small and we'll still have it nice. Check out all the items I made in the pictures to save money. I think you'll be surprised.

View quoted message Omg it's such a relief to know that other people have a lower budget too... I was so afraid that ours wouldn't be enough. I'm young & definitely not able to pay $30,000+ but if other people can make it work, I'm sure we can too! ☺

Thanks so much for the opinions, information and advice guys! It has helped so much.

It honestly all depends on WHERE you get married. Some cities have a shortage of certain vendors to choose from so they jack up their prices because they know that you have a very small pool to choose from and you're going to pay the prices regardless.

View quoted message Really a lot of this stuff you pay for convenience and piece of mind. If you are prepared for the added stress and to put the work in yourself its really easy to find ways to save a bit here and a bit there.

We had originally planned on $10K and we're trending at about $15K but that's because we have help from both our parents so we eased up a bit. Our big splurges are the flowers (which my grandmother mostly paid for) and the food. The amount we were personally prepared to spend is essentially the same.

Our budget is a little non-traditional as I have my own views on what's important for us. We're getting married in Jordan, near St. Catharines.

Location(city and venue if you'd like to share): Inn on the Twenty, St. Catharines.
Guest Count: 100 approximately
Original Budget: $30,000
Current Total35,000

Breakdown if you can:

Venue/Food/Alcohol: $18,000
Photography: $2500 plus $1000 for photo booth
Dress: $1100
Shoes: $200
Alterations: $500
Tux: $2000 (I know we could do better but I'm having a 3 piece custom made that my FH can wear to work).
Flowers: $1000
Bridal Party Gift: $1000 (I'm buying their dresses)
DJ/Photobooth: $2000
Cake: $1000
Invites and STDs: $300 (making ourselves)
Officiant: $500 (already booked)
Hair: $200 (doing it myself but buying extensions for volume)
Wedding Bands: $2000 (flexible)

I found a spreadsheet that gave me 3 different price points for each line item. It was really good to see the spread and get a sense of exactly where cutting would be meaningful.

View quoted message Amazing!!! Your savings is getting me very excited to find ways to save on my own wedding. My budget is 40k but I want it all dobe for 20k

Once we started planning - i figured out how much we could comfortably save in a separate account until the date we had in mind. Once we had that number I then started looking into venue/prices/catering/photographer etc - and picked which would work with my budget - i also had to like their space and work - not just based on budget.

I'm not going to break down the budget into every detail, but I will say that we wanted to spend only $5,000 and we are around $6,000 now. Still quite economical for 31 people at a golf club venue. What I did was spent the majority on the food, alcohol, and music. The rest I did very inexpensively from getting a lace tea length dress for $45.00 to searching out bargains at value village and other thrift shops, and browsing through Varage Sale for used wedding décor. The dollar store was another great resource.

We saved in some places so that we could spend more in others. I think it is entirely up to the couple and their preferences. To save money we went with mixed desserts instead of a big cake, no decorative flowers just bouquets and boutonnieres, made our centerpieces and wedding favours, bought lots of stuff on sale (card cage, guestbook supplies, spray paint), have some family friends as our photographers, did our own music and some other things.

In regards to venues, as you are in the GTA, I would suggest looking outside of downtown as the prices will probably be way more affordable depending on your budget.

I havent fully finished planning my wedding yet but here is what we have so far.

Location: Abbotsford

ceremony: Aldergrove regional Park

Reception: moms backyard

Guest Count: approx 150
Original Budget: $7000(not gonna happen!)
Current Total: $7595

Breakdown if you can:

Venue: $460 to rent park
Food /Alcohol: $3500 (estimate) doing our own food and bottled our own wine.
Photography: $1500 5hours on day of and 1 hour engagement shoot
Dress: $250- clearance rack!
Shoes: $35
Alterations: unknown
Tux: unknown
Flowers: unknown
Bridal Party Gift: $800 so far- i purchased my bridesmaids dresses for them. Will also purchase groomsmen outfits.
DJ/Photobooth: $0- making our own playlist
Cake: $0 - dessert included in food budget. Not doing a wedding cake.
Invites and STDs: $0 -doing it all digital
Officiant: unknown
Hair: $50
Wedding Bands: $1000

Not included for me in this breakdown are costs for tent rentals, table and chairs, and decorations.

If i can keep the whole shebang under $10,000 ill be happy.