# Wedding Tips



## davext (Apr 11, 2010)

Hi All,

I'm planning a wedding celebration and would appreciate if you had any good tips that can save me some money or any strategic ways to make it a great wedding without spending too much.

One of my friends told me not to get the album from the photographer because I can make my own at blurb.com for less than $100. That'll save me at least $500 from what the photographer was planning on charging. 

Thanks!


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## Pigzfly (Dec 2, 2010)

Hi Davext,

I am also planning a wedding celebration, though have done squat on it so far.... so I am looking to add to your question.

The only thing I have found so far that I really like is myregistry.com. This allows you to set up a cash fund, as well as add anything you want to a central registry and your guests to mark it off. It is ridiculously easy to add things online (from any website) using a toolbar button; you can also add things that are offline manually. Other than the cash fund option, I do not think this is much of a frugality tip, but hey. 

My friend got married this past summer, on very short notice (because they wanted to elope and the family said no, we're throwing you a party). It cost approx $4000 and was held in their neighbour's backyard, under a rented massive tent. About $1500 of that was the alcohol (there was lots left for us for the rest of the wknd too!). There were lots of details included for that as well. The tent was about $400, not sure about table rentals, etc. The centerpieces were made with cute ribbon and vases purchased at dollarama (ie prob $50 for all of them), flowers came from the grocery store, photographer was brand new to the business and looking to build her portfolio (friend of the bride's brother), her dress was a cute white sundress that was extremely affordable, best man wore a white cotton collared shirt and shorts, laptop was set up with a playlist and bride's brother's big speakers were used, our friend makes cakes/cupcakes as a sideline and did them at cost, additional dessert came from DQ (super super popular!), midnight snack was giant subway sub (also very popular). 

I will be looking into reasonable prices for things shortly...


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## Pigzfly (Dec 2, 2010)

Sorry, I got distracted describing the wedding, which was absolutely fantastic by the way.

Also, we stayed at one of the colleges (poor experience, but fantastic price). I think it was Sheridan? Ball park $70 for a room suite with a bathroom, microwave, fridge and two double beds in separate rooms. We easily slept 5 of us. 


My Question for the world - know of any sites with free/reasonable shipping in Canada and good/great prices for china/riedel stemware/flatware? 
I would like to direct guests there in order to save us having to relocate things (wedding won't be where we live), as well as to not feel like people are wasting their funds buying us overpriced items! (Frugality can run deep, eh?)
We can get things shipped to a shipping outlet in the states, but then would need to pay duty and most likely defeat the purpose.


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## davext (Apr 11, 2010)

My best friend goes back and forth from the States every week so I do plan on use the US shipping options.

Priceline is a good way to find cheap hotels for guests.

The giant subway sub sounds intriguing. Any other info on that?

Thanks!


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## Pigzfly (Dec 2, 2010)

Their website is in flash or something, this is as close as I could get:

http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/catering/index.aspx


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## atrp2biz (Sep 22, 2010)

We used a photographer that was just starting out which cost $750 for 9 hours. My wife then made our own wedding book by compiling all pictures taken by the photographer, friends and family through a Groupon deal. I think it cost $59. 

The dinner was a buffet with no room fee. Overall, we made a few grand on our wedding since we primarily received cash gifts (Asian wedding).


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

We used a friend to take pics for free. She was pretty decent.

I'm glad we didn't spring for a pro given that 5 years later, we have yet to print any of the pics.


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## Dana (Nov 17, 2009)

Pigzfly said:


> My friend got married this past summer, on very short notice (because they wanted to elope and the family said no, we're throwing you a party).


Sixteen years ago (ugh! I feel old today) we planned to elope as well. We had an appointment booked for a local chapel at our destination and had phoned ahead to find out the process/rules around getting a marriage license. When members of my family caught on and realized that we were planning to elope, *they starting buying plane tickets so they could come with us (!)* 

Since neither of us wanted extended family to come along on our honeymoon, we agreed to a simple ceremony and dinner here before we left. It was _very_ short notice (as in just a few days) so we had only family who lived in the immediate area. We rented a private room at a nice restaurant and had dinner after the ceremony. We did spring for a photographer, but we only have a handful of pictures on display and never look at the rest so we could have saved money there since everyone in attendance took pictures anyway. 

It was very cheap - less than $2k for the whole event (excluding honeymoon). We weren't motivated by frugality however, we were both busy trying to start careers, had very little time to spend planning a wedding, neither of us harboured dreams of a big wedding and I am uncomfortable being the centre of attention - the focus was always the marriage not the wedding.


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## davext (Apr 11, 2010)

Thanks for the tips so far. Just to provide some more information, our wedding is probably going to have about 250 guests, 4 course meal, open bar so the amount that I've budgeted for this is about $35,000 including wedding dress, bride's maid dresses, tuxes(maybe), photographer, makeup, transportation, DJ, flowers, centre pieces, etc.

So I'm not trying to spend less by having a small wedding or eloping. I'm having a medium sized wedding but looking for ways to save.


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## Dana (Nov 17, 2009)

davext said:


> I'm having a medium sized wedding but looking for ways to save.


We have been to 3 weddings in the past 2 years that are on Friday evenings. This seems to be a new trend. A few of my friends have commented that they have noticed the same trend.

Apparently the venue is often cheaper on a Friday night than it is on a weekend day. Also, there is less of a wait time if you opt for a Friday night over a weekend. In September we were at a wedding in Toronto at a very nice, expensive venue, but they booked it only 8 months before and it was on a Friday night. 

Friday nights are also nice because it can be easier to get a babysitter and you don't feel like your whole weekend has been taken up by one event.

There also seems to be a trend around the bride renting couture gowns instead of buying a wedding dress. It is cheaper and so few people seem to wear heirloom gowns anymore, so why keep it?


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## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

My niece was getting married and the cake was quoted $300-$600. She went to Orono Bakery for $100.

Was along time ago 10-12 years looked like any other wedding cake I've see.


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## Sustainable PF (Nov 5, 2010)

a thread on this topic which will help you: http://canadianmoneyforum.com/showthread.php?t=730&highlight=wedding


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## groceryalerts (May 5, 2009)

davext said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I'm planning a wedding celebration and would appreciate if you had any good tips that can save me some money or any strategic ways to make it a great wedding without spending too much.
> 
> ...


My wife and I ordered flowers directly from wholesaler - saved major dollars - just need a hand arranging flowers.


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## atrp2biz (Sep 22, 2010)

For flowers--

Brothers Convenience Store
2231 Victoria Park, Toronto

It's half flower shop, have convenience store. I know it sounds kind of ghetto, but this is where we got our flowers. I think it cost $800 all in, which included pew end pieces. After the ceremony, they removed these pieces and transferred them to the reception to be used as centre pieces. 

It's hard to communicate with them, but you get through it.


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## davext (Apr 11, 2010)

groceryalerts said:


> My wife and I ordered flowers directly from wholesaler - saved major dollars - just need a hand arranging flowers.


How does buying whole sale flowers work? I imagine it's a whole lot of flowers that have to be arranged in centre pieces, hung, etc. ? 

How about the bouquet? I don't have any eye for that stuff nor the arts and crafts skills.. lol


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## Oilers82 (Jan 17, 2011)

@ OP: Have you considered which month your wedding will be in? January to April is considered low-season and affords you a lot of bargaining power.

Example. We just got married...similar to you, 250ish guests, open bar. Had Chinese banquet at a western banquet hall. Now the price in May was $1000 per table of 10 plus $30 per head for open bar and Taxes/gratuities. In April we got it to $1000 per table, FREE open bar and taxes/gratuities. So as you can see that's a significant savings. And we only had to move our wedding ahead about a month or so.

My overall advice would be to spend only on what matters to you. For us, its all about the food, alcohol and having a great time. We didn't care too much for the flowers. We didn't have a videographer. We also spent almost nothing on centrepieces..just a few candles and rose petals sprinkled on the table for a simple but classy look. If you're not somebody who has to have the "best" of everything then it should be very realistic to achieve a great wedding on a budget.


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