wedding budget 10k is this possible?

dressy0524

Hi Guys,

 My fiancee and I are planning to wed  in 2013 and we are setting our budget to 10k.  Please help me find the cheapest vendors outthere for flowers, reception venue, gowns, photography, dj and limo. I heard that if you get married off season it is much cheaper, so we are planning to have it on feb 2013. Your suggestion are greatly appreciated. Thank you 

Madisonpenny

Don't do it close to valentines day, espescially if you want roses... flowers sky rocket then. If you have your wedding during the week, friday evening on sunday afternoon prices seem to be cheaper then as well.

petite+engineer

How many guests? 100 guests with a 10k budget would cut out a lot of venues, but 50 guests could be quite doable. 

I'm getting married in the off season (March) and haven't found any substancial savings. Just in the venue rental fee.

The only advantage I've found to an off season wedding, is that most vendors are available on my date. Great if you're putting off a lot of your planning until after your thesis defense like me

March can increase the travel costs of your guests because of March break. I had to move my wedding back a week because my bridesmaid was not allowed to take time off work during March break (even just the Friday so she could fly down). Employees with children get priority.

lilmiss_34

Monday through Thursday in off season will be even cheaper than fridays and sundays. 

Ask for the deals! many companys will have standard offers for off season, bridal show discount, or whatever other reason, and not offer it up unless asked.

Cutting the guest list is the biggest most obvious way to keep costs down.

Listing your priorities and sticking to it. It's easy to think whatever you are working on at that moment will make or break your wedding, but keep the big picture in mind.

agnes16

pay in cash! we have saved many hundreds of dollars by paying cash.  If you think about it, whether you pay by chq or cash the money will still be gone from your account. 
Tips:
1) Invites: DIY.  Find nice paper at a paper supplier or from Micheals using their 50% off coupon
2) Dress: Buy a previously loved dress (used).  Can find a great dress for under $500
3) Flowers: You can place an order at costco and just make your own bouquets
4) Center pieces: Sometimes your venue will rent them out to you for free or at a low cost.  Or the dollar store in square one (I was there yesterday) has some great vases, lanterns, and other things you can use at center pieces.  I got some really good ideas from there for my bridal shower
5) Limos: Can get pricey at over $1000 and may be about 10% of your budget.  I think you may save some bucks by renting a large car (like an escalade) for your bridal party
6) Photo/video: you can look for companies just getting started or student photographs.  If you book over a year in advance you may get a discount
7) DJ: You can have an ipod with great songs on it. 

gammaykella

I saved a lot of money by having an off-season wedding, and got a saturday date. The venue, musician, honeymoon were substantially cheaper because of the time of year. We avoided the march break weekend. I also saved a lot of  money by buying those online deals (wagjags etc). I kept my eye on onespout for toronto that feeds all the deals into one email, and found some great wedding related deals. We got great deals for wedding flowers, engagement shoot, and limo using these online deals and haven't had any bad experiences yet! But if you did find one you wanted to buy, make sure you read the fine print and call before to make sure there are no other restrictions. Also good to check out a couple of bridal shows, because a lot of vendors have discounted show prices. 

blush64

My wedding is Feb 04 2012.

I have saved on a number of things BUT not as much as you would think.

I had a budget like yours to begin with but I wasn't able to stay within it. I'll write more when I get home.

colourz

Keep your eyes open for Ritche's Bridal sale in January. Gowns from $99 and accessories at great prices too. Your White Dress on Orfus Rd. sells all gowns for $299. I used the veil from Michaels with 50% off coupon and nobody could believe it. (just get it steamed when you steam your gown). See if you can eliminate the limos. DIY invitations from Michaels with coupons. Also get on the email list and get a discount at Party Packages for DIY invites. Try to time this when the wedding stuff is on sale.(maybe late winter/early spring). Monday-Thursday are best deals for vendors, then Sunday  or Friday. Ask the photographer if you can get all your proofs unmarked 5x7 on a DVD with copyright release. Then you can print out your own pix at Costco. You make up your own album online or with these prints. If you use a videographer, ask for an unedited, cleaned up movie.

dressy0524

hi guys )). thank you so much for your suggestions . i was browsing online and i found a limo $450.00 plus a dj $375.00. we will be attending the bridal shows in metro con and at the cne this coming jan. i hope we can find great ideas and affordable vendors there. where can i find the mmichaels coupon ? The exact date will be feb 24, 2013 that will be sunday. Our guests ranging to 150-200 . Do u know any cheap caterers and how much is the average rental on the reception venues? thanks guys

amme5832

We're doing ours for 10k, but it's an 80 person wedding. Ways we are saving money: - not hiring transportation. We have a car, and we can drive home from the wedding and reception in that. - I got a deal on my flowers through Dealticker (my bouquet, bouttonieres, bridesmaid bouquets for $99) - going with a venue that is pretty enough for ceremony and reception - having a weekend wedding - booking vendors in 2010 for my 2012 wedding, because they were offering the contracts at the 2010 rates. We also went with a Friday so that we could save some cash. We could have saved more with the other weekdays, but that would have been too inconvenient for us. - being upfront with vendors, saying this is how much we are hoping to spend, what can we get for that? - having a venue that allows us to bring in an outside caterer and our own alcohol. You have to be realistic and realize you can't have everything if you're keeping the budget lower. Maybe you will have an ipod wedding, or no dancing at all. Maybe you have to compromise and do a weekday brunch. Our caterer is $45 a person, plus tax and tip - don't forget that you have to factor those in there, too! - but even $45 a person is nearly 10k for 200 people. Certain things are fixed costs. The marriage license, the officiant - you don't have much flexibility there, but it's the other things that are flexible, and to keep it under 10k, you will have to be flexible with what you can offer. Realistically, you might not get everything you want if you are sticking with the budget. Before booking the dj and the limo, you might want to sit down and plan out what you can expect to pay for everything. I recommend going through this worksheet offered by Gail Vaz-Oxlade from Til Debt Do Us Part, and determining what you must have to be happy and what are good to haves. Basically, prioritize before you start putting money down anywhere. http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/wedding_budget_worksheet.html

naomikb

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_canada-toronto_wedding-budget-10k-this-possible?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:613Discussion:1f54bd8e-6297-40a6-ae9a-a4083586d32ePost:63904c5e-e88f-4b0a-b78d-05c2eb5c76f4">Re: wedding budget 10k is this possible?</a>:
[QUOTE]hi guys :))). thank you so much for your suggestions . i was browsing online and i found a limo $450.00 plus a dj $375.00. we will be attending the bridal shows in metro con and at the cne this coming jan. i hope we can find great ideas and affordable vendors there. where can i find the mmichaels coupon ? <strong>The exact date will be feb 24, 2013 that will be sunday. Our guests ranging to 150-200</strong> . Do u know any cheap caterers and how much is the average rental on the reception venues? thanks guys
Posted by dressy0524[/QUOTE]
With a $10k budget you probably want to cut things like transportation and DJ that you can do yourself (WP drives themselves, iPod for music).

A Friday or Sunday wedding (please don't do Monday-Thursday) in the winter (November - March typically) will get you the best rates, so you're in the right area with a Sunday in February.

If you are open to a bit of a non-traditional reception, you could do heavy appetizers or a dessert reception later in the evening instead of a sit-down dinner (something like ceremony 8:00, reception 8:30 immediately following).

You're going to have to really think outside the box for a $10K wedding with a sit-down meal for 150-200 guests!!

To give you an estimate, all of the places we looked at for a sit-down dinner including bar were $85 - $180 per person.  Even at the cheap end, $85 pp you are looking at $15K just for food/alcohol costs - not including ceremony, flowers, attire, linens...

orlykahn

left you a private message!

Jewel224

I concur w/ NaomiB - with 150-200 guests, it'll be more than 10K.  Unless you're going the non-traditional route and having a cocktail reception, punch and cake or holding it in a venue like a community centre and having someone cater it.  The traditional halls are charging around $75-$180 as she said.  I'm having mine in November and I was lucky to get $75 per head and I'm paying cash!

vexie

Dressy... I sent you a PM

colz87

i'm aiming for under 10K also because i have to foot the bill entirely on my own. were having 80-100 people.

here's some of what i have done so far:

-lunchtime wedding. cheaper meal and..

-limited alcohol. its lunch time. nobodys getting hammered. 

-no limo/transportation. we have cars, ya? 

-diy centrepieces, flowers, decor...diy diy diy pretty much everything

-no dj - hiring local musician who gave a great rate 

-no wedding cake. who really needs one? and dessert is included with lunch

-no bonboniers 

-small bridal party 

-no coordinaor/decorators 

-bought a sample {dream} dress from bridal boutique, they dry cleaned it for me it looks and fits perrrrfect!

it can be done, just takes a lot of hard work on your part and a few sacrifices. 

MissKayLCee

Hors d'oeuvres are actually pretty expensive when you look at overall catering costs. I'm not sure that you would save all that much by doing a cocktail reception.
Friends of ours did one and it still ran $15 000 for less than 100 people.
A lunch or brunch at a nice restaurant would likely save you more cash.
Be up front at bridal salons and let them know that you would be willing to buy a sample. They are usually more than willing to get rid of them and will knock down the price even further - I got my dress for $500 this way.

Madisonpenny

My best advice for a 10K budget with 150-200 guests... cut your guest list.