The Budget

I find one of the questions I get asked most frequently is about our budget. People get these ridiculous ideas about budget from watching shows like Four Weddings and Say Yes To The Dress, in which most of the budgets are geared towards large city weddings with people who are basically taking out a second mortgage on there house in order to finance their lavish events. Before I tell you our budget its important to remember that we are having at least 200 guests and that I am calling in a lot of favours and cutting a lot corners to save money. Our budget right now is around $10,000. Now this seems like a lot of money, but to put on a wedding with 200 guests, this is about as cheap as it comes nowadays and if we were getting married in the city I can guarantee it would be a lot more expensive.

Food will be the huge cost. We are paying 15.95 a plate plus 15% gratuity and 15% tax so multiply that by 200 and some and you get around $4000.00. Remember that one bottle of red and one bottle of white wine are usually found on every table in your reception hall so that is another 500ish bucks that isn't included in your meal cost. So food alone is basically half of our budget.

Photography is the next largest kicker. Our photography package costs $2500.00 and I am excited to spend every penny on it. To me photography is the second most important part of the day next to the dress and maybe the booze, okay make it the third most important thing. These images will help you relive that special day.

My dress, which has already been purchased cost $1010.00. When you add in my veil, jewellery and shoes I will have spent 1300.00 on my outfit. I can tell you that at any Bridal Store in Nova Scotia you will find VERY FEW dresses for more than $2500.00 so dont let Say Yes To The Dress freak you out. I tried on the priciest designers at Winchesters and no dress that I tried on was priced higher than $2000.00.

The hotel suite that we are getting is the last major cost, because well I want it to be the best Sydney Nova Scotia has to offer and we're staying in it for three nights. The rest of the budget will go to little things that add up like the guest book, cake topper, flower girl dress etc etc.

We're cutting costs by using fake flowers (I know some of you are having an anxiety attack right now, but I fucking hate flowers and they are expensive and they will die the next day so get your priorities straight people), a friend of mine is doing the decorating as she has an amazing decorating company called Table 4 U (look her up on facebook, she travels throughout NS), another friend is DJing for us, I am making my own wedding cake.  I'm making edible place cards that double as favours, I'm making centrepieces, bouquets, invitations (and I'm hand delivering as many as possible).

So there is our secret, if you choose to go our DIY way, be prepared for a year of hard work but a more gratifying and cheaper experience in the end.