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I thought I'd start a thread for people who are keeping their weddings simple. A lot of what gets discussed on this board is not feasible for the bride on a $4,000 - $9,000 budget. All the extra ideas can get overwhelming!
My original budget was $6,000 but we ended up spending around $8,000. I had flowers at the church and reception, bouquets and pin-holes, favours, and paid for hair and make-up. I did not have bridesmaids or children involved in the wedding, and didn't hire a professional photographer. We didn't bother with a limousine. I don't drive, and we don't own a car, so it was car-pooling all the way 
My dress was under $300, and my husband wore a suit he had bought long before the wedding but never worn. My shoes were $26 from Zellers, and my veil was less than $20 from eBay.
This was my wedding:
http://forums.canadianbride.com/Topic394011-11-1.aspx
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You looked beautiful at your wedding, Zim, really beautiful. And I'm not just saying that--I've seen a lot of "wedding porn" over the past few months, and you really stand out. Beautiful dress, beautiful smile.
I'm trying to plan a wedding with a $10,000 budget, and was initially surprised at how hard it was to do that!
Now I realise that I can cut corners and little things as much as I want, but that won't really affect the budget all that much. The main cost is food and booze for all my guests--if that price doesn't come down, we have an expensive wedding, period.
I'm not sure how to tackle this, actually. Both my FH and I want a sit-down dinner, and we want to invite extended family. We've thought of a few things, but it's hard.
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New CB Member
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| Yes, weddings are expensive, more so in the GTA it feels like. My FH and I originally wanted the big wedding, but ultimately decided that saving for a down payment and paying off debts was so much smarter for us. What we are planning to do now is have a mini-reception at the church hall, where everyone at the ceremony can greet us, socialize, eat (we are going to buy finger foods at grovery stores (hot and cold), platters of meats and cheeses, breads and buns, drinks, desserts). At our church, everyone goes to the ceremony, even if they are not attending the reception, so we are planning that about 200 at least will show up. Not only will ALL of our family be here but our friends as well. Then we want to bring our family, and close friends out to dinner to a nice restaurant. You can find some great places that start at $25 pp. we are paying for a certain number of alcoholic drinks per person, that way we keep everyone happy, many of those attending don't drink anyways.... the restaurant we are thinking about right now is $35, not including the drinks, so lets say $40 so thats $3200. and estimating about...i don't know...at most $800-1000 maybe for the church hall reception... it is quite reasonable! hopefully this gives some other ladies some alternative ideas for an economical wedding reception!
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MichelleZB (10/12/2008)Both my FH and I want a sit-down dinner, and we want to invite extended family. We've thought of a few things, but it's hard.
That is hard. There were only 43 people at my wedding, so that definitely helped to keep the costs down! If I had invited all my extended family and friends, it definitely would have been more like 200 people! 
The only thing I can think of is that you ask lots of family friends for favours. If I had gotten married in New Zealand a friend would have made my wedding dress, and because I got married in Canada my MIL was able to take care of flowers. (She's a florist and could order them wholesale)
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| We figure our wedding was about $7000. We were aiming for $5000 or less, but my Mom got a little crazy (she and my Dad eloped because their parents went crazy - kinda funny, huh?). This includes our rings, my dress (which I paid a lot more for than I had originally budgeted! ha ha!), ceremony and reception. Anyway, we got engaged about 2 years before our wedding, so we bought things a little bit at a time and paid for things a bit at a time, so by the time the wedding was over we were debt free (and DH came into this relationship with quite a bit of credit card debt! grrr!). We also didn't really care about a lot of silly wedding things some people care about. I just wanted to get married and have a party! So that's how we planned. We didn't want a cake - but a friend got us one anyway... so that was nice (and saved us money!)... I don't really believe in buying a bunch of flowers that are just gonna die anyway - so I didn't! The table centrepieces were just funky candleholders we got from Zellers, the Dollarstore and Ikea... nothing special and nothing over a dollar (ha ha). We just had fun and made it kind of funky and laid back So my first thought about cutting costs is to think about what REALLY matters and what you just think are just silly things that in the grand scheme of the marriage don't matter. As long as you get a legal officiant and sign all the papers you've got yourself the marriage - everything else is just for show So what REALLY matters to you? (eff everyone else  )
~ Finally Got Hitched June 16, 2007 ~ Just call me Butterpurp lush 
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amgallow (10/13/2008)
As long as you get a legal officiant and sign all the papers you've got yourself the marriage - everything else is just for show...
I agree
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