Fab Brunette ? Blog Archive ? Planning a Wedding Under $5000 and ...

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• J & I had been together for?over 7 years before getting married! We met in 2003, in 2006 Princess was born, in 2011 we got married .
• We decided to get married on a whim and kept changing our minds before deciding on a small 30 person wedding in downtown Vancouver.
• The wedding was planned on a $5000 budget, and it was planned in 2 months.
• We envisioned the wedding as a fun party and wanted it to invoke a chic yet comfortable atmosphere.
• We were married on a Wednesday.

Our wedding was?on a Wednesday. Yes. Why? I had already booked the trip to Amsterdam ? we kinda planned our wedding around our honeymoon. Backwards? Just a bit!

Location

We scoured different areas of downtown Vancouver, looking for a perfect venue for our wedding. It involved many phone calls, emails, and trips downtown ? we wandered Yaletown and Gastown and kept hoping the perfect place would pop up. From the beginning, we had always known that we wanted to be in a restaurant. Our top choices ended up being all in in Yaletown: Brix, V Lounge, and 100 Nights at the Opus Hotel.

Brix is a beautiful restaurant but required a $7000-10,000 deposit for renting out the restaurant. V Lounge was cool, but not as upscale and there was a music situation. 100 Nights was always the favourite, but we thought it would be super expensive, just as the food and drinks always are. Turns out, not so much.

At the 100 Nights restaurant, we had a $35/person menu (30 x $35 = $1050 + tax + gratuity), and we had to pay for the alcohol on top of that price. Our total spendage for the night?for food and alcohol was approximately $2500.

The Menu! First course included a selection of: Prosciutto Bruscshetta, Italian Onion Soup, or Rare Beef Carpaccio. Main course selections were Bacon Grilled Cheese, Margarita Pizza, 7oz Tenderloin Fillet, or the Kick Ass Burger. Dessert was a selection of either the Warm Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie or Malted Milk Chocolate Kulfi. The chef at the restaurant also threw in a dessert table, which I had pondered doing myself but scrapped at the last minute because of all the work involved. We receieved wonderful little petit fours, mini-cupcakes and delicious goodies.

As the bride and groom, we received large sharing platters, which included all of the choices for us to share! We were stuffed by the end of it!

Budget:

• Food & Drink: $2500
• Flowers: $320
• Wedding Dress: $415
• Accessories: $30
• J?s Outfit: $700
• Officiant: $200
• Invitations: $100
• Frames bonbonierre: $45

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Total Cost: $4810

This of course doesn?t include all the hotel rooms we paid for, for ourselves and family members, but as a proud spendaholic, I am happy to say that immediate wedding costs were under budget! Our most important thing was that everyone have a good time eating and drinking, relaxing and having fun. Good food is a must, and good champagne goes along with that!

I honestly tried my best.

(On second glance I realised I didn?t include lash extension or hair styling costs. That?s ok. I didn?t get new shoes, that?s the thriftiness in me!)

What We Didn?t Have

If you look above you may protest that I don?t have certain things in my wedding. I know, I know. I had to pull out a few things in order to make it all work out.

• A large bridal party. (My sister was the Maid of Honour, J?s brother was the Best Man.)
• A photographer. (My dad was the Honorary Photographer of the night! My sister also took a million pictures!)
• Glamorous, luxurious centrepieces. (Simple and modern, I stressed to the florist!)
• Expensive clothing.
• Videographer. (I hate wedding videos. I cry and then I?m bored.)
• Caterer. (Restaurant solves the problem.)
• DJ or Band. (Restaurant already HAD a DJ.)
• Limos or any transportation.
• Wedding cake.
• Programs. (It was short and sweet, I wasn?t sure if it was necesary to have one.)
• Rehearsal dinner. (We had a joint Bachelor/ette party the night before the wedding!)
• Wedding planner.
• New wedding rings. (I have J?s grandma?s rings. He doesn?t want any.)
• Guest book.
• Something blue or something borrowed.

At the end of the day?.

You have to decide what?s important to YOU!

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If you want ALL 300 members of your family and friends there ? do it! If you want a horse and pink shoes, and cake shaped like a castle ? whatever is really important to you, do it. Everyone in the midst of wedding planning never really, truly realises what we?re all doing this for is a marriage. A marriage where you might forget that you had an over-priced centrepiece when your husband makes you breakfast in bed, or fixes your breaks, or rubs your neck.

What NOT To Do!

• Do NOT do everything your mother/sister/best friend/cousin/aunt/grandma are insisting you do because that?s the way you?re SUPPOSED to do it!
• Do NOT pay for anything at a price that makes you uncomfortable. Guilt creeps. And paying $1000 for shoes when you shouldn?t be ? don?t do it!
• Do NOT do a wedding to ONE-UP that last ten you went to. No one cares if your dress?is bigger, your centrepieces taller, your cake five tiers larger. Seriously. Do what?s TRUE to you.
• Do NOT change your wedding color because someone else is doing it.
• Do NOT do anything that forces you out of your comfort zone.

At the end of the day I look back at my wedding and think? it was fabulous!

The most important thing to remember when planning a wedding it that it?s just you and him? creating a special moment in your lives that you will always look back on fondly, with love and laughter, but it?s just one day. You have many more to create together.

xo

Fab Brunette

Source: http://www.fabbrunette.com/?p=2741

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