Wedding Budget Breakdown: Where to Spend and What to Skip

• Introduction
• Complete Wedding Budget Breakdown
• Our Major Wedding Expenses
• Where We Saved on Wedding Costs
• What We Chose Not to Include in Our Wedding
• How Friends and Family Made Our Wedding Both Special and Cost-Effective
• Year-Long Wedding Planning Timeline
• Our Wedding Day Schedule
• Conclusion

Planning a wedding means making big decisions about where your money should go, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a beautiful, unforgettable day.

In this post, I reflect on how my husband and I decided where to spend our money and what wedding things to skip completely when planning our timeless, minimal wedding.

We set our budget to $15k, invited 75 people, and ended up with a total of 40 guests on our wedding day.

To begin, I have included a breakdown of what we actually spent on our wedding, covering every expense except our honeymoon. 

The prices listed are definitely lower than what our wedding would cost with post-pandemic price increases, but the insights and distribution of costs still apply. 

Complete Wedding Budget Breakdown

Note that this is all in Canadian dollars.

• $6,471.02
• Venue
• Ceremony
• Reception
• Buffet Dinner
• Small Dessert
• Decor
• Set Up/Tear Down
• Day-Of Coordinator
• Bartender
• $3,577.89
• Photographer
• Engagement Shoot
• 8-Hour Wedding Day 
• $636.93
• Drinks for Bride and Groom
• Drink Tickets Used by Guests
• $581.00
• Bride Engagement/Wedding Ring
• Groom Wedding Ring
• $531.51
• Bride Wedding Dress
• Alterations
• $480.73
• Bride and Groom 2-Night Hotel Accommodation
• $440.00
• Groom Suit
• Alterations
• $280.00
• Bride Hair Appointments Leading to Wedding Day
• $274.72
• Bride and Maid of Honour Hair and Make-Up
• $199.71
• 100 Mini Cupcakes
• $151.12
• Miscellaneous Wedding Weekend Costs
• $145.00
• Cabs for Bridal Party
• 2-Hour Shuttle Service for Guests at End of Night
• $138.00
• Event Insurance
• $135.00
• Marriage License Documents for Wedding Day
• Printed Copy of Official Marriage License
• $124.00
• Bride Undergarments
• $104.99
• Bride and Maid of Honour Artificial Bouquets
• $74.72
• Fuel for Car
• $73.25
• Groom Shoes
• $60.00
• Bride Manicure
• $20.99
• Spotify Subscription
• Already Owned
• Bride Getting-Ready Outfit
• Bride Shoes
• Bride Earrings
• Bride Sweater
• Free
• Car (borrowed)
• Officiant
• Live Ceremony Music
• Seating Chart
• Save-the-Dates/Invitations/Thank-You Cards

TOTAL SPEND: $14,500.58

Our Major Wedding Expenses

Venue

We chose an unconventional path with wedding planning by booking our venue before even getting engaged.

While my husband didn't mind one way or the other, I wanted a short engagement, and we knew that the venue would not only be the biggest expense for us, but it would also set our date.

We determined a guest list of 75 people and quickly learned what a minimum spend was and that they were the standard with popular wedding-specific venues.

Minimum spends are a good option if you have a lot of guests who are hungry and drinking all throughout the evening, but our 75-guest count was going to mean paying money towards that minimum spend for nothing in return.

We briefly explored getting married at City Hall after being humbled by wedding venue pricing, but that's not actually a thing where we live, and we ultimately wanted more than just witnesses as guests.

Our next idea was cutting costs with a rented house, park, or recreation centre.

However, a lot of things are needed to make feeding and entertaining people possible, and unless it's already included at your venue or you can do a lot for free, the expenses add up quickly.

Bringing in food, utensils, dishes, linens, lighting, a mic, speakers, a dance floor, and even bathrooms, makes these seemingly cheap venue options either as expensive or more than a package deal venue.

Even DIY options still cost money, time, and effort.

With all this in mind, we were willing to spend the money for a venue that comfortably fit our 75-person guest count, but specifically wanted a package deal so most vendor services were handled in one spot.

I realized that I needed to look beyond wedding-specific venues because they were not only more expensive but were meant for much bigger guest counts.

While an event of 75 people will not necessarily look weird in a big event space, we knew that it was unlikely most of my extended family would be able to make the trip, so we didn't want our venue to look empty.

We still got a venue that could fit 75 people (there is always the chance everyone you invite shows up), but ensured it would also look good with the 40-guest count that we ended up with on our wedding day.

We reserved the upper floor of an older venue where they hosted a variety of smaller events, from work parties to weddings, while the main floor was for people stopping for a break while skiing, mountain biking, etc.

We are not outdoorsy people in that sense, but we love the mountains, and it was absolutely beautiful to have them as the backdrop of our wedding.

Searching for event spaces that do a variety of events, not just weddings, is some of the best advice I can offer for saving money with a venue.

We could actually even have either our actual 40-guest count or our invited 75-guest count equally fill out the room by simply having the dance floor set up from the start, rather than rearranging tables once dancing started later.

Our venue also had the package deal we were looking for, where we chose from a catalogue of options for food, drinks, and decor, while they provided the setup/teardown, chefs, bartender, and even a day-of coordinator.

Day-Of Coordinator 

We decided that a wedding planner didn't feel necessary purely based on my over-confidence that I knew what we wanted and that I was willing to invest a lot of time and energy into finding everything for us.

While I did take on crafting the vision for our day and doing a lot of planning, the wedding really came together and went off without a hitch because our venue was a one-stop shop for most of our vendors, and that included a day-of coordinator.

A wedding planner is a job for a reason, but a day-of coordinator ended up being the right balance for us to get the support we needed with our wedding planning.

We had multiple meetings with her leading up to the wedding to confirm all details were accounted for and were able to attend our wedding as the guests of honor rather than the hosts, which is ultimately the goal.

While this service was included in our venue package, I would definitely pay for the service, knowing now how critical they were to our wedding day.

Food

A big part of our venue package deal and cost was that they provided food through their full kitchen and staff at the venue.

We chose a buffet package, had a food tasting a few months before our wedding, and we were good to go.

This is perhaps a bad way to look at it, but as long as the food was good enough (which it definitely was at our tasting), we were happy to move forward.

We wanted to provide a good experience for our guests, but we knew we likely wouldn't even eat much ourselves on the day, and the venue had done multiple weddings in the past, so we were confident in their abilities to pull off a quality meal.

The package we chose offered two salads, three sides, two mains, and a small dessert.

Everyone seemed happy with the food, and there was plenty for all guests, so I'd call that a great success.

Also, remember to feed your vendors!

Any vendor you bring in from outside the venue staff needs to be given their own meal, so count them as a guest and sit them at a table for dinner.

Photography

From the beginning, we knew that hiring a full-day photographer was a must for us, but it would be a high-priced endeavor.

I love photography, so I was again going in with over-confidence on finding what we wanted, and it worked quite well here because our photographer (Mint Photo) was awesome.

To find our photographer, I simply searched "wedding photography" plus the destination of our wedding on Instagram and found plenty of options to sort through.

I was set on a documentary style (my husband was happy to go with my preferences), but it still took a lot of browsing.

To figure out your desired style of photography, you can check out this post by The Knot for some guidance.

To narrow my search, I focused only on photographers' feeds where I saw diverse brides, moody vibes, candid shots, and quality low-lighting photos.

Professional photographers may feel expensive, but the roughly $3.5k we spent for an engagement shoot and 8 hours on our wedding day was a great deal and 100% worth it.

Note that our amazing photographer is only getting more and more experienced over the years (plus costs of everything have gone up) so any price increases she has made since our wedding are completely valid.

Photographing a wedding is a high-stakes job, so finding someone with the confidence and experience to pull it off is going to be an investment in the main thing you have once the day is over: photographs.

When we met with our photographer, we mainly focused on talking about her style and work flow but I have since learned that you can ask for a full gallery of photos of one of their previous weddings.

Our photographer had a lot of her work online, again showing that documentary style, diversity. and range of photos (i.e., not just people smiling outside in good lighting), so we definitely got what we were expecting with our photo gallery, but it's a nice tip to know.

Suit

We initially thought we could cut costs with a more casual look for my husband and his best man, but options like no tie or no jacket felt too informal for our wedding.

My husband is 5'6" so shopping off the rack suit, especially in the discounted sections, proved difficult as everything was too big and ultimately just not well made.

Since he was struggling with off-the-rack, we quickly nixed our second option of renting a suit, and the rental options weren't that cost-effective anyway.

Eventually, we were pointed to a men's formal wear store that carried smaller sizes than standard stores and were able to find a full three-piece suit for him and his best man, where the only alterations needed were for the pants' waist and hem.

Of course, this meant spending more than we thought, but it was definitely worth it to find something that he not only liked, but that fit him properly.

He has also worn that suit to multiple formal events since our wedding day, though even if he hadn't, it still would have been worth the cost.

Hair and Make-Up

Ideally, I would have cut costs with hair and make-up, but unless you do it yourself (which is stressful), wedding hair and make-up are going to be expensive because it's a high-stakes job that takes a lot of skill.

I mistakenly thought this would be an easy one to book because I only wanted my hair curled and a pretty natural make-up look.

But even booking 9 months out from our wedding was difficult because we weren't in a main city with lots of options.

Thankfully, I was only paying for myself and my maid of honour to be dolled up.

To help get my wedding hair done exactly how I wanted with a new stylist on my wedding day, I did hair appointments with my regular hairstylist every 6 weeks leading up to the day.

She was adamant that I come more regularly during my engagement to ensure I had my hair cut just right for the day.

It felt like a lot for someone like me who goes about twice a year, but it worked great.

I knew my hair length would work well curled, and I got some extra relaxation time with all the appointments leading up to the wedding.

Where We Saved on Wedding Costs

Guest Count

Lowering the guest count is the single easiest way to cut costs with a wedding because it means a smaller venue, less food, fewer drinks, and less of whatever else is being provided by you for guests.

My husband and I don't have huge extended families, but we basically created categories for inviting people to our wedding to help us get as low a guest count as possible.

Our list was:

• Immediate family
• Grandparents
• Aunts and Uncles
• Cousins
• Friends of 5+ years 

This amounted to a 75-guest count for us and not only ensured everyone attending knew us quite well, but also that neither of us was meeting someone for the first time on our wedding day. 

Getting our guest-count down to 20 people would have opened up a lot more venue options and lowered the cost even more, but we deemed it not possible for us. 

Bridal Party

My sister was my maid of honour, and my husband's brother was his best man.

Having friends as part of a bridal party is lovely and special, but it didn't feel right for us to have a big bridal party with 75 invited guests and ultimately 40 guests in attendance.

We are both close to our siblings, so it made for a lovely group, plus my sister's husband and their daughter joined us for some bridal party photos.

We included our friends in other ways, like me going wedding dress shopping with my close friend and having two of our other friends MC our reception.

Wedding Dress

I initially looked for a second-hand dress as I love thrift shopping, and I knew I didn't want anything hyper trendy, but unfortunately, nothing fit. 

I tried looking at clothing stores in malls to see if some casual dresses or skirts that just happened to be white could work, but anything I found (and I didn't find much) was either too sheer or didn't come in my size.

Next, I looked at prom dress options, but everything was covered in sparkles or fancy glittery details that I didn't want, and nothing really came in white anyway.

Through all this trial and error to find a cheaper option, I learned a lot about what I did and did not want with a dress.

I knew I wanted a dress that was white, full-length, structured, with straps, and I wanted to feel comfortable without a bra.

I learned that I didn't want a ball gown, sparkles of any kind, a leg slit, or anything too drapey above the waist.

My final step was going to David's Bridal, where I held firm to a $300 budget.

I was shown all the discount wedding dresses at that price or lower in my size, but I didn't like anything, so when we ran out of options, I was pointed to the bridesmaid dresses, as most can be white.

I ended up buying a structured Vera Wang bridesmaid dress in ivory with straps, a v-neck, and an open back.

This dress was perfect for the timeless quality I wanted for our wedding, and I felt super comfortable in it all day.

Rings 

My husband and I had a pretty non-traditional proposal by booking our venue before even getting engaged, me choosing my ring, and us going to buy it together.

With an ideal price in mind of a few hundred dollars, I began by looking at raw diamond options on Etsy.

I have since learned of moissanite rings, but even with these options being cost-effective, I didn't really want a diamond because it felt too fancy for me.

Eventually, I stumbled upon the Tiffany's Ball Ring when looking for non-sparkly jewelry, which is unfortunately no longer for sale, but you can see in the photo below, as it's what I chose.

I particularly love that the shape looks like an engagement ring without actually having a diamond.

We did look at plain wedding bands that could pair with my ring, but I decided that the one ring would be my engagement/wedding ring.

I have since bought other plain rings for my other fingers from Pandora, so they are definitely an option I would consider if you are looking for a cost-effective engagement/wedding ring.

For my husband, he wanted something simple, durable, and black, which led us almost immediately to tungsten rings on Etsy, and we went with the first solid black option we found.

At first, he wasn't sure if he wanted a ring at all since he'd never worn jewelry, but it quickly became his new normal, and he feels lost without it now, which is very sweet.

Flowers

I spent a while contemplating not having flowers at all, but I wanted them for the ceremony so I had something to do with my hands, and they do look really nice in formal photos.

I only considered artificial flowers because I have bad allergies, so I was scared anything real would irritate me.

My sister had done artificial flowers at her wedding, so I went to Budget Bride at her recommendation and found everything I needed there.

I chose a maid-of-honour size bouquet for myself and then a bridesmaid size bouquet for my sister, as the bridal-size bouquets felt too big.

I knew I wanted photos with the bouquet dropped at my side, as seen in the photo below, so weight was a concern for me.

We didn't do any flowers beyond the bouquets for my sister and me, but we did briefly consider boutonnières and centre pieces.

The boys ended up doing fancy pocket squares, and the centre pieces provided by our venue were some simple vases with floating candles, wood, greenery, and matching table numbers.

Cake

A cake can be quite the statement piece and offers the fun cake-cutting moment, but it is almost always more expensive than cupcakes.

Look out for cake-cutting fees with venues, too, as they charge for the time and labour involved with serving the cake to all your guests.

Doing cupcakes instead of a cake is a pretty well-known swap to make, but I did want to highlight it here anyway because even with our choice, we still had a moment of feeding each other those first couple bites.

Drinks

We aren't big drinkers, and neither were a lot of our guests, but we still wanted the option for alcohol.

A cash bar or toonie bar felt a little limiting as it meant everyone would need to have a payment method at the ready, which can be especially tough when wandering the reception in a formal dress. 

Open bar felt dangerous as we had no idea how much people would be able to consume in one night, and it makes people more prone to not caring about a misplaced drink since they can just grab another.

A couple of wine bottles on each table seemed like a nice idea, but with inviting so many guests who don't drink, it didn't make sense for our wedding.

In the end, we chose drink tickets as they allowed us to know the maximum amount we would be paying for drinks if all tickets were used, and anyone who didn't want theirs could just give it to someone else.

What We Chose Not to Include in Our Wedding

Pre-Wedding Parties

No engagement party, no bridal shower, and no bachelor's/bachelorette parties. 

My husband and I are not partiers, and it felt unnecessary to host parties celebrating the fact that we were going to have a bigger party later... 

The parties can definitely be fun, but they just didn't make sense for us. 

DJ

This one is very much based on preference because if you want a true party vibe that gets everyone dancing, do invest the time and money into finding a fun and reputable DJ.

I say reputable because listening to a few episodes of the NFF Podcast highlights that most vendor horror stories come from not properly vetting a DJ...

We knew most of the guests we invited were not likely to tear up the dance floor, though.

My husband and I love to dance, but beyond our friends joining in, we didn't expect a big group, so we simply used a phone and created our own Spotify playlist.

It was a time investment to make a list of all our favourite songs, but we knew what we liked to dance to, and then had our friend, who was also our MC, be in charge of connecting and managing the phone at the venue. 

We weren't connected to Wi-Fi, which was great because the list couldn't be modified, so we knew any music chosen would be from our pre-made list. 

Based on attending other weddings, I knew I didn't want the phone to be open to any guest to change the song, and I didn't feel the need to get recommended songs from guests before the wedding.

There is a difference between a good song and a good dance song...

Extra Decor

All decor was provided by the venue based on what we chose from their catalogue, and it was very basic: Linens, centre pieces, table numbers, and fairy lights for dancing.

We got married in the mountains, so that was our main decor for taking formal photos outside, and our ceremony was in front of a giant window facing the mountains.

We could have hung things up on the walls or added flowers, fancy dinnerware, chair covers, etc., but it just wasn't necessary.

A skilled photographer will make any space look good.

One of my favourite photos of my husband and me is actually us standing right beside a dirt parking lot and overlooking a busy street, with water and trees in the distance, but as you can see with the photo below, all you really see is us, trees, and the water.

Invest in a venue that already looks nice inside (i.e., architecture, plants, windows) or outside (i.e., trees, water, mountains), and you don't need to do much to make the place look nice.

This is where costs can sneak up on you with trying to save money by hosting in a recreation centre or something, because it takes more work to make it look fancy.

But again, a skilled photographer can make a bland space look good because below is a picture of me getting into my wedding dress in a literal meeting room at the venue (we had gotten hair and make-up done at our hotel without the photographer).

Wedding Favours 

The wedding favours we had received in the past felt unnecessary, but I personally have very strong opinions about gift-giving, which you can read here.

We did attend one wedding that gave guests jars of their homemade jam, which was nice, and consumables are definitely not a bad option. 

But most guests didn't grab any jam, so the couple was left with a bunch of it to take home. 

We took our jars, but it was kind of weird to stuff some jam in my small purse. 

How Friends and Family Made Our Wedding Both Special and Cost-Effective

Officiant

At the time of our wedding, there were rules in place that prevented us from "asking a friend to get ordained on the internet" like in the movies, but I believe that is more of an option now, post-pandemic.

We lucked out, though, as a friend we have known since we were all kids, held a government position that allowed him to legally perform weddings.

It was so special to not only have a friend perform our ceremony, but to also look back on photos and not see a stranger in all our ceremony photos.

But I will say, while this was such a special thing for us, we were confident to have him perform the ceremony, as he is very comfortable and experienced with public speaking.

Check in with people about public speaking nerves before asking them to officiate, MC, or even give a speech.

Live Ceremony Music

Live music is awesome (though not needed), but with my husband's cousin being a talented musician and part of a band, we reached out.

Not only was he happy to be part of our wedding by playing his guitar while we walked down the aisle, but he also composed the music he played for us.

It was such a special touch and him playing the guitar really adds to our ceremony photos, too. 

Seating Chart

Seating charts are often a decor piece these days, but they are functional as well, so we couldn't just cut out the cost by not doing one.

I had no idea what to do for ours, but my lovely sister stepped up with her art skills and made beautiful place cards for everyone.

We had a hurdle of not being able to enter the reception area during cocktail hour, so my sister had the great idea to add a cute little clothes pin to each card with people's drink tickets attached (which she also customized).

The place cards were all set up outside the reception area, near the bar, and had everything our guests needed in one spot.

Save-the-Dates/Invitations/Thank-You Cards

The final huge cost-saving choice we made was doing all the save-the-dates, invitations, and thank-you cards through e-mail. 

We made a specific wedding email so we could see all communications with guests at a glance, and it ensured we wouldn't accidentally send an invite to someone not on our guest list because of a typo.

I made a simple card-looking image with one of our engagement shoot photos and the basic information for our save-the-dates.

Then our invitations had another photo, a personalized blurb, and a link to a one-page private website I made using Wix, where they could find all the wedding information and read a cute blurb about our love story.

I think some more traditional family members can see this all as an etiquette faux-pas, but paying for all the customized invites and postage felt like such a waste to us.

Plus, it's better for the environment if you do it all online, but to speak our truth, we were mostly motivated by the free part.

Year-Long Wedding Planning Timeline

The following timelines are how things actually played out with us planning our wedding. 

• August 2018
• Purchased Engagement/Wedding Ring
• Created Guest List
• Looked at Venues (out of price range)

Took a break from wedding things for a few months.

• December 2018
• Booked a Venue
• Got Engaged
• January 2019
• Met/Booked Photographer
• Shopped for Wedding Dress at Multiple Locations
• Purchased Wedding Dress
• Contacted Possible Wedding Officiants (got confirmation friend could officiate for free)
• February 2019
• Booked Hair and Make-up
• Booked Hotel Accommodation
• March 2019
• Began Creating a Private Wedding Website
• April 2019
• Sent Official Save the Dates by Email
• Shopped for Groom and Best Man Suits at Multiple Locations
• Purchased Suit
• July 2019
• Purchased Wedding License Documents
• Pre-ordered 100 Mini Cupcakes
• Traveled to Venue for Food Tasting and Choosing Decor
• Booked Evening Shuttle Service for Guests
• Ordered Artificial Bouquets for Bride and Maid of Honour
• August 2019
• Sent Official Wedding Invites by Email
• Purchased Wedding Ring for Groom
• Wedding Dress Alterations (already owned shoes for bride)
• Purchased Spotify Premium Subscription
• Began Making a Playlist for our DJ (a friend controlling the Spotify playlist)
• September 2019
• Purchased Shoes for Groom
• Suit Alterations
• Purchased Event Insurance
• October 2019
• Met with Friends Helping on our Wedding Day to Confirm Details
• Wedding Day!

Our Wedding Day Schedule 

• 10:00am-12:30pm
• Bridal party getting ready at accommodation
• 12:30 -1:00pm
• Bridal party traveling from accomodation to venue via cabs
• 1:00pm
• Bride and Maid of Honour getting into dresses in spare room at venue
• 1:30pm
• First look
• 1:30-2:30pm
• Bridal party photos
• 2:30-3:00pm
• Guests Arrive
• Wedding party, live musician for ceremony (hubby's cousin), and officiant (our friend) meet and wait in meeting room at venue
• 3:00pm
• Ceremony
• 3:30-4:30pm
• Cocktail hour + brief family photos with bridal party and parents
• 4:30pm
• Guests can enter the reception space
• 5:00pm
• Official Bride and Groom entrance + first dance
• 5:30pm
• Buffet dinner
• 7:00pm
• Speeches from parents, Maid of Honour, Best Man, and Bride and Groom
• 7:30pm
• Dessert Served
• 11:00pm
• Shuttle Service Available for Guests

Conclusion

Overall, there is a big "it depends" attached to any wedding advice, but I think understanding where you want to spend big and what to skip completely is the best way to save money.

Trying to do absolutely everything, but in a cheap way, is just not going to go well because some wedding things like the venue and a photographer will (and should be IMO) a big chunk of your wedding budget.

It begins by being honest about what really matters to you for your wedding day and making your budget reflect those wants.  

My hubris with watching TLC wedding shows growing up made me feel very ready to get all our wants we deemed important, and I think that we did execute a beautiful event (with a big thanks to our day-of coordinator, too).

Overall, the biggest money-saving tip that I hope you take away from this post, or my post on not buying gifts, or my post on not buying a car, is that the easiest way to save money is by simply not spending money on things you don't want or even need.

All photos in this post were taken by Mint Photo