Backing Up in Time - Our Full Wedding Buget Breakdown

I meant to post this a long time ago, since we were married in April, however, I know how much seeing posts like this helped me out when I first started wedding planning so here it goes.

I know that things can vary from area to area, so for reference, we were married in Ontario, Canada.

Our original budget was $12,000. Then it went to $15,000.. and finally, it settled at $20,882.68 (including everything - rings, honeymoon, food, dress - literally everything down to postage stamps) but I know we wouldn't have done anything differently (okay, maybe a few uninformed purchases, but you live and learn, right? Plus, our errors might help someone else!)

We splurged on the things that were important to us (photography!) and less on other things that we determined were less important to us (like the cake).

Before we begin to break things down further, you can view my wedding recap posts here, here and here.

CEREMONY - TOTAL: $1118.50
Hall Rental - $508.50 - This includes the rental for the reception as well, as our ceremony/reception were in the same location. The ceremony was supposed to be outside, but that didn't happen due to the weather.
Officiant - $360.00
Wedding Rings - $125.00 for BOTH! - They were handmade by an artist on Etsy and are sterling silver.
Marriage License - $125.00

RECEPTION - TOTAL: $5732.01
Food - $3960.00 - Our venue was all inclusive, so this total actually includes all linens, rentals, glassware, setup and cleanup, etc. And for 73 meals (4 vendor meals, us, and 67 guests) which was buffet style with 2 entree options, 2 salads, 3 sides. This also included cocktail hour served hors d'oeuvres and a late night buffet.
House Wine - $400.00 - 2 bottles on each guest table
Gratuity - $654.00
Tax - $718.01
Taxes and Gratuities are included everywhere else except here - I wanted to make a note of it separately. Yes, we had a cash bar - it is the norm where we are located and neither one of us drink, so we didn't want to provide too much alcohol but we wanted our guests to have options - which is why we went with 2 bottles of wine on each table (1 red, 1 white).

BRIDAL ATTIRE - TOTAL: $1327.89
Wedding Dress - $1013.00
Wedding Dress #2 - $426.88
Dress Sash - $75.90
Garter - $33.99
Shoes - $125.00
Veil - $50.00
Bridal Shawl - $30.00

BEAUTY - TOTAL: $275.00
Hair Trial - $70.00
Makeup Trial - $55.00
Hair and Makeup on the Day of - $150.00

CAKE & ACCESSORIES - TOTAL: $185.64
Wedding Cake - $164.25 - We went with a basic cake design that was 2 tiers and would feed 80 people. It tasted delicious!
Cake Topper - $21.39

MUSIC - TOTAL: $1327.75
DJ for Ceremony/Cocktail Hour/Dinner/Reception - $1327.75 - They also supplied uplighting and were the MC's for the evening!

PHOTOGRAPHY - TOTAL: $5285.00
Original Photographer Deposit - $300 - We lost our original deposit as it wasn't until months later that I realized how important photography was to me. I don't regret this at all and our new photographer was amazing!
Photographer - $4985.00 - This included an engagement session, 8hrs with 2 photographers, all images edited on cd within 4 weeks, 20pg professional album

STATIONERY - TOTAL: $294.99
Invitations - $200.00
Postage - $55.00
Thank You Cards - $39.99

GROOM ATTIRE - TOTAL: $503.39
'In Case You Have Cold Feet' Socks - $35.61
Tuxedo Rental for Groom + Best Man - $467.78

DECOR - TOTAL: $898.29
Chalkboard Seating Chart - $111.29
Painted Mason Jars - $94.00
Guestbook and Pens - $76.00
Chalkboard Table Numbers - $76.00
Chalkboard Place Cards - $76.00
LED Lights - $122.50
Vase Filler - $82.50
72 Votive Candles and Candleholders - $100.00
Chalkboard Easel and Chalkboard Pens - $160.00

GIFTS - TOTAL: $547.34
3 Bridal Robes - $112.93
Favours - $125.90
2 Bridesmaid Dresses - $191.00
Bridesmaid Dress Bandeau - $47.51
Bridesmaid Shawl - $30.00
Makeup for 1 Bridesmaid - $40.00

FLOWERS - TOTAL: $700.00
Wholesale Flowers - $400.00 - included more then enough Roses, Carnations and Baby's breath to DIY the centrepieces
Wedding Party Flowers - $300.00 - included Bridal Bouquet, 2 Bridesmaid Bouquets, Groom's Boutonniere, 1 Groomsman Boutonniere, 2 Wrist Corsages and 3 Attendant/Father Boutonnieres
Silk Flowers - $260.00 - Yes, I originally went with silk flowers and changed my mind - this was my first regret and mistake during wedding planning!

HONEYMOON - TOTAL: $2000.00
$2000 - Included gas, fabulous hotel and 4 nights in Old Quebec City. I believe we actually ended up spending less than this, but this was my budget and I honestly didn't keep too close of track of this during our honeymoon last week!

OVERALL TOTAL:  $20,882.68


Now, as you can see there are a few oops and a few changing of minds that caused an increase in budget, as well our friends needed assistance in order to be in our wedding and we didn't feel right asking people who have children to splurge on a dress, tux, etc.. so we covered everything for our entire wedding party - 2 bridesmaids and 1 best man.

One other thing that might look odd is that - yes, we did not have an open bar. Open bars are not common, at all, in our area.. and if we were able to do it, it would have cost about $7000 - $8000 more. Canadian alcohol is not cheap! Luckily, it is not normal to have one here. Besides, neither one of us drink and Barry is about to be 5 years sober, we wouldn't feel right having an open bar like that. So, we did pay for 2 bottles of wine on each table, to try to be nice. :)

A few extra spending/oops moments during the process:
- As you can see, I purchased 2 wedding dresses. I was very weird with the whole wedding dress process - I never went wedding dress shopping and tried on dresses! That's right- never. Not once during the entire process. I found a dress on Etsy by Bridal Bliss Designs that I LOVED, spoke with Erin and decided to go with it. During the waiting period of 4 months, I started to panic - Did I make the right decision? What if it comes in and doesn't fit and it's too late to get something else? Blah, blah, blah. So what do I do? I purchase another dress online from a chinese reseller. It didn't cost too much, initially, but once I factored in the duty and taxes, it was quite expensive. This dress arrived first and it just wasn't perfect.. so I waited for my original handmade dress to come in -- and when it did, it was PERFECT. The most perfect dress I could have ever imagined. I loved it, and if I had stuck with my gut on this originally, I wouldn't have questioned things while I was waiting, and in turn, wouldn't have purchased the 2nd dress that is still hanging in my closet with the tags on!
- Second was the photography. We originally chose a local photographer very early on in the wedding planning process -- she was good, but after searching around online I started to doubt her style and how satisfied I would be with the results. I didn't know until halfway through the wedding planning process just how important photography was to me. So, we lost our $300 deposit with our original photographer to go with another one from Toronto - best decision! She was amazing, worth every penny and the photos we received of our day are truly special.
- Next was the flowers, I originally thought, who cares about flowers - they will just die soon after the wedding anyway? Why don't we go with silk flowers? So, I shelled out about $260.00 on silk flower bouquets and centrepieces.. then, decided I really wanted real flowers. 

After all the back and forth, changing my mind about certain aspects, etc.. I'm surprised Barry still wanted to marry me after the 9 months or so of planning! It was well worth it, and our day was amazing.. I wouldn't have truly changed anything about it (except for maybe the oops moments above!!).

That is really the only piece of advice I can give any new brides - decide what is truly important to you, not what you think right now is important to you. Really think about it, because if you change your mind later it could cost you thousands!

Post Wedding Photoshoot: Part 3

Here is the final part of our post wedding photoshoot which includes all of our beach shots during sunset!

All photos are by Erin Campbell Photography

Post Wedding Photoshoot: Part 2

Part 2 of our photoshoot!

All photos are by Erin Campbell Photography

Check back for part 3 soon enough which will include our beach shots!

Post Wedding Photoshoot: Part 1

Our pictures are in from our post wedding photoshoot and I couldn't be more excited or happy with them! The weather and sunshine was truly perfect, and we had a blast doing these! (Well, I did.. Barry was upset that he had to miss a hockey game, but I think it was worth it for some of these shots!)

All photos are by Erin Campbell Photography

We will have to do this in parts, I love too many pictures to narrow it down anymore -- so part 2 and possibly 3 coming soon!

Life Lately

Why does it seem like I only blog on Fridays and weekends anymore? I really need to start scheduling my posts throughout the week - I never find time to write Monday-Friday due to work. I'm still getting used to working those hours and by the time I get home in the evening and make supper, I'm pretty much done. Hoping that changes soon enough and my body will be readjusted. Still, scheduling posts is now on my to do list!

So, Life lately.. What have we been up to?

Well, today was a big day for 2 reasons...

1) I finally passed my G license test. YES, finally. Canada has graduated licensing and I've been redoing my G2 road test every 5 years so as to not lose my license. I went once for the G road test and failed horribly.. the tester actually had me in tears. Now, that was 4 years ago and I've changed a lot since then.. I'm still a nervous driver, don't drive very often and HATE to drive.. but I was determined to get this done. For one, my insurance would lower dramatically (which I am definitely looking forward to now) and two, now that I have passed, I will not have to take another road test until I am considered old age. You have no idea how happy I am to have passed - one less worry that I have to have. Road tests always made me nervous and anxious, which would definitely result in a fail, but I DID IT!

2) We put an offer in on the house we saw last week. At first, we decided against moving forward with a house purchase right now and decided to work on our credit and build up more of a downpayment. However, neither one of us could forget that house. It is perfect for us. Beautiful hardwood floors, beautiful back deck with large fenced in yard, excellent kitchen, 3 bedrooms, garage, decent neighborhood. It was PERFECT! After some recalculating and realizing that no matter our savings will be gone, we decided to take the plunge. The house is over budget, so there is a definite possibility that we won't get it -- but just to have put an offer in is amazing! I'm hopeful, but being realistic -- it may be the perfect house, but not the perfect price. We will have to wait and see..

Also, I came home to see our photographer from our post wedding shoot has posted 2 more photos, so I'll share them here! I really can't wait to see the rest!

 

Photos by Erin Campbell Photography

Work Promotion, Poop and a Photoshoot

Never thought that title would come about, haha!

As much time and heart that I put into Starletta Designs, it is unfortunately not my main source of income at the moment. I have been working at a major Canadian retailer for a year and a half now as a customer service representative.

I mainly handle email support, but I also deal with telephone support, order processing, help desk and business to business accounts. I have learned a lot here, and it has definitely helped me with my own business goals and ideas, as well. I have met some amazing people and my job is generally a fun place to work.. however, I always felt like I wasn't challenged. Like, it was too easy, sometimes boring.

That has now changed, as I can officially announce that I have been promoted to Knowledge Base Specialist!

This position allows me to work full time hours again, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 but it is definitely more challenging! Oh, and a pay raise.. which I haven't had in years!

I started this position on Monday, and its been great so far! I miss the people I used to work with, as I had quite a few close people there, but the new group seems fantastic so far, too, and I look forward to getting to know them! This position is 8 1/2 hour shifts, which I am working on getting used to again.. My hours were cut back in February when I started doing 5 hour shifts. So, it's a bit of a change and my body just needs to readjust!

In other news, Barry and I went for our post-wedding photo shoot that I finally talked him into doing! Our wedding photos were truly amazing, but due to the weather we really didn't get as many outdoor opportunities as I would have liked! We had a wonderful time and have beautiful weather, which we were lucky as its been raining every other day this week.

But, when we went to leave the beach we were at we noticed something on our vehicles.. Let me start from the beginning... While we were walking out onto the beach we passed 3 guys in their mid 20s who were obviously drunk (and they had a young child with them, I would say he was about 6 or 7) on the boardwalk. As we passed, they were polite and said congratulations and how beautiful we looked. We continued on and shot photos on the beach for about 30 mins.

The beach was secluded, there was no one else there.

So, like I said, we walked back out and noticed something on our vehicles. These guys had trashed our vehicles! We were just in shock and couldn't believe someone would do something like this! Upon inspection our vehicle had sand thrown all over the windshield and poop (yes, I said poop) down the side. We were upset until we saw our photographer's vehicle - they had climbed on her hood and pooped on her windshield, "nicely" framed it with sticks, and peed on her drivers door handle! Honestly, the only thought I can muster up is, wtf? How can someone be so immature and idiotic? If it was actually our wedding night, I would think it was a bad omen.. But at least they did not do any actual damage to the vehicles!

Here are the 2 teasers our photographer has posted on Facebook so far:
by Erin Campbell Photography

Wedding Recap Part 3

Here we are: final part of our wedding recap!

We left off with the reception which included our first dance, speeches, dinner and more dancing!




Beautiful pictures of the hall, our handmade rings and more DIY details.
The centrepieces were quite the challenge and time sucker the day before the wedding!









We didn't have any scheduled speeches - just asked if anyone would like to come up and say a few words and I was amazed. Barry's mom and dad came up, then my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ronnie, and then my Aunt Margo. They were all beautiful, funny, and touching.


Our first dance pictures.
I think these might be my favourites of the whole day!





It was truly an amazing day!
Thank you so much to all of our friends & family for coming & celebrating with us!
And thank you to my new husband for putting up with me for 5 1/2 years so far & still wanting to marry me, haha!