How To Trim Your Budget

For me, being a DIY bride isn't just about cutting costs; it's about the journey of getting to the big day. I would hate to look back on all of this one day and not have special memories about all aspects of the event! I've put together a list of how to trim your budget, all of which I have used myself, with exception of the dress. Hope it's helpful!

If you are not settled on an exact date and time of year, ask if your venue has an off season. These off seasons tend to have much cheaper rates both for you and for your guests.

Many venues discount their Friday nights. We booked in for the Friday of a long weekend so we could really make the best of the rest of the weekend off. Around here, with gorgeous weather being so short, it's very popular to take the Friday off on a Monday long weekend anyways!

Make your own bouquet, centre pieces, boutonnieres and corsages out of silk, paper or fabric flowers, feathers, etc. By cutting this out of your budget, you can probably even be able to afford a wedding planner for a 30-day countdown for less than the total fresh flower budget.

Ask for discounts. Don't be shy! Vendors do have inflated prices as soon as a wedding is mentioned,  but they want your business. Once you receive a quote, provide them your maximum amount you are willing to spend, and they'll often work with you to give you something fabulous. You're spending a lot of money and even a savings of $100 can go a long way! We were really lucky and our venue even waived the entire venue rental fee for us (a savings of $3500!), which made it possible for us to get our favourite venue. 

Pool your resources. We all have connections in some way to incredible resources who can help at discounted prices, for trade of services or even for free.

To avoid the costs of a full dinner, hold your ceremony later in the evening and do a cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres and open bar. Alternatively, hold a posh early afternoon ceremony with an afternoon reception of tea and desserts.

Look for locations that allow you to bring your own alcohol. They'll usually supply the juices, pop, limes, straws, napkins, etc. for a minimal fee, but you get to avoid the incredibly inflated prices of using their alcohol. Another plus is that you can really tailor your bar to your guests. But be careful and always ask your venue if there is a corkage fee.

Purchase a bridesmaid dress instead of an actual wedding gown. There are so many gorgeous bridesmaid dresses out there that are a fraction of the cost of a bridal gown and they normally come in ivory.

Shop around, buy used items and look for coupons. Sites like retailmenot, redflagdeals and many others are such great resources with coupons for stores like Michael's, VistaPrint, and even hotel chains, make up stores, salons. Even purchasing items on sale can be cheaper than renting and you can re-sell them to make some (or more!) of your money back! Look for classifieds like projectwedding to find used items.

Etsy has so many great vendors charging far less than a bridal boutique.  Everything from hair accessories, veils, jewellery, clutches, invitations and garters are available. The possibilities are endless for a DIY bride with Etsy or for a bride who doesn't want to do any of it but likes the idea of something handmade and supporting a growing business.


Making your own invites can cut costs by 50% or more depending on the complexity of the design and the number of invites you need to make. A couple of nights with good friends and some great wine and you'll have a completely unique design and lasting memory for years to come.

Most importantly, stick to your budget and give yourself time to work out all the kinks. I've been sticking to a rule that by the time the next 'to-do' time rolls around on my list, that I already have it completed - stay one step ahead.

To view other helpful forms for diy wedding planning, click here. 

Wedding Websites

The trend to create your own wedding website is becoming increasingly popular. Not only are they a great way  to share information about your wedding, but they are also totally resourceful for inviting and receiving rsvp's. I have been on the hunt for a while to find a site that combines great templates with loads of services, so it's the first thing with wedding planning of which I can confidently say I've got a bit of experience under my belt! Of course working in the web industry helps me to be pickier when assessing these sites, so that's a plus when doing my research. My thoughts and notes from each site I checked out are below!

*image sourced from ruffledblog.com and is by Made You Look Photography.

It's Official!

We're getting married! The Capitol Theatre up at Yonge and Eglinton has officially been booked for Friday, September 2nd, 2011!! We decided to do the long weekend because we not only want to have the entire weekend for celebrating but because it is also the 2 year anniversary to our engagement. Of course, the fact that a Friday night is cheaper than a Saturday certainly doesn't hurt either.

So now we get to the really daunting part - the To-Do list. I've been scouring the web for thorough instructions, but I always feel that so much is missing. I think a lot of the people putting these lists together are so familiar with wedding planning that they leave so much off - mainly the little details - which means diy brides are left floundering at the end. As a  diybride who has absolutely no experience with planning a wedding, I decided I could put together a more thorough list. I started with my own list of things that seemed obvious to me and then began adding items I found on other lists. I will continue to add to my ever growing list (it's already at 7 pages!)  in hopes that I can cover as much as possible. I haven't seen anything as nearly as complete yet, so I hope it's a helpful resource to those  diy brides who stumble upon it. Any feedback is appreciated!

Feel free to download the wedding to do list by clicking here.

To view other helpful forms for diy wedding planning, click here. 

Lovely Circus Chic

Most recently, I've been loving adding a hint of whimsical circus, while still keeping the rest of the elements classic. I wanted to incorporate some of my favourite things: feathers, script fonts, bright colours mixed with muted greys and blacks, crystals and satins. Even though it still has this rich feeling to it, things are tamed back to be enveloped in fun by adding paper moustaches for the guests! C'est l'amour! 

To learn more about the artists featured in this board click here.

Oh Summer Days

Nothing makes a summer afternoon even more relaxing than a great cocktail. This afternoon Byron and I went to the beach to relax with some magazines, sunscreen (and the ever present tanning oil for Byron!) and good music. We hung out for a couple of hours, played a round of croquet and soaked up some sun. 

When we got home, we made some dinner, mixed some deeee-licious cocktails about talked about what we'd like to do for our rehearsal dinner. We decided it would most suit us to do an all out BBQ where we can all relax and enjoy ourselves. And what else would be better than having fun custom cocktails? We came away with two fantastic summer cocktail recipes and of course, our all-time fave, but any of them would work well with different fruits, citruses and garnishes:

• Strawberry Gin Cocktail
• Raspberry Mojito
• Classic Gin and Tonic

Of course these would also work well for the brides and grooms who are supplying their own alcohol and hiring their own bartenders. Imagine a gorgeous country-chic wedding with spiked punch bowls or hand crafted deliciousness? Mmm....I think I'll go keep experimenting. Besides, it's Saturday night!

Click here to download the recipes! 

Top: Strawberry Gin Cocktail 
Bottom: Raspberry Mojito

The Prettiest Bouquet

So I found the most gorgeous bouquet to be in inspired by and boy, is it unique. Made out of paper, this gorgeous little gem I found at Project Wedding is right up my DIY ally. As much as I love fresh flowers, I really want to do things differently but still keep everything classic. The colours and mixtures of textures  are a perfect combination to make something really beautiful. I know it's going to take a lot of work to do my bouquet, and possibly smaller versions of for the bridesmaids, but I think they'll really be an attention grabber. One key element I'll be trying to add are bleached peacock feathers.

*image sourced from projectwedding.com

Not only is finding an economical way (with a little bit of hard work) to get an expensive look for less a huge passion of mine, but I have always loved the look of fascination on people's faces when they do the second look and realize that something is handmade. It's one of the reasons I went to school for what I did. I love working with my hands to make stunning things. I'll share how they turn out and whether or not I survived making all of those little flowers...just like the invites, I think a bottle of wine (or 3 or 4 in this case!) and some crafty friends will keep me sane throughout this process.