Friday, April 15, 2011

Link Love

Since its still quite a while away from my Wedding, I'll be posting some links I find around the internet that I found helpful.

Todays: http://www.totallymoney.com/blogs/top-money-tips-budget-weddings/

Have a great weekend,
Morgaine

Friday, March 11, 2011

With a little help from our friends ...

Another way that we are saving money on the wedding is a lot of friends are helping us out!

We have 2 friends that are amateur photographers. They are almost at the professional level, I have seen their work, it is amazing, they just need to build their portfolios and get some referrals. The contract hasn't been written out yet, so I don't have a final number for number of photos/price but I think the amount of $1000 has been kicked around - which would include the engagement photos, touch-ups, and album. I'm ok with this number.

I have another friend who has offered to make our cake. I've tasted cakes that she has made and they are delicious! I haven't seen a wedding cake that she has made (she made one for her sister's wedding, but I didn't go) but she is going to make a prototype for the wedding shower and I would have enough time to order a back up if I don't like what she does at that point. I sent her a picture of what I am looking for (teal frosting with a Celtic pattern) and she said no problem.

I REALLY want to have a band, but band or not, there are going to be times when other music will be required, and I friend has some good music equipment and an ipod, so free DJ. And a friend had already offered to be our MC (she is not shy and really funny). My MOH's mother plays the harp, so ceremony music is covered too!

I am so happy that I have wonderful friends that are willing to spend their time helping us meet our goal of having a great wedding for under 10K :)

TTFN, Morgaine

Friday, March 4, 2011

DIY

So, one of the ways I will be keeping the costs of the wedding down will be to DIY!

Aspects of the wedding that I am planning on DIYing: invitations, favours, flowers, centrepieces, ringpillow, guestbook, place settings and pretty much anything else we think of! I will have lots of help since my family and quite a few of my friends are quite crafty! My fiance works in computers and graphics so he is going to design the invitations and website and me and my friends/family will be responsible for the rest :)

I have purchased the two "DIY Bride" books and they have lots of great suggestions, so I'm really looking forward to getting some of this started. I have gotten a "prototype" for the centrepieces and I have done a test run for the favour soap (see pic below), but we can't do the actual projects for a while :(

I know that once we actually start planning and making things that time is going to fly by extremely fast, but right now it seems that time is moving sooooooooo slow! I REALLY want to get started!

Anyways, I will post about each project as I get to them. In the meantime, here is a picture of the guest favours.


TTFN, Morgaine

Friday, February 25, 2011

A little info

I thought I'd give a bit of background on me and my fiance and the wedding in general.

I am 30 and work in the financial field, my fiance is 29 (will be 30 shortly, hehehe) and is computer programming. We started dated 4 years ago come March 10th. He proposed last July while we were on trip out west to attend one of his sister's weddings (he has 3).

Our wedding date is tentatively set for September 8, 2012 (haven't booked a venue yet, see first post) and it will be in Toronto, ON Canada.

We will have quite a few out of town guests because T's family is either in northern Ontario or Alberta (his parents are divorced) and his friends are in northern Ontario. We are trying to book a venue that is right next door to great hotel in Toronto, and that would make things so much easier and convenient. We are hoping to book a block of rooms so that we can get everyone a discount, including ourselves! I definitely want to stay the night before (with the girls) and the night of (with my husband!) at the hotel.

The venue we are looking to book is quite old school (built in mid-1800s) but that is the look I am going for! We looked into Casa Loma (which would have been my dream venue, btw) but just the hall and food would have cost us at least $25K! So, I did some more searching and came up with the venue we are looking at. I'm not going to mention it until we actually book it - don't want to jinx it ;)

The theme is Celtic, to go along with our backgrounds (mine is Irish and his is Scottish) and the engagement ring he bought me has a Celtic pattern on it. I'm hoping to incorporate a lot of Celtic into the wedding: from the invitations to the cake! I'm looking to get a Celtic band (musical kind and the rings!) T will be wearing a kilt :) and I found a website that has a minister that does "handfasting" - a Celtic wedding tradition (anyone see "Braveheart"?) This is very important to me. Our colours are teal and silver, more emphasis on teal, the bridesmaid dresses, for example. My MOH is very particular about things like this, but she was happy with this choice :)

I haven't thought much about my wedding dress yet, haven't tried any on. I'm waiting for David's Bridal to come to Canada and then waiting some more for it to simmer down - and probably wait until wedding "season" is over. Actually I think I will wait until September or October. Who wants to be trying on dresses in summer? Plus, it will give me more time to lose some weight ;) I'm hoping to spend about $1000 or under for everything (dress, alterations, tax, and accessories). I will be making my own jewelry, so that doesn't count :) I will post a pic when that's done.

Ok, so a little info has turned into a lot of info, but I think this is a good "background" for the wedding that I am planning. I wasn't the girl who dreamt of her wedding day since she was 8 years old, but once I got the proposal, I have been putting a lot of thinking into this :)

TTFN, Morgaine

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

10K Budget

Welcome to my new blog: 10K wedding!

Please follow me on my journey as I plan a wedding for about 100 people for under $10,000! It is tentatively scheduled for September 8, 2012. I say tentatively because we haven't booked the venue yet. We know the venue we want to book, but they won't let us book more than a year in advance. I so cannot wait until that date and the wedding planning can actually begin!

Anyways, here's the tentative 10K budget:

I think this is doable but we haven't really gone "shopping" yet, of course, I will keep updating as we go along.

TTFN, Morgaine