Help! Is a $10,000 wedding possible?

Hey Dylan, your budget is 100% realistic and completely doable!

How many guests are you planning to have? How much of this are you willing to DIY? What are your "must haves"? By determining all of this, you will definitely get a clearer picture of how you're going to execute your 10K wedding.

Best of luck!

Hi there Dylan!

Welcome to the WeddingWire community

It's totally possible to have a wedding with a budget of $10,000!

So much great advice and insights from the previous posters!

This WeddingWire article lists ways to keep the cost below the average wedding price, including lowering your guest count, prioritizing where you put budget, etc. Check it out - How Much Does the Average Wedding Cost in Canada?.

YES! It is totally possible! Our wedding is around 13,000. We originally had set a budget for 10, but went a little over. It really helps if your parents are helping out at all. We've had generous help from our family, so we will only end up spending about $7000 of our own money.

The biggest thing is the amount of guests you have, of course. If you have 20 - 30 guests, this is totally do-able. We are only having 22 guests. Then, you have to decide where you want to spend your money. Obviously alcohol is a big one, so we are only having 2 drink tickets pp and bottles of wine at the table.

We are in BC, but our wedding is outdoors. It holds the title of BC's best ocean view wedding venue!

You got this!

My FH and I have set a budget of around 10,000 as well. We have set a 2.5 year engagement to help with the cost. I have friends tell me that with large purchases with the wedding that if you have a credit card that gives you points or money back to use that it is a benefit to you in the end. I have started purchasing small things here and there for our big day to help cut costs so I don't have to make large purchases closer to the day.

Also we decided on a smaller guest list. This is definitely helping with keeping our budget in tack. Also we are doing a cash bar. I know people say it's not the way to go but it is our wedding we are paying for it and it is what we can afford. We also made a list of what is important to us our "must haves", things we wouldn't cut and went from there. We knew wanted a professional DJ and we were not going to cut that out. We have looked at multiple venues and have yet to book based on price and what we like. Don't be afraid keep looking, even look twice. We are!

You can do this!!! I am in the same boat!

Yes you can work with your budget.

Have a court wedding to save the amount of a venue. This way the food/alcohol costs can cover most of what you want to spend for your guests to attend the reception held after when chosen. I have an in-law who got married to his girlfriend in Nova Scotia 4 months before they celebrated their reception in town and with family and close friends in a community center.

I'm not sure if they paid for the room in the community center. I know for sure they paid to have food/alcohol, DJ and cake. Small things that didn't cost much were plastic linens, plates, cutlery, paper napkins, favours (candles with names & date). Overall, simple and just a casual evening.

This may be an idea on how you could fit your budget on a small guest list getting all your vendors at the right price keeping you on track.

Congratulations on the engagement!!!

But yes, I agree - when I got engaged and my and my FH started looking at venues we quickly realized that our budget of even $20,000 was not possible inside the city for our want of 250 guests.

Is it possible to have one for $10,000? It is, but there are places that you will end up cutting some of the price. The easiest way is the guest list. After that everything will be cheaper as there is less needed. The next best is for vendors that are new to the biz or student photographers/videographers. Oh, and try and avoid places with "executive chefs" as that raises the price of food to like $80 a person. And then the cheapest bar would be a cash bar followed by a toonie bar, limited bar, host bar, and open bar.

I would recommend my venue but as you can imagine - mine is in Manitoba so it wouldn't be much help