Wedding Expenses: Location, Location, Location

12. May, 2009 4 Comments

About 30 minutes after we got engaged, we were bombared with the same question for about two and a half weeks. “Where are you getting married? Do you have a location yet? Are you getting married here or on Vancouver Island?” Of course, being that we just got engaged, we didn’t know. Its hard to book a place when you’re not even sure if you’re going to get married yet.

When presented with the choice of a marriage location, there were a couple of big questions we had to consider. The first was a general location. I grew up in Kelowna (Interior BC), Ashley grew up in Duncan (Vancouver Island). We met in Abbotsford, worked together in Crofton, and are currently living in North Vancouver. So where do we get married? In the church where I grew up? In the church where Ashley attended in her teenage years? In the city where we met, started dating, had a lot of friends, but is now vacant because we all graduated and moved away? In the place where we are currently living, but have no roots yet?

The second big question was what type of venue did we want to get married at. For me, it was a question between indoor or outdoor wedding. Do we do the classic church wedding, or do we find a local hall we can rent. Do we risk trying to do something in a park somewhere, or find a beautiful backyard? For Ashley, there was no question. Outside, as close to the ocean as possible.

Something that quickly surprised me was that I forgot I had to think about two locations. Not only did we have to find a suitable place to get married, we also had to find a place for the reception! Suddenly my problems had doubled!

We ended up deciding to rent a property right next to the camp that we both worked at. Camp Qwanoes is a Christian camp in Crofton BC. They had purchased a property next door to the camp for a couple of reasons, and one of them was as a rental property. Because we had both worked there in the past (Ashley for a fair number of years), we thought we could get a pretty good deal on the place. And we did, so we decided to get married on the island. Its going to be an outdoor garden wedding, so a house overlooking the ocean with a gigantic green yard was perfect for us.

What about a reception? The yard is so big that we’re basically just going to get up from one area of the yard and walk over to another, where we’ll have a light lunch and some drinks while enjoying the August sunshine (it WILL be sunny).

Lessons We Learned

  • Tap Your Social Network

Just like when we bought wedding bands, utilizing relationships is key. We had an existing relationship with a company that rented out property, so it was easy for us to ask what they could do for us. It took some work, and some haggling, but we ended up getting the property on a day that was acceptable for both us and the camp, at a fair price we could afford. While reading on the subject, I found that one of the best ways to save money on a wedding is on the location. Want an outdoor wedding? Rent or borrow someone’s backyard. Not hard to make a beautiful garden look pretty.

  • Combining the Ceremony and Reception Sites is Key

Why double your price when you can just rent one place and use it for both? A couple we know who is also getting married are renting a hall that is going to serve both functions as well. You can literally half your rental costs by combining locations. You don’t need more than one location. In fact, it is more of a hassle, more work, more stress, and more money to do both. The ceremony is only 30 minutes, at most. Why would you drop several hundred (or thousand) of dollars for a 30 minute rental?!

  • Outdoor Weddings Have Additional Costs

While an outdoor booking might be a little bit cheaper upfront, you have to remember that you also have to pay for some associated expenses. Not only do you have to pay for tent rentals (for “just in case” purposes – like, in case it rains), you might also have to pay for rentals in case it is too sunny! Tents can provide some shade, and work dual purposes, but we found out that we might also want to rent giant umbrellas to shade the older generations from the sun. If you rent a hall, you can often get a package deal with the caterer, but if you are doing something outside and want to feed a couple hundred people, that means you also need to rent a couple hundred plates, a couple hundred forks, a couple hundred spoons, etc.

  • Decorating Isn’t Easy

Sure we will have the natural beauty of the outdoors world (assuming it WON’T RAIN!!), but there’s also got to be some festivity, right? But where do you hang the doodads and jimhickey’s from? (I’m not the one decorating, can you tell?) Decorating is definitely still possible, but may take more time/effort – which definitely will be worth it.

  • Remote Locations Are More Difficult to Get To

Sure we’re going to have a great, beautiful wedding overlooking the ocean. But is everyone going to be able to find it? The property is located in Crofton BC, which is already a small town on the edge of nowhere (sorry, Crofton). Just getting to the town is going to be difficult, let alone navigating and parking on a small dirt road on the edge of town. Its a trade off: beauty and ideal location for convience and accessibility.

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4 Responses to “Wedding Expenses: Location, Location, Location”

  1. Adam Loewen 12. May, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    I’m taking notes man. this is good stuff. We’re gonna have to talk about tapping that social network business…

    [Reply]

  2. MLR 12. May, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    The networking thing is key for pretty much everything.

    Know someone who got married? Of course! Ask them where they got their jewelry and if the guy wheel’d and deal’d with them. That is good info to know.

    If you say "x and y sent me," the person might even give you a discount for that.

    A lot of these items are high markup so the seller can afford to discount it.

    Good information!

    [Reply]

  3. Matt Goulart 13. May, 2009 at 4:20 am

    @ Adam – Gotta keep a pen and paper nearby when you be reading my posts.. ;) Let’s meet sometime and talk!

    @ MLR – That’s a great idea! I never thought about asking for referrals from other people. But now that I know that, if anyone in North Vancouver wants a deal, I can tell you where (and from who) we got our wedding bands. They’ll give you a deal, I’m sure.

    [Reply]

  4. Jeff Hawker 13. May, 2009 at 4:30 am

    There are some complications that arise out of having a ceremony and reception at the same location. Mainly the set up and tear down issues. It will all depend on your layout and decorations and activities, etc. Also, people tend to hang around and mingle after the ceremony, which gets in the way of setting up and tearing down. These are things to keep in mind. I agree that you save a lot of money by using just one location, but it might not be as easy as you would think.

    This info comes from working in the events business, not from personal experience with my own events. So take it with a grain of salt (or whatever the saying is).

    [Reply]

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