It’s the first “reality check” that happens for all my bestie brides after their engagement excitement, and with every inquiry from my clients comes the same concern: the wedding budget.

It’s an expensive world at the best of times, but add the word wedding to your sentences and things can quickly get crazy. I get it, we had the same concerns. We thankfully had wedding budget help from both sets of our parents which helped bring our dream day to life, but today, I want to talk to you about my three personal “no regret” wedding spends and why I still think they were the best decisions we made. There’s also a splurge I really, really encourage and it may surprise you!

But before we get to the splurges, here’s my disclaimer (& something I strongly believe in!)

NO DEBT JUST FOR THE DAY!

You’ll read this piece of advice in many “plan your wedding” places and from many industry experts (including Distinct Occasions Crystal’s new book, Wedding Planner Problems). Please, please, please take this advice. Simple is often the most perfect form of sophistication. Life after your wedding doesn’t need the additional stress of paying off a day that flew by in an instant. No matter how important the instant feels right now.

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Talking about planners:

While I (now) highly recommend taking a few days off before the wedding to all my brides, it’s not always possible.

You may find yourself in the middle of a full wedding season, working right up until a day or two before your wedding. Or your full-time job has you travelling in the months leading up to the day. Maybe your ambitious list of DIY to-dos has quickly spiralled out of control and you had no idea the venue would be asking you for a floor plan, a list of bar inventory, who will be covering your wedding day insurance, what the weather back up plan will be or how to tell the DJ that the set up is different between the ceremony and reception sites.

Feeling flustered just reading all that? That’s just a sprinkling of what your wedding planner will be dealing with….instead of you.

We booked the lovely Cara from The Mosaic Wedding Company and I’ve said this countless times, but I spent on her and she saved my wedding experience.

She sorted out a last minute bridesmaid bouquet because we were mysteriously one short and glued our cake together because I insisted it would be ok for me to fetch it…the cobbled dirt road to our venue did not agree. She swivelled me right back around on the morning of the wedding, commanding me to robe-up and enjoy the morning with my girls and not worry about a thing. All these years later I can still remember every detail of the morning, as well as every little bolt she tightened to make sure we had a smooth, stress-free and super fun day.

Friends. Book a planner. Even if just for the month-of coordination or on-the-day help. Trust me on this one as a bride and as a photographer. You won’t regret it.

Yup, that’s how I spent the morning! Wrapped in a robe, sipping bubbly and laughing with my besties while Cara checked in on me and ran the show!

It’s one I tell all my besties to try and make extra room for in the budget. It’s one that will last a lifetime after the wedding day.

Nope. It may surprise you that I’m not even talking about photography!

It happened a couple of months before our own wedding, while I was editing an emotional image of one of my beautiful brides. I sat at my desk wishing I could remember exactly what her groom had said to get this reaction. That same night, I watched a highlight reel shared online by Boy meets Girl Cinema and booked them that same week to film our wedding day in a few months time. I couldn’t be more thankful that they were available.

Because as much as I ADORE our wedding photos by Lauren Kriedemann (seriously, she knows how hard I fan-girl over her work!) there is nothing like watching our day and the people who celebrated with us come alive again on film, not to mention our vows and our wedding party flash mob that is still the most hilarious surprise of my life.

*Quick tip: Ask your videographer what their methods of filming a day are. We wanted to make sure it didn’t look like a film set and honestly, we barely noticed our wonderful videographers. But it’s just a quick thing to check to make sure their style matches your wishes for the feel of the day!

“Just serve the wedding cake and call it a night,” he said. My poor dad didn’t really “get” the whole candy table idea.

But no one ever regrets saying yes to ALL the donuts…and cake pops, dessert jars and goodie bag guest favours. Nope. No one! Not even my dad, who still raves about the idea to this day.

Our lovely caterer agreed to a variety of desserts to go along with our styled candy table by Kerrith from Boutique Styling  and this was the sweetest spend of the day that still makes me drool thinking about it!

TOP TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR CANDY BAR

1. DISH THE DUTY

Make it someone’s exclusive duty to hit this bar HARD in your honour, fill up some goodie bags and pop them into your bridal suite. Trust me. You’ll thank me for this tip when you’re sitting cross-legged in your wedding dress munching on treats at 2am.

2. THEME IT UP

This is where spending on the experts really comes in. They know where to get the best deals on the colour of your candy. They know how many vessels you’ll need to rent and who to rent them from. They know table-scapes and styling and how to make things easily accessible to guests. If you want a candy table, you’ll want an expert on your team, not a bunch of candy left over because you bought too much or didn’t have a chance to set it up on the day.

3. MAKE IT MEMORABLE

Even if it’s just to you. I baked with my granny often while growing up, and my grandpa LOVED himself a peppermint sweet. So instead of memory candles on a table, these two special people got memory treats served in their honour. We also included silly stationery signs around the venue because we are huge dorks and wanted to bring in an element of our silly side. Make the candy table your own. Oh, and always include donuts!

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