Getting married? Due to the economy melt down, everyone is keeping their cash in their pocket.
However, have you noticed that there are tons of bargain these days?
January is a good month to look for your bridal gown (unless you already have your gown).
Take a look of several events for bridal shows happening in Toronto
Canada Bridal Show
http://www.canadasbridalshow.com/
metro convention centre, Jan 9, 10,11
Saving Tip: 2 for 1 ticket!
Ritche Bridal Super Sale
http://ritchebridal.com/
Montecassino Hotel, 3710 Chesswood Drive, Jan 15-Jan18,2009
Total Wedding Show
http://www.totalweddingshow.com/
International Centre, Jan 16-18, 2009
Wear White 4 Windfall Bridal Blow Out Sale
toronto.com’s event listing
WW4W’s website
Windfall,29 Connell Court, Unit #3, Toronto, ON, M8Z 5T7, 416-703-8435
Jan 24, 2009
Phone National Bridal Show
http://www.nationalbridalshow.com/spring
Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto. Jan 23-25
Saving Tips: They are giving out free ticket for bride to be. Click here to register.
Canada’s Wedding Expo
http://www.canadasweddingexpo.ca/
Feb 21-22,2009
Toronto Congress Centre North
650 Dixon Road,Toronto, Ontario, M9W 1J1. Tel: (416) 245-5000
I personally didnt’ go to those shows because I got engaged in March and got married in August. So I think I miss out couple big savings as well. However, if you are buying gowns, don’t forget to bargain.
How to bargain for cheaper brial gowns?
1.” No GST & PST – I’ll pay you cash!”
2. “No taxes & include alteration – I’ll pay you cash RIGHT NOW!”
3. And if they insist you to pay taxes, then you ask for some sort of free alteration or free accessory rentals.
You just have to bring your guts to the store or the booth to bargain it out. So it’s best to have your bridal party with ya. Peer pressure always works!
Right now it’s also a good time to buy your wedding decor and favours. Just because everything is in deep discount. So use your money and spend it wisely.
If you use visa or mastercard for most of your payments, make sure it collect some kind of points or pay you back with some dividends. Here’s a good read from Million Dollar Journey for using credit cards. It even compare top free cash dividend cards and top free reward cards.
I personally own 3 credit cards. Our house common expense goes onto our CIBC dividend card which gives back 1 % of spending that you did through out the year. My personal expense goes to my Scotia SCENE visa card which gives me free movies. And if we need to rent a car from time to time, I’ll use my TD bank’s gold select card for the free rental car insurance. Those are all free visa card with no annual fee. And I paid off my balance every single month.
However, it’s bargain time doesn’t mean you should blow all your money. Do your budgeting and homework before you take out that hard-earned cash.
Tags: gown, Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, toronto wedding blog, wedding, wedding resources
08.Jan.09 
wedding 
Comments (2)
Sandals Royal Bahamian Ocean view taken by a Flickr member - Swantho
Right after we got married, we basically spent all our moola towards the new place and the wedding. Now after few months of saving, we are going to our honeymoon!!
First of all, DO NOT CHEAP OUT on destination. We decided to go to Sandals Bahamas Resort for our honeymoon. Sandals is a 5 star hotel, and NO KIDS AROUND. Yay!
Except we paid the price for the “luxury” resort for like 3K each person!! (*gasp!)
You will probably hear your Hubby tell you “But you know you can stay in this other place for half of the price, and we can use the extra budget to do extra activities!”, DON’T DO IT! Listen to your voice, cuz it’s your only honeymoon!!
Right now being the time that the economy is down, everything is in deep discount. However, we will be going there on Dec 24 to Dec 31. There’s no discount due to the “hot season”. Sigh.
So I guess we’ll use this resort to its fullest. It has 9 different restaurants All-You-Can-Eat-AND-DRINK. (well, you are paying like 500 dollar a day at that place, so OF COURSE you can do whatever you want).
All inclusive activity including scuba diving and snorkeling. (Except you have to pay $70 for the course if you don’t have a PADI license). The only thing about Sandals Bahamas is that it has an offshore island! So you can go there and chill whenever you want. It also has a famous spa called “Red Lane Spa”. I heard it’s the best among the Caribbean island resorts.
You can see the list of Sandals Bahamian amenities here.
I’ll write up a review about the resort after I get back from my honeymoon! (The internet is not included in the price there! gah!!)
Tags: honeymoon, Sandals, Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, wedding
08.Dec.08 wedding Comments (2)
I was reading my previous posts… I realize that I didn’t post my wedding itinerary.
Here’s my revised Itinerary, and you can always download Alex and Patty’s Wedding Itinerary and make your own!
| 9:00am to 12pm |
Getting Ready
Getting ready by 12pm and leave by 1pm to get to CityHall for Ceremony (We didn’t get a Limo, but we had our Bestman to rent a van to pick us up.)
*Reality check: There were several people who are getting married before us, and there’s a major delay, so I didn’t get into the Chamber till 3:30 |
| 3:30pm |
Taking photos around CityHall
Around City Hall, Osgoode Hall, University & Queen, In front of Canada life building
*Reality check: Due to the Ceremony delay, we didn’t take the photos around CityHall till 4:30ish.
|
| 4:30pm |
Get ready to go to Old Mill |
| 5:15pm |
Taking photos around Old Mill
*Reality check: Because all the delay before, we didnt’ get to Old Mill till 5:30 to 5:45ish. We end up having a little time to take photos around CityHall. |
| 6:30pm – 7:30pm |
Cocktail Hour
*Reality check: We only had a little time out in the garden taking photos, so we end up taking a lot of indoor photos while guests are having the cocktail hour |
| 7:45pm |
Bridal Party Introductions |
| 8:08pm |
Welcoming & Toast by Best Man |
| 8:10pm |
Dinner is served |
| 8:30pm |
After the appetizer is served, Best Man gives speech again |
| 8:45pm |
After the salad or pre main course meal is served, Maid of Horner gives speech |
| 9:15pm |
After the main course dinner is served, Groom gives speech |
| 9:40pm |
After the last course is served, Bride gives speech |
| 9:45pm |
Dinner Ends |
| 10:00pm |
Center Piece Give Away Game |
| 10:15pm |
Bride and Groom First Dance |
| 10:30pm |
Sweet Table and Cake Cutting
*Reality check: This Sweet table and Cake cutting was really late in my original schedule, and a lot of guests left without having the dessert. So make sure those out EARLY! |
| 10:30pm |
Dance Floor Opens |
| 10:35pm |
Bouquet Toss |
| 10:40pm |
Garter Toss |
| 10:45pm |
Last Dance |
|
Dance till the end of the night! |
Download Alex and Patty’s Wedding Itinerary as your wedding itinerary to get started. You can use this to work with your MC and ask your Maid of Honor to coordinate the event accordingly! Enjoy!
Tags: Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, wedding, wedding blog, wedding itinerary
03.Dec.08 wedding Comments (0)
Brides! Here’s a cool company for you to look into wedding favours!
Consider the fact that most guests probably won’t really treasure your wedding favours, so don’t spend too much on it or better yet, make them either edible or useful!
One of my business unit in my company just changed it’s name, so they are promoting the new name using “The designer cookie” with their new name on it. Smart idea! First I thought it was paper on top of the cookies, but NO! it’s edible!!
And the cookies is so tasty as well. Unfortunately I just ate it before I write up this post.
But have a look at The Designer Cookies! you can use print guest name on the cookies, or print your wedding photos on it (no jokes!)
I think the price goes from $3 to 5 bucks. It’s not too bad. Go take a look~
Tags: Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, wedding, wedding favour
02.Dec.08 wedding Comments (0)
Many people had asked me how much that I spent on my wedding from top to bottom?
The answer is just below 16K CAD. Is that expensive? or reasonable? In fact, I don’t know. I did the best I can and I tried to minimize the spending by comparing deals.
And I have 60 people reception and not 200. I was actually quite happy to see everything turned out.
If you are interested to see my balance worksheet. Feel free to download it here.
Download Alexandpatty wedding balance sheet
Tags: toronto, Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, wedding resources
31.Oct.08 wedding Comment (1)
Our wedding photo package actually includes 200 4″x6″ prints. We decided not to go with those prints. The reason being that
1) I have to look for a photo album to hold them
2) I don’t have space to store them – we live in a newly built condo that storage doesn’t exist
3) They will get tucked away in our bookshelf!
So we asked Kevin to exchange the prints for a canvas gallery wraps 16″x24″. It’s basically photo print on canvas style and wraps on the canvas frame. It will be a nice addition to our new home.
You can see more detailed product shots from Kevin’s blog
Our canvas gallery wraps
Photo wraps around the canvas
Tags: photo, Toronto Wedding & Bridal Resources, toronto wedding blog, wedding photography
23.Oct.08 wedding Comment (1)
