Vendor Tips

Transportation

**Keep the bridal party together. Instead of renting a vintage car for the bride and groom and a limo for the bridal party, keep everyone in on vehicle. This way you’ll only have to rent one limo instead of two, thereby saving lots of money.
**Go with a large, reputable company as they work on volume and will be able to provide you with a better price.

Photography

**Get only what you need. Decide on what’s most important shots of the ceremony, family portraits or candid photos of you and your new spouse, and make this your focus. Plan out your day and estimate how long you think this will take. If you decide it will take five hours, work with your photographer to come up with a five hour package. If you are only interested in a DVD of the high resolution images, which you are free to print yourself, then hire a photographer who offers this as a stand along service.
**If you have your heart set on hiring a photographer who is out of your budge, ask if they offer a payment plan whereby the money can be paid in instalments.

Wedding Cakes

**Consider serving your wedding cake as the main dessert after dinner. Instead of paying for a dessert from your caterer, opt out and utilize the cake so that every guest can taste the gorgeous creation. When choosing the cake as your main dessert, consider getting a smaller cake (perhaps a smaller three tier one) and substituting the remaining servings with sheet cake, which are kept in the kitchen. Sheet cakes are the same as the main cake, except that they lack the decorations present on the wedding cake. This way all of your guests will be sure to receive a delicious slice of cake.
**Consider the design of the cake that you are choosing. Most wedding cakes are placed in front of the head table facing all the guests. Choose a design that gives you the look you desire from the front with simpler, more economical design elements in the back; no one will even notice!

Flowers

**Think carefully about which flowers make the most impact and where you can compromise. Eliminate the ceremony flowers altogether. If your wedding takes place in a church, synagogue, or beautiful garden, the space really doesn’t need to be adorned. Another suggestion—splurge on your bouquet and scrimp on your maid’s bouquet.
**Go with flowers that are in season. Roses, hydrangeas and orchids (used sparingly year round; tulips and amaryllis from December to April; peonies in June; sunflowers and dahlias midsummer; colourful local hydrangeas and dahlias in the fall. Bad months for local flowers are July and November.

Toast to Love

**Hershey Kisses Pull: Get a bowl full of silver kisses and gold kisses. If someone pulled a gold kiss, the bride and groom kiss. If they pull a silver kiss, they have to kiss another guest.
**Have a trivia game where a question about the bride and groom or the couple was written on a card, and if the guest or guests guessed the right answer, the couple would have to kiss.
**Use a putting green at the front and you have to get a hole-in-one for us to kiss. If you miss, you have to kiss another guest, and its our choice as to whom.