It is official, I am married! It took months to share this because I needed my amazing photos from our wedding day to complete this article.
Though all the hours and time spent planning my wedding to those visions coming to life, everything turned out beautifully. I am ready to tell you all about our wedding day! As well as how I planned a beautiful micro wedding on a small budget!
Our Micro Wedding Video
Our Wedding Planning Process
Planning a wedding is always bittersweet. However, planning a wedding as covid restrictions were lifting and without breaking the bank had its moments of ups and downs.
Don’t get me wrong, I mean it is fun to come up with a vision. I enjoyed using my wedding planning checklists and coming up with designs for wedding invites and my wedding slideshow. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say that wedding planning can also take a toll on you as well.
What helped me was creating this ultimate wedding planning digital planner. I was able to use this for vendors and more so they were on the same page as me. As well as Asana was my ultimate checklist during my wedding planning and life.
Our Attire
My Wedding Dress
For my dress, I fell in love with this one from JJ House when I was first searching but fell head over heels for a dress that was only listed on sketchy websites. During my chase for this dress, months went by and it was getting close to the wedding date.
After all that, I purchased the one I saw first from JJ House (bought it for $191.35). I even saw it on Yasmin Bright’s Youtube channel so I could get a real view of the dress. What I love about this dress was that it was within my small wedding budget and the style I desired. Nothing too grand, simple but just right for me.
My Wedding Accessories
I paired it with silver rhinestone tassel decor drop earrings I bought from Shein (bought for $4.81). As well as a silver bracelet that my now husband (Robbie) bought me on one of our dating anniversaries. The final touches are white rhinestone t-strap sandals that I bought from Torrid (cost $39.50 US with shipping it came to $68.62). Not to mention freshly painted white nails that I did myself that morning.
Groom’s Suit
Robbie bought his suit from the Stratus Menswear store (cost about $300 including alterations) in the mall about a month or so before our wedding. Funny story, we were in the mall to find my wedding shoes and without any luck, we just decided to check out the suit store.
Well, to our surprise, the suit we have been looking for was there and it was in the right shade of blue. The employee happen to find his size on the first try and the suit was on sale. I don’t know about you but those were all signs to buy it right there and then.
Plus, the employee was able to squeeze us in for alterations. It was insane how this one fell into our laps as we were competing with the wedding and prom season.
Wedding Party Attire
As for our wedding party, I made it very simple for them. The groomsmen (Robbie’s two cousins and friend from high school) were to wear black suits either one that they had in their closet or they could buy one. I figured that way it could be reused for other occasions later in life. Then we added customized initial lapel pins that I bought from Ali Express ($5.05 with shipping the total came to $33.00) to give them something to keep them in unison.
For my maid of honour/bridesmaid (my best friend from high school and a good friend that I met from a social media program we joined), my only request was to wear any dress in any shade of blue. Yes, that is it.
My goal was to allow them to buy a dress that they love and could see themselves wearing again for another occasion in the future. I am all about buying things that can be reused again and on a budget that works for them. After all, the last thing you want is a dress you don’t like and paid money for to be sitting in the back of your closet.
The Venue
We decided to go untraditional for our wedding venue and booked ourselves a photo studio in downtown Toronto named Capsul Studio. Which I found on this fantastic site called ThisOpenSpace (now called Gigger)
Of course, because it wasn’t a traditional venue we had a blank slate to work with. There wasn’t a kitchen or built-in menu or all the bells and whistles of a traditional venue. Which was fine by me. The venue did provide three large tables, a ton of natural light and the freedom to make it our own.
The vision for the venue was a city view in downtown Toronto with a balcony for the ceremony. However, the price for that with no freedom to make it your own wasn’t worth the money.
We only paid around $800 for our venue for the entire day (of course, the price went us the next year so it was a good thing we got it when we did). Plus, the paid parking lot was right across the street too. Believe me, that is something to factor in when choosing a location downtown. It was the best decision for us and I don’t have any regrets about our wedding venue.
The Ceremony
Our ceremony was better than I could have imagined. We started off late because I was stuck in traffic but once I finally got there we were ready to go.
The wedding party walked down to the ‘You Are The Reason’ piano version. While I walked down the aisle with my mom to “A Thousand Years” Instrumental Violin & Piano by Sophie Moser & Katja Huhn.
I will never forget the way my fiance looked at me going down the aisle. We fought through the heat of our venue and our amazing officiant Alex Howard started the ceremony. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing she was!
It was a short ceremony, I wrote a spoken word that he and I performed. Then we each shared our vows and sealed it with a kiss. Yes, I cried during my vows, I believe that was the moment I realized it was really happening. During the signing, I cried again this time it was because I saw our son crying. The ceremony ended with a sweet speech from our officiant and then my cousin sang “Angle of Mine” by Monica as we walked back down the aisle as a married couple.
Our Wedding Ceremony Alter Decor
I am excited to talk about wedding ceremony decor with you because I worked really hard to bring my vision to life. Although I changed my design last minute it looks so much better.
For the white shiny aisle runner, I bought mine from Ali Express for $25.17 (with shipping the total came to $84.22). While the gold chivari chairs, I rented were $8.50 each.
The altar area is made up of photo boxes stacked up in front of the bay window. I placed two Wren grand centrepieces (cost $138.00 each) and two Wren large centrepieces (cost $ 42.00 each) from Something Borrowed Blooms on it.
I also put two 6ft. Laceleaf, Monstera & Palm Garland by Ashland® Garland from Michaels (cost $31.62 each but it was on a buy one get one free promo) around. There are beautiful anthurium flowers in it to represent my grandma who couldn’t fly down to attend my wedding.
One thing I surprised everyone with was the framed area called “for those who couldn’t attend” for loved ones who have passed away. I bought two 8 x 10 gold frames from Amazon (two-pack costs $34.99) and placed a photo of both of our grandpas in them.
Lastly, each chair had a package of tissue with a customized sticker that I made that said: For your happy tears. It didn’t cost much as I bought a few packages from the dollar store and the sticker paper I bought from Amazon (costs $16.88 for 15 sheets).
Bride and Bridesmaid Bouquets
I made my bride and bridesmaids bouquets. Using one Pink Rose & two Hydrangea Stem bouquets & Light Pink roses, and White Hydrangea & Eucalyptus Stem Bouquets I got from Michaels (total with shipping is $53,69). I added peony flowers from Ali Express ($6.10 with shipping and coupon the total came to $3.22) and six green monstera leaves from Aforal ($16.00 each with international shipping the total came to $96.00).
Then all that was left to do is tie it with a 1/4-inch champagne satin ribbon that I bought from Amazon (cost $14.99 for a 100-yard roll).
I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t want real flowers because as beautiful as they are the expense for them just wasn’t something I wanted if they couldn’t last forever. So these fake flowers were the right choice for me.
It did not take me long to make plus I go the flowers on sale. I absolutely love the way it turned out and so did everyone else. It also made a cute keepsake for my bridesmaids too.
The Wedding Reception Decor
Our wedding theme was “when island meets city“. So we had tropical and city hints throughout. The tables were arranged with palm leaves on gold charger plates.
Finding these palm leaves was a little hard because I didn’t want it to look like a safari kids’ party. Once I got these palm leaves from Shein (cost $4.81 each for a 2-pack), I knew that it was exactly what I was looking for. I ordered thirty-two gold charger plates from Michaels ($3.49 each with shipping the total came to $69.56). Each table had clear place cards (cost 1.41 each) and clear menus (cost $2.33 each) that I got from Basic Invite.
Tip: I recommend going to the store to purchase the charger plates as they sent me silver over gold way too many times.
Table Signs
For the table signs, I bought the table signs (cost $13.99) and table sign base (cost $20.00 for 5) from Amazon. However, painting them the way I saw on Pinterest did not go as planned so I ended up creating the sign on Canva and then printing it on sticker paper to stick it on.
Table Runner
I bought five light blue table runners from Ali Express ($13.27 each with shipping the total came to $69.56) and eleven Wren small centrepieces from Something Borrowed Blooms (cost $30.00 each). I went for these smaller centrepieces because I didn’t want my centrepieces to be in the way of my guests having a conversation or seeing everyone around the venue.
Vases
It looks nice next to the cylinder vases I bought from the dollar store that I mixed with pillar candles I bought from both Amazon (costs $84.00 for a 12 pack) and the dollar store.
Lastly, I also had my Modern Forever Guest Book that I got from Basic Invite (costs $51.65) on top of flower panels that I bought from Poshmark. It paired nicely with the customized neon sign I got from HDJSign. Check out my review of my neon sign here!
Our Wedding Cake & Cupcakes
We knew what flavour we wanted since we planned our wedding back in high school. Although I think I was imagining a very grand cake back then.
Our cake was a two-layer naked vanilla cake with vanilla custard filling. This baker is a friend of my husband’s family so we paid around $200 for it. It was topped with fake white roses that I bought from Michaels (paid $11.52).
The cupcakes were placed in clear boxes that I loved. It’s the same cake and filling as our wedding cake and topped with icing. Both the cake and the cupcakes melted because of how hot the venue was but it was absolutely delicious. We made sure to have enough cake for our first wedding anniversary.
Catering for our Wedding
Let’s talk about food! One thing that I want to do is not do a traditional meal selection. This is why when looking for a venue, the option to bring in your own catering was a must. Why, because I wanted I support black-owned businesses, plus I wanted food on the menu that guests actually wanted to eat. This is why we went with TasteofKlass and our total for a delicious customized menu was around $2,400 and that was including the gold chairs.
Dinner Vision
My vision for our dinner was simple, I wanted it to feel like a buffet with a restaurant-style feel. So our guests got to customize their own plates through the rsvp section of our virtual invitation and then the catering would plate accordingly.
I made sure to organize it for the catering so they knew where everyone was seating using not only a seating plan but one that included their meal choices. Of course, the night before the wedding we lost an entire table and the catering didn’t get my updated list but they still were able to achieve the vision I was going for.
The Special Moments
Our first dance song was picked out back in grade 12. We knew that we wanted to dance to ‘All my Life’ by KC and JojoAll my Life by KC and Jojo and that is exactly what we did. As much as I wanted to surprise my guest with a grand and exciting first dance worthy of World of Dance, my injured foot just wouldn’t heal in time so we simply sang and sway to the music.
My husband danced with his mom to A Song for Mama by Boys2Men. I dance with my uncle to ‘Show Them (What You’re Made Of)’ by Backstreet Boys. Which was a nice beat since there are not enough songs out there that really spoke to my story.
Vendor List
I wouldn’t have done any of this wedding without the team I created. Here is everyone who made my day so special:
Venue – Capsul Studio
Officiant – Alex Howard
Wedding Centrepieces & Alter Flowers – Something Borrowed Blooms
Photographer – Shubilak
Videographer/ Live Stream – Dream Streams
Catering – TasteofKlass
Cake –Â Lori’s Delight
Ceremony Singer – Hermina George
Dress – JJ House
Makeup – Jennifer Daniels
Suit/Tuxedo –Â Stratus Menswear store
Wedding Invitations – Canva
Virtual Wedding Invitations – Greenvelope
Final Thoughts
It’s amazing to finally be able to share my wedding day with you. It was such a beautiful day with a small change of plans and little ups and downs but ultimately I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Everything happen the way it was supposed to and I was able to marry the love of my life with our son there. I am looking forward to the rest of our lives as an officially married couple.
If you need more advice on planning a micro-wedding, check out this guide – Planning a Low-Budget Microwedding.
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