I’m not sure how I feel about the whole ‘eco’ movement lately. I’m all for keeping the planet clean and healthy but I think some people take it a bit too far. Not only in our day to day lives, but now companies are pressuring brides to make every aspect of their wedding eco-friendly. The only problem with all this eco-stuff is that it’s double the price of the non-eco version! That’s not very ECOnomical especially with couples being way more budget conscious when it comes to their wedding. Either way, I have come across some neat wedding favor ideas that happen to be eco AND budget friendly, best of both worlds. Read on!

How important do you think the wedding dress experience is? I think I will always feel it’s something I missed out on. I purchased my dress from Le Chateau totally not expecting to find it there. I was just casually shopping with my friends when I found it. I’m glad that I did, don’t get me wrong, but I will never have that fancy dress experience where I can get my mom, sister and best friends together for that special moment. I’ve considered still going to bridal shops with them but I don’t want to fall in love with another, more expensive, dress…what do you guys think? How important was it for you and your family?

I actually didn’t think this question would be a tough one until I started looking into it. I thought it would be nice for a friend of ours to get the ‘papers’ required to perform our ceremony to make it that much more personal like Joey did on Friends, right? Ya, not so easy. Every country and state/province have different marriage laws and in Ottawa it seems this can’t be done! I’ve searched everywhere and read Ontario’s marriage laws which states that only a religious official, judge, justice of the peace or municipal clerk may perform a marriage. I did find the papers for becoming a justice of the peace but there are A LOT of requirements! So I scratched that idea.

If you’re a frugal bride (like me) and don’t understand the couples who spend thousands on their wedding for just one day (like me), then hopefully this list will help you in being a budget savvy bride. Although I do still have a lot to learn and a lot of planning left, I’ve pretty much figured out how I’m going to keep our budget to a minimum with the following ideas in mind. I’m not personally following every single one of them, and neither do you in order to have a great, budget-friendly wedding, but I just thought I’d mention all the tips I’ve heard so far that may help you. The best advice I can suggest is to determine what’s most important to you and your fiancé and splurge on those items, then save on everything else (or just cut them out all together). Remember – you don’t NEED to do everything everybody else does; rules (…I mean traditions) are made to be broken so plan your day the way you want even if it doesn’t include the traditional (and expensive) stuff like a cake, favours, big pouffy dress, candy buffet, chocolate fountain, etc.[...]

His & Hers Wedding Funds?