Dawn, Registered Nurse + Davin, Apprentice Luthier
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: Our Plan B backyard Friday COVID wedding planned in 3 weeks.
Planned Budget: 5000 CAD
Actual Budget: 6400 CAD
Number of Guests: 23
Location: Hamilton, ON, Canada
Photographer: Claire Teri Photography
Where we allocated the most funds: Videography. We weren’t originally planning on having a videographer however due to having to slash our guest list from 104 to 25 of our nearest and dearest we wanted to be able to share our wedding with friends and family who would not be able to attend. 19 Moments Videography was amazing, and it has allowed us to both share and relive the joy of that day.
Also photography. Claire Teri was amazing considering she stepped in just a few weeks before our wedding. Our would-be photographer wasn’t comfortable shooting a wedding during COVID. And she did an amazing job capturing our day.
Where we allocated the least funds: Flowers/Decor/Rentals. We ended up simplifying due to time constraints (Hello (re)planning a wedding in 3 weeks!) And since we ended up not having many things we initially planned on (alcohol, DJ, dancing) we kept flowers pretty minimal and it was only a couple hundred dollars on decor overall.
Officiant, Our officiant (an Anglican priest) is a friend and former university chaplain who waived her fee as a gift to us.
What was totally worth it: Going ahead and just getting married! I (Dawn) had to spend quite a bit of time convincing Davin that having a small wedding when legal was the way to go. Since the pandemic is still ongoing we feel very happy we made the choice to get married. We didn’t have to worry that it wouldn’t be wedding-y enough, it was one of the great joys of our year. Probably one of the only joys that year.
Also still having my dream vintage wedding dress. I absolutely loved my dress.
What was totally not worth it: Worrying about all the things our wedding wouldn’t be. Worrying about disappointing our friends & extended family who couldn’t attend. Worrying about doing my own hair and make-up (it turned out fine!)
A few things that helped us along the way: Our dear friend who graciously agreed to host our wedding on her property.
My mother who took over many of the logistics of the day including catering, rentals, set up, and making sure everyone was seated by who they already had contact with and making sure everyone felt comfortable. She was really a super star as I was working full-time, as a nurse, during a pandemic in the weeks leading up to the wedding.
And finally, focusing on our marriage and realizing our end goal was just to be married to each other.
My best practical advice for my planning self: Let people help you. You know what their strengths are. Let go of what doesn’t really matter. We didn’t do decor, or favours. We did do lunch, prosecco and cake.
You don’t have to do everything. We really scaled back the formality of the wedding and it still FELT like our wedding.
Favorite thing about the wedding: Having both of our families in the same place. Our Best Man, Greg, playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on ukelele and singing me down the aisle.
All the emotions and joys of the day. We couldn’t have had this experience with a bigger wedding.
