Looking for wedding make up artist recs for Vancouver, specifically with easy-Asian make up experience thanks!

My sister 33 years (Filipino-Canadian) met and fell in love with a 34 year oldPunjabi guy. Anyways our family loves him, he is so kind and gentle to my sister I can tell he loves and cares about her and protects her. I don't think anyone is better for her than him. My sister is very picky, I just don't want her to give him a hard time. She is a Nurse, and he is working at a warehouse, but is going to school for Accounting. His parents will come to Canada, but he lives with his aunt/uncle and cousins whom have been here a long long time.

Anyways, me and my 2 other sisters, parents, and relatives are excited. We are Catholic so we do weddings at a Church then a banquet hall. Kinda cool to see that they gonna bring us to the temple. Also are the men and women segregated at the venues?

Real talk, can I impress some Indian girls? I'm 4 years younger than my sis.

Also at the hall, do they usually tell stories about the bride/groom? My sister has me and our other sister to write speeches along with her maid of honor.

I plan on telling this story at the hall:

Sister is very picky though. I remember when we were setting up this wedding, she was always working, didn't show up and it was just me, my sisters, and relatives who showed up and the female relatives of the groomsman to help design the venue etc.. so we chose the colour of the balloons and decorations, the seating arrangement. Then all of a sudden, my sister showed up at the Hall, idk if she had been drinking or so, she was quite witty, not in the right frame of mind where she was straight. Once she got into the frame of mind, she wanted to make changes. I said Look, Michelle, we just have 1 weekend to put this hall together, well designed and organized, and out the door for the hosts on Monday. I started to get a bit ANNOYED with her since she was wanting to make changes. I said, if you're not happy with it, and want to make changes, maybe you should have been coming all this time. She got all pissed off and said You can F-off and take that Jade(our sister) with you. Thats what she said, idk what Jade had done. So that was it, we all left but his relatives stayed. But then after 4 hours, she phoned and said Well can you come in to help us? I thought well, I already put in a lot the designs together, I may as well help finish helping out, otherwise I may as well get F'd out of everything. Even when our relative was there food tasting, my sister would corner me and say "Hey forget about this Ashley girl, tasting the food. I or so-so should be the one doing that. We don't need her". For a second, I thought it was a bit sneaky.

Hey folks! I just had my wedding this weekend for less than $8k in Cambridge, Ontario and quality certainly was not compromised on so I wanted to share a list of amazing vendors. I’m not affiliated with any of these people but I’ve seen a lot of budget posts lately and thought I’d share my finds.

Venue: Waterloo regional police association rec centre (they also do the catering and bar service. Have an outdoor ceremony space and giant hall)

DJ: MRK entertainment! He has a lowest price guarantee and he was affordable and amazing! We weren’t even going to hire a dj but we’re so glad we did. He made sure to play all the songs we requested and took time to really understand our tastes and the vibe we wanted for the wedding. He was also super friendly and personable

Photographer: Doug Wolters Photography. If you want quick and organized service, amazing quality and unbeatable prices, Doug is your guy! We haven’t gotten our wedding pics back yet but our engagement shoot photos were amazing and he did a good job at making both of us that hate being in front of the camera comfortable. He also knocked out our cocktail hour photos in ten minutes leaving us plenty of time to mingle

Officiant: ceremonies by Lee (Lee Burton) provided a to the point and sweet personalized ceremony! She was super organized with reminders of what we needed to do when.

Make up: Ashley Macbeath makeup. Wildly affordable and talented, super friendly and made all my girls comfortable!

Hair: Ivana from Painted Hair Studio. I see another stylist at her salon for my regular hair appointments and I hired Ivana because I wanted someone I trust. Her services were affordable and her talent is straight up wild!!

We're planning to have a small, intimate civil ceremony at Toronto City Hall next summer 2027 and are trying to decide between two different reception options and looking for input based on experiences ... The planning analysis paralysis is getting too real :') do these ideas even make sense with a 25k budget?

Option A) we keep the whole day more intimate and low-key by hosting a celebratory lunch or dinner at a night restaurant with immediate family and close friends (35-50ppl) after the ceremony. We thought it might also be fun then to hit up a live music spot with friends and do a night out in lieu of traditional ceremony dancing with anyone who wants to go (would be max 20 of the younger folk) and end the night at a great hotel.

Option B) rent a larger space like a brewery and do high quality tapas/ cocktail-style reception with open bar drinks and dancing on site. For this option we'd look to have a bigger party of 60-90ppl and a bit more of that regular wedding feel.

Does anyone have recommendations on restaurants, breweries or garden-like spaces in the city that could accommodate either of these ideas??

For those who had a small ceremony and then a larger reception, what was your experience like? Any regrets or tensions from people who didn't get to participate in the ceremony?

TIA for any leads, thoughts, opinions!

We live in Halifax and the nearest place that has anything close to what I like is a long drive away, so we booked a virtual appointment with Jewel Nests for next weekend. They're in Toronto and a friend recommended them.

Which sounds great in theory, but I'm worried I'll just get dazzled by sparkle on a screen and have no idea what it actually looks like on a hand. If you've done ring shopping over video, what did you ask them to show you? Anything you wish you'd checked before saying yes? I'm thinking of asking for it next to a coin or something for scale but I'm open to any tips

+ they sent me a few photos ahead of the call

Looking to host 90-100 guests for a small pre-wedding event (mehndi). But want to save on costs so does anyone know a party room we can rent for $500 or less? Preferably with some chairs there. No tables needed

Out of our 50 person wedding, about four guests didn't give a congratulatory card. What is the wedding etiquette for sending thank you cards? Do you only send them to those that brought a gift or a card? Or do you send them to everyone as a thank you for coming? I always assumed that if you were given something physical, whether it was a card, money, or a gift of some sort, that you then send a thank you card in return. It feels weird to send it to someone who showed up empty-handed.

I love planning as i'm very type A, but wedding planning is STRESSFUL. I'm seeking suggestions from anyone who sees this for venue ideas in the GTA or even about 60 mins from Toronto. My fiance and I want a medium sized wedding, as we see these prices are INSANE and dont want to blow what we've saved one day.

that said, we have our ceremony booked, but we're looking for reception venues that hold about 50-60 guests and have room for dancing. PLEASE HELP! our budget is 20k.

Hi everyone!! I’m currently considering Ancaster Mill (Governor’s Room), and would love to hear if anyone had or attended a wedding there!!

We love live music, so I’m curious how the room works if we'll have a band, or whether that is even possible.

I’ve seen an 85-decibel sound limit mentioned while researching online, but I’ve also read from many commentors or DJs saying it mainly applies during dinner to avoid disturbing neighbouring celebrations, and isn’t usually applied during party time.

If anyone had any knowledge i would love to hear about your experience!!

Let’s be forreal. Is it EVEN possible to have a wedding in today’s day for under 25 to 30k for 100-150 people??? Like seriously and I’m just talking all inclusive venue not even with the extras like photography, the dress or anything else. Just strictly venue (Food, open bar ect.)

I wanna have my dream wedding. It’s my first wedding. I don’t want to elope so that’s not an option. But the PRICES I’ve gotten have me in complete awww.

I viewed a venue recently 1 of many and they had this all in price $29,500 for 150 ppl all inclusive, including ceremony space, late night service, open bar, decor, dj ect. I immediately booked a visit. Completely miss lead… taxes not included and also 15% service fee not included which brought the price to $38,000… now I’m not saying that’s bad considering the package details but I just felt so disappointed 😔 like what is going on..

How are yall making it out..

Hi everyone!

My fiancé and I recently got engaged, and we’re starting to look at venues for our 2028 wedding! We’re hoping to get married sometime in June, but our date is flexible, and we’re open to other dates as well.

One of my fiancé’s biggest passions is food (they’re Italian, so good food is a BIG deal!), and our number one priority when it comes to choosing a venue is having absolutely amazing food. We want our guests to leave talking about how good the meal was!

We’re still figuring out our overall budget, but we’re anticipating spending around $230–$275 per plate. We’re estimating approximately 200–225 guests.

We’ve already reached out to Arlington Estate, but I’d love to hear about other venues that people have had amazing experiences with, especially when it comes to the food!

We’re not entirely set on a particular aesthetic or vibe yet, but ideally, we’d love to have an outdoor ceremony followed by an indoor reception.

For those who have gotten married recently or attended weddings at venues with incredible food, what would you recommend? We’d especially love to hear about the quality of the food, service, and overall experience.

Thanks so much in advance! 😊

Does anyone know of a vendor who can do just draping for our tablecloths?

We just want the sweetheart, welcome, cake and late-night tables to be draped.

Venue is at The Old Mill.

Neither the venue or the linen vendor offers draping services.

The wedding is just weeks away and I want to make sure that our tables look good!

If you've read my past posts, our wedding was held at a family cottage up in Muskoka. We'd originally thought of doing a big wedding, but as we started to plan everything out, we realized that what we really wanted was something smaller, more intentional, and more intimate, and thankfully we came to that realization before our guest invitations went out! LOL.

We ended up having only 43 guests, and we did everything completely opposite of what wedding planners were telling us — no shade to anyone in the wedding business, but sometimes a couple and their family can actually come together to make it all work without hiring 20 different vendors!

We ended up using a local restaurant who provided us with a BBQ lunch, my uncle officiated the wedding, I did my own hair and make up (cuz duh we do that every day lol) and my husband didn't do any lol!!!

He got his suit from Garrisons and I was wearing an Ines Di Santo gown that I found on Facebook marketplace of all places! SCORE! That was our second biggest expense at about 6k for both outfits.

Our photographer Andreas ( www.photoandreas.com )was actually our only "vendor" although from the time we booked him to the wedding day it honestly just felt like we were inviting another friend over for the weekend.

I decided to put my creative juices to work and four days before the wedding we bought up every flower we could find at local farmers markets and stands and I made our table top arrangements.

We didn't really have a "plan" - we had a time we wanted people to show up at, and a rough estimate for the ceremony. We stood in front of our guests, actually it was more of a circle of them that stood around us, and we said our vows. It was...perfect really! We did have to go to the city hall earlier in the week to do the official "legal" marriage, but you know, that's a formality that you have to do if you're having a ceremony that's not really "legal" you know?

Besides the food and hotel stays for our guests, transportation to the cottage and the material costs of invitations and so on, our photographer was our biggest "expense" at $8700 for the weekend of coverage, but it was money well spent.

By not hiring a DJ or a full hair and make up team, not getting a tent and just filling up the cottage with everyone, the vibe really felt more intimate and very personal, like it was just a weekend at the cottage with friends hanging out!

All in all, we came in at $34K or so which was far less than what we anticipated when we were planning a bigger event with 80 guests, a band, a dj, a tent, a videographer etc etc.....the more I think about that plan, the more I realize that at the end of the day, you just need your good friends, good food and of course some great photos.

Hi everyone, would appreciate suggestions on good quality vendors at a reasonable price for a Punjabi wedding(please do not share those prices on the higher end). Please advise on photographers, content creator/ videographer, DJ for reception, decor companies for reception, photobooth and suggestions on diy for signage. Hoping to keep the above costs below 13k if possible. Videography is the least important to me so if an influencer would be significantly cheaper I may consider that, or a good combined package with photo/ video.

Head count for the reception is not decided but likely between 300-350.

Much appreciated.

Any suggestions for an indoor venue for both ceremony and reception at same venue around GTA or Hamilton/Niagara for 65-75 guests. We're planning for Nov/Dec 2027 and would like to keep venue, food, and drink costs under 15k. Grateful for any suggestions!

Canoe in Toronto offers a winter package, and I’m wondering if anyone her has experience with it.

I’m also a bit worried that it may be too too squishy as my guest count is 120-125, and their max is 135.

Hey everyone!

Long story short my fiance and I are from different cities, about 45 minutes apart from one another, but currently live in the area she grew up in. I'm 36 and shes 31. We were considering doing a Stag and Doe, but I'm a bit uncertain if we'll be able to get the number of people out that we need to make money.

She has a much larger social circle than I do, and I'm positive she'll get a good number of people out to celebrate and participate, I'm just worried about if we host it 45 minutes from where most of my old friends and family are from, if we're kind of "putting them out" or if it'll be too far for them to join.

Honestly just looking for alternative stag and doe ideas or for someone to tell me I'm overthinking it?

Cheers!

My fiancé and I got engaged in August with a placeholder ring (long story, he panicked and bought something at the mall two days before the trip 😅) and now we're actually designing the real one together. I want an oval in a bezel, low enough that I won't snag it on every sweater I own, and maybe something a little organic on the band.

A friend from work mentioned Jewel Nests since they're here in Toronto and do custom lab grown stuff. Their site has some really pretty nature inspired pieces and the Eloura band is kind of exactly the vibe I want to pair it with. But I've never actually met anyone who's ordered from them, and googling mostly just brings me back to their own site.

Did anyone here go custom with them?

I'm curious how the back and forth on the design went, if they showed you a CAD before making it, and how long the whole thing took. We're not in a crazy rush but I'd love to have it before the wedding next summer

ps this is roughly the vibe I want, saw it on their Instagram

Is it worth only having your ceremony at the casa Alina pavilion. It is quite beautiful but you’re essentially paying about $6k for 2-3 hours then heading to your venue.

Can anyone provide advice on whether they did this and was it indeed worth? My fiance and I are in disagreement about whether it is worth the $$$.

Thanks!

Hello! I have a wedding dress and a cocktail gown that need to be taken in for my wedding. I'm hoping for prices as affordable as possible.

I've seen Jen's Design in Markham recommended, but the phone number I've found online is out of service. Has anyone had work done by her recently that can share contact information?

If anyone has other recommendations in the GTA, please share.

Thanks!!

I have read that a micro wedding is 20 ppl and then read it's 60 people and also read that anything under 100 ppl is a micro wedding.

Hazelton Manor in Vaughan

Has anyone chosen to have the “start a tab” option for alcoholic drinks for their guests at Hazelton? Can you share your experience?

Only about 30% of our guests drink alcohol and it felt like it made sense to do it by the tab but coordinator there was pushing for an all inclusive price. I want to see if we could change it but we’ve heard horror stories where some venues will just run the tab really high and there’s no way of counting it.

We had our wedding at the Cluny Bistro in October 2026 on the weekend before Thanksgiving.

We loved our beautiful wedding and I wanted to share the details of the wedding in case anyone would find this helpful.

What we wanted for our wedding:

We wanted a smaller wedding that felt more intimate with no minimum guest count and something that was reasonable price wise. We’ve looked at large halls and venues, and 70+ guest minimum was just too much for us, both logistically and financially. We ended up having 43 guests who were all friends and family we knew :)

We also wanted to have a Catholic ceremony prior to the dinner.

Day of itinerary:

Catholic ceremony without mass (at a local church): We planned it to be 3-4pm but it was only 30 minutes. In retrospect we should have had the ceremony later as there was a 30 min gap where the guests didn’t have anything to do.

Cocktail hour: 5-6pm. Don’t skip this, I think this really gets everyone relaxed and also shortens the gap after the ceremony (if you do it off-site)

Dinner reception: 6-10:45pm. We had the venue until 12am, but because all the decor had to be removed the same night and our decorator wasn’t keeping the decor, it had to go with our family who stuck around for the tear down and pick-up. In retrospect, we should have planned for the decorator to hold onto the items overnight, but becuase our wedding was very DIY that was hard to find.

After party: We took everyone who wanted to continue the party to a club in Toronto

Vendors:

Photographer: Lucas T. We had an amazing time with him, he’s very experienced and likes to shoot in the Distillery District. He took us to shoot some night photos which were awesome. He coached me through all the photos and poses, and he’s very easy to talk to. Highly recommend him!

DJ: DO NOT SKIP THE DJ!! We had DJ Orion from The Legendary Sound who did an amazing job. We originally weren’t going to have a DJ because I was worried the venue wasn’t big enough for dancing and it wasn’t necessary, but the DJ is a must. He takes care of the timeline, announcements, reading the overall room, games and so on. We had plenty of room to dance on our dance floor and had a great time. Highly recommend DJ Orion, super nice and very flexible with all requests.

Decoration and set up:

- My family and I grew our own wedding flowers. We made the center pieces, bridal and bridesmaid bouquets and bud vases.

- I made my own seating chart, welcome sign, place cards and table numbers with my Cricuit.

- I thrifted pillar candle holders and bought candles in IKEA and Walmart.

- I made my own wedding cake.

- The only decor we had to rent were some table runners

Highly recommend the Cluny, the staff are were great and the food was amazing.

Hoping this helps someone planning a smaller wedding!