Though our parents were sweet enough to help us with some of the big ticket items for our wedding (Mr. Hum’s dad is helping pay for the tent and rentals and my parents are helping with the catering bill), we are paying for pretty much everything else ourselves.
As I’ve mentioned before, we are on a budget since Mr. Hum and I both work in creative but lower paying jobs, and this has been a little tricky in that, unfortunately, the incidental wedding stuff can add up pretty darn quickly.
However, happily enough, we have a bunch of really awesome and creative friends who, upon hearing we were getting married, offered their services to us for the wedding, making them our friend vendors or as I like to call them “Friendors”.
Our lovely wedding photographer, Tom*, has been a friend of Mr. Hum’s since he was in high school. In addition to having totally rocked the Robert Smith Hairdo in high school (he’s a bit older than Mr. Hum and me) and being an absolute sweetheart, he takes gorgeous photographs and has taken two of my all-time favourite pics of us.
These were taken just after our first anniversary. The second pic looks kind of sad, but I’m actually laughing in Mr. Hum’s coat.
As for videography, originally I wasn’t even thinking we would have the wedding filmed in any way. However, our friends Kim and Alex (who have been featured with me on BeeTV and who are engaged themselves) offered to shoot our wedding and we jumped at the chance. Not only are they both incredibly technologically knowledgable (say that five times fast!), but they have experience in documentary filmmaking, which is more the aesthetic we are looking for since we’re not really Barbra Streisand filter/heart swipe people.
A picture of Kim and Alex from around the time I first met them two years ago. This shot was taken just days before they departed on a huge film adventure, documenting the experience of hitchhiking across Canada.
In terms of our tasty wedding treats, we’ve also got that covered by a friend as my Man of Honour Greg went to culinary arts school in Toronto. Although he is a teacher now, he has been feeding me awesome food for years and has offered to bake our Ewok village wedding cakes. I am thrilled as not only is our cake going to be his super delicious chocolate cake, but I get a copy of the super secret recipe after the wedding. Hooray!
Me and Greg, taken at Mr. Hum’s and my engagement party last summer.
And of course as previously mentioned by me, my dress was sewn by the lovely Allison, who is a friend of Mr. Hum’s and who was sweet enough to significantly undercharge me for the beautiful job she did.
A picture of me and Allison during our fabric shopping trip back at the start of the year.
A picture again of the fruits of her labour.
(I know I just did my big dress post not too long ago, but I’m so thrilled with it, I had to give her credit again)
Not only am I thankful to all our amazing friends for helping us out this way and taking some of the pressure off our budget, but I’m actually really excited because I feel like it will mean a lot more to us to have items for and from our wedding put together with care people we care about.
Are any of you having any “friendors” help you out with your big day? What are they helping you with?
*I somehow possess no pictures of Tom as our photographer is camera shy.
Our photographer is a colleague of my fiance’s, and our DJ will be one of his former students. Our officiant is going to be a long-time family friend of his as well. I’m thrilled to have these important roles filled by people that my fiance has a long connection with.
so for my fiances friend is doing engagement pictures for us, and my very creative sister in law (That’s my brother’s wife) has said she would love to make our guest book!
what a blessing! if we didnt have some friends and family helping us, we would not be able to do some things bc of costs…
our friend will be playing viola for us at our ceremony (he’s also part of a quartet and they could do our wedding for a discounted fee). my aunt’s brother in law will be providing DJ services. my grandmother bought my wedding dress. our best man’s uncle is a videographer and he’s trying to get his uncle to provide his services for either free or a deeply discounted rate.
and finally, our invitations are being done by a lovely stranger who has simply decided to bless us.
without these tremendous gifts, our day would not be the same. not at all…..
My sister-in-law is the manager of our funky little reception venue and is helping us get a great deal and iron out all the details!
Friendors! I love it - absolutely perfect. We’re having several friendors:
- officiating courtesy of best mutual friend
- engagement pics courtesy of my fab MOH
- live ceremony music courtesy of musician friend
- custom invitation art from our talented friend with a newly minted MFA
- wedding labor gang - a crew of friends who have volunteered to help with our various DIY projects
- pro photos at a fab discount from a pro photog friend
- OOT bags from my supercrafty mom (does that count as a friendor? famdor? momdor?)
- calligraphy courtesy of FSIL
We’re also hoping to ask some super arty friends of ours to take video footage of ceremony and toasts/first dance. We weren’t going to have video (it was either video or quality photo), so it would be no pressure - we figure if we weren’t planning on it and it doesn’t come out, no big deal. 
Hooray for the awesome talents and generousity of others!
where’s alex’s mountain man beard? ;p
we’ve got friendors left right and centre! our ex-next door neighbour is making the wedding party’s outfits, as well as ours. the music will be provided by our super talented one-man-band friend who we’ve worked on a film before. our videographer is alex’s old film partner. our photographer is a friend who happens to do wedding photography. ben’s helping us with construction of some decor. you’re helping with our sanity the list goes on and on.
it’s nice when the only vendor you have to worry about is the venue (who also does catering). and it’s also comforting to know that your friends will do an awesome job… because, you know… they’re your friends.
[...] term the wedding would not have been possible without the help of our volunteer team of Friendors. We didn’t have a wedding party, but we did have a lot of people who were willing to pitch in and [...]
[...] she was putting up looked nothing like I remembered her creating back in the day. Would I make a Friendor out of this girl? Could we reconnect once [...]
Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
We are having our photography shot by a friend too and my mom is doing our bouquets! I am so excited that people we know are helping us out