WINNIPEG – Wedding season is right around the corner and the cost of saying “I do” is not cheap.
A recent survey by BMO InvestorLine found people on the Prairies (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) expected to shell out more money on their weddings than anywhere else in Canada, at $27,239.
Respondents in Alberta anticipated paying $24,360 to tie the knot. The national average was $14,761.
“It will be over $10,000 to feed this group,” said Adell Matthys, who is getting married in September.
She has invited around 300 people to her wedding and has budgeted close to $100 per person.
“We knew that as much as we wanted a pretty centrepiece, it was more important that the faces around the table were the ones we wanted there,” said Matthys.
The survey also found only 28 per cent of Canadians who plan to get married have put away money specifically for their wedding.
Andrea Mancini is a wedding planner with Soiree Event Planning. She has helped put on weddings worth anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 in Winnipeg.
In every case she said budget is key.
“If you want to have photography, video, a live band, elaborate floral, specialty linens and custom invitations, all of those things are going to start to add up,” she said. “The clients have to pick and choose what their priorities are.”
Of the survey’s respondents, 40 per cent said they didn’t believe they would be able to afford their ideal wedding.
Mancini said many people forget to factor in costs for taxes, gratuities, postage and the wedding licence.
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