labour shortages<\/a> and inflation rates at their highest level in 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWeddings are definitely feeling the impact of inflation. So what you could get with their current budget, you no longer can, or you have to increase your budget to have the same vision, so everything’s going up in price,\u201d said Wilkes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have to change your expectation of what a wedding costs; an average wedding used to cost $30,000 to $40,000;\u00a0now that’s like $50,000 to $60,000 if you’re looking at a 100-person wedding and want a good variety of vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rising cost\u00a0for venues has\u00a0led to more people choosing farms and barns in the Pemberton Valley due to the lower upfront cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarms and barns and the standalone venues where you bring everything in yourself have become really popular again. Probably just because the initial cost looks much lower,\u201d said Wilkes.\u201cBig hotels, big companies, museums and large venues have had to increase their rates because of staffing shortages and food and beverage price hikes.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wilkes cautioned that while that option might be cheaper upfront compared to other venues, people tend to forget about the cost of bringing in outside vendors, which can drive up the cost substantially.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it depends on the specific wants of the soon-to-be wed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Typically, for a farm wedding that doesn’t have a lot of infrastructures built in, couples will need to consider that. Usually, I find it’s not way more than going with an established venue like a hotel or a resort. It’s comparable, but a lot of it comes down to the couple’s wants and needs,” said Carlee Cindric, owner of Pemberton-based wedding planners, Pocketful Productions.<\/p>\n
“If they’re looking for a basic wedding, with some simple decor and florals, it’s quite manageable to keep that potentially even under the cost of a hotel,” said Cindric\u00a0<\/p>\n
“A lot of it comes down to group size. If you’re doing a 60-person wedding versus a 150-person wedding at a farm, that’s going to make your costs go up or down.”<\/p>\n
The pandemic has led to another wedding trend.\u00a0Now that restrictions have lifted, weddings have of course grown in size from the period when capacity restrictions were still in place, but it remains rare to see the kinds of larger, 100-plus-person weddings that were common before COVID-19.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m finding that most of the weddings we are working on this year are under 100 people. I think I only have one, maybe two that are above 100 this year, which in the past we would see more, 100 and up. So we’re not at that micro-wedding level. We’re not at that 10-person wedding or that 30-person wedding. It’s hovering around that 80-person mark,\u201d Cindric said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you’re planning your own wedding, it’s best to start\u00a0organizing sooner than later, Wilkes advised. The surge in demand has led to venues and vendors needing to be booked well in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If clients or couples have a photographer or a planner they love, they should reach out to those people quickly before they book up,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n