Destination weddings: Are they cost-effective as travel becomes pricier?
Against the backdrop of the Caribbean Sea, Ontario couple Matt Lassaline and Kirsten Whiteley got married in Jamaica last month in a small beach wedding ceremony that was everything they had imagined.
Having bought a house in 2021 and with a mortgage to pay off, the couple didn’t want to put themselves in more financial strain with a big expensive wedding.
“I think we wanted to do something nice, but at the same time cost-effective and we were surprised with how cost-effective doing a destination wedding was,” Whiteley said in an interview with Global News.
“We were really pleased with how it turned out.”
The one-week vacation, including the wedding ceremony in Trelawny, cost them roughly $18,000.
Being at the resort for a week also gave them an opportunity to spend more time with their guests, rather than having to rush through meeting everyone in a single day, Lassaline said.
Despite soaring travel costs, Canadian interest in destination weddings appears to be growing.
Some wedding specialists and travel agents told Global News they’ve noticed a spike in the number of couples choosing beach resorts for their big day and at a much lower cost than the price of a traditional wedding in their hometowns.
“The demand for destination weddings has increased tenfold since the pandemic,” said Susan Gill, a wedding specialist at Escapes.ca in Vancouver.
While the pent-up demand to travel is a big motivation for these multi-day wedding celebrations in scenic locations, affordability is top of mind for many.
Zerlene Mekdeci, a destination wedding specialist at Vacation Travel Group in the Greater Toronto Area, said it feels like more and more people are taking this route because it is very expensive to host a wedding at home.
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