Suzanne Carson: Wedding Professional director on people favouring smaller weddings as costs go up

People are prioritising smaller guest lists as fewer couples marry - according to new reports.

Wedding Professional has revealed its average client spend this year is more than $87,000, anchored by an international wedding with a $160,000 dollar budget.

Director Suzanne Carson says Kiwis want the great experience, without the price tag for lots of guests.

"Personalisation is a great big thing - I think they want the experience and they want the experience for everybody, so I do believe that the numbers have come down."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now I tell you what people are talking about, which

(00:01):
is the cost of a wedding at the moment. And
this is because according to one planner, wedding planner whos
spoken to the media today, the average wedding has apparently
gone up to more than eighty seven thousand dollars this year.
That's up from sixty four thousand dollars last year and
fifty nine thousand dollars the year before. Suzanne Carson is
the owner and creative director of Wedding Professionals based out
of christ Urchin is with us. Now, hey, Susanne, Hello here,

(00:23):
they're eighty seven thousand.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
They can reach that. We've gone up as high as
one hundred and sixty thousand for a thirty five person wedding.
But that was international coming in from overseas. Well.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Hold on, what are they paying for flights with that money?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
No, they weren't, but it did involve many many social
events related to the wedding and it was family only,
so they went all out to give them the experience.
And I think that's what it's all about these days.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Okay, is I mean, are you on the regular If
eighty seven thousand or thereabouts is average, are you on
the regular scene that as an aver spend.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, I don't, actually, to be honest, I think that's
quite exceptional. I think today people are prioritizing other things
rather than extravagance. I think personalization is a great big thing.
I think they want the experience, and they want the
experience for everybody. So I do believe that the numbers

(01:24):
have come down from our guess numbers, from what it
used to be.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, I would have thought that in the current economic environment,
people would be going small rather than large.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I think you're quite right heither. Actually that's a trend
that we're seeing down here.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah. And also listen, just in terms of you know,
if some wedding planners are seeing this kind of a spend,
is that because people are getting married later in life
and have a little bit more money, Like you do
all your travel first, have your babies first, get the
house first, and then you go and get yourself married.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
You've done the research. Yes, it's quite right on the
lives around me. Yes, No, that's that's quite right. They are.
They're even having their overseas travel together after they've you know,
after they've been even engaged, and that they'll have a
very long engagement. Yeah, and then decide that they'll come

(02:15):
back and then perhaps you know, they'll have babies and
buy a house and then they'll think of getting married.
It's not all cases, but some we've seen that trend
coming through for a while. Then you've got the opposite,
which is the elopements. And that's probably a sad part
about the industry at the moment because I'm not sure

(02:39):
what the longevity is of the satisfaction for anyone having
an elopement because they couldn't share it with their family.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, but then you also don't remember how your mum
got angry with you about a stupid thing, so it
cuts both ways. I'd say, Suzanne, thank you very much.
Suzanne Carson, wedding professional, owner and creative director. For more
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(03:05):
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