Marry for love... not the wedding bills
AN AVERAGE Australian wedding costs $36,000, prompting many Australians to believe they must put off buying a house to have the wedding they desire.
But there is now another option for under $10,000. Pop-up wedding companies are sprouting up across the country, with businesses in every state and demand growing.
At a pop-up wedding several couples can get married separately at the same venue, on the same day, using the same suppliers.
Adelaide Pop-up Weddings owner Kelly Markos said the main reason for the popularity was because of the value offered, with some all-inclusive weddings costing less than $5000.
“With house prices rising and lots of couples having children first, couples can see that it’s possible to have an incredible day and not break the bank,” she said.
Ms Markos said a pop-up plus dinner package cost $7250 including venue hire, ceremony and reception, celebrant, photography, food and beverages, staffing, decorations and wedding co-ordination.
“We co-ordinated more than 120 pop-up weddings last year and have almost 60 booked for this year and 40 for 2020,” she said.
Peninsula Pop Up Wedding Co founder Naomi Korolew said people assumed they had to spend tens of thousands to have a fabulous wedding.
“We have a 10am to 1pm package priced at $7500, a 2pm to 5pm priced at $8750 and a 6pm to 9pm priced at $9950,” she said. “We have found that if a couple were to do the wedding themselves it would cost them in excess of $30,000.”
Mrs Korolew said off-peak dates were offered, and pop-up weddings could be Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
“In Victoria 50 per cent of all weddings take place on the same 32 days a year, so it’s really just basic economics that those days are going to cost more when it’s in more demand,” she said.
Diessa Ahmadie, 32, got married in 2015 and spent $120,000 on her wedding.
She said couples should decide what would be the most important aspects of their wedding.
“These will become nonnegotiables in your wedding budget,” Ms Ahmadie said.
“I’m of a Chinese-russian cultural background and my husband is Lebanese so the wow factor was created as a result of us bringing all these different cultures together.
“We had a head count of 420 people which made it so expensive – I would have liked to have had 300 people, but that could have been at the cost of damaging relationships.”