A line-by-line account of a February wedding for forty-eight, with nothing left out.
We are often asked what a wedding costs, and we are often vague, because the honest answer is that it depends. This article is an attempt to be precise. Below is the budget for a real wedding we planned in Whistler in February 2025, for forty-eight guests, rounded and with names removed. The couple gave their permission. Nothing has been left out.
Venue and accommodation: $62,000
A full buy-out of a lakeside lodge for two nights, including all twenty-eight rooms, the dining room, the boathouse and the terrace. This is the single largest line and it is also the one that makes everything else possible: a private property means no other guests, no noise curfew imposed by neighbours, and a kitchen that is yours alone.
Food and wine: $41,000
A welcome dinner on Friday, the six-course wedding dinner on Saturday, a morning-after breakfast at altitude on Sunday, and the wine and spirits for all three. The lodge kitchen cooked. We brought in one chef for one course. Sablefish is not cheap in February.
Two hundred and eight candles. Replaced once, unseen, between courses.
Design, florals and lighting: $34,000
Two hundred and eight brass taper holders, purchased and now in our studio for the next couple. Linen for a thirty-one-foot table. Hellebore and ranunculus in February, which have to be flown from somewhere warmer. Cedar cut in Pemberton the morning before. A lighting designer for two days so that the room looked like candlelight and not like a restaurant.
Music: $11,000
A string trio for the ceremony and dinner, and a two-piece for after. No DJ. The couple did not want one and we did not argue.
Photography and film: $19,000
A photographer we have worked with for six years, for two days, shooting film. A filmmaker for one day. The film was four minutes long and had no dialogue.
Transport: $9,000
Coaches from Vancouver airport, a private gondola charter on Sunday morning, and vehicles on standby all weekend for anyone who wanted to leave a room quietly.
Paper, gifts and the rest: $8,000
Letterpress invitations on cotton stock, calligraphy, a printed menu for every seat, wool blankets for the ceremony, and the small things nobody notices until they are not there.
Planning and design fee: $38,000
Our fee for Full Planning & Design, fixed at the start and unchanged.
Total: $222,000 CAD, or about $4,600 per guest. A wedding for one hundred at the same standard would not cost double; venue and design costs do not scale with the guest list. But it would not be the same wedding, and that is the point of the number.