Couples experience rising wedding costs

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A survey done by The Wedding Report found there will be almost 2.5 million weddings this year. On top of that, the cost of an average wedding has gone up from $24,000 to $27,000.

As Jacquelyn Cortez plans her wedding in Corpus Christi, she is seeing that increase up close.

“I was stunned,” she said.

Cortez realized this process was pricier than she thought. So, she’s turned her attention to finding the venue that offers the most with the best deal.

“I’m pretty much looking at all the venues still and deciding ‘do they cater, do they offer a cake, what services they offer and how long?'” she said. “And what they have as far as rules go.”

Venues like The Courtyard at Gaslight Square are seeing an increase in bookings. Many are from people who have pushed back their wedding from 2020 and 2021.

“There’s definitely been an increase in pricing from food costs to labor costs; everything has increased,” Jacquelin Laurel, sales and event coordinator at Courtyard said. “We have tried to hold back from increasing pricing, but it’s evident that we have to increase.”

Those increases move over to the florists. Latoya Rodriguez, owner of Rose Soiree said she has triple the amount of weddings she usually has, due to postponements from the pandemic. It’s supply and transportation issues that have forced her hand to raise prices.

“The farms had low yielding crops or just because of bad weather,” Rodriguez said. “Fuel surcharges on behalf of the farmers and fuel surcharges on behalf of shipping. So, that’s kind of a double whammy.”

Rodriguez said to help out couples, she suggests cluster center pieces because they’re cheaper, due to being less labor intensive.

She said the brides she’s spoken with haven’t been too upset about the price increases and made adjustments.

“All in all, at the end of the day, the things that we worry about, only really worry us,” Cortez said. “And then when the day comes, it’s just who cares? You had a great time and a lot of people don’t remember what the the chairs looked like.”

Laurel and Rodriguez suggest making wedding bookings at least six months in advance. For venues, Laurel said April and October are the busiest months. Rodriguez said she stays busy April through June, but she has reservations as far out as November.

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