A century ago, if someone had asked a group of Canadians what is the biggest, most expensive, or wackiest party each of them had ever attended, my guess is that few, if any, would answer, a wedding.
Ask the same question in 2014, I expect the answers would be very different.
Without looking too hard, W5 has found video of weddings performed on rollercoasters, under water, on mountaintops. There have been wedding party wardrobes that cost six figures, others that cost not a dime because the couples married au naturel.
And one person who鈥檚 seen it all is Marilyn Knipp, an ordained minister in Vancouver who earns her living marrying couples. She estimates that over a 30 year career, she鈥檚 performed more than 1,000 ceremonies.
She told W5, 鈥淚鈥檝e done them on horseback, in a hot air balloon which was an experience, I鈥檝e done them in the woods. I鈥檝e done weddings where people are jumping over broomsticks and we have the cauldron going. Sometimes, it becomes more about managing the people and logistics than anything.鈥�
But even traditional weddings often have a very different look from the past.
Lara Holte and Graham Taylor spoke to W5 just days before they married. The ceremony would take place at an Okanagan Valley winery. 鈥淓very girl wants to have that dream wedding,鈥� Lara said. 鈥淭he tears in her eyes when she thinks about what that grand day is going to be like with her family and friends there.鈥�
But it comes at a cost.
The winery where Lara and Graham will marry is 700 kilometres away. 鈥淓verything has to be brought in,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淎nd afterwards, it has to be taken down again. It鈥檚 almost like a military operation or doing a movie.鈥�
The couple won鈥檛 say what the final cost will be, but they will be facing bills for transportation, professional planning and catering. There will also be a bill from a professional videographer.
He is Jacob Wasef, a former television director, who discovered the lucrative world of wedding videos after a friend asked him to record his.
鈥淚 shot it as if I was shooting any of our regular music videos,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e had five cameras, we had a 30 foot crane, we had floor dollies. All the technical stuff and communication systems that we used for music videos. I shot it as a live event.鈥�
High-end wedding videos are now much in demand. Typically, Wasef works with budgets of between $3,000 and $25,000. The bigger budgets can include video shot from boats, helicopters, cranes; there can be special effects.
鈥淲e can do everything that鈥檚 ever been done on features or broadcast TV,鈥� he said, and the service can be quick.
It is common now for professional wedding videographers to offer couples the option of a finished and fully edited product by the end of the wedding day so that guests can view it at the evening reception.
It wasn鈥檛 all that long ago that almost all weddings happened in a church close to home. Afterward, the couple would go perhaps to a nearby park to pose for a few pictures, sometimes shot by a relative. The reception would be held in a local hall and the honeymoon would be neither expensive, nor far away.
Those days have gone.
Wordwide, weddings now have grown into a $300-billion business. In Canada, it鈥檚 $4 billion.
It consists of designers, caterers, purpose-built venues. A quarter of Canadian couples now spend between $30,000 and $75,000 on their wedding. Three per cent spend more than $100,000.
There are alternatives.
Not long ago, on a seedy street in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside, workers put the finishing touches on a storefront rented for the weekend. It had been decked out in wedding-style decorations, chairs brought in to accommodate 20 guests and a sign placed outside that read, 鈥淭he Pop-up Wedding Project.鈥�
It is one of the quick, easy, and relatively economic ways to get married. Couples show up one after the other, they enter, are married, there are some drinks and canapés for guests, some photos, and then out again, all in 90 minutes, and all for $1200.
When asked whether they鈥檇 have preferred something a bit more elaborate, an excited, happy, just-married couple answered laughing, 鈥淚t was a choice between spending money on a big wedding, or a house. We chose the house.鈥�
It is easy to find those who understand the appeal of a quick and simple wedding. Luwam Guebezai is among them.
She鈥檚 the daughter of Eritrean immigrants who want her wedding to be 鈥渃ultural.鈥� That means strictly traditional dress, ceremony and party.
It also means inviting much of Vancouver鈥檚 Eritrean community. The guest list is 1000 long, and the family cannot afford to hire professionals to do all the work. So, they are doing much of it themselves.
A few days before her wedding, W5 asked Guebezai if she found all the planning difficult. She answered immediately, with just one word, 鈥淵es.鈥�
But when asked if she鈥檇 have preferred a simple and quick wedding, a more qualified answer. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 easier to do a smaller wedding or a different type of wedding. I鈥檝e never done it before.鈥�
But even though she admitted that the planning and arranging was wearing on her, the idea of a quick and simple wedding was never seriously considered. 鈥淭hat,鈥� she said, 鈥渋s not a real wedding.鈥�
It is easiest to make choices, when there are few choices to choose from. Perhaps that鈥檚 why generations ago, weddings seemed so much simpler.
Nowadays, the modern marriage marketplace has become an enormous labyrinth with options that can burn through a down payment on a house. But the couple walking down the aisle of a church, or through a winery garden, or into a temporary Vancouver storefront, all seem to emerge looking much the same.
All show the smiles and excitement of those who鈥檝e just made a commitment to one another. The institution of marriage is ancient. But there are a few things that even modern times have barely changed.
How much did your wedding cost? How did you keep costs manageable? Share your story in the comments below. Watch W5 Saturday night @ 7 p.m. for Tom Kennedy鈥檚 full report.
