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The cost of tying the knot is exceeding many Canadian couples’ wedding budgets, a new Wealthsimple survey suggests.
Sixty-nine per cent of married couples surveyed said they “felt pressured to spend more than they were comfortable with.”
More than 1,200 people were surveyed regarding the costs of weddings, including those who paid for their own or turned up for someone else’s.
In comparison, six per cent of couples said they spent “somewhat under budget” and just one per cent reported spending “very under budget.”
On average, surveyed couples budgeted to spend $15,000, most of which came from personal savings. Yet, many couples’ final bill came to $25,000 — around 70 per cent higher.
The survey calls that $25,000 spending a “midpoint,” as across respondents, the bill “ran closer to $37,000 because of a small number of very expensive weddings.”
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Many couples turned to secondary funding as a result, with 28 per cent relying on family, 26 per cent using a credit card and nine taking out a line of credit.
Nearly a third (32 per cent) of newlyweds stated that “money became a point of tension with their family and friends as they planned their wedding.”
In addition, guests and wedding-party members also reported that it felt “financially stressful” to attend weddings, with 36 per cent saying “they’d turned down at least one wedding or pre-event invite (such as a bachelorette party) in the last three years.”
Twenty-two per cent of wedding guests reported spending more than $1,000 to attend a single wedding, with 39 per cent of wedding party members saying they spent at least $2,000 to attend.
Another 22 per cent accepted the invite but said “attending was financially stressful or difficult for them.” Fourteen per cent reported taking on debt in order to attend a wedding.
A May 2026 Royal Lepage survey suggests a large portion of Canadian couples are willing to skip on wedding gifts in favour of cash that might help the couple purchase a home.
Nearly eight in 10 (79 per cent) Canadians would “consider requesting money for a down payment on a home as a wedding gift” rather than receiving a traditional wedding gift.
Of those, 37 per cent of respondents said they would “definitely” do this, while 42 per cent said “maybe.”
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