Wedding markups exposed (CBC Marketplace)

this is a marketplace showdown we're going head-to-head taking on the big business of wedding the minute you say wedding the money bells go off feeling like it's a five billion dollar industry in Canada alone everything is marketed to prizes like you need this or your wedding stuff are you paying extra just because of one word if you're looking at four hundred and fifty two dollars you're looking at eight hundred dollars Wow for our season finale it's a wedding work you can't afford to miss we've been together for seven and a half years and we made for six months did we even have a budget no wisdom we didn't we didn't targets was to be more he definitely went over budget because there are a lot of things we didn't anticipate originally our budget was eight thousand dollars and the final tally is more like fifteen thousand so our couple getting gouged with a secret wedding tough for the answer Asha and I are getting wired up with hidden cameras on folks go live and going undercover to see who will get the better deal we're going to see if this wedding taxes for real our backstory I'm planning an anniversary party and so we're looking for a nice Saturday in September my serious I'm getting married and we're looking for the same day say much so we're looking at venues we're looking at limos and then we're also going to look at forests what do you think is going to happen kind of find out team Asha vs. team trophy let's do this for the inside scoop we catch up with an industry insider excelling in the industry is absolute it happens everywhere every vendor does it at some point because that's the bread butter of our business a former wedding planner with over 17 years of experience meet Angelique Saab Chuck how have things changed from when you got into the business so now in the beginning weddings were about a celebration of family bringing people together having food having dance now it's about who has the bigger budget what is it about the word wedding that tight prices it means dollar signs because you are going to pay you're going to pay for that one special day glasses Tim according is this game already rigged against team wedding time to find out first we're hitting up some banquet halls and high-end venues chosen at random both teams are asking for the same date 200 guests a three-course meal plus an open bar Tarleton ordaining pork team anniversary goes in first - a popular banquet hall north of Toronto so we're doing an anniversary party and probably going to be 200 guests just going to spring salad and then the grilled chicken breast yes and the creme brulee the manager makes if you notice then comes back with a quote so 70 dollars per person plus a just came is this the best price this is the office now it's time for team wedding to go in and remember we're asking for the exact same menu three-course meal yes everyone our quote dozen all for me to see that's seven dollars more per person for 200 people and extra $1400 just because it's a wedding yep first off and we've already seen that so-called wedding tax okay so type of function anniversary at banquet hall number two ideally we'd like a salad chicken dessert yeah this package here mm-hmm $55 per person rent I'll be okay laughter fight for your verse the total for team in a bursary $70 per person will our team get hit with that wedding tax again I'm thing all those out of to exam or something and then I love crème brûlées I kind of thinking I know that's my favorite dessert so you case is going to close to probably seventy six boxes Oh perfect yes an extra six dollars per person for team wedding a $1,200 price hike our insider says it's all because of that magic word you have to remember the minute you say wedding the money bells go off feeling lingling that's the nature of the industry you start to see things that are beautiful then picture your wedding like that it's all about the vision the dream so far teen weddings paying more at all the banquet halls so this time we're testing the wedding tax at a high-end venue in downtown Toronto but we're sticking to our script a simple three-course meal here too but when team wedding hits up the same sauce a bit of a twit goes 155 per person to open fire order and yes she asks about our budget clearly wanting the wedding business and all that comes along with it she drops the price and we get a better deal the final score for venues three out of the four places charge team wedding a higher price next it's time for us to smell the roses something that I didn't really expect me as expensive as it was with flowers think when I went in for a floral consultation I was kind of surprised at how expensive it went so it's time for us to have a few floral consultations of our own both teams are asking for 20 centerpieces with a dozen red roses each team anniversary goes in first so we're looking for I 20 centerpieces and we're interested in doing a dozen red roses and the party will be in September so somewhere between 80 and 100 dollars our final quote $80 per centerpiece time for team wedding to go in so I'm thinking like just literally a dozen red roses at each table I don't know your colors don't know right right no way a lot of them to kind of just give you guys anything you're looking for another movement at about a hundred bucks an extra $400 for team wedding and she insists on a 15 consultation not all florists feel the need to charge that wedding tack that's pretty knowledgeable [Music] but check out what happened at our last florist another 75 35 $80 so 1,500 for the flowers plus tax and today's our lucky day she offers us a discount and team wedding there's all you're looking at 75 reserve are no discount here $15 more percent Rafi adding up to $300 extra for the same flowers the final score for florist two out of the four companies we visit charge team weddings a higher price [Music] our wedding insider says there's a reason bride get drawn in despite the big dollar sign you hear certain tax phrases such as once-in-a-lifetime dreams missed opportunities you don't want to regret not having there when you hear those things it starts to create fear fear of losing out fear of not being the best and fear of disappointing others is the growing reason why we can upsell will we feel that pressure when we call up some limo company we're both asking for a one-way ride from the same Hotel in downtown Toronto to a banquet hall north of the city hi there I'm planning an anniversary party and I was looking to order a limousine racing looking at would be 150 at the center plus tax a gratuity so it's me and the groom and then our bridal party who you're looking at with us would be terrific we always have a one-way trip the hidden wedding tax Cobb's up $100 more for the exact same trip and we also get a special wedding sales pitch we come early try to get a good spot that obliges you have to do too much walking off of water I before we take off just the music it's a lot of them a fee is on a lot of somebodies don't care less about the problems when you come I mean we try to time that and have a car next goal for you time to call another limo company and show Angelique our results want to take a look absolutely I'm very interested [Music] so I'm looking for something that will seat 10 people the beautiful does house limo wise would be a navigator for 12 passengers ok and it would be on a two-hour minimum so you'd be looking at four hundred and fifty two dollars for the drop-off wow that's steep hmm I wonder what I'll be told hi there I wanted to get a quote I'm getting married in the fall doing this for over 30 years okay I never seen it so busy so not to rush you but you need to look stay for the Pressler this is very hitting me right now I know I know and get this team wedding gets stuck with a 5 hour minimum the Navigator you're looking at a minimum of five hours that you're looking at $800 Wow 800 [Music] oh that's twice as much absolutely yep a 348 dollar price hike 14 wedding the final score for limo all four companies upsell to team wedding they're playing again into your emotions they're saying one if you want this limo you're going to pay for the price and they're going to start scaring you about time well these things look fast so book now or you're going to lose it so again it's all fear-mongering but when we challenge the companies who charge team wedding more they argue weddings are more work how do you sum up our hidden investigation I'm really happy that you're showcasing for the brides out there actually what is happening this is truly the way it is this showdown is not over again next day after the wedding you're going to wake up they're going to be married and now you're going to have to pay for that expensive wedding a wedding budget reality check is coming right at you this is your marketplace [Music] we've exposed the secret wedding tax a hidden charge dumb companies tack on as soon as you say that magic works and those extra charges can sure add up especially now that the average wedding cost more than $32,000 overall budget was once the turn around sixty seven thousand dollars the original budget that we had was ten thousand dollars although he really always knew it at least twenty thousand well we're up to twenty five thousand now I wanted to say like under seven thousand but it actually cost us around 13,000 I do have a theory that a bridezilla isn't born she's created everybody has a wedding story but la comedian and actress Laura Rojas was so scarred by her experience she wrote a book about it I wanted to write a book that sort of pokes fun at this insane wedding industry that I'd suddenly found myself in this world of like when the wedding world and it was so over-the-top what was the craziest thing you heard shopping around definitely the wedding flowers I found this one florist and she just had like the most beautiful designs and so I contacted them and I got an email back from her that was like well our minimum budget is $15,000 so if it's anything below that we find really just isn't worth our time what do you get for $15,000 did they say they must be an amazing flowers just like the best flowers great dirt great worms tell me how does industry marketing play into the big day I think that everything is marketed to brides as like you need this you need this golden table runner that matches the sash on your dress there or your wedding will suck wait a second has it always been this way from the ring to the dress no traditional are these wedding traditions are they really worth it here's what you need to know take your engagement ring for example for the 1940s it wasn't really thing to propose with a diamond engagement ring but in 1938 the De Beers diamond corporation came out with a marketing campaign telling us the only way a real man could prove his love was to put a diamond ring on his bride-to-be and we all fell for it in fact back in 1940 only 10% of North American Brides received diamond rings and now over 80% of brides are rockin the wrong and many of us follow that two-month rule right you know the one believing we have to spend two months salary on a shiny diamond sorry folks that was just more clever marketing from De Beers that made you believe that every Brides to be ever wonder where the tradition of wearing a white wedding dress came from surely there's a reason you spend hundreds often thousands of dollars on that long pearl white strapless lace trim dress that you're only going to wear once well you can all thank Queen Victoria for that before the 1800s women did not wear white to their weddings but when Queen Victoria wore a white satin dress in 1840 wealthy brides started doing the same and everyone else soon follow so now when you think about spending all that money consider this is it a wedding tradition or a wedding trap so how can you avoid falling into those traps right financial planner Ryan Liu Enza is about to give us a wedding budget reality check so Ryan you crunch some numbers let's go through what you found I looked at that average cost of thirty two thousand five hundred dollars for a wedding and I looked at two scenarios and so the first scenario was the unconventional couple that's the couple that goes down to the City Hall and basically saved the entire thirty two thousand five hundred dollars they put it into a TFSA do what that grows to I can't even do that kind of that ok well it's two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a quarter of a million dollars by retirement Wow some people are going to hear that and be gobsmacked but not all couples want to invest their entire budget so I took another scenario and the other scenario was what I call the 50 cobble instead of spending the entire thirty two thousand five hundred they spent half that green to 125 thousand I retire a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars that's a sweet chunk of change Brian if there's one piece of financial advice you could leave people with who are planning their wedding what would it be well it's an important day but it's one day and the next day after the wedding you're going to wake up you're going to be married and now you're going to have to pay for that expensive wedding one of these dresses is $8,000 can you spot which one this is your marketplace get marketplace in your inbox once a week sign up for a newsletter at cGCC a slash marketplace the wedding showdown continues on your marketplace falling in love doesn't have to mean falling is just curious debt as the same thing couple planning a wedding on 1,000 done in ginger dress well I bought two dress came in way too small for me and ended up spending about another thousand dollars in alteration how often do you see a bride go over their budget brystol over their budget all the time it is an unfortunate situation because you would try and want to limit them from trying to break the bank and again it's bringing them back to reality I see more brides spend more money on their wedding dress they go over 90% of the time on their wedding dress budget we want to know does the price of your dress really make a difference on your big day so what we want to do is actually test your knowledge of wedding dresses to find out we've set up five gently used wedding dresses with estimated retail values between about a thousand dollars and eight thousand dollars who's ready to spot the $8,000 dress [Applause] [Music] now we're testing you to see if you can tell the difference one of these dresses has a price tag $8,000 all right show me we think leaking a huge one right away oh my goodness right in there yeah what was it built this one that really said 8,000 bucks I don't know it just looks a little more elegant there was a little bit more detail the result this is not a nice out dollar dress yeah this is the $1,000 dress my person was right and you were all wrong look for deceiving maybe this is now there's also a dress out here that is only about a thousand that's impossible to believe you don't believe it no I still there are so nice I know are we right oh this is the thousand dollar dress never judge a book by it's cover it can look worse than the outside yeah I'm a shipper now that you've seen the $1,000 dress doesn't mean you're going to return yours yeah definitely an eye-opener 3000 lunch sure like any dress that she's I didn't they look beautifully what is the week brownie point all we did it Jim Lex wedding was still the top of town and no regrets nothing we made everything we made everything drunk Mike but the second will be perfect for I get to marry you it's gonna be perfect so no okay [Music] ever wonder what happens when your email lands in our inbox oh hi I'm calling from markiplier she thinks it's an accident waiting to happen when you hit them it sends up into action you're going to be forced to cancel the expiry policy so you're not telling me that I'm ripping off people the complaint system doesn't work why not just get rid of it thirty thirty forty forty price just keep it on up enough your marketplace means your tips become our storage energy sleep or finance your car from your home do your help never would have imagined that I would be smoking marijuana on national TV your food I can't believe you do about your fun Josh animations might take advantage of you yeah what you're sold and what you're told what about the people that believe your reviews and trust you you count on us and we count on you and together create change so help us decide what to investigate next because this is your marketplace [Music]

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,300,347

Rating: 4.8163376 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, weddings, wedding, markups, bride, groom, costs, wedding budget, upselling

Id: X9j_FxhjRbw

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/darkstarman]

Maybe people planning a wedding are a pain in the ass which is a real cost

[u/davidreiss666]

While I believe that these places are largely overcharging people for weddings. There is a negotiation that is supposed to happen during these exchanges. You don't have to accept their list price. You can counter with "that seems high to me. I guess we'll be looking elsewhere unless you can give me a better price".

And you can do that with anything. Years ago I was buying furniture from my home, I knew what I wanted and I didn't want to over pay. The list price was about $8000 for everything, I got it all for $5500. It was a large order and they didn't want to lose the sale. You just need to be willing to walk out the door.

When you are paying thousands of dollars, you can negotiate on lots of things like this. How many of these wedding prices would come down if you called back four days later and said "We like your establishment, but the price is high. We have a lower quote from one of your competitors. Can you improve on the price?" A lot of them could probably drop their quote substantially if they think they will end up getting the business that day.

Now, this is true for the people trying to schedule an anniversary as well. So, I am sure some over charging is going on. But part of it might be that people rarely go around getting quotes for anniversary parties that they aren't really planning. While some people do go shopping for weddings that they don't really plan to follow through on. Some places might give a higher quote for weddings because a lot of them go around planning a wedding almost as a hobby. So places might give higher quotes because you might later shift your date plans to a more expensive date.

There are lots of little reasons that could explain the higher quotes. And yes, one of them I am sure is that people getting married often try and have a "money is no object" view even when they should know better.