2022-2023 is set to be a record year for destination weddings and ‘do-over’ celebrations dampened by pandemic restrictions.
One online travel company in the U.K. surveyed the costs of hosting and attending a destination wedding in over 100 global locations - and of all the lavish and extravagant celebration locations around the world, one remote Canadian destination landed in the top three most pricey.
British-based travel company Holidu researched the most renowned locations to hold a destination wedding, according to wedding blogs, websites and review sites, before cutting the shortlist down to 100 of the most prominent locations with comparable data.
Then, for each destination, researchers identified the median costs of a venue, decor, photographer, food, cake, and beverages for a wedding with 100 guests. They labelled those as “Costs for the Couple.”
They also determined how much it costs guests on average to attend a wedding in each location, covering accommodation and travel costs, calling those amounts “Costs for Guests.”
The study reveals where hosting and attending a destination wedding costs the most and least.
The most expensive wedding venue featured in the study is The Villa Casa Casuarina, Miami, where it costs around USD $120,000 to host a wedding with 100 guests.
But Miami didn’t make the list of the top three most expensive wedding destinations using median costs. It didn’t even make the top 10.
The most expensive destination in the world to host a wedding is in the tony Hamptons, where the median cost of a wedding with 100 guests comes in at USD $45,987.
As you might expect, Europe is the most heavily represented on the list of most expensive top wedding destinations. Seven out of the top ten are on the continent.
Elegant Positano, Italy clocks in at number 3 with a median cost to the couple of $43,090. And two other Italian cities: Florence at number 5 at a median cost of $33,569, and Venice at number 7, costing the couple just over $30,000 also make the top 10 list.
Two French destinations also make the top ten, including the City of Lights, Paris (6) and the swanky French Riviera beach town of Saint Tropez at number 9.
Seville, Spain (4) and Cascais, Portugal (10) round out the European entries on the list.
In addition to the East Coast Hamptons in first place, another U.S. Eastern city makes the top ten list: New York, at number 8, with a 100-guest wedding costing the hosting couple a median amount of USD $30,012.
Which leaves one entry in the top ten, globally most expensive destinations to host a wedding. That number 3 position goes to Canada’s Fogo Island. The remote Newfoundland island has been put on the map of global luxury travel by the famous Fogo Island Inn, which has been ranked as one of the top luxury lodges of the world. Its impossibly scenic and evocative setting makes it a prime destination for an intimate wedding. The survey doesn’t specifically mention the Inn, but with few other venues on the former fishing island, the Fogo Island Inn is what undoubtedly puts Canada in the ranks of top most expensive wedding destinations in the world.
In fact, Fogo Island ranked #2 for the Costs for Guests, with a media cost for travel and accommodation for guests coming in at USD $10,586, exceeded only by the Hamptons at a couple of hundred dollars more. After those two top most expensive destinations for guests, costs drop dramatically, with the next entry, Positano, only a third of the median cost of attending a wedding in the Hamptons or Fogo Island.
At the other end of the spectrum, the least expensive among the 100 top wedding destinations around the world are Lahore, Pakistan ($3,530), ahead of Goa, India ($3,858) and Nha Trang, Vietnam ($6,316), which is the least expensive among the top destinations to host a 100-person wedding.
You can see the full survey results here.
