The bride tax: Why you’ll pay more just for saying ‘wedding’
IT’S supposed to be the happiest day of your life, but the premiums you’re paying for your wedding celebrations might just ruin that.
Whether it’s the flowers, cake, DJ or venue, engaged couples are forking out up to three times more than the regular price, just for saying the “W” word.
A Current Affair has revealed the extent of Australia’s bridal tax, and it’s likely to cast fear into the heart of anyone planning their nuptials.
The special “tax” can end up adding thousands of dollars to an event already likely to cost an average of $36,200-54,000 (and 35 per cent of us blowing our budgets).
Price comparison site Choice recently arranged a test in which two shoppers called the same suppliers and requested a quote for events with the same requirements and number of guests. The only difference was that one would be a wedding, the other a 40th birthday party. The results were startling.
A one-hour call-out for a hire car would cost a wedding $1000, but the same car on the same day for a 40th birthday would cost $450. A photographer quoted $1400 for the party girl for two hours’ work, and $4000 for the bride.
Couples said the same. “If you ring your florist and you want 20 bunches of flowers, they might be $50 or $60, but if you say it’s for a wedding they’re $100, $120,” one bride-to-be told the program.
Another said she was told $800 for a cake, but when her fiance rang back and didn’t say it was for a wedding, he was quoted $350.
A Current Affair did its own investigation, requesting identical products for an identical time, only in one case they said it was for a 21st birthday, and in the other, a wedding. Here’s what it found.
Suppliers have their reasons. They claim wedding work is seasonal, mainly weekend work and there’s only one shot to get it right. Some wedding planners told the program that brides can be difficult.
But there’s only one shot to get a birthday right, and if that’s on a busy weekend in the summer with a demanding customer, how can they still justify the radical difference in price?
Some commenters said weddings were inevitably more work, with DJs, photographers and cake-makers providing a higher level of service than for another kind of party.
But one bride said she was quoted $15 a rose while her husband was only asked to pay $4. Which brings us to another questionable kind of tax.
