Lovers Pay Extra For Saying I Do
Sun Herald
Sunday April 21, 2002
COUPLES are paying a premium of up to 60 per cent and more to book goods and services for their weddings.
Many retailers have a two-tiered pricing structure in place and raise prices by up to several hundred dollars for people booking for nuptials.
The widespread trend is prompting consumer ire and has been queried by consumer monitors.
But service providers argue the higher costs are justified because of the added stresses of dealing with marriages and in-built extras that consumers receive.
``There's evidence from across the country that there is a price spike wherever there is a vow involved," Gail Kennedy from the Australian Consumers' Association said last week.
``It is a common area of consumer concern. It's a time of great vulnerability because you are in love and it's your big day."
The Sun-Herald approached businesses in several service sectors about their practice of charging more for weddings than standard functions.
A function centre operator charged $15 a head more for weddings, a hire company charged roughly an extra $50 an hour and a wedding photographer charged an extra $315 to shoot the ceremony.
A photo processing shop with a 10pc discount on more than 10 rolls of film, revoked the discount for wedding pictures.
All the merchants who quoted prices to The Sun-Herald were happy to discuss and explain their policy.
Dean Savetta, from the Holroyd Centre, said for a standard function the cost of catering was $50 a head, while for a wedding he charged $65 a head.
He said the demands of the wedding party meant more staff were required to cater for a wedding and more attention was paid to details. These factors drove up costs.
``There just isn't the same level of stress involved with a normal function," Mr Savetta said. ``A bride is a very demanding creature and so are her parents."
Paul Roppolo, from International Hire Cars, said while his corporate rate for car hire was $70 an hour, for weddings it started at $120 an hour, with a minimum booking of two hours.
But he said the corporate rate was timed from the time a car left the base while the wedding rate was door to door.
Mr Roppolo said wedding bookings were served champagne, cars were adorned with ribbons and extra care was taken to ensure the vehicles were immaculate. And the company ensured all vehicles hired for weddings were matching a service which cost extra and was not automatically extended to corporate bookings.
Mark Hale, from William Tell photographers, said his company charged $1,315 to supply a photographer for an eight-hour wedding day compared with about $1,000 for a similarly long commercial job.
Mr Hale said for a wedding job a far longer association was involved than for a commercial job. The photographer was usually required to attend several locations and had to work under time pressure and keep guests calm.
At Charing Cross Photo, owner Daniel Caillau said he offered a 10pc discount on processing orders of more than 10 rolls except for wedding shots.
Mr Caillau said because weddings were one-off events his technicians tried to get good prints from even poorly exposed shots, which required additional time and money.
The white of wedding dresses also tended to affect the exposure of photos.
TWO-TIERED PRICING
Wedding prices v regular prices
Regular rate Wedding rate
Catered function: $50 a head $65 a head
Limousine hire: $70 an hour $120 to $220 an hour
Photo processing: 10pc discount for 10+ films No discount on wedding
films
Photographer: $1,000 for eight hours $1,315 for eight hours
© 2002 Sun Herald
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