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With weddings now averaging $40,000, some Canadian couples are embracing pop-up weddings to save money and reduce planning stress.
Ask anyone who’s planning their wedding and they’ll probably mention being stressed out about the high cost or time-consuming process of researching and booking all the vendors. As traditional wedding costs climb, couples are looking for alternatives.
Enter pop-up weddings, which streamline the whole planning process for a single fee. When you book a pop-up wedding, you’re sharing the date and venue with other couples, staggering your events throughout the day. We spoke with Alicia Thurston, CEO and Creative Director of the Pop-Up Chapel, Canada’s first all-inclusive micro-wedding company, to find out how this modern model is shaking up the wedding industry.
Between the venue, officiant, flowers, photographer, music and entertainment, food and wedding cake, and formal clothing, wedding costs add up quickly. The average traditional wedding in Canada now costs around $40,000, with prices even higher in major cities or for higher-end events.
“The traditional wedding industry in Toronto is massive, and weddings here can cost a lot. It’s mind-boggling. Of course, there are ways around this, but that often requires more work for the couple (to be crafty and DIY) and maybe deprioritizing things.”
—Ashley, Pop-Up Chapel bride
These high costs can be hard to sidestep if you’re a couple working with separate vendors. According to The Knot’s Real Wedding Study (2026), couples hire an average of 13 vendors to pull off their wedding. That means juggling 13 different contacts and 13 different costs that all determine whether or not a couple stays within budget or goes over.
As Thurston said, “There’s so much decision fatigue and overwhelm when planning a wedding.” Couples soon find that paying for individual vendors feels unavoidable, with many feeling priced out of the wedding of their dreams.
“In my area, traditional weddings are very pricey and costs add up quickly,” said Miranda, a Pop-Up Chapel bride. Just take a look at some of the average wedding costs by province to see what she means:
| Province | Average wedding cost |
|---|---|
| Ontario (Greater Toronto Area) | $50,000–$70,000 |
| Ontario (outside of GTA) | $35,000–$50,000 |
| BC (metro Vancouver) | $45,000–$65,000 |
| BC (outside of Vancouver) | $30,000–$45,000 |
| Alberta | $30,000–$45,000 |
| Quebec | $25,000–$40,000 |
| Atlantic provinces | $25,000–$35,000 |
| Prairies | $25,000–$35,000 |
| Canadian average | $30,000–$45,000 |
The high cost and challenges of throwing large weddings during the pandemic gave rise to the micro wedding trend. A micro wedding is a small-scale wedding with a limited or exclusive guest list. The weddings might be brief events, like a wedding at city hall, or a more intimate occasion, like a quick ceremony followed by a formal dinner with select friends.
“The micro wedding trend is necessary, especially in Toronto and Vancouver, because most people can’t afford the average wedding,” said Thurston. City halls in these metro areas are aware of this, and have made it easier to get married at the courthouse.
Vancouver’s city hall began expanding its offerings in 2020. You can book a 30-minute micro wedding for anywhere from $332.75 to $998.25 plus tax, depending on the number of guests. The city of Toronto recently began offering micro weddings at several locations, including Old City Hall. You can book a 30-minute micro wedding for $441.95 plus tax, but reservations are first-come, first-served.
Although city hall might be a viable option for some couples, it’s not right for everyone. “We did not feel that we needed the big traditional wedding; ultimately, we just wanted to be married but with the pretty and memorable day. City hall did not feel right for us,” said Miranda, who booked with the Pop-Up Chapel.
Pop-up weddings share similarities to micro weddings, but they’re a distinctly different model. When you book a Pop-Up Chapel wedding, you select from a list of wedding dates that are already booked with select venues. You simply decide which package you’d like—how long you’d like your event to last, how many guests you want to have, and what you’d like included. Custom date packages are also available.
| The Mini | The Classic | The Party Spot |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 20 guests plus the couple | Up to 40 guests plus the couple | Up to 60 guests plus the couple |
| 15-minute ceremony + 45 minutes to celebrate and take photos | 15-minute ceremony + 1 hour and 40 minutes to celebrate (includes a 30-minute portrait session while guests mingle) | 15-minute ceremony + 2 hours and 40 minutes to celebrate (includes a 30-minute portrait session while guests party) |
| Includes lead coordination, venue, decor, officiant, live ceremony music, photographer, toast | Includes lead coordination, venue, decor, officiant, live ceremony music, photographer, toast and light bites, personal flowers | Includes lead coordination, venue, decor, officiant, live ceremony music, photographer, personal flowers, charcuterie and snacks, open bar |
| Pricing from $2,799 plus tax | Pricing from $5,999 plus tax | Pricing from $10,799 plus tax |
Your pop-up wedding coordinator works with their partners, so you don’t have to worry about decorations, an officiant, the photographer, or the food. This model is ideal for those dealing with decision fatigue. “You only need your outfit and marriage license,” said Thurston. Her company takes care of everything else so your big day is fun and stress-free.
The Pop-Up Chapel’s shared wedding experience model is estimated to cut traditional wedding costs by 70% and reduce traditional wedding waste by 90%. That’s because multiple couples use the same venue, services, and decorations for that wedding date. Because costs are essentially shared among the couples and the Pop-Up Chapel enjoys partnership deals, weddings at exclusive venues are suddenly possible for couples on a budget.
“The Pop-Up Chapel made it affordable for us to have our wedding in a highly coveted, beautiful venue for a fraction of what the cost would have been,” said Ashley, a Pop-Up Chapel bride. “Having one cost for everything related to the ceremony and reception made it so clear and allowed us to spend money on other things.”
To date, the Pop-Up Chapel has married over 800 couples and raised over $200,000 for charity. The company donates a minimum of $100 per couple to a specified charity for each wedding. Its simplified model is catching on, and Thurston has plans to expand the Pop-Up Chapel throughout Canada.
“Our Pop-Up Chapel wedding was very economical AND the very best day, which makes it feel like we won!” said Ashley.
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