An administrative assistant’s $18,000 wedding will have a sit-down dinner, but she’ll do her own hair and makeup
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- Rose, a 29-year-old administrative assistant in Kawartha Lakes, Ont. earning $66,000 a year, is planning an $18,000 wedding with her fiancé, who earns $55,000 — almost double their initial target of under $10,000 for 50 guests.
- The wedding will include a sit-down dinner and a DJ, but the couple are cutting costs with a second-hand dress and DIY hair and makeup; Rose noted that "you can easily spend $50,000 on a 50-person wedding."
- After $1,000 in monthly savings and investments and a $1,300 mortgage payment, Rose has only about $200 left each month, leaving virtually no margin for surprise expenses like car or appliance repairs.
- Rose holds $70,000 in a TFSA, $40,000 in an RRSP, $20,000 in company shares and $12,000 in savings, but carries $250,000 in mortgage debt on the condo she bought at 27 after living at home to save.
- During the pandemic, Rose and her fiancé took a free personal finance course from McGill University and read library books on money management, then moved her savings out of high-cost mutual funds into self-directed ETFs.
- Rose said she has been surprised by pushback from people in her life about the wedding budget, describing the tension between societal expectations and keeping costs down.
Why it matters: Rose's profile shows a financially disciplined young Canadian with $142,000 in savings and investments who still runs a monthly surplus of just $200 — a concrete illustration of how thin margins remain for millennials planning major life events even when they budget carefully and hold significant assets.
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