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How rising costs impact Siouxland weddings

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Summer is a popular time for weddings, but rising prices could be a problem.

According to The Knot 2021 Real Weddings study, the average wedding costs $20,000. But wedding venue owners said this year has been busy and they hope high prices don’t keep people away.

Kathy Ellison has owned a wedding venue in Sioux City since 2016. In 2023, she will raise prices for the first time in four years, but she said venue prices aren’t stopping couples from getting married.

“I’m booked out the rest of this year and next year is almost all booked, so they’ve already committed to next year,” said Ellison. Her venue holds 500 people.

John Byrnes is the recreation superintendent with Parks and Recreation in Sioux City. The Siouxland Expo Center started hosting weddings in 2020. He said finding a venue with the right price and the right size can be a challenge.

“Everybody’s looking for a venue to fit their needs at an affordable price and hopefully we’ve found that we are fitting a lot of people’s needs,” said Byrnes. “There’s people that don’t need to fit 500 people, but they can fit 250 here at the Expo Center.”

One necessity for any wedding is the food. Christy Wright is the general manager of Sneaky’s Chicken. They do catering at least twice a week for various events including weddings. She said high prices in the food industry are unavoidable.

“Our oil has jumped, our chicken has jumped, the ribs are up, pork chops are up, hot wings, fish, shrimp,” said Wright. “I mean you name it, everything.”

But Wright said she’s hopeful weddings will continue this summer and into next year.

“We’ve done a lot of weddings this summer,” said Wright. “We’re blocked out for a lot of days next summer already. I think people will go out and do what they want to do.”