Saving a few bucks was a high priority for some brides-to-be at the Thunder Bay Wedding Show.

More than a thousand people were expected to attend the 13th annual show, which acted as a one-stop shop for brides and grooms looking for ideas for their weddings.

For Jackie Collier, this was her second wedding she was preparing for so she brought her daughter and maid of honour, Crystal Koscielniak, to help her out.

That was good to know because Collier said she was looking everywhere for ideas.

“It has been 30 years since I’ve done this,” she said.

“I’m trying to figure out what the new way of doing things is. Things have changed quite a bit from when I got married. All these vendors they have now, we didn’t have that back in my day. I was really shocked when I started finding out how much a wedding was going to cost, even a small wedding like I’m doing. I’ve been sort of looking at how we can mitigate some of those extra costs.”

Collier said she’s shocked by not only the expense but what’s expected at weddings now. She explained that for her first wedding, decorations, for example, were done by the wedding party.

Koscielniak said she wanted to make sure she was providing her mother with some new and fresh ideas while providing some support. Koscielniak, who did a destination wedding, agreed that weddings are costly and said she would rather spend the money for a long tropical trip than on one day.

“We did have a small reception when we came back,” she said.

The cost was also on Christine Gillis’ mind when she attended the show with her future husband, Dave Morrison. The couple were looking for ideas before their big day in June, 2017.

Gillis said they were looking for ways to save money and argued it’s a very expensive occasion.

“I want to stay under $20,000,” she said. “Food alone can be up to $10,000 and that’s under 200 people. It’s very expensive. We’re actually not from Thunder Bay so (the show) is kind of a one-stop shop for us. So it is very convenient.”

Event organizer Andre Fitzgerald said the goal of the show was to provide Thunder Bay’s business wedding industry with an opportunity to market to brides while being located in a single location for the convenience of wedding planning. With around 70 businesses at the show, Fitzgerald explained Thunder Bay’s wedding industry is doing well.

“(The Thunder Bay wedding industry) is actually larger because obviously not every business comes onboard with this show,” he said. “However, this show expands every year. Thirteen years ago, it was 20 exhibitors. This year we have sold out again and I actually had to create two new spaces for the event. I probably could have created more.”

He expected around 1,500 people to attend the show at the Victoria Inn. He said it’s easy to manage that many people as they continuously have shows going on at the main stage and there’s plenty of space for people to walk around.

One area that appeared to be having trouble handling all the people was the parking lot. He added that a lot of people will use the surrounding areas to park.

“Unfortunately, you are stuck with what you have,” he said. “We can create more parking than what’s available. Getting to the show earlier can make a huge difference.”