It is the first question everyone asks and almost nobody answers with a number. Here is the full answer, line by line, with no mystery packages and no false modesty.
The short answer, for 2026, in Quebec: a well-executed wedding of 70 to 100 guests at a private estate costs between $55,000 and $90,000, taxes and gratuities included. A more intimate celebration of 40 people sits closer to $32,000 to $48,000.
The range is wide because it covers very different choices. What follows explains where every dollar goes, and above all which of your decisions actually moves the total. It is probably not the one you think.
The two per-guest numbers, and why they get confused
Almost every article on this subject gives a single cost per guest. That is where planning goes wrong, because there are two of them, and they do different jobs.
Total cost per guest is the budget divided by the number of people. In Quebec, in 2026, it runs between $850 and $1,150 for a well-executed private estate wedding. This is the number that gives you the scale of the project.
Marginal cost per guest is what the twenty-first person you add to the list actually costs. It is far lower, around $230 to $280: the meal, the drinks, the chair, the place setting. The photographer, the flowers, the attire and the venue do not move.
The consequence is counterintuitive and worth stating plainly: cutting the guest list saves much less than people expect. Removing twenty people saves roughly $5,000, not $20,000. And because the fixed costs are now spread across fewer people, your total cost per guest actually goes up.
Which is why an intimate wedding is not a budget wedding. It is a different project, with a different value. Choose it for what it is, not for what it saves.
The budget, line by line
These are the ranges observed in the Quebec market for a celebration of 80 guests. Amounts are before tax unless stated otherwise.
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Traditional reception hall rental | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Full private estate buyout, entire weekend | $8,000 to $25,000 |
| Catering, service included, per person | $90 to $175 |
| Alcohol, per person | $35 to $70 |
| Furniture, tableware and glassware rental | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Tent, if the reception is outdoors | $3,000 to $10,000 |
| Cake or dessert table | $400 to $1,500 |
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Photographer | $3,000 to $7,000 |
| Videographer | $2,500 to $6,000 |
| Flowers and decor | $3,000 to $12,000 |
| DJ | $1,200 to $2,500 |
| Live musicians or band | $3,000 to $6,000 |
| Ambient lighting | $800 to $3,000 |
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Dress, alterations included | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Suit | $800 to $2,500 |
| Hair and makeup | $500 to $1,500 |
| Full-service planner | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| Day-of coordination only | $1,200 to $2,500 |
| Officiant | $300 to $900 |
| Stationery and invitations | $500 to $2,000 |
The costs almost nobody plans for
This is where budgets come apart. Not in the headline items, which get negotiated and compared, but in an accumulation of small ones that nobody mentions at the first meeting.
| Item | Order of magnitude |
|---|---|
| Sales taxes, GST and QST combined | 14.975% of nearly everything |
| Service gratuities, often contractual | 15 to 18% of the catering invoice |
| RACJ gathering permit to serve alcohol | about $100 |
| Liability insurance, required by many venues | $200 to $500 |
| Vendor meals for anyone on site all day | $40 to $70 per person |
| Guest transportation or shuttle | $800 to $2,500 |
| Overtime if the evening runs long | $300 to $800 per hour |
| Cleaning and restoration | $400 to $1,200 |
| Cumulative effect on the budget | 15 to 20% |
A budget quoted at $50,000 becomes a budget paid of $58,000. This is not vendors being dishonest, it is simply how the industry has always presented its prices. You only need to know it from the start and hold the line in your spreadsheet.
Three real budgets
Forty guests, an intimate celebration
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Venue, full weekend buyout | $12,000 |
| Catering and service, 40 × $130 | $5,200 |
| Alcohol, 40 × $50 | $2,000 |
| Photographer and videographer | $7,000 |
| Flowers and decor | $3,500 |
| Music | $1,500 |
| Attire, hair and makeup | $4,000 |
| Day-of coordination | $1,500 |
| Stationery, cake, officiant | $1,800 |
| Forgotten items and taxes | $7,000 |
| Total | $45,500 |
| Per guest | $1,138 |
Cost per guest climbs on smaller celebrations, because the fixed items, the venue, the images, the attire, are spread across fewer people. That is the paradox of the intimate wedding: lower in total, higher per head.
Seventy guests, the most common balance
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Venue, full weekend buyout | $15,000 |
| Catering and service, 70 × $135 | $9,450 |
| Alcohol, 70 × $55 | $3,850 |
| Furniture, tableware and glassware | $3,500 |
| Photographer and videographer | $8,500 |
| Flowers and decor | $6,000 |
| Music and lighting | $3,500 |
| Attire, hair and makeup | $5,000 |
| Full planning | $4,500 |
| Stationery, cake, officiant | $2,500 |
| Forgotten items and taxes | $11,000 |
| Total | $72,800 |
| Per guest | $1,040 |
One hundred guests, the best value per head
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Venue, full weekend buyout | $15,000 |
| Catering and service, 100 × $120 | $12,000 |
| Alcohol, 100 × $50 | $5,000 |
| Furniture, tableware, glassware and tent | $8,000 |
| Photographer and videographer | $8,500 |
| Flowers and decor | $7,000 |
| Music and lighting | $4,000 |
| Attire, hair and makeup | $5,000 |
| Full planning | $5,500 |
| Guest transportation | $1,800 |
| Stationery, cake, officiant | $2,800 |
| Forgotten items and taxes | $14,500 |
| Total | $89,100 |
| Per guest | $891 |
Private estate or reception hall: the honest comparison
The rental line for a private estate tends to make people flinch. It is three to five times higher than a hall. Then you compare total budgets and the gap nearly closes. Here is why.
- Accommodation is often included. An estate with seven bedrooms removes a hotel night for fourteen people, roughly $3,000 that somebody was going to pay.
- The caterer is the couple's choice. A hall with an in-house caterer generally takes a margin on every plate. The freedom to choose is often worth 15 to 25% on the heaviest line in the budget.
- Several spaces for one price. Ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and the morning after all happen in one place, with no second rental and no transport between venues.
- A full weekend changes what the event is. Friday evening and Sunday brunch are not add-ons, they are part of the buyout.
What remains true in favour of the hall: it asks less of you. An all-inclusive package is one contact and one invoice. A private estate means coordinating a caterer, a rental company and sometimes a tent. Some couples love that freedom. Others experience it as a burden. It is a question of temperament as much as budget.
What actually moves the total
In order of real impact, strongest first:
- The level of catering service. The heaviest line, and the one where two honest quotes can differ by a factor of two per plate.
- The guest count. About $250 for each person added, once the fixed costs are committed.
- The season. June, August and September are the most in-demand months in Quebec. A wedding in May, October or January negotiates better everywhere, from the venue to the photographer.
- The day of the week. A Friday or Sunday often costs 20 to 30% less than a peak-season Saturday.
- The meal format. Plated service costs more than family style, which costs more than a standing cocktail dinner.
- The bar. An open bar all evening can double the line compared to wine poured at the tables plus a cash bar afterwards.
- Flowers. The item with the widest gap between minimum and maximum, and the one guests remember least precisely.
Cutting costs without it showing
Three trade-offs that genuinely save money without the day suffering for it.
Choose a Friday in September over a Saturday in June. The best ratio of savings to sacrifice on the entire list. September light is more beautiful, vendors are more available, and the price difference runs into the thousands.
Invest in the images, economize on the decor. In ten years, the photographs are what remain. Nobody remembers the height of the centrepieces. A $6,000 photographer and $3,000 in flowers produce a better memory than the reverse.
Negotiate the meal format, not the guest list. Moving from plated service to a generous family style saves $30 to $40 per person without the table looking any less well kept. Across eighty guests, that is $3,000 for a decision nobody experiences as a deprivation. Cutting twenty people from the list would barely save more, at an infinitely higher human cost.
What it costs at Manoir Blackswan
We believe a venue that refuses to give its prices wastes everyone's time. Here are ours.
Full privatization of the estate for a wedding weekend starts at $15,000. That includes exclusive use of the estate from Friday to Sunday, the seven bedrooms for fourteen people, the Sperry tent seating twenty to eighty guests for a banquet and up to one hundred for a cocktail reception, the 500 square foot chef's kitchen, the private cinema and concierge service.
Catering is the couple's choice and is billed separately, which is deliberate: we do not take a margin on your dinner.
We host one wedding at a time, on a few weekends each year, thirty minutes from Montreal, in the historic quarter of Châteauguay.
One last thing
A wedding budget is not a constraint to endure, it is a statement of priorities. The couples happiest with their day are almost never the ones who spent the most. They are the ones who knew, early, what mattered to them and what did not.
Decide those two or three things first. The rest of the budget builds itself around them.
Emmanuel HébertManoir Blackswan