While rising fuel prices may be wreaking havoc with your budget, consider the plight of the person who earns a living planning weddings or other special events. Almost everything they use to put on a charity fundraising event or to make your special day special is rented and trucked in from somewhere. Brian Wickens is a professional display designer and event planner in the Toronto area. He's also an instructor in the Event Management — Event and Exhibit Design program at Seneca College.

---

Brian Wickens often uses flowers flown in from Florida or Ecuador for events he sets up in Toronto. (Charles Krupa/AP)CBCnews.ca: How has the rising cost of gasoline affected the event-planning industry?

Brian Wickens: Costs have gone up across the board — anything to do with deliveries and transportation. That's not just trucks and cars but also train and airplane deliveries. And travel, too. Some corporations will cover the cost to send their employees to conferences. Some of them are cutting back already, not allowing their employees to attend in person.

Are there items that you deal with that are especially sensitive to rising oil prices?

The roses that I'm dealing with today either came from Florida or from Ecuador. For the display, design, décor aspect, it's having a major impact, forcing our costs up, which hits the tighter budgets that we're dealing with, with some of these national or international charity fundraising groups.

A single rosebud itself — it may not sound like much for one flower from one person — but a good quality one wholesales for about $1.20. They're expected to go up to $1.40 or $1.50 per flower. When you're dealing with hundreds if not thousands of flowers at an event, it adds up pretty quickly.

To rent one chair — a half decent chair — it could be a minimum of $10. And when you're dealing with an event that may have 500 or 1,000 or 2,000 people — whether it's a convention or even a wedding — it increases the corporation's expense as well as a private person's expense, whether it be a bride or bridegroom, whoever's paying for the wedding.

Are there types of events that are more susceptible to fluctuations in the cost of gas?

If it's a more personal event, people are more apt to go. But the cost of gas may persuade some from travelling a long way for an event.

On a personal note, over the past few weekends I've decided not to drive the 65 kilometres to downtown Toronto to take in this, that or the other thing. Certainly the cost of gas factored into the decision not to go to something, where in the past I might have gone on a weekend, whether it's some show downtown or some event that's open to the general public.

If insider people are having second thoughts about that kind of thing, how is the general public feeling about it when it's not part of their business or what they do on a day-to-day basis?

Are you under pressure to absorb some of the increased costs?

Somehow, some way, that cost is going to have to be absorbed by somebody. So if the cost of flowers, décor and propping for these events goes up because of gas prices, somewhere in the not-too-distant future, ticket prices are going to have to go up. We're dealing with a massive industry in terms of other suppliers, production companies, lighting companies, musicians, and entertainers. All have to either truck in or ship stuff or travel to these events themselves. Their prices or their fees are going to go up to also meld in the increased gas prices.

'If ticket prices go up to cover some of the increased costs due to the rising price of gas, at what level will people stop buying tickets or at what level will they stop attending?'—Brian Wickens

That hits every aspect of the event industry — from people getting to the event to buying the tickets. And if ticket prices go up to cover some of the increased costs due to the rising price of gas, at what level will people stop buying tickets or at what level will they stop attending?

A lot of the events we work on are not-for-profit charity fundraisers, so people — hopefully — are willing to spend a few more dollars to help support the charity.

What about the cost of food?

Sometimes in events, the food is served free as part of the ticket price. But it's brought in from not just Canada and the United States, but internationally. We're talking the special event industry, where you can't serve them just Kraft Dinner or McDonald's french fries. People expect the best of the best as far as meat or caviar or out-of-season fresh fruits and vegetables. That whole area has another major impact on the cost to produce events, and those rising costs have to be passed on, too.

We had a scare when it looked like there was going to be a major shortage of rice recently. That's one of the base staple items for a lot of catered food. That's kind of a double whammy for us.