Insane Cost of Weddings

Weddings are a business. Vendors are not here to make couples dreams come true. They are here to make money, and pretty things cost money

The guest lists drive everything like Olivia said. Why do we feel the need to invite so many people we don't really know? Keep it small and it'll be a lot more afforable.

So, the average cost of a wedding varies wildly based on the choices you make. My $31k wedding in New York City was INSANELY cheap by local standards. You need to shop around, decide what's important to you, host to your best ability for your guest list, and make hard decisions.

I underestimated the cost of weddings, that is for sure. However, people are willing to pay more to make their day "perfect" and very intelligent people have taken advantage of that.

I agree with PP's. While the average is quite high, there are a lot of reasonably priced vendors if you're willing to search them out. My true dream wedding would probably cost me that much but I'm willing to compromise on most of them in order to make it more cost effective for me.

I agree with @Felicia. By sticking to my under $15k budget I got "cheaper" photographer and DOC. The DOC shit all over my wedding. The photographer didn't document it well. My aunt took about 10x the pictures and many turned out better.

Also, if fees are getting you down, we were able to save a good portion with our florist, caterer, and cake baker by paying in cash.

When you go out to a nice dinner with multiple courses and a few cocktails, how much does it cost you? Multiply that (including gratuity) by your guest list and BAM there's your estimated cost.

My venue is pretty high ($130 pp) but that's because it includes all staff, tables, chairs, glassware, plates, flatware, linens, set-up, clean-up, bar/mixers/bar tools, etc. It would cost me a fortune to rent all that even if I was only paying $50 or $60 pp for food.

ETA: Also, you are not paying fees "for nothing". I don't think the venue feels they are paying "for nothing" when they pay their utilities, salaries/wages, rent/loans, vendors, etc. Yes, they are passing the price of the product (food and beverage) onto you, but the upcharge covers their overhead.

Business 101 folks...

Also, figure out what your priorities are. My sister spent about $700 dollars on flowers cause she doesn't care about them and she had a flower-less reception. If certain things don't matter to you (not things to do with guests comfort and being taken care of) then don't spend a bunch of money on it.

Weddings are a huge money making industry. As of late and partly also because of movies/TV, people are being convinced that they need to spend all this money on wedding "stuff". All you really need to spend money on is a license and officiant. If you have guests, food/drinks and comfortable environment for them. A smaller wedding is a cheaper wedding.

Vendors know they can get away with it. I'm with you 100% that wedding expenses are way overpriced but I think of it as being my one and only special day. I've also heard of DJs intentionally charging more for weddings compared to other events such as school dances or birthday parties.

No one is going to mount a rebellion against the wedding industry

It's super expensive, but then again hosting a party for 100+ people is going to be super expensive. About 80% of our costs are essentially the "party" aspect (venue, catering, decorations, music, etc.), which would apply to almost any party of that size.

I will say it's very possible for a wedding to be completely over- or insanely-priced. I personally think our vendors are fairly reasonable for what they're providing, so while it's still a very expensive event I wouldn't call it insane.

I want to start a rebellion!

As soon as you mention to a vendor it's for a wedding, they jack up their prices. One venue advertised the same banquet hall same exact day for $3K less if it was a quincenera vs a wedding. I joked with my mom that I should just say its for a quincenera and roll up in a wedding dress lol. I'd suggest trying to find an all inclusive venue. It's usually cheaper BUT they normally don't allow outside catering or bar. My mother initially offered to pay for the catering. However, once she started asking for prices, that never happened LOL. It's hard for the older folks to understand that weddings today cost so much more than before. I went to a wedding last year where they dropped $25K and it was partial open bar AND on a Thursday night. Looking back now, I really wonder how much it would have cost for it to be full open bar and on a Saturday night.

@Meeseeks I realize you're trying to be funny but equating a protest about POC being murdered to people being upset they're "paying too much" (which I don't think is true, you pay for what you get), is gross and wrong. You missed the mark on that one.

Also, do you DEMAND anything be cheaper in any other aspect of your life? Do you walk into your landlord and demand that your rent be lower? Do you yell at the gas station attendant for charging $3 per gallon? Do you stop eating vegetables in the winter when prices go up?

JFC let it go. Don't want to pay? Don't have a big wedding.

I think the average cost should be taken with a grain of salt... the average in my area is $36K but we are having a wedding at a beautiful venue with amazing food, booze and everything I want for less than $20k. It would have been easy for us to spend even less than that but I wanted to be all fancy.

$60/pp for open bar seems crazy to me, I was running into 30PP and i thought that was insane, our venue allows us to bring in our own booze, which is saving us like 66% off of the average open bar price, so maybe look for vendors who do that.

Yes the prices are high but you get what you pay for. If you don't want to pay for a $3,000 photographer, there are plenty of other options. Sure a $300 photog won't be as good but vendors exist at all different price points for all different budgets.

My family threw a massive anniversary bash for my grandparents a few years ago and the costs were very similar. Hosting large groups of people well is not inexpensive.

Do you understand how capitalism and a free market economy work?

Tough crowd, no disrespect intended