Why are weddings so damn expensive?

A wedding videographer explains the bizarre economics of your big day.

[liggieep]

The attitude of avoiding talking about price makes me furious. It's just disrespectful to the customer.

[kenllacer]

If you think a wedding is expensive, wait till you get a divorce.

[gonzesse]

If Americans think their weddings are expensive, wait till you see the Indian ones!
People go bankrupt after them, and I'm not even kidding

[RyanJohnson]

And we wonder why millennials don't bother with marriage.
The wedding business is killing the wedding.

[HNRichard]

In most asian cultures, wedding is where families who wed their children. "show-off" their wealth buy inviting large amounts of people (consists of close relatives, distant relatives, colleagues, families that were brought by the guests, and so on), heck it can even reach to more than 400-ish people came to the wedding event. also renting a big ballroom in hotels or someplace, hiring a reputable catering service, wedding gifts for guests that came to the wedding, music/band, photo/videographer and so on.

All of this can cost up to $100k-$150k and can be even more!

[davidripplinger]

My wedding cost almost nothing. We had a reception at our church (free to book) with just a few snacks for people to come and go whenever they pleased, family made the cake and helped decorate the reception area, and we had a simple wedding breakfast with just close family at an inexpensive buffet restaurant. I have never understood the mentality of spending thousands of dollars on a wedding.

[firefalcoln]

The 3 biggest rip off industries:

Weddings, Homes and Funerals.

[pssurvivor]

my 'ancestors'?? Did she mean my 'descendants'?

[karimkarimous]

It's funny to see people say "Invite only a dozen" clearly you don't have an Arab or Latin family... Am I Right?

[annatria]

And then they divorce afterwards. A huge waste of money! Marriage is way more important than the wedding.

[supervoid]

Your ancestors are going to see your wedding photos? Do you have a time machine, because that is awesome!

[Undecided_]

30k?
You can get a all expenses paid year round vacation with that money...

[jezuzfreek]

Weddings are expensive because society, especially women, have taught young women that being princess for a day is so dang important.

[sbalogh]

my ex and I got married in the park and had a BBQ afterwards. cost about $500. we divorced 8 years later so I am glad I did not waste 10's of thousands on a silly wedding.

[vanshitagupta]

American channel: Weddings are expensive.
Me: *laughs in Indian*

[jadasmiles]

Remember the wedding lasts one day but the marriage lasts a lifetime. Save on the wedding and splurge on your marriage ;)

[ohcean]

As a former wedding photographer, I listed the price range on my site. The clients appreciated the transparency and I avoided all the tire kickers.

[OneHourShower]

we did a backyard wedding - 75 people.. wife's dress was from a second hand wedding store - we rented a pizza truck and we hired a dj who was cool to not overcharge.. it cost us under 7k including the dress and my outfit.. everything! we had an excel spreadsheet :)

[lilacosmanthus]

Not going to go through all of this ceremonial crap. I'm going to make the honeymoon the actual wedding. And get a drone to photograph and film all of our experiences. Problem solved.

[echakamonjok]

Heck no!!! 15, 000 dollars? In that case I will have a nice little ceremony with family and close friends, i mean close, at my home church. Then rent out an affordable reception hall, maybe one in an inexpensive hotel. Food, cake, fam, friends, dj, photographer, videographer. No extra. That's what I see at weddings. A lot of extra things done for just one day. One main thing for is having flowers as the center pieces to be honest. Guest will be less than 70 people and that's pushing it. Have a cheap wedding and then go somewhere nice for your honeymoon, at least for me that's what I want. I love traveling. You can have a beautiful, cheap wedding.