5 Shocking Financial Truths About The Wedding Industry

In this episode, Chelsea reveals some uncomfortable financial truths about the wedding industry, from how much we spend to attend weddings to the waste caused by each individual wedding.

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[sarahg]

I did a 28 person wedding. Scaled back on everything except the honeymoon. 2 weeks in Hawaii you'll never forget over inviting that cousin you never talk to.... priceless

[bbtdgfan]

For my wedding I'm only inviting a third of my family and the theme is going to be burning bridges

[Sophmorical]

Had a 15 person elopement with no bridal party, bridal shower, or bachelorette party. No regrets at all. My husband and I focused on providing a great weekend for our closest family members and friends and made it as stress-free as possible for everyone involved. 10/10 would recommend.

[mktemple]

At my wedding, the Best Man was a recovering alcoholic, so we had a dry wedding. Saved a LOT of money, and no one at the wedding minded - or at least they had the proper social skills to not say anything.

[ashleyaubergine]

I went to a wedding a few years ago where the mother of the bride begged us to take food home! The caterers even had to-go containers ready for us to pack with some of the best wedding food I've ever had. I was a happy camper that day.

[MisaMouri]

I'm not having any alcohol at my wedding. I don't drink and have a bad history with alcohol. My family has several people with addiction issues. It saves money and drama

[melodycook]

Getting married in 6 weeks. Our caterer told us we have two options with the extra food, take it home or donate it. They're a no-waste place which I love!

[emmaflynn]

In the UK the tradition is that the bride pays for the bridesmaid’s dresses and it’s part of the wedding budget (as far as I know). I find it so weird to make people buy their own dress if the bride is picking it out!!

[BramSam]

As a former wedding photographer (I now do elopements solely)… do NOT lie about your wedding being a wedding. This is horrible advice unless you want 1) a breach of contract 2) horrible coverage of your day. Wedding photographers charge what they do because weddings are a lot to cover. Most photographers help plan your entire timeline for the day & keep things on schedule. If they don’t know that it’s a wedding, don’t expect the day to go as planned or to get everything covered/captured that you wanted.

[f.-j.j.]

I had a fairy tale engagement and a 30k wedding. I went all out, open bar, dinner, bridesmaids, family traveled from all over, the whole thing. I also had a wedding planner so I was stress free and enjoyed it to the fullest. I don't regret a thing.
I am usually the most reasonable when it comes to money. I budgeted for my wedding and could largely afford it.
I also would like to mention: people you can say no. You can say no to being a bridesmaid, you can rsvp no.
But when you say yes, knowing in advance what it entails, and complain about the cost after, then you lack class and maturity.
Learn to say no.

[livinginredsoxnation]

Ooooof do NOT lie to your vendors!!! That actually voids a lot of contracts and the preparation is different (aka, a photographer for a “family reunion” won’t stay for 6-8 hours, they’ll know what’s going on).

[ngaiosbrain]

"Get your boot off of grandma's neck" was not a sentence I thought I would ever hear

[lytaylor]

I know some people who stay in a horrible marriage because of the sunk-cost fallacy: we spent so much money on the wedding and invited so many people, it's too embarrassing to break up, so we're just gonna stay together in a horrible marriage. 😒

[mkg]

11:31 I know you think this was funny but it was honestly just trashy and sad. People don't have to cater to their alcoholic guests in order to have a nice wedding. Open bars are super expensive.

[ameliawasserman]

Just throwing it out there: some people really want to do these "expected things." When I got married, I told my bridesmaids to just get (or preferably rent) a dress that looks great on them, but then they got together and decided they did want to buy matching dresses as a group. Also, I had a friend who got married and was VERY clear about not wanting any gifts, but nearly 60% of guests brought them gifts because they really wanted to.

[random]

My favorite wedding advice comes from Jamie Wolfer here on YouTube and she has a lot of advice on how to save money and always says that you don't have to follow tradition. It's really cool.

[LouisaKorkieZA]

I've had a terrible experience as a bridesmaid. Had to pay for flights for the bachelorette and the wedding, gifts, the outfits, and she expected us to do all the DIY in the week before the wedding (I was also paying for accommodation). I honestly liked her a lot less as a person after this and now we no longer keep in touch.

[mortviolette]

MortViolette
Wow, hang on a minute! Chelsea, some of this is terrible advice! I get your annoyance over things with the label “wedding” costing more, but there are often concrete and specific reasons for this. That’s not to say you always need the wedding version, but sometimes you do. I would suggest finding out pricing for the non-wedding version of something, then the wedding version and then asking the vendor for the reason for the price difference. DO NOT lie to a vendor about the nature of your event. Your will arrive and won’t be prepared for the type of event. You risk them bringing the incorrect/insufficient equipment. They also need to be mentally prepared for your likely very exhausting event. They will be angry and rightfully so. Do you really want that on your wedding day? It’s also downright shitty to do that to a person. I’m not saying no one marks things up for weddings just for the hell of it, but that’s usually not the case. You might be able to get away with saying a cake is for a birthday rather than a wedding, but I’d suggest you at least tell the baker what kind of environment the cake will be in (out in 90 degree heat for 8 hours) - it makes a difference. I’d only do this if your having someone pick up the cake rather than having it delivered.

[mastelsa]

I'm curious whether there's a substantial difference between the average cost of a wedding and the median cost of a wedding. Weddings seem like the sort of thing were the average could be distorted by a relatively small percentage of absolutely extravagantly expensive events, with more people spending substantially less than the mean cost.

[pibbles]

One of my oldest friends had a destination wedding that would’ve cost my husband and I around $3, 000 to attend. I felt bad but we couldn’t make it.