Holy Good Lord Baby Jesus, people, the average American wedding is entailing the bride and groom spending $673 per guest, and guests can expect to spend $310 each on the wedding – unless you’re an attendant, in which case that shoots up to $701. And apparently 43 percent of people who have been invited to weddings have had to turn it down, which comes as no surprise.
Source: photostudioab.com
The Wedding Industrial Complex has managed to weather the recession nicely – the cost of weddings for the bride and groom has nearly doubled since just 2012. Even though 62 percent of Americans say that they hate being forced to take a vacation in order to attend a wedding, and 72 percent say that destination weddings are too expensive for guests, according to an American Express survey, 25 percent of brides still report that they’re doing destination weddings, according to The Knot. In other words, people who are getting married are assholes, basically, as are all the companies (*cough cough* THE KNOT *cough cough*) who sell to-be-marrieds on the truthfully unnecessary bells and whistles of modern weddings.
This does all make me feel better about myself, though – my betrothed and I decided to pare things down from a rent-a-venue, get-a-caterer, do-a-schmancy-ceremony, hire-a-bartender, invite-100-people sort of shindig to just getting married by a judge with a small group of our closest friends and family present, treating them to a really nice meal, and then going bar-hopping with any of our local friends who want to show up (and if they don’t, more gin for me!). It’s pretty low-pressure for our guests, and now Michael and I don’t have to pretend that we know how to dance. We’re still doing bachelor/ette parties, though (cosplay, karaoke, and a burlesque show for me; dune buggy weekend for the guys, I guess).
Source: Pixabay
This strikes other people as insane, though, right? Weddings are important, but marriages are far more so. I just can’t wrap my head around accepting that level of cost for one day right at the start of your marriage, when you haven’t even really achieved anything as a couple. I mean, if you’ve been happily married for 30 years, by all means, that is worth celebrating with a big blowout party. But the wedding? Basically we’re saying that we deserve to be heartily congratulated just for saying that we’ll make a commitment, not even doing it.
That could just be me, of course. If you can think of a good reason to spend $673 per guest on your wedding, please enlighten me! I still won’t, personally, of course.
[MarketWatch]Original by Rebecca Vipond Brink
