Getting married in about 6 weeks. Compared to my first one 10 years ago, it's nuts. One metric I read said that wedding costs were up 40% post COVID. My first wedding was maybe $5,000 and that was super strict budget. This one is closer to $25k.

My fiancée was quoted between $300-650 for makeup only. Seriously?? DJ is minimum $900 for 5 hours of work, I got a lot of quotes in the $1300 range, or $2200 for better lighting ($440/hour??) Look I know you had to buy your own equipment but holy hell.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Thanks for reaffirming my desire to never get married

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Its your wedding, you dont have to spend money on things you don't want. Courthouse weddings happen often and are very low cost.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Oh no, I'd never do something as stupid as getting married.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

You can get, there is no need to throw tens of 1'000s of dollar at it.

[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are a lot of people who just have weddings with only the closest parts of their friend/family circle rather than making it auper extravagant.

[–] am0@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I did a private wedding with just my wife, photographer, beautiful venue for $600

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

My uncle just sent an email to everyone after the fact

And you know what? I highly respect that

[–] thySatannic@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

Having a wedding at the local all-you-can-eat sounds very enticing.

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just paid out $400k to settle my divorce, so they get you coming and going.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can buy a good quality speaker that comes with free Amazon music at best buy for less than that. If you have a friend that doesn't mind talking on a mic infrastructure of a crowd you are probably better off without a real dj, your friend would also likely get the names right for your wedding party being announced.

We paid over 1k for dj+wedding video, and it really wasn't worth it.

[–] kyle@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't have a DJ the first time around, just a laptop and Spotify playlist (was at a church that has a speaker system, so we got to hook into that). It was fine, but we booked an actual venue for this wedding.

No idea if I'll feel like it was really worth it when it's all said and done, but so far I actually like all the vendors picked.

[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Hey, we just got married for around your price point back in May. It was pricey for sure, but that budget allowed us to do what we wanted, which was throwing a balls-out party for 50 of our closest family and friends. It was incredible and we absolutely do not regret it.

People always tell you that it's supposed to be the best day of your life, but I always checked my expectations on that—something can always go wrong, right? But it went off perfectly and felt as incredible as we had always dreamed. A big part of that was the team of amazing vendors our planner put together. None of it would have been possible without them.

Wishing you both incredible happiness and a smooth wedding day full of bliss that you can look back on for years to come :)