Why is everything wedding related more expensive than it’s advertised to be

[Anothernamechangeee]

Hidden costs are driving me nuts

Wedding venues - on all the main wedding websites they say “from £6k” then when you contact the venue it’s actually £28k not including anything else because the £6k is a Monday in January when no one actually wants to get married and is for a wedding party of 4 people not the 100 it’s advertised for

catering - again, packages start at £55 per head… but then you also need to include cutlery and crockery and tax and 20 other things which puts the actual cost at £120pp

i could go on. This is for everything and is a total waste of time for all parties. I thought we had an ok budget but at this rate I’ll be getting married behind a Tesco

This is so true and exactly the kind of thing I mean

I will try and find a link, but I recently saw on Instagram where a couple had rented a large villa in France where the guests also stayed (over 3 days) and hired caterer through the day and into the night. Got married on the grounds etc etc all for £16k.

Although alot of money it seemed really good value.

I used to be a wedding planner and the reason everything is more expensive when you say it's for a wedding is the sheer amount of pressure people put on things being perfect.

If you have a cake for a big birthday for example, if it's not perfect people probably won't really notice or care. If it's a wedding it'll be judged by 90% of the people there and immortalised in photos.
If your photographer isn't amazing at a party, again most people won't really care or notice. Wedding pics however....

I mean I wholeheartedly agree OP, I was always really blunt when speaking to suppliers. I wanted broken down costs before I even considered something and if they weren't open, honest and willing to provide the info up front, I'd look elsewhere. It also meant when I came to do my own I already knew costings etc so was easier to trim the fat to match my budget

They're not upfront with the costs because they want you to turn up and fall in love with the venue, then let wedding fever do the rest.

Which is funny, given that most hotel venues are incredibly bland in both setting and hosting.

P.s. the 50% divorce rate includes second, third, fourth marriages, with the likelihood increasing with each subsequent marriage. Plus the ability to divorce is part of a functioning marriage system imo. I wouldn't have got married if I didn't have the option to divorce if needed.

So silly though because I’m hardly going to book a flight all the way to Italy before realising the true cost

It’s also destinations here too

Really? Very few guests will remember much about cake/flowers/outfits/favours etc. The things that stay with you are whether there was enough to eat and drink at sensible times, whether you spent ages hanging around whilst the b&g were having photos, whether it was difficult/expensive to attend, how happy the b&g were, funny incidents. Most of which doesn't come down to how much you spent on the wedding. You don't want guests to come away thinking fab venue but it cost a fortune to stay there, we were bored and hungry. If you're at a lifestage when you're going to lots of weddings they blur into each other unless something very negative stands out.

Take a look around your average house - how many wedding photos are on display? If the cake wasn't up to much you can bet the shots featuring it aren't making it into the photos that are on display.