Weddings are expensive, costing an average of $35,000, per the The Knots 2023 Real Weddings Study. Still, there are ways to tie the knot on a budget, from trimming your guest list to becoming more selective with upgrades and vendors.
One couple, however, took an unconventional and controversial approach to affording their dream wedding — charging their guests.
Guests were charged $2,000 to attend a bride and groom’s wedding after RSVPing ‘yes.’
A woman shared her friend Jack’s story of being charged to attend the wedding of his friends Jeff and Sophie in the U.K.
She explained that Jack RSVP’d to the wedding after receiving his invitation, and was ecstatic that his girlfriend had been invited too, even though she didn’t know the couple.
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“A few months later, Jack received an email that stated ‘Thank you for RSVPing to our wedding, and thank you for helping us have the wedding of our dreams.’ At the bottom of the email, Jack saw a link that said ‘click here for payment,'” she wrote.
At first, Jack assumed that it was the couple’s honeymoon fund and didn’t click on the link. A couple of days later, he revisited the email and was shocked to see that the link took him to a payment page that requested each guest pay an estimated £2,000 ($2,653.19) for attendance.
“He assumed this must be a scam so called the wedding venue to let them know,” she continued.
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“The venue then told him that ‘Sophie and Jeff thank you for your contribution to enable them to have their dream wedding.'”
While having the option to contribute to the couple’s wedding or honeymoon fund instead of a gift is perfectly reasonable, it should never be an expectation. In fact, most people would likely change their RSVP to “no” upon seeing an over $2000 fee to attend.
Although Jack was ‘astounded,’ he ’emptied his savings’ to pay the fee and attended the wedding with his girlfriend.
When he and his girlfriend got to the reception, Jack was once again shocked that despite the large fee, drinks weren’t included. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he encountered another hidden fee when he went to pay his bar bill.
“The bill was £30 ($39.81), plus nearly £200 ($265.48),” she revealed. “He was then informed by the venue that the bride and groom had requested every guest be charged this amount as a tip for the venue” — something that the Redditor clarified is not a thing in the U.K.
After paying the initial attendance fee and his drinks bill, Jack didn’t have enough money left, so he was forced to negotiate a lower tip amount with the venue.
“After the wedding, Jack checked the cost of the venue and calculated that the cost had been spread amongst the guests but NOT the bride and groom, so they had basically got a free wedding out of it,” she concluded.
“I’ve never heard of anything so entitled in my life.”
Weddings are expensive, but it is not up to the guests to cover the cost.
Weddings definitely are not cheap and around 12% of couples express regrets about how much they spent on their ceremony and reception. However, it is up to the couples to budget and pay for their own wedding.
The guests should be under no obligation to contribute to the celebration other than with their attendance.
Everything about this debacle stems from the bride and groom’s lack of consideration for their guests.
If they weren’t able to afford their “dream wedding,” they should’ve budgeted, whether that meant having a smaller ceremony in a more toned-down venue or simply cutting down on their expenses.
There’s no doubt about it that charging almost $3,000 for people to come to a wedding is absurd — especially when the average cost per guest is just $304.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.
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