Multi-tiered cakes, elaborate floral displays and choreographed first dances: The traditional white wedding has been long considered a hallmark of American life.
The obsession with lavish weddings grew to a fever pitch in the years following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, inflation soared — and the average cost of a wedding broke $30,000 for the first time in 2023, according to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks wedding data.
Now, after two years of elevated inflation eating into consumers’ wealth, for some engaged couples, splurging on a dessert table or extra sprays of flowers, which are the definition of “nice to haves,” has become a much less justifiable decision. That’s bad news for wedding vendors who provide services like videography, photo booths and catering.
Meanwhile, those vendors are facing a more worrisome existential threat: a looming drop in the overall number of weddings.
Good. The only good weddings I’ve ever been to (including my own, which everyone who attended agreed was lots of fun) have been pretty laid-back affairs that were just big parties with a small ceremony at the start.
Here’s how ours went back in 2000: We’re atheists, so there was no religious ceremony, we got married by a lawyer named pro-tem judge in the same place where the reception was, a ballroom on the square downtown in the college town we were from. My wife’s dress was pretty but not expensive. She wore a veil that was her mother’s (her engagement ring was my grandmother’s). My tux was rented. The catering was done by my wife’s aunt. We got a nice but inexpensive cake from a cake maker who worked out of her house. The alcohol was a case of Asti and a keg of Killian’s Irish Red. The “DJ” was a 50-cd CD player on random. This was before smartphones, so we gave all the tables disposable cameras. We got a professional photographer to take just the wedding portraits and no other pictures.
I don’t know if they still say that now, but back then, after it happened, my friends kept telling me that it was the best wedding they had ever been to.
Honestly, the only thing that didn’t go well (other than my dad being his normal overbearing self during the rehearsal) was that my feet were killing me in those tuxedo shoes and I didn’t think to bring a change of shoes.
My wife changed into her Doc Martens, which look awesome with a wedding dress by the way.
Always bring a change of shoes to your wedding.
I had similar vibes to our wedding. It was in an old-barn turned reception hall attached to a strip mall. We had 2 half-kegs and 2 cases of wine bought direct from the winery. The strip mall had a liquor store so folks who wanted to go nuts “snuck over” (as if we cared). People similarly said it was their favorite wedding.
We had a wedding procession where they walked us down to a nearby B&B where we spent our wedding night and then they all went back and got super drunk, which is why our wedding photos include pictures of empty champagne bottles and a circle of feet.
My fiancée and I are planning to do something similar! Just low key and not expensive. Perhaps even multiple smaller parties/barbeques to have a more intimate feel to them. My favorite weddings I’ve been to have been the smaller, less planned ones. And I will definitely bring a pair of comfy shoes to mine :)
Awesome! Good luck, I hope your wedding goes really well!