It is common knowledge that weddings have become quite expensive. According to The Knot’s 2021 Real Weddings Study, the average cost of a wedding in the United States was $28,000. So it only sounds realistic that couples are now finding interesting ways of cutting costs.
A story FACE2FACE Africa previously reported told how one couple chose to have their wedding party on a train because, according to the husband, Daniel Jean, “We didn’t have the money to do the dream reception that I’d always envisioned. I decided to surprise her by having a dope reception on the L train.”
Now, I could understand creatively using a small budget to make your big day memorable, but this New York City couple certainly stepped up the game.
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Nova and Reemo Styles handled their wedding planning like a concert and decided to charge guests to attend the event.
For $333, a guest could have a 12-hour experience in New York City along with a seat on their double-decker bus. The guests weren’t told what to expect.
Excerpts of the wedding on their Instagram page showed that, though there was no particular theme, guests were told to come dressed in denim.
“And I said, ‘People choose to go to Beyoncé concert, because they know that they’re gonna have an experience. Let’s put the stress on the guests, and let’s sell tickets for a wedding,” Nova told ABC7.
Her husband, Reemo, was first skeptical about whether people would show up for the wedding if his wife’s plan was implemented. Although there were some objections, some guests did attend the wedding.
Nova recounted that a disgruntled guest retorted, “‘I would never spend money on tickets.’ ‘I don’t care.’ ‘Who do you guys think you are? Jay-Z and Beyoncé?'”
Like many reading this, I initially thought, Why would you ask people to pay this much to attend your wedding in this current economy? But kudos to those who did, because it meant they really wanted to support the newlyweds or were probably just curious to see how it would all play out.
Still, this means some guests who love the couple and would’ve loved to be there may have missed out because they couldn’t afford the ridiculous wedding ticket price.
Sure, to raise funds, others may have set up a crowdfunding campaign, used registry contributions, or even asked for sponsorships, but then again, I don’t know if the couple weighed these options before settling on their choice.
Nevertheless, criticisms or not, the Styles’ strategy worked and spared them $70,000 in wedding expenses.
