With the average cost of a UK wedding soaring to more than £32,000 in 2018, finding the money to fund the ultimate dream wedding is becoming a bit of a nightmare.
In fact, weddings have become so expensive that couples are having to come up with some creative ways to pay for their big day. Some are even asking for their guests to cough up a lump sum of cash in advance to pay for the wedding, with bank details being provided at the bottom of wedding invitations. This may sound like very bad wedding etiquette, but couples asking for cash to fund their wedding is on the rise.
If you were to consider charging guests to come to your wedding, how could it be done?
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding has been a popular choice for raising money for a while. Websites such as GoFundMe and JustGiving were originally set up as platforms to raise money for charity. Generally funding is raised for personal things like funerals, pet surgery and medical emergencies. Over the past couple of years, couples are using these sites to ask for cash to pay for their wedding.
The knot is sceptical about crowdfunding your wedding:
“Planning a wedding involves deposits (namely on the venue and catering) up front. In other words, you’ll have to have the means to pay for your wedding before the actual day-of. And if your fund doesn’t go viral, it’s not likely to get much traction or garner lots of cash from anyone other than family members. Also, crowdfunding sites take a percentage of the total earnings. See what we mean?”
Sell Tickets
You may think selling tickets to your wedding is going a step too far, but some couples are doing it! A few years ago, a story went viral about a couple that charged their guests £150 a head and £50 per child to attend their wedding. The price did include an all-inclusive three-night stay at a hotel with access to spa and pool, and the guests were all happy to pay it. The couple received a backlash from the public when the story went viral; they were accused of being greedy and distasteful. It can’t be denied that selling tickets is seriously lacking in wedding etiquette.
Cash Gifts
This is the most popular way to ask guests to contribute to a wedding, Some couples ask for guests to pay for their honeymoon, and often use cash gift registry sites which specialise in honeymoon funding. These include Honeyfund, Buy our Honeymoon and Zankyou, where guests give a sum of money towards the honeymoon rather than buy a wedding gift.
It is common nowadays that cash gifts are asked for instead of presents so that the couple have more freedom and can use the money for items as and when they need them. Most couples would not want to ask guests to pay for their wedding. If a couple is struggling to raise funds, there is always the option of having a longer engagement to allow time for them to save up and pay for their own dream wedding.
