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- Weddings are expensive to plan: In 2017, The Knot found that the average cost of a wedding in America was $ 33,391.
- But it’s also not cheap to be a wedding guest or a bridesmaid.
- Costs can easily add up with the hotel stay, Ubers, gifts, a dress, and the multiple parties to attend.
- Refinery29 interviewed 10 millennial women about how much money they plan to spend this wedding season.
It’s widely known that getting married can be expensive: For the typical wedding, there are venues to secure, DJs to pay, invitations to send out, and maybe a signature cocktail cleverly named after the newlyweds (or their wedding hashtag). In 2017, The Knot found that the average cost of a wedding in America was a staggering $ 33,391. But what’s also staggering — and talked about a lot less — is the steep cost of simply showing up as a guest.
Attending a wedding can involve a lot of spending: There’s the gift, the hotel stay, and the Ubers to and from. And, for those in the wedding, it’s a whole other beast: the bachelorette party, the bridal shower, the bridesmaid dress, the hair, the makeup…the list goes on.
According to a Credit Karma study, almost 20% of millennials say they’ve spent more than $ 1,000 on attending someone else’s wedding. Nearly 30% admitted to feeling FOMO over missing one. And for some, it’s a FOMO powerful enough to make them plop down their credit cards and spend money they don’t have. The moral of this story is: Maybe we all need to start saving for our friend’s upcoming weddings. (My friend group hasn’t started getting married yet, but when we do, god help us all.)
So how much should you be saving for wedding season? Ahead, 10 millennial women get real on how much they save and spend to attend their friend’s weddings.
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Name: Caroline
Age: 29
Location: Boston, MA
Job: Environmental HR Generalist
Salary: $ 70,000
How many weddings are you going to this season?
“We’re attending seven weddings this season. I’m in one of the wedding parties and my boyfriend is in three of them. The added cost of staying two nights instead of one in order to attend the rehearsal dinner and the wedding has added up quick. For the weddings that my boyfriend is in, the venues are high-end resorts in Maine, New Hampshire, and Cape Cod, that require the wedding party to stay overnight on the premises. We expect to spend a minimum of $ 2,000-$ 2,500 on lodging and gifts alone. The biggest cost for my boyfriend has been the bachelor parties he’s required to attend as a member of the wedding parties. We agreed that this was a cost he would take care of on his own, and he has paid for a majority of it out of his own savings. We had hoped to get engaged ourselves this year, but it has proven impossible to save for a ring on top of all of the expenses that have come with attending other people’s weddings.”
What part(s) of wedding attendance are you saving up for?
“I’m specifically saving for bridal showers, wedding gifts, travel, and lodging.”
How much are you trying to save, and what steps are you taking in order to do so?
“The goal is to save at least $ 2,000. My boyfriend and I set up an account that we each transfer a minimum of $ 100 into each month. We started saving for the 2018 wedding season in November of last year.”
Have you racked up any credit card debt as a result of attending weddings? If so, how much?
“Last year we attended five weddings and had to travel to Canada and California for two of them. We spent $ 1,500 altogether for the season, paid on our cards, which we took three months following the weddings to pay off. This year we really want to pay for weddings out of our savings as opposed to just putting everything on a card like we did last season.”
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Name: Mila
Age: 29
Location: Toronto
Job: Financial Service Administrator
Salary: $ 45,000
How many weddings are you going to this season?
“I’ve been to two already this year. One was a destination wedding where I was a bridesmaid, so that one cost me about $ 2,000. The other one was local. I spent about $ 250 on the bachelorette party, $ 100 on the gift, and another $ 200 on miscellaneous stuff like accessories and Ubers. If I have another wedding to go to this year, I’ll just be a plus one, so it’ll just cost me about $ 100 for my gift contribution.”
What part(s) of wedding attendance are you saving up for?
“I’m saving my vacation days! And the travel aspect of weddings, like hotels, excursions, and sight-seeing, has been the biggest budget-eater. All my friends live far from me, and most of the weddings I’m going to will require me to fly, so I just take my travel budget for the year and use that.”
How much are you trying to save, and what steps are you taking in order to do so?
“I put away $ 500 per month into my travel fund, which I will use for destination weddings. If it’s a local wedding, then it comes out of my fun fund ($ 700/month), and then I might dip into my short-term savings if it gets to be too much.”
Have you racked up any credit card debt as a result of attending weddings? If so, how much?
“No, and no one is worth me going into debt for! If we’re good friends and my presence means something to them, they would give me plenty of heads up. If not, then I don’t feel bad missing it.”
Jacob Lund/Shutterstock
Name: Agnes
Age: 34
Location: NYC
Industry: Fashion/Consumer Goods
Salary: $ 78,000
How many weddings are you going to this season?
“I have 13 weddings this year and I’m the maid of honor for three of them. I’m not attending them all, though — only seven. But three of the seven are destination weddings.”
What part(s) of wedding attendance are you saving up for?
“All of it. I’m willing to spend the most on gifts, given these are all special, close, dear friends of mine.”
How much are you trying to save, and what steps are you taking in order to do so?
“I’m allotting $ 1,200 for the weddings I am maid of honor in — trying to include hotels, dresses, gifts, and miscellaneous costs, as well as bridal showers and bachelorette parties. (None of these three are destination weddings — thank goodness.) For the destination weddings, I’m allotting $ 750 for hotels, flights, and gifts. I’m going to wear dresses I currently own — no need to buy new, and I’m not attending the extra activities for these weddings. For the last wedding, which is local, I’m allotting the most money towards the gift.”
Have you racked up any credit card debt as a result of attending weddings? If so, how much?
“No. I am a firm believer in not using what I don’t have, which is how I came to attend the seven out of 13 and how I made my budget. I also saved way in advance and started a savings fund for weddings when my friends began to have more serious relationships in our late 20s.”
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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