The Wedding Business means big bucks for some.
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | 4 Comments
It’s been a couple of years since I got married, but if there is one thing that sticks out in my mind when it comes to wedding planning it was the outrageous prices of everything if you were associated with a wedding.
When it comes to wedding planning, you can expect to pay more for something even if during other times of the year or under other circumstances, the price is less.
Wedding dresses are usually outrageous in price, however, David’s Bridal has really found its niche in this new recession based market. MSNBC goes as far as to call it the “Wal-Mart” of weddings. I personally think that title is a bit derogatory to the company and to the thousands of brides that turn to the store for their dress purchases.
One of the best parts of David’s Bridal is that it is a chain located all across the country. That makes it so easy for brides to tell their Bridesmaids all across the country exactly what dress to get and the store will typically have the dress. Their sizes are also pretty uniform unlike at other bridal stores where each brand has a different sizing scheme.
Well, weddings have only decreased slightly in the recession and brides no longer have thousands to spend on wedding dresses. With the average David’s Bridal dress costing in the $300-$500 range, most brides can afford their prices versus other bridal boutiques.
One thing that I never understood when it came to weddings is why are wedding decorations so much more expensive than plain party decorations? When I got married, I was cutting costs wherever I could and couldn’t help but notice little organza circles for bird seed in the wedding section were more expensive than little organza circles in any other section of Marshall’s.
The point is that there are many ways for stores to get your money just because the term “wedding” is somewhere in your plans. You really have to look out for pricing scams based on weddings versus any other time of the year. I found that if you leave that out altogether, you will pay less. You’ll pay less when it comes to food, you’ll pay less when it comes to flowers…
Having clear skin means that you don’t have to break the bank
Save some time and money by shopping at a dollar store.
Tags: outrageous prices, wedding section, wedding planning
Chris McClelland | Thu, Jun 25 2009
I always assumed wedding stuff was grossly marked up and never liked it. I understand that a profit is needed, but in some cases I found products that we where going to buy for our own wedding was being marked up 700%-1200%.
We Jen and me had our wedding, we had it in a convention center. The problem was only one company was “licensed” to open wine bottles in the city. The cost $150 for the first opened bottle plus the cost of the bottle. Each additional bottle to open was $15. We assumed that we would need around 15-20 bottle so it would have cost us $225-$435 just to open the bottles and not including the cost of the wine. The wine was going to average out to about $25 per bottle so we would have had a total cost of around $600-$935 just for wine.
Also this is just the cost for opening the wine, it did not include any waiting services or anything. We where also told that it was “illegal” for us to open our own wine bottles within city limits.
Solution we went to Wal-Mart and bought grape wine juice x 20 bottles at $2 a piece for $40 and everyone was happy, even the children that attended the wedding.
Katrina | Wed, Jun 24 2009
Most people are willing to splurge for weddings, they figure it only happens once in a lifetime. More and more people are having outdoor weddings in their backyards. You can get get your own table and chairs by renting them and have the wedding in your own backyard to save money.
John | Thu, Jun 25 2009
It’s a similar story in the UK. I worked in a printers a while ago and wedding stationery was definitely marked up to counter balance the number of proofs the invites etc had to go through… invariably Bride, Groom and parents had different ideas on how the invites should look!
John from NJ Wedding Band | Mon, Oct 19 2009
Despite how successful a corporation Wal-mart is, I think being called the “Wal-mart” of anything is probably not the best association for a business. The recession has definitely started changing the balance of “value” vs. “price”, especially in the wedding industry. Photographers especially have been hit very hard this year. Let’s hope it picks up!