Not as Musicians, Photographers, Hotels, Car hire etc. But for the Bride and Groom. With the current practice of couples living together for years, [house completely furnished etc. etc.], the decision to marry might possibly be to avail of the riches available.
[Cynic mode].
I have been made aware that most such wedding invitations include the line 'Money only Presents'. And a little research shows that hotels charge around €40 to €50 per person for the wedding meal. The average wedding present per couple seems to be around the €200 mark. Which adds up to a large pot of cash even when the Band, Photographer etc. have been paid. It is no wonder that these "newly married couples" can go on honeymoon to Mexico or Hawaii or New Zealand. And all without borrowing a red cent.
[/Cynic mode]
Is this the situation in the UK or is it confined to Ireland?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The venue, car hire, dress, make up, alcohol, suits, registrar, may be a church wedding, room for the hotel, decorations, cards, flowers, music, photographer, cake, evening buffet and then the rings. Are you really going to come out on top?
Yes, you can do it really cheap, village hall and recycle your mum's dress but ask yourself this, if that is the kind of people you are, are your friends sort of the same too? The reason I ask is that I tend to find people of a similar, if not for a better word - class, befriend each other, the circle of friends are on similar level. So the ones that earn big bucks have a larger and bigger wedding, and they won't skim on it to make money from guests. Like wise, the couples with smaller budget, their friends from what I've met, don't earn big bucks.
You may ask how do I know? It's quite easy to guess. I've photographed one wedding with 160 guests and the car park was just full of German and Italian sports cars with a few Aston Martin thrown in. The small weddings tend to be your Ford and odd BMW.
They are all nice people, but if the guests are the sort of people who give £200 as gift then they are earning quite a lot and the happy couple would be on similar grounds and the wedding will reflect that.
The point of the wedding is celebrating with whoever you want to invite, I really doubt people are taking a business look at their mates.
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I play it safe and give vouchers. It wouldn't be £200 either even to family!
I've never really heard of anyone profitting from a wedding...unless parents pay for the wedding and they get a load of cash gifts like the Asian example.
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