Are Weddings Worth It? (10 Reasons They Are)
One of the natural steps in a couple’s relationship is marriage.
The National Center for Health Statistics states that the marriage rate in the United States is 5.1 per 1,000 people.
It also states that the divorce rate in the United States is 2.3 per 1,000 people.
With divorce common in marriages, you may wonder if a wedding is worth the effort.
Here are 10 reasons why weddings are worth it.
Are Weddings Worth It? (10 Reasons They Are)
1. You Can Make It Budget-Friendly
The average cost of a wedding is $22,500
Not everyone has enough money lying around to afford that sort of celebration.
The most expensive part of a wedding is the venue.
According to Insider, the average cost of a venue is $10,000.
Because of the high price of a wedding, some couples may wonder if it’s worth going into debt just to have one.
The great thing about a wedding is that you can make it budget-friendly.
If a budget is the only thing keeping you from having a wedding, it’s still worth it to throw one.
You can make a wedding more affordable by looking for cheaper venues.
While some of the most luxurious venues will have high price tags, other venues offer more affordable rates.
Even if those rates are too high for you, you can always have a nice backyard wedding.
While it may not be the most luxurious, the wedding should focus on the two people who are getting married and not where they’re getting married.
It’s also easy to cut costs by looking for local entertainment which charges less than big-name DJs.
You can even be your own DJ by just making a playlist on Spotify or another music streaming service.
Catering can be expensive, too, but if you can get a few guests to make dishes, you can feed your guests without spending too much money.
Paying your friends to make some food is going to end up being cheaper than paying a business to make food.
Weddings are worth it because you can adapt them to your budget.
2. Once-In-A-Lifetime Event
If you and your partner love one another and plan on fighting through the tough times together, then you’re probably only going to have one wedding during your lifetime.
The goal of marriage is to spend your life with your partner.
While no marriage is smooth-sailing or perfect, devoted partners will work together to overcome obstacles and improve communication with one another.
A successful couple in love will only have one wedding in their lifetime.
Because of that, a wedding is well worth the time, effort, and investment.
Since you’re only doing it once, it makes sense to splurge a little and have fun.
You’re never going to do it again.
It’s also easier to excuse the expense.
It’s one big expenditure to start your married life.
Once paid, you’ll never have to pay for another wedding again.
Weddings are worth it because they, hopefully, only happen once in a lifetime.
3. Brings Distant Relatives Together
A wedding is a momentous occasion.
It’s a time in one’s life when you’re celebrating the love you share with another person.
It’s also a symbol of joining two households together.
Because of this momentous occasion, this is an event that relatives who live far away will usually make time for.
Weddings are a great opportunity for you to see relatives that you don’t normally get to see because they live far away.
Since a wedding only occurs once, most relatives are willing to take the time and expense to travel and be part of the celebration.
A wedding may be your only chance to see these distant relatives for a long time.
It’s a great time to catch up and rekindle family bonds.
While weddings are all about the two who are getting married, they’re also about the families who are there to support them.
4. Meeting Partner’s Relatives
While weddings are worth it because they bring your own family together, they’re also worth it because it gives you a chance to meet your partner’s extended family.
If your partner happens to have relatives who live in a different country, or even across this country, it’s unlikely that your partner gets to see them very often.
It’s even possible that you have never had the opportunity to meet them.
A wedding will provide you with that opportunity.
Just like your own family, your partner’s family also wants to share in the momentous occasion of seeing their family member marry the person they love.
It gives you a chance to meet the people who make up your partner’s family and get to know them better.
For families who do come from a different country, it’s even an opportunity to learn about another culture.
Your wedding is all about you and your partner, but it also serves as a great opportunity to get to know your partner’s family better.
By the end of the wedding celebration, you may even feel completely welcomed into the family.
Weddings are worth it because it gives you a chance to meet your partner’s family who might not normally be around.
5. Celebration Of Love
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons a wedding is worth it is that it is ultimately a celebration of the love you and your partner share.
No matter if your relationship had its hurdles or it was perfect, a wedding gives you the chance to celebrate it with everyone you hold dear.
Weddings often feature pictures and videos of you and your partner.
They tell your story.
Without a wedding, that story isn’t told.
No one knows about how you and your partner met, the struggles you overcame together, or what makes the two of you work so well together.
Even if you tell someone about how you met, it’s only a conversation.
It’s not a story, and it certainly isn’t a way to celebrate that story.
Weddings offer that opportunity.
They bring friends and family together to recognize and celebrate the special bond that you found with that special someone.
It’s far different from eloping or just getting a courthouse wedding because no one is there to celebrate with the happy couple.
It ends up feeling more transactional than a celebration and union of love.
6. Wedding Gifts
While you may be spending money on hosting a wedding, you also get lots of gifts out of it.
This is another reason weddings are worth it.
It’s common wedding etiquette to bring some sort of gift to a wedding.
Whether you’re a close family member, a coworker, or a friend of a friend, it’s a good idea to bring some sort of gift when you attend a wedding.
That gift can be as extravagant as a new car or as humble as some money and a card.
Some guests even buy small appliances and other useful items that a newly-married couple will need to start their lives together.
The gifts are great because they can help take care of some of the financial hurdles a couple will face they get married.
Besides helping to pay for any additional costs of the wedding, the money you can get through a wedding can help you make purchases of other items that you might need.
If you have a particularly big wedding and a generous family, you might even end up earning enough money to put a down payment on a house.
Without a wedding, you can’t expect these gifts.
Some people might send you a card and some money to congratulate you on a courthouse wedding, but they won’t feel pressured to go all out.
7. Creates A Fond Memory
One of the main reasons couples have a wedding is for the memory that it creates.
A couple will be able to share stories about their wedding for years to come.
In their golden years together, they can recount the drama and amusing anecdotes that occurred on that special day.
Having a wedding allows you to create a special memory that you can always think back on for years to come.
If you don’t have a wedding, then you don’t have that memory.
You don’t have those stories to share.
If you elope, for example, then you have a funny story or two, but because the ceremony is quick, there isn’t anything special to share.
The same goes for a courthouse wedding.
It’s an almost clinical event.
A judge might be friendly and amusing, but you might also get one who is formal and gets straight to the business at hand.
There isn’t anything special about either event that you’ll fondly look back on later.
You may even come to regret that you don’t have any special stories of the time when you got married to your partner.
Having a wedding allows you to create those stories and fond memories.
8. Reinforces Promises
One of the most important parts of a wedding ceremony is the exchanging of vows.
The couple getting married has the opportunity to speak standard vows to one another or to write their own.
While writing your own is certainly more romantic, even repeating the standard vows as recited by the officiant brings some weight to the ceremony.
A wedding reinforces the promises and vows that a couple makes to one another.
The vows that couples make to each other essentially revolve around sticking together through thick and thin.
They are vows of honor, fidelity, and love.
You’ll say these vows if you elope, too, but without the presence of your family and friends there, it doesn’t seem to have quite the same impact.
There’s no one or a very small number of people there to become emotional over your vows.
At a courthouse wedding, it’s just you, your partner, and the judge.
The vows you give to one another won’t land the same way in a courthouse as they would in a wedding venue surrounded by family and friends.
A wedding gives the couple the type of atmosphere they need to feel the weight of the vows they’re making to one another.
It makes it feel that much more honest, sincere, and lasting.
A wedding is worth it because it adds more impact to the promises made to one another.
9. Teaches Communication And Compromising Skills
According to a study taken in 2013, one of the leading reasons behind divorce is the inability to communicate well.
Having a wedding is a great opportunity to test and hone your communication skills with your partner.
Before the wedding day arrives, there’s a whole lot of wedding planning going on behind the scenes.
Most couples are under a lot of pressure because they’re trying to stick to a budget while also coordinating with their families to ensure everyone can make it.
All of this is happening under a lot of pressure because there’s a time limit.
The first two things couples tend to do when planning a wedding are set a date and reserve a venue for that date.
That means they need to finish all their planning and preparation by that date and time.
The amount of pressure that the couple is under can impede their ability to communicate well.
However, that also means the couple has a chance to see how well they’re able to communicate and compromise with each other.
Planning a wedding is only the first hurdle in life that they’re going to face together, after all.
Compromising is another important skill that couples need to learn.
Planning a wedding also provides plenty of opportunities to hone this skill.
The wedding should be about both individuals rather than just one.
Both partners should also be able to compromise on their visions for the wedding based on their budget.
If the couple makes it through planning a wedding together, there’s a good chance that they’ll make it through other high-pressure moments in life, too.
Weddings are worth it because they offer an opportunity for couples to test their communication and compromising skills.
10. You Want One
A wedding is worth it if you want one.
For many people, a wedding is a dream come true.
They often have many ideas about what the wedding should be like, what it should look like, its theme, and everything else.
Others want a wedding because of the chance of becoming close with one’s family and one’s partner’s family.
If you don’t have a wedding and you want one, you’re likely going to regret it for the rest of your relationship.
You may even start to blame your partner for a lack of a wedding.
That could create some resentment which can undermine your relationship with them.
If you want a wedding, then it’s worth having one.
How To Save Money On A Wedding
Since one of the main reasons people don’t have weddings is their budget, it’s worth knowing how to save money on your wedding.
Here are a few tips you can use to save money on your wedding.
1. Host An Intimate Wedding Instead Of A Big One
One reason that venues can be expensive is that the engaged couple needs a large one.
If they’re planning a big wedding because they have a couple of hundred guests, then they’re going to rent out a large venue.
The problem is that the larger the venue is, the more expensive it tends to be.
Some venues even charge by the head.
For example, they’ll have a minimum number of guests who can attend the venue.
According to the Martha Stewart website, venues set the number of guests for a few reasons.
The primary one is safety.
You can scale back on your venue size, and thus your budget, by reducing the number of guests that you plan on inviting.
Instead, you should focus on an intimate wedding.
An intimate wedding is a wedding whose guests are only family and close friends.
You don’t invite friends of friends or fourth cousins unless you’re close to them.
The moment is only for those you truly care about.
This might mean you only have a guest list of around 30 to 50 people.
However, that also means you’re going to spend less on the venue, tables and chairs, and food.
An intimate wedding makes your wedding far more affordable in several ways.
2. Choose Flowers And Food In-Season
The time of the year you’re getting married matters when you’re planning things like flowers and food.
Depending on where you are in the country, not all flowers bloom at the same time.
Likewise, some types of food, especially seafood, have certain seasons where the type of fish is plentiful and other times that it’s rare.
Knowing how the season affects the specific flowers and food that you want at the wedding can help you find cheaper alternatives.
For example, if you’re getting married in the fall or winter, then you want to use flowers and plants that bloom during those seasons.
If you use flowers that don’t bloom in those seasons, you’re going to pay more since they’re rarer to find.
The same goes for food.
If you want a certain type of food that’s not as readily available in the particular season in which you’re getting married, you’re going to pay more for it.
Instead, choose a type of food that is in season at that time.
The price will be cheaper.
You can reduce costs by buying flowers and food that is in-season rather than paying more for out-of-season flowers and food.
3. Provide Your Own Entertainment
Another cost that you can trim down is entertainment.
No one really needs a DJ at their wedding.
In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to put together a playlist of your favorite hits to play at a wedding.
You can buy some speakers that can sync to a laptop or smartphone, and you have your music ready to go.
If you prefer live music, you can work through your connections.
You can make a few calls to your friends, family members, and friends of friends to see if any of them are in a band or know someone who is.
By working through your list of connections, you can hire live music for a lot cheaper than a professional band.
Conclusion
Weddings are special events that happen only once in a lifetime.
They’re a time when a couple can meet one another’s extended families and share their love with everyone.
To ensure you can have the wedding of your dreams, you can use the tips above to save money on your wedding budget.
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