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Weddings can be stupid expensive. And a lot of couples go into debt just to afford their big day.
The average cost of hosting a wedding in the U.S. sat at $33,000 last year. But some people are splurging a lot more. Many millennials fork out over $50,000 to tie the knot, and there are some brides and grooms who could feed a tiny nation with their elaborate wedding budgets. While certain things like the venue, food, rings and dress are usually a given, there are a few spends that are unnecessary, to say the least.
Someone recently asked people to share the most unhinged thing they cashed out on for their wedding. And when we tell you that some of the answers were wild, we mean it. From one couple who spent $3,000 on McDonalds as an "after party snack" to another that decided the beach was "too beachy," and needed to be covered with a floor - at a cost of $40,000!
Bored Panda has put together a list of the most mind-blowing responses for you to scroll through while you count your last pennies. We also break down the average costs of weddings and reveal where you can cut back on spending. You'll find that info between the images.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
$2000 on a party bus that drove our guest home- side note our wedding was in the country so no ride shares. Making sure everyone got home was worth the money.
Many couples can only dream of having a beautiful beach wedding, and then there are those who spend $40,000 to cover the beach with a floor because it's "tooo beachy." But hey, who are we to judge?
While the average American wedding comes in at around $33,000, there are many that fall below, or far above, that price. At the end of the day, it's about what the couple wants, and of course, what they can afford.
"You can spend $50 bucks on a marriage license and call it a day or spend $5.5 million and have Adele perform at your wedding," says wedding planning expert Annie Lee. "There's no finite range so the average can feel so off both ways. Some will think the average sounds so high or so wildly low."
Lee believes it's better to create an average within each type of wedding in each region rather than all weddings lumped together.
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#2
12k to elope in Hawaii so I didn’t have to invite my mother in law 🤷🏻♀️best decision ever
#3
Got married outside. Refused to have portapotties so paid 3K for a trailer bathroom that had stalls sinks and lights. Boujie portapotties if you will.
Most couples are more than willing to go all-out when it comes to spending on their big day. One survey found that 58% of Americans believe a wedding is "priceless and worth the splurge."
The study, conducted by financial services company Empower, also revealed that Millennials are the most likely to dig deep when it comes to tying the knot. This group was found to have a higher average spend, forking out around $51,130 for their weddings.
It's worth noting that a separate survey from US News found that 56% of newlyweds go into debt for their nuptials.
#4
I spent $300 to rent mini highland cows for pictures after the ceremony
Sue Mullen Andersen 4 months ago
It sounds like $300 was well spent—not as crazy as some of the other costs in this post!
#5
$2500 on a watercolor artists to paint guest portraits. Our guests loved it though!
#6
We spent $3,000 on McDonald’s as an after party snack for our guests….they ate every last bite and my husband got enough points on the McDonald’s app for us to eat free for legit a year! Worth every single penny
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
Surprising positive outcome! Well done! (Even though, you know, McDonald's. People want what they want.)
Meanwhile, The Knot 2025 Real Weddings Study found that the average cost per wedding guest is $284. And most couples invite about 116 people to witness their nuptials.
"Your guest list is one of the biggest factors in determining how much you'll spend on your wedding," notes The Knot. "It goes without saying, but the more people you invite, the more you'll spend. What is the average wedding cost for 50 guests? Typically, that'll be less than the average wedding cost for 100 guests."
So if you're working on trimming your on wedding expenses, then start by chopping that guest list."
#8
$6k on an all film, black and white, unlimited vintage Photo Booth for pasty favors. 16 years later and we still see them on people’s fridges
Another factor at play is where you decide to get hitched. Some states are far more expensive than others. According to Zola’s state-by-state numbers, a wedding in Iowa will cost roughly a third of the cost of a wedding in New York.
And on that note, if you're dreaming of a New York wedding, be warned that the average cost of hosting one there is around $87,700. While doing it in Las Vegas will set you back a lot less, at around $22,140.
The time of year, and season also play a part. "In the same way that a trip to the beach is going to cost more during the summer than the winter, a wedding that takes place during wedding season will cost more than an off-season wedding," cautions The Knot.
#10
Getting my husband his “precious” lord of the rings “one ring” ring as his wedding band cost over $3000 my wedding band was $500 😂
Tim Gearing 4 months ago (edited)
Ash nazg durbatulûk , ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
#11
I didn’t spend the money, my dad did. But he literally bought us custom pizza boxes for our late night snack and I will forever love him for it
DennyS (denzoren) 4 months ago
I know it's a stock image but it could be like....how did the bride look? Hot! and the groom? Fresh! lol
#12
spent 1600 to rent 5 arcade machines for guests to play
One of the best things you can do to keep your spending in check is to start planning early. "You'll have your pick of venues and wedding pros that fit your budget, rather than scrambling to find someone that works within your desired price range," explain The Knot's wedding experts.
"You'll also be able to lock in prices for certain products and services now, so that even if inflation drives rates up, your contract will stay the same. Additionally, tighter planning timelines mean rush fees and other last-minute charges that drive costs up," they add.
#13
We got married at Luna Park, Sydney… we gave all our guests unlimited rides passes.
#14
A fairy floss cart! My husband didn’t know, not because I wanted it to be a surprise but because I didn’t want him to tell me no 🤣🤣
Anthony Elmore 4 months ago
TIL I learned that fairy floss is cotton candy, which is frankly magical. Heard the term. Never thought to check out what the hell it was.
#15
My husband and I rented a steer for our cocktail hour for guests to pet and take photos with! He was treated really well and he was from a local ranch in Texas. His name was Cowboy and It was awesome
If you find your jaw dropping faster than a garter at some of the costs on this list, bear in mind that they probably don't come close to the wedding budget of Russian heiress Khadija Uzhakhova and oil heir Said Gutseriev.
Their over-the-top, elaborate wedding reportedly cost a cool $1 billion. Yes, you read that right. And that was back in 2016. "A retinue of opulent Bentleys drove the couple's loved ones to the restaurant location. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with ornate arrangements of fresh flowers when they arrived," reports the Standard.
The bride's couture Elie Saab wedding dress allegedly weighed 28 pounds. But it's possibly the cake that, err, takes the cake... The newlyweds opted for a nine-foot wedding cake that "loomed over the guests" during the event.
#16
$70,000 on rooms for my friends and family for my destination wedding 🫣 it was a must for our family and friends to be there with us 💕
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
If you want to do a destination wedding, this is how you spend your money.
#17
$5k for a custom oil painting of us as royals for our invitations
#18
2k on fast food post wedding late night snack. Worth. Every. Penny. Pizza and fries everywhere
And what's a wedding without entertainment? Sting, Enrique Iglesias, and Jennifer Lopez were among the artists who performed at the "wedding of the year." For context, JLo is said to charge around $1 million per hour.
To top off the celebrations, there was a massive fireworks display. And as a "small" token of thanks, each guest went home with personalised jewelled boxes as souvenirs.
#19
Spent $4500 on 2 trailer bathrooms 🥴
#20
$25k in cancellation fees when we split 2 months before it 😂😂
#21
Rented a camel for my husbands entrance. Donated to a local charter school so their band would come play as part of our wedding parade. And got the businesses in our small town to ok us shutting down Maine Street (that’s the correct spelling) so all our guests could be part of the parade to the ceremony that took place in the middle of the street.
#22
2k on a mechanical bull. It was a black tie wedding at a southern plantation; string quartet, champagne tower, whole thing. Then BOOM. Mechanical bull 😜
#24
Our wedding was $10,000 in 2003 but my dress was $3000 of it. I still keep it hanging in my closet because it was my dream dress and I have no regrets 😆
#25
Not my wedding, but a friend spent 130K on renting out entire hotel for guest and family, with private drivers and tours for 3 days
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
If you're crazy rich, this is a way to make it a great event for guests who come for a destination wedding!
#26
i spent 15,000 on a spinning donut wheel and it malfunctioned and the donuts hit my face as we lined up to take a photo with my MIL and FIL 😭😭😭
Cronecast AtTheRisingMoon 4 months ago
Oh, I can’t stop laughing, that poor person! It’s so much money to spend on something so specific, donuts must be beloved by that person. Then they were attacked by flying pastries and paid 15k for the a*****t. It’s like a comedy sketch.
#28
We took a helicopter up into the snow for our photos 👀
#29
$800 on a wedding cake that was legit in a car accident and looked so horrible 😭 😭 the venue staff carried it out like it was a dead body when it was time to cut the cake 🤣🤣
#30
My husband got me a fairy floss lady that made five different types of fairy floss. She cost a fortune but it was the best thing ever.
#31
We spent like $2k to have burros with coolers on their backs “bartend” our cocktail hour
#33
I made my in-laws pay like $300 for an armadillo grooms cake at the rehearsal because I love Steel Magnolias
#34
$8500 on a dress I wore for 12 hours, $1500 on a piece of fabric to go on my head $25,000 on food and venue. I can keep going lol… but 9 years later we’re still married!
#35
$2000 for an oyster bar it was amazing!
#36
The best $400 I spent was having Goldy Gopher (the mascot for the U of MN) as a guest. it was incredible
#37
A tattoo artist who gave complementary tattoos to any guest who wanted one! Best decision ever!
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
Oh, many bad, regrettable decisions were made that night, I'm afraid, because undoubtably alcohol was involved.
#39
45k on food that we didn’t even get to eat bc the chef tossed all the food before reception was over, we went to the Burger King drive-through because that’s all that was open 😭
JB 4 months ago
K, before everyone starts losing it, I'm going to assume the most logical thing and that the "we" in this case is just the bride and groom and not all of the guests. It's a pretty common story that the couple doesn't get to eat. Hell, I barely ate at my wedding and there were 20 of us - how about you?
#40
$2200 on a sparkling dance floor. Worth every penny!
Earonn - 4 months ago
A friend of mine DJed at family events, including weddings. Never had a sparkling dance floor, but me - then in my early 20s, and with a nice dress - walked around and invited the elderly gentlemen for a waltz or other ballroom dances. They enjoyed it so much, and not one misbehaved. Also, as soon as there's one couple on the dance floor, the 'real' couples soon follow. And we were much cheaper ( I didn't even get paid, I came along for the fun, party, good food, and spend time with a friend).
#43
A pair of the Carrie Bradshaw blue manolos that I wore for 25 minutes and just for the ceremony and were taken off and I was in converse, flip flops or barefoot the rest of the time. I NEEDED the blue manolos for detail photos and my something blue.
#44
$8k on a 40’ tent for our rooftop that the company could not set up because of the long poles not being able to fit anywhere and after five hours they realized they didn’t need them 🙃
#45
$900 on Louboutins that I only wore for our 10 minute ceremony 😬 I’ve always wanted a pair, so I figured our wedding was a good excuse 😅
#46
3,500$ on 3mins of fireworks 🧨 pics were amazing tho
Earonn - 4 months ago
Please don't. Fireworks are a problem for the environment (aka the animals due to the noise and lights), and they can even k**l sensitive animals. Ask Edinburgh zoo how they lost their red panda. Yes, it's not an issue if one couple does it for 3 minutes. But "gender reveals" started with a cake and you know that some attention seekers will turn it into something extreme.
#47
Fireworks and didn’t ask my husband before hand so he was suprised 😂 worth it though & he agrees now it was worth it and said he would’ve said no if I hadve asked beforehand
#48
I almost dropped $35k on a piano and cello duo from the U.S during covid and then we got locked down 100 times 😂
Tim Gearing 4 months ago
Financial advice..How to double your money? Fold it in half and put it back into your pocket.
#49
$40K to put a floor on the beach. I wanted a beach wedding but not toooo beachy😂
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
It's so much more fun to ditch the footwear and romp around on a beach destination wedding barefoot! This is silly.
#50
15k wedding cake that was 8ft tall! We served our guests a cake flight of 3 different flavors!
Auntriarch 4 months ago
My middle nephew had a three tier wedding cake with three flavours. It was only about 3' high, and the bride's nan had made it.
#51
A tarot reader who read for guests at our reception, on site nannies for bb guests, and hair & makeup for guests who booked at our hotel - would do it all over again on a heart beat!
#52
$4k for a platform for our guests to sit on for a 15 min ceremony cause my mil didn’t want guest feet to get sandy…at a beach wedding
mandy the capibara 4 months ago
Whelp, at least it seems you got a good deal compardd to the lady above...
#53
My husband was on transport, so he decided to BUY at $25K sidecar that we used for 2 minutes to leave the ceremony 😳
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
The groomsmen at our wedding had a tradition of sabotaging the couple's car so we rented a car for the evening. We got in the car to leave the ceremony. Started it, everybody waving, it did not go anywhere. They had put it on blocks. Ok, funny. We left, still in wedding attire, and stopped at a car wash to get rid of the shoe polish comments on the windows. Still funny. We're driving to a hotel on a highway, see police lights behind us, confused because we're not speeding. Pull over. The officer says that there was 30 feet of string tied to cans waving across the highway behind us and it was dangerous. They got us good. Funny! But they never got to the car we owned. (Worth a post for what this group did to each other.) So joke's on them! Worth it
#55
$1200 on a painter to capture our first kiss….not worth it. Don’t do it. It’s not worth the money.
#57
Not me but my buddy spend 12,000 on a Blackhawk helicopter exit
Tim Gearing 4 months ago
That’s about a 30 second flight to the next street over😆 .. maybe exaggerating a bit
#58
Not money I spent but money we MADE by posting our do not play list on a sign in the bathroom as a "pay to play". Anything by Cardi B cost $250 and yes, we twerked to Cardi B when someone actually spent the money to play it lol songs like electric slide were on there.
#59
We spent over $1,000 on monarch butterflies for everyone to release at the ceremony. Absolutely stunning and was very sentimental!! Such a special moment we were all able to share
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What do you think ?
Cronecast AtTheRisingMoon 4 months ago
A. couple of those made me laugh like nothing else has in ages, thank you for sharing them! Even though I wouldn’t do most of these, it was nice to see the number of no regrets, worth every penny posts there were. It’s nice that they ended up with happy memories.
Trisec Tebeakesse 4 months ago (edited)
Money on decor. MIL wanted ficus palms in the church, because one of her friend's daughters had them and they "looked lovely". Pictures exist of them, so I know they were there, but I was so tunnel-visioned at that point that I never saw them. She made such a big stink about them, I thought something catastrophic had happened that they "weren't there". Also, the lovely frozen punch bowl with flowers glaciated inside. It was the hottest day of the year, and by the time my new wife and I found our way there after the pictures, the bowl had already given it's all.
Cronecast AtTheRisingMoon 4 months ago
A. couple of those made me laugh like nothing else has in ages, thank you for sharing them! Even though I wouldn’t do most of these, it was nice to see the number of no regrets, worth every penny posts there were. It’s nice that they ended up with happy memories.
Trisec Tebeakesse 4 months ago (edited)
Money on decor. MIL wanted ficus palms in the church, because one of her friend's daughters had them and they "looked lovely". Pictures exist of them, so I know they were there, but I was so tunnel-visioned at that point that I never saw them. She made such a big stink about them, I thought something catastrophic had happened that they "weren't there". Also, the lovely frozen punch bowl with flowers glaciated inside. It was the hottest day of the year, and by the time my new wife and I found our way there after the pictures, the bowl had already given it's all.
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