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Owner of Weddings in Vieques, a destination-wedding planning company off the coast of Puerto Rico, Sandy Malone has helped countless couples plan their big day since 2007. Here, she explains the most outrageous things her clients have blown their wedding budget on.
Most of my brides and grooms have a wedding budget they really want to stick to, and my job is to try my best to steer them in the right direction. Sometimes they choose the most expensive of everything, and blow it out of the water before we've even gotten to the flowers and décor, but other couples are more judicious.
Not every bride and groom gets angry about blowing their budget as long as they're making educated decisions about their spending, but a lot of them are just shopping up north at the same time we're planning their destination wedding in the Caribbean and they never seem to put the two sets of numbers together until it's time to pay the final tab. Seeing it all together, they freak.
Here are five examples of totally ridiculous things I've seen clients spend money on:
1. Multiple wedding gowns
I understand that it's very trendy to have a ball gown for your ceremony and change into party dress later, but I've had brides who brought three dresses for the wedding, and another one for her trash-the-dress photo shoot the next day because she couldn't bear to destroy any of the first three.
2. A teepee
I absolutely loved these clients and they never said a word about their budget, but I laughed to myself when the mailman started delivering these giant boxes to build the teepee the brides had ordered. I told them they had to assemble it themselves, and they did! It was fun for them next to their fire pit at the after hours but a totally unnecessary expense.
3. Fireworks
Look folks, sparklers are really cool if you must have something on fire, but fireworks require expensive permits, additional insurance on top of the cost of using a professional pyrotechnics company. No, your brother-in-law can't just sent up the stuff he snuck in illegally on the beach — we have laws here. But if you want to do it right, it can be done. For a lot of money.
4. Really expensive champagne
It's not often that brides and grooms opt for a crazy name champagne, but when they do, they usually want it on the bar all night long. Thing is, during the toasts, half the guests will be sucking down their cocktails and ignoring the champagne anyway. Doesn't matter how fancy it is, some people don't care for champagne. So when the tables are bussed after toasts and cake, it's not uncommon for the math to show we've just poured approximately $1,000 down the drain.
5. Outrageous favors
One father of the bride had silver $50 coins minted with the bride and groom's names and wedding dates on them. One per guest. Ouch! But they were beautiful.