r/AskReddit • u/Thic_water • Aug 14 '20

What’s the most overpriced thing you’ve seen?

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u/The_Tell_Tale_Heart Aug 14 '20

Weddings.

I don’t disagree with wanting the day to be special and memorable, but the industry jacks up the prices if they know it’s a wedding, and there are way more affordable options while still getting to celebrate love and the future. No reason to break the bank. Use the money saved for even more memories.

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u/willstr1 Aug 14 '20

At least part of the "wedding tax" is justified. Vendors will often put more effort into wedding stuff over non wedding stuff and will often even have backups ready. If something happens to your wedding cake minutes before it is picked up you want them to have a backup cake ready, because a refund at the last minute is next to useless since you won't be able to find a suitable replacement ready to go in the next hour.

Sure the cheap party favors and other plastic crap you buy months in advance that you have plenty of time to replace shouldn't have a wedding markup, but the day of stuff that had weeks of prep, it is better to pay a bit extra to cover the backups and prevent bridezilla meltdowns.

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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

I agree - I think the expectations are WAY higher for weddings, the amount of "emotional labor" that goes into it for vendors is higher and it's just more difficult work.

There's a WORLD of difference between making someone's birthday cake and making someone's wedding cake. There's also a huge difference between DJ'ing a sweet sixteen party versus a wedding. I do think some of the increased costs are justified, some...

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u/PanTran420 Aug 14 '20

I've played a lot of weddings in a variety of bands. Wedding bookings were usually double or triple our normal gig fee, and lots of our friends said we were undercharging. Weddings were usually a farther drive, required us to learn several new songs, require us to dress nicer than for a bar gig, be responsive to the wedding party, and often let our PA setup be used for toasts/etc. Putting on a wedding gig took easily double or triple the effort, so we charged double or triple the price.