EmpowerShop Pro-life

There’s no two ways about it: wed­dings are expen­sive. Pay­ing for every detail is enough to drain any family’s finan­cial cof­fers and – even worse – leave them wrestling with debt. Espe­cially for new cou­ples pay­ing their own way dur­ing the wed­ding, the expenses quickly add up. The fol­low­ing is a tra­di­tional guide to divid­ing expenses equally and fairly among the four major par­tic­i­pants in plan­ning the four main parts of the wed­ding cel­e­bra­tion: rehearsal din­ner, cer­e­mony, recep­tion, and hon­ey­moon. These are guide­lines more than rules, and are intended to show tra­di­tion more than carved-in-stone etiquette.

The Bride’s Family

There’s a pop­u­lar mis­con­cep­tion among the unmar­ried of the world that the bride’s fam­ily foots the entire bill. That’s not entirely true, though unfor­tu­nately it may feel that way for the father of the bride! Tra­di­tion­ally, the bride’s fam­ily finances the recep­tion din­ner with all its facets: the food, drink, venue, ser­vice staff (includ­ing tips), flower arrange­ments, wed­ding favors, and any other mis­cel­lany. The bride’s fam­ily also pays for many of the neces­si­ties lead­ing up to the cer­e­mony: these usu­ally include the bridal gown, the wed­ding invi­ta­tions and save-the-date reminders, as well as the engage­ment and wed­ding photographs.

Finally (!) the wed­ding cer­e­mony costs, the pho­tog­ra­pher and video­g­ra­pher fees, the cost of the ring bearer and flower girl acces­sories, the trans­porta­tion costs and brides­maids bou­quets are all picked up by the bride’s fam­ily. Hon­estly… if you’re the par­ent of a young girl, start sav­ing right now.

The Bride

Com­pared to her fam­ily, the bride gets off rel­a­tively easy. Brides tra­di­tion­ally pay for the groom’s wed­ding band, gifts for her brides­maids, the brides­maids’ lun­cheon, her blood test fees, and the wed­ding day lin­gerie. In the strictest tra­di­tional sense, the bride should also pay for her out-of-town brides­maids accommodations.

The Groom

Okay, guys. Time to pony up. Fol­low­ing the engage­ment ring (that two-month’s salary guide­line is passé, by the way) you’ve still got a few things left to buy. You’ll pay for the hon­ey­moon, the mar­riage license, and gifts for your grooms­men. The gen­tle­man groom, how­ever, also pays for the bridal bou­quet and cor­sages for your mother and your new mother-in-law. You’ll also pick up the bou­ton­nieres, ties, and acces­sories for the grooms­men, and finally the bride’s wed­ding ring. Gifts for the ush­ers and for your par­ents go the extra dis­tance to show­ing your class. You should also pay the hon­o­rar­ium for the judge, jus­tice of the peace, or cler­gy­man who offi­ci­ates the cer­e­mony, too.

The Groom’s Family

Besides their own attire, the groom’s fam­ily is respon­si­ble for the rehearsal din­ner and all its details.

The Maid of Honor

Bach­e­lorette par­ties and wed­ding show­ers are the respon­si­bil­ity of the maid of honor. This includes all the details, top to bottom.

The Best Man

The best man is mas­ter of cer­e­monies and god­fa­ther of the bach­e­lor party, from the plan­ning to the exe­cu­tion to pour­ing all the guests into cabs at the end of the night. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.

The Grooms­men and Bridesmaids

Most of the attire – for exam­ple, the tuxedo rental and costs of the gown – are the respon­si­bil­ity of the indi­vid­ual wed­ding party mem­ber. They also give a gift to the new­ly­weds. Grooms­men arriv­ing from out-of-town are also expected to pay for their accommodations.