Getting married these days is a very costly affair. The bill just keeps getting higher and higher as couple’s demand more and more from their special day.
For brides, there is the services of dress makers, hairdressers, makeup artists and wedding coordinators planners. As well as the venue and reception.
So it is always wise to determine who pays for what at your wedding and who will cover the largest part of your wedding budget.
Accepted Wedding Etiquette – Who Pays For the Wedding?
Traditionally, wedding etiquette guides said that the bride’s father should pay for the wedding. This was accepted because in days gone by girls were kept by their fathers and not allowed to work. Their mothers would school them in household chores and the finer points of running a house in preparation for their life as married women.
A daughter was ‘given away’ by her father to a boy or a man who his father thought could feed and look after his daughter and grandchildren. And since he would be giving his daughter away, he would host his daughter’s wedding day and pay for everything as a sign of his agreement to his daughter’s marriage and his acceptance of her husband to be.
Today’s Wedding Etiquette – Who Pays For the Wedding
Today, modern wedding etiquette on who pays what for the wedding is not as rigid as it used to be. The bride and the groom can go the traditional route if they want. Asking the father of the bride to host the wedding and pay for most of the wedding costs. Often the parents of the groom will express their desire to be a co-host of the wedding event, sharing in its expenses. They will often pay for the wedding reception or other items. The way today is mutual agreement.
However, most couples nowadays are both working and earning their own money. So it may be that the bride and groom to be decide to pay for their own wedding or at least share in its costs. Some couples prefer to pay for their own wedding so that they can have complete control over the number of guests and who are and who are not invited. They want to say how the celebration of their special day should be held.
New Wedding Etiquette – Various Ways of Paying.
Because of the high cost of living these days and the financial uncertainty of the times, paying for the entire cost of the wedding day may be beyond the means of both sets of parents. They may however, want to contribute what they can to the wedding expenses. The couple should be sensitive with this matter. Don’t say no to your parents even if you think they can’t afford it. Willingly accept what they offer as it is their joy to see you get married and their pleasure to play a part in your wedding day. So sit down with your parents and discuss with them the projected costs of your wedding and ask them which part of the wedding expenses would they comfortably want to fund.
Wedding etiquette on who pays for what is not big question these days. The only etiquette that is required of bride and groom is to talk things over with their parents and come to a mutual agreement.
