Re: Cost of weddings
A midrange hotel in my city (Marriott) charges appx $35/pp. That is JUST for the banquet hall rental, tables, chairs etc. Catering is seperate…another $15-$20 a head. Stage decor extra. For the average indo/pak wedding with 300 people that comes to about $20,000 right there for just 1 function. It doesn’t even factor in clothes, jewelry, mehndi, mayoun, gifts, photographer, video etc.
When I got married, I didn’t even have a professional photographer. I told my Ammi no, I didn’t need or want it. My mamoo, who does photography as a hobby and is an amateur took our pictures lol. And the wedding still cost appx $25K, even though we did the bare minimum of what is considered “normal”, scaled back the guest list, called in every favor, connection, hookup we could find and had zero jahaiz or barri.
I am also vehemently against going into debt for extravagant weddings, but I have seen it with my own eyes. I helped my husbands best friend and his family plan his wedding..I had a front row seat for ALL the preps, shopping and expenditures. The wedding cost $175,000 and lasted 18 days. They were filing for divorce on their one month anniversary.
His second wedding was done at the masjid with small dinner reception at a restaurant lol.