Who wouldn’t want a free wedding right? Weddings these days can cost a fortune! The average cost of a wedding in San Diego ranges between $25,616 and $42,693, but the most common price couples pay is $10,000. Even though the mode is much less than the average, $10,000 is still a lot to pay for a single-day event, and many people don’t have that money lying around available because they are just tying to pay off their school debt or save up for a future car or house payment.
So what’s a possible solution to avoid spending thousands of dollars but still enjoy a nice wedding? Well, Courtney McKenzie and her fiancé have found an answer: a corporately-sponsored wedding.
A few days ago on the morning Today Show NBC, I saw a segment about this couple’s wedding plans. It entails an exotic wedding and honeymoon in Thailand over the span of 11 days and includes scuba diving, elephant trekking, and bamboo river rafting.
At first I found the concept of the wedding a bit surprising because I had never previously heard of having corporations sponsor a wedding to the full extent. Then I thought it was a cool idea to have a nice wedding without paying for it. But then I realized that there are going to be logos all over the event: very possibly on the wedding dress, on the groom’s tux, around the bride’s bouquet, down the wedding isle, alongside the elephant, over the scuba equipment, aboard the bamboo rafts, on top of the dining table cloth… potentially any surface you see where a logo could possibly fit. The couple is planning on uploading lots of daily pictures of their nuptials and adventures onto social media to publicize the sponsors.
Although the couple isn’t sacrificing any of their own money for this wedding, they might be sacrificing something else – the elegance and refinement of a wedding’s appearance, photographs, and memories.
I think that it’s awesome to have a free Thai wedding and honeymoon, but I wouldn’t do it at the expense of the style and significance of the wedding. I wouldn’t want to look or think back in ten, twenty, or thirty years at my wedding and its pictures and remember logos of companies covering everything.
A corporately-sponsored wedding might be fitting for this couple, but not all couples are going to be seeking out this wedding option. It just comes down to personal taste and preference.
All I can advise is that before signing yourself up for a corporately-sponsored wedding like this couple is doing, really consider if you’re comfortable with this decision for the long run, not just about who you’re marrying but the memories and photos tied to it.
Check out their web page at sponsorourwedding.com
Sources including photo credits:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/meet-the-couple-planning-a-corporately-sponsored-wedding