When preparations for the wedding are underway, the thorny question of who pays for what quickly comes to the table. There are 4 solutions. Either the bride and groom decide to pay for the wedding, entirely, or the parents who pay everything or the expenses are shared between parents and future bride and groom. Here are the pros and cons for each option.
Do the parents have to participate in the payment of the marriage?
When you ask yourself “who pays for what” in a marriage, you usually think of the parents of both married couples. In fact, traditionally the families finance the union of their children.
This is even truer when the bride and groom are young and therefore do not have much means.
However, nowadays weddings take place more and later. The future spouses are therefore able to assume the costs of their wedding themselves.
Three cases can therefore occur
The bride and groom parents pay for the wedding themselves
This solution should be preferred if the two families find it difficult to agree or do not get along at all.
By asking nothing of their parents, the bride and groom are thus free to choose the marriage they wish for them.
The bride and groom parents of the pay for their marriage
This second scenario is the most advantageous for the married couple from a financial point of view.
However, by doing so the bride and groom will give up some of their decision-making power over the wedding ceremony and feast.
Beware of disagreements if the parents who have paid the bill expect in return to manage the marriage as they see fit.
The bride and groom and their parents share the wedding costs and sometime groom is responsible for everything
Without doubt the ideal compromise. Indeed, this solution prevents the bride and groom from having to incur too heavy costs. In addition, parents will generally be happy to be able to help.
It can also help to have a more beautiful marriage, because the total sum of the three contributions will be more than what a single family can pay on its own.
To implement this solution and know who pays what at the wedding, you have to clearly announce things.
For example, the champagne will be taken care of by the groom’s parents, while the bride’s parents will take care of the flowers and decoration. In this way, you can avoid conflict that can arise from the organization of a wedding.