7 hours ago
8
Name: Wedding tickets.
Age: Marley Jaxx is 34, Steve J Larsen is 37.
And who are they? The happy couple.
Congratulations to both! And why am I interested, exactly? It’s about the cost of their wedding.
Expensive, I know. The average in the UK now costs more than £23,000, according to the wedding planning website Hitched. Actually, Jaxx and Larsen are in Boise, Idaho. And this is more about who paid for the wedding.
Their parents? Their guests.
How much? Up to $1,000, or more than £700.
Now I’m interested – go on. Jaxx and her fiance, Larsen, were so shocked by wedding costs (including one venue that quoted them a $650 fee just for cake-cutting) that they told their friends and family they would have to pay if they wanted to come.
Presumably, friends and family told them to do one, and the couple ended up getting hitched in the county court with a couple of witnesses dragged in from the street? Incorrect. In the end, nearly 300 people came.
It’s expensive enough going to a wedding anyway, isn’t it? What with stag and hen dos, accommodation, presents, outfits, childcare and travel, you’re looking at £740 a bash on average in the UK, according to one survey this summer. If you’re spending the same on a ticket to the wedding itself … To be fair to Jaxx and Larsen, it was $1,000 for a VIP voucher that allowed access to a whole package of wedding events, including a rehearsal dinner and a “biohacking brunch”.
Whatever that is. That was for richer, then. And for poorer? $57 for admission to the Friday afternoon ceremony and reception.
Now you’re talking. Anyway, not only did Jaxx and Larsen cover the $50,000 cost of the wedding, but they actually made a profit …
Well, that’s just wrong. What happened to marrying for love? … A profit that they donated to a charity providing community-led education in rural Kenya.
Hmmm. It’s still not very traditional, is it? Jaxx and Larsen said they were “disrupting” the multibillion-dollar wedding industry. Also, they didn’t even know many of their hundreds of guests; they were strangers from the internet.
It’ll never catch on. Actually, it does seem to be catching on. A startup in Paris …
The City of Love! The City of Love a Business Opportunity, more like. They’ve made an app that allows couples to sell tickets to their wedding to strangers, in order to cover costs.
And what do the strangers get? To go to a wedding they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Do say: “Yeah, a bit like Wedding Crashers but more … Wedding Cashers.”
Don’t say: “If it doesn’t last, I want my money back.”
