Bridal panel of seven shares their ‘wedding planning experience’

Seven brides, married from as recently as 4 months ago, to four years ago, shared the good, the bad, and the ugly at a Las Vegas Wedding Network meeting, hosted at the Aliante Hotel & Casino.

There is so much information to share that I will make multiple posts over the next week to cover the range of issues.

To provide some context, Moderator, Ricky Gulati (Memory Lane Videography) started by asking what type of venue each bride selected, and why. That opening qualifier had an even more significant 2-part follow up.

1. Approximately, what was your initial budget or budget range for your wedding?
2. Did you stay within your budget, or did you go over it? If you went over it, by how much?

The dollar-numbers were not the important answer, here, as they were approximate. What clearly stood out was that six out of seven brides exceeded their budget. The range of excess was from 50% to 200%. In real dollars, these cost overruns were in tens of thousands of dollars.

Observation – Conclusion – Reality Check – Opinion

By their own admission, the brides didn’t really have a budget. They had a chunk of money, but didn’t really know the cost of things. Moreover, when they got into the process of planning, particularly when attending bridal shows, they discovered opportunities for products and services they didn’t know existed.

A good example of that was uplighting. More than one bride commented, that once demonstrated,

uplighting was a dramatic decor upgrade. They wanted it, and bought it.

That comes under the heading of “You don’t know, what you don’t know.” It’s not reasonable to have planned or budgeted for something you didn’t know existed.

Several brides expressed that “When I found a particular vendor that I clicked with, price went out the window.” This seemed to particularly important with vendors, such as photographers, who work at close range with a couple, for many hours.

Overages were absorbed by parents, in-laws, or the couples, themselves.

Worth A Read: A while back, I posted a provocative item, titled: A ruthless discussion of the term ‘Budget Bride’ and wedding decision making

It relates well to this post, and the ones that will follow, about the bridal panel.

Congratulations to the program organizers for putting on a fine, informational show.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority