Headache because of being invited to the wedding

The 27-year-old decided to refuse to attend a wedding ceremony in Italy because the plane ticket was beyond her ability to pay. According to the Consumer Price Index, in April, the average airfare in the US increased by 33% year-on-year, up nearly 19% from the previous month.

However, she still plans to attend eight weddings from Arizona to Canada and Chicago, plus bachelorette parties. The total cost for these events is estimated to be $20,000.

“Those are definitely not expenses that are within my financial goals. Because I need to save money, I will have to postpone some other payments this year,” she said.

According to research firm The Wedding Report, an estimated 2.5 million weddings will take place in the US this year, the most since 1984. The reason is due to couples delaying marriage because of Covid-19. Meanwhile, like Issy, 73% of respondents to a recent Credit Karma survey said inflation is affecting their ability to get married. Some even had to take out a loan, use their savings or refuse to go to the event.

On average, though, Americans plan to attend 2.5 weddings this year and spend about $1,000 per event. More than 50% said they were willing to spend more than usual on weddings that could not be attended due to the epidemic.

“We’ve found the reason people are still attending is that they haven’t been able to go to any weddings for a long time,” said Colleen McCreary, head of consumer finance advocacy at Credit Karma.

A third of respondents said they were afraid of missing out, so they accepted to attend a wedding or related event, even if they couldn’t afford it. In Generation Z it is 50% and in Generation Y it is 45%.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is also the reason why Erin Scanlon, 25, of Austin, Texas struggles to pay for her best friends’ party in North Carolina.

“Because the cost is too great, I can’t buy a round-trip flight ticket that costs $800 each way in June and fly another similar flight in July,” said the male marketing officer.

Later this year, Scanlon and her boyfriend were trying to decide whether to attend the wedding together or save money by just one person. Airfares and hotel prices have increased by an average of 23% compared to last year. She realizes that inflation will affect more aspects of her life than she thought.

Jeff Yu, 28, of Seattle also couldn’t miss his friends’ big event. The guy who works at a technology startup attended four weddings this year and two bachelorette parties. At the same time, he and his girlfriend are also planning their wedding.

With weddings in other cities, Jeff Yu will have to spend from 1,000 to 5,000 USD for each wedding. “Anyway, we haven’t had a normal vacation for a long time, so we’ll consider it a relaxing time,” he said.

Some wedding guests are trying to find ways to cut costs on their trips. Nancy Nyström, who works in advertising in New York, is planning to meet relatives in Florida when she attends her wedding.

The 29-year-old girl was invited to attend seven the wedding and had to turn down three weddings because it was too expensive. She also didn’t attend the bachelorette party because it would cost her up to $800 for a cruise ship trip in Miami, plus $200 for drinks.

Mariana Martinez, a family connections consultant at Wells Fargo, says that turning down a wedding invitation is tough when it comes to how it affects a relationship. “Going to the wedding or not should be decided based on how important the relationship is,” the expert said.

She advises people to come up with a list of actual expenses for flights, hotels and wedding gifts. Then decide which items can reduce spending.

Intelligent Update (According to Bloomberg)