I was looking at wedding statistics in the United States today. The average bride spends over $1,500 on her wedding gown according to the Bridal Association of America. The average wedding photographer charges about $2,800. The average wedding in this country costs about $30,000. These costs only go up if you are in major metropolitan areas. I think last year, I read that in New York City, the average wedding cost is around $90,000. And of course, we’re getting married in a major metro area, so that doesn’t help out cost-wise.

A wedding dress can cost as little as $50 (if I chose a random white dress off the rack from, say, H&M), or as much as $50,000 for a big brand name/haute couture. It’s crazy how much money we are willing to spend on a dress that we will likely only wear once and for just a handful of hours. While I’m not willing to spend even a tenth of what the high end is, it’s still ridiculous how our society has brainwashed even me into thinking that a few thousand dollars on a wedding dress is acceptable, particularly given that most of the work is outsourced to cheap labor countries like India and China. I’m pretty sure the dress designers aren’t paying them a comfortable yuppie wage.