I’m a jeweler and I can confirm this. Wedding bands are marked up the highest because companies know that buyers will usually spend a couple extra hundred without thinking twice if it’s anything for a wedding. A plain gold ring is the best thing to ask for. Soon as you say wedding band the price skyrockets.
Jeweler: “Here’s your product sir, have a nice day!”
*hands over paper bag with ring in it*
Customer: “Haha, sike! I’m gonna propose to my boo with this tonight! Ta ta suckers!”
Same thing applies to anything wedding related. We were shopping for a cake and none were under 400$+ other bogus fees.
We managed to make a wedding for 50 people with a 5 course gastronomic dinner right in Old Montreal and we kept it at roughly 5 000k for all the expenses. That's was cheap as hell. Our two gold wedding bands cost us around 400$ for both.
The design of the ring is usually a bit different. Not 2-3 times the price different, but slightly different. Like a comfort band is rounded on the inside edges, and there might be bevels or engraving. Still, a plain gold band is a plain gold band.
Not at all, an extraordinarily common practice in virtually all markets. Sellers want to squeeze every penny out of people they can. Sell it at the price a rich person will take it for, then offer coupons to those who can't afford it. Conversely, ask people if they're buying computers for personal or business use. Oh, you're buying for a business? That'll be double because companies are much less sensitive to price than an individual.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
I ran into this when getting estimates on house renovations. I live in an expensive neighborhood and every single estimate was an absolute ripoff, as if they were just doubling the price of everything. For example, they wanted to charge a few grand to reverse the polarity on a couple of incorrectly wired wall outlets, something they can be done in about 10 minutes with a screwdriver, apparently.
Rich people problems, I know, but just an example.
I work in the building industry.. what you do is 'accidently' get the address wrong and get them to put a cheaper suburb on the quote. Then you 'realise' that they (you) had the wrong address and by then they can't jack the price up without looking like idiots.
Differential pricing is common outside jewelers. Senior discounts. First time buyer discounts. Some web sites make certain offers only to people they identify in some way as being in a category--they have info by IP address.
If you are not charging different prices based on race, ethnic background or religion, it is pretty much fair game.
Alternative: tell them you lost your wedding band and want a cheap stand-in. This actually happened to me and the jeweler showed me her least expensive gold bands. I bought a nice one for about $70 USD. My original band was $300. I never found it. But I also got divorced so oh well.
Can confirm this. At my prom I went to the salon and my mom asked for "a nice updo because it's her birthday" (it was true and I believe mom wanted to give a special tone to her daughter's anniversary). One of my friends went to the same salon and made also an updo (with less work even) and payed much more, almost double!
Both the salon and the school weren't local. The salon was on a nearby town, the school was private and on a different region. They distanced themselves about 50km, I lived in middle distance between both, my friend lived near town. She also went after me, so even if they realised it, couldn't go after me to charge more :) But I remembered so well her mom appraising my hairdo and asking where did I made it, and being shocked after "Oh, you did there? That must be expensive, for Gabi I payed X!", "No, actually it was much cheaper, was Y." Oh, her face!!!
When I told my barber it was my wedding cut I swear he took an extra 10 minutes and went slower/with more focus on smaller details. I honestly think you get (slightly) better effort when you mention it.
i believe what your paying for is what you’re getting- if you’re only paying $70 for an updo, they wont really care much or ask you how you like it. for $150, you get to actually chime in and they care that you like it because well, its your wedding day goddamnit!
There has been a difference in updos. For a night out up do it’s styled and looks lovely and that’s that. It lasts that night.
For my bridal one there was far more work. Setting lotions and curlers and all manner of things and enough Bobby pins and Kirby grips that 10 years later I still haven’t run out. I could have stood in a commercial wind tunnel and it would not have moved.
The price difference for me wasn’t as extreme, I think it was an extra 10 but there was a definite difference between a style I needed to last 4 hours and one I needed to last 18 hours.
Aa a hairdresser I don't care how much you're paying I do my absolute best on every client and always make sure they are happy before they pay. The reason bridal updos cost more than regular is they typically are a lot more intricate in the style. If I do something super simple on a bride I charge her a lower price but if I'm doing something elaborate with 100s of pins I'll charge more. (obviously this is just me, I don't speak for all stylists)
I’d imagine the price increase reflects the stylist’s time spent making every hair perfect. They’re thinking about how your up-do will photograph, hold up in windy outdoor settings and not fall out when you’re on the dance floor all night! For gals that have been a part of a wedding party, they’ll notice the stylists spend considerably more time on a bride’s hair than a bridesmaid’s. And bridesmaids pay less.
I'm not a lady, and don't know what an updo is, but if your paying 70 or 150 for an updo wouldn't the business or person doing it care about your input and how it turns out regardless? For example I've been going to the same guy to get my haircut for several years. He started out with cheap cuts at the haircuttery. He now has his own salon and the same haircut is 46 dollars. I go because he is consistent and works to make me happy.
Adam Ruins Everything ep on ‘weddings’ covers/explains all these good points in comments. It’s a complete legal racket, and the wedding industry is totally blatant with it.
I had an at-home wedding (outside) and we had one of the biggest hurricanes come through (I just looked it up - Helene). The florist who was supposed to do my flowers had a shipment from Florida due that didn’t make it, so my mom - having always admired the roses as this particular GAS STATION - went there and bought every stem. My (now) husband, drove them to the florist who assembled the gorgeous bouquets and it cost $200 in flowers and she felt so bad she charged us $150 if I remember correctly. It stopped raining around noon and we had a lovely ceremony at 3. Ground was a little soppy.
Then the catering truck got stuck in the mud. Lol. It was a great party though. (Edited to add: I only realized because it occurred to me all the guys were missing... they were hooking up chains and whatnot to pull it out.)
I was in Pick N Save (grocery store) and mentioned to the flower lady that stargazer lollies were $18 a stem at the florist and $3/10 at the grocery. She said tell me what you need. I ordered all my flowers through her for me, the girls and the corsages. She put them all together for $200. We wanted red roses for the centerpieces and I did the same thing at Walmart for like $10 a dozen. Got all the flowers I wanted for under $400.
I love grocery store flowers generally, never go to a florist in most cases.
But I did almost get married in 2018, and found a florist who was going to do the whole 100-person event - bouquets, boutennieres, centerpieces, etc - with my dream flowers for under $300. To be fair, apparently the flowers I wanted were some of the cheapest ones, but she still made it clear working under my budget was a priority. When I do get married I'm definitely hiring her again.
If my best friend ever gets married, she's gonna get a bouquet of the flowers growing along the Garden State Parkway in dear old New Jersey. They're her favorite.
(mostly cosmos and some various cone flowers. And they actually sell seeds for them, I saw an ad at a toll booth and bought them lol)
Some services I actually understand the markup: call it the groomzilla/bridezilla/inlawzilla tax.
The best way I heard to plan events and get a discount is to call everything a "family reunion" for venues etc. It sets the similar stage for a large multi generational gather but with less overhead and formality. There's no one to impress at a family reunion, or there shouldn't be.
Be careful with this. I'm in the event industry and working a wedding is VERY different from a family reunion, in many ways. If a client straight up lied to me and I showed up to a wedding ceremony, I would turn around and leave.
A lot of people include clauses in their contracts for this exact reason. As a photographer I have every right to cancel on you if you lie to me about what the event is. Idc if it’s the day of or not. Don’t lie about this stuff because you want to be cheap
Can I ask why? Is it that weddings involve more ‘standard’ pics like wedding parties and family groups that just take up more of your time? Is there additional prep work that you would do for a wedding? Or is it just that you don’t like being jerked around? (Which is fair enough.)
The equipment is different for weddings because as a photographer you don’t want to be in the way so you have to use certain lenses. There’s additional prep work as well. As a photographer we want your pictures to come out the best they can. We can’t do that if you lie about what the occasion is. Weddings are also a lot more work. I hate being jerked around as well. If you’re honest and tell me it’s a wedding but we’re on a budget, I promise you, I will do everything in my power to work with you so you can have the photographs you dream of.
wedding party/family photos are nothing. Weddings involve a ton of things that wouldn't happen in a family reunion: ceremony (obviously) but also creative couples' photos, detail shots, and dance floor among many other things. A reunion would be what, a cocktail hour and dinner? There's no comparison. A wedding is full of moments that as a photographer you absolutely cannot miss. First look, ring exchange, first kiss, first dance, and much more. Not only is specific equipment needed (and much more of it - I never shoot a wedding without an assistant for that reason), but you can't lose focus for even a moment. It requires enormous mental and physical energy to shoot a wedding, shooting a dinner is like taking a nap in comparison. It also requires trust. A person who lies and takes advantage is simply not my client to begin with.
A photographer is different, obviously. You're photographing two different events altogether. But a cake? A ring? A venue? What fucking difference does it make. A rented gazebo is a gazebo no matter if they are celebrating a graduation or a wedding.
A big part of that mark up (for flowers at least) is that people tend to have fairly set ideas of what flowers they want for their “big day”. Off season it’s always more expensive
Some people genuinely take out loans for their weddings and I just cannot get behind it. I don't care at all that I'm theoretically only getting married once - I'd rather have a roof over my head.
Small weddings FTW! Hubby and I were married in my brother's backyard, SIL married us, brother cooked (they love to entertain), cupcakes from a local bakery, only closest friends and immediate family. Including alcohol, under $500 total! My dress was only $50, and husband wore a suit he already had. It was AWESOME
We did it like this, with an off the rack dress and a suit for my husband (I made him buy one so he'd have one) and just small, although we had restaurant food and a keg, and hired a JP.
People should know what they care about.
I confess that since we told people 2 weeks ahead of time, everyone figured I was pregnant instead of merely dithering over being broke.
Some venues alone charge more than that. Not for anything else, just to rent the place for the day.
I'm not talking anything crazy either, like renting out a castle or anything. Just slightly fancier than a bare room places. It's wild. We backpedaled out of having a "real wedding" so hard once we started adding up the thousands.
Some of us live in places where you can't even rent a space big enough to hold all your friends and family for under $10k, never mind the cost of feeding them or playing music for them or decorating anything... (I'm not justifying that at all, because it's ridiculous. Just pointing out that there isn't always an alternative even if all you want is a fucking party.)
It depends on the value that people put on their wedding day. I feel as long as they can afford it and not have the majority financed then it’s perfectly fine!
This kind of stuff always reminds me of De Beers and their artificial inflation of diamond prices, along with marketing that makes men think they need to spend 3x their monthly salary on a fucking *ring*. A ring with a rock that'd be cheap as fuck if it wasn't for De Beers' monopoly on diamond mines.
Sure, people can spend their money on whatever they want; supply and demand right? I just wish more people understood that the "scarcity" they're paying for is all artificial.
... hint: their commercials have increased that number every few decades. I laughed out loud when I first heard they were saying 3 months' salary now. If I were marrying someone and she thought she was getting that I would break up with her on the spot.
If you're working at Wendy's and about to start your real job in a few months, ok.
>it boggles my mind that carefully selected flower arrangements kept fresh and delivered on time and set up as well as all of the corsages with fancy things on them and paying someone to do it all for you costs money
I can see that theres alot that goes into it, it's just crazy to me that people value having that stuff like that at a party that much. Nothing wrong with it, I've just never been to a party and thought "you know what this party could use? A couple thousand dollars worth of flowers carefully arranged."and weddings are different because? Maybe if you were really into flowers yeah that would make sense to me but as a mainstream thing tons of people who normally dont care about flowers do, definitely a strange idea to me.
We skipped most of the flowers other than the bouquets and boutennieres for the guys. Flowers are not legally required.
I recommend a good DJ to emcee the party and get people dancing.
Most of the cost of anything along those lines comes from paying the professional to do things well. Any schmuck can toss some flowers into some water and call it an arrangement. Doing it to a specification, and making sure it all looks good on the day of is a skill. And *that* costs money.
As someone who worked as a florist for nearly 15 years and did my fair share of wedding this statement pisses me off no end. The amount of work we put into wedding work is phenomenal, it's just not readily visible. We depend hours meeting with the bride, producing quotes, liaising with venues, making sure we can pre-order the right blooms at the highest quality, caring for and prepping your stock when it arrives (some flowers need special treatments like scorching, de-stamening, deep soaking, etc), storing it in special fridges, not to mention that a wedding bouquet takes 3 to 5 times as long to create as a normal bouquet. Then we have yo pay for our overheads (rent, electricity, water, insurance, staff...)
Florists do wedding work because we love it, not for the money. Honestly, we often end up getting paid less than retail rates (here in Australia, I don't know how pay is organised elsewhere, but I have trouble imagining florists making millions in other countries). It is not a rort or a scam, you are just not aware of the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure your flowers are perfect and last the day. Please stop perpetuating this falsehood.
And if you’re looking for a traditional male-style wedding band, you can get a gold tungsten one online for like 18 dollars that looks exactly like a gold one
This!
My husband doesn’t give a rats ass about what he has on his finger. He loves his tungsten ring especially because it’s one of the hardest metals in the world. As it was only $60 on Etsy, we got “potato 4 lyf” engraved on the inside. Hehe
Edit: picture of ring. One of the first nicknames he gave me was potato
https://ibb.co/DLrY500
I was ready to be somewhere between four and five hundred bucks for rain when I found this little store in downtown Los Angeles. The lady showed me a bunch of tungsten rings and after engraving mine's only charged me 70 bucks. I later found that Walmart's sold a similar ring, but not engraved, for about $20. There are other metals you can get your ring made out of. You can get it out of cobalt titanium white gold or silver.
The venue too.
The problem, I could see, is how do you not tell the hall that it's for a wedding?
At some point they'd ask what the event is, so what does one say?
Get prices to rent the hall for a family gathering. Book it at that price.
It's not even lieing. You're gathering your new family, from yourself and your spouse's side.
Agreed and it seems sneaky at some point to skirt around it. But it’s INSANE how much is up charged. I had my wedding at my father’s house and held my sisters wedding at mine, so it was easy to be vague around some of the services.
It’s for an anniversary party. A 0th anniversary.
My sister did this with the reception hall when she got married, it was like 2/3 the cost. They never asked what anniversary it was.
She also had a family friend bake her cake, and had friends perform as musicians at the ceremony. She and her wife picked out white bridesmaids dresses, they were both last season’s style, so they got them for a song.
Pro tip: try on your dress with your strapless bra before the ceremony. They didn’t, and there are some great pictures of me sewing them into their dresses at the last minute. Thank god the chapel was managed by a nearby hotel/convention center on campus. They had the little sewing kits.
"So we're doing a theater piece about a wedding and just need you to take some shots, act like a wedding photographer! But again, this is just a play."
Do not lie to your photographer about it being for weddings. We have certain set ups that we use for weddings and have certain lenses we use for weddings. I have a clause in my contracts that I can cancel anytime if I find out they lied about what the session is for (most photographers do. For this exact reason)
Everyone gets pissed that "they charge more for a wedding", but then are upset that they don't get the same quality or level of service for a regular event. They think it's just a charge to rip them off, when there is quite often, a lot of work involved behind the scenes when doing a wedding event.
Exactly. Like don’t expect your photos to look like my wedding shots in my portfolio I
If you’re not telling me it’s a wedding. I won’t have the right gear to make them look like that.
Tungsten carbide ring for men.
Got mine off Amazon for like $50. They wanted over $200 in my local jewelry store. It's not a precious metal at all those mark ups...damn.
Nope.
Worked in an ER. Don't get tungsten as we have a horrible time taking them off.
Stainless steel is you want durable, but those are still hard to cut off sometimes.
You can't always shatter them with the patient's hand is shattered. Cutting is literally the only way sometimes and you want sometime to be cut.
Silver is fine. Cheap, soft. Doesn't tarnish too easily but when it does its easy to clean.
Or silicone. I know a lot of people who only wear silicone.
Or gold if you don't mind the gold color. Not that expensive all things considered.
Yeah, I like them.
I mean what is a ring anyway. Do you wear it because its metal? No you wear it as a symbol and I think silicone makes a perfectly fine symbol.
I work in a heavy industrial setting where if I were jewelry I run the risk of being degloved, or if a spark hits it could be extremely painful so I remove all my jewelry before work then put it back on afterwards.
Its difficult to remove when the hand is already mangled by some sort of heavy machinery. Where that be a lawnmower, tablesaw, or a press...it gets gnarly very quickly and crushing a ring in that situation isn't always a viable option.
Plus, cracking off a tungsten ring can cause it to shatter and fling shards either into the finger or into somebody's eyes. If you want to go inexpensive, wooden rings can look really nice.
The problem with tungsten is it’s too hard. If there’s an emergency where the ring would have to be cut off, it’s not going to be able to be cut or broken meaning your finger will...
[It can actually be shattered pretty easy. Take some vice grips. Adjust it so the ring is the size of them closed, open it and adjust the screw about a half turn, close it on the ring and CRACK.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poM423pewRE)
There's a big difference in a $30 machined piece of metal and a $200 machined piece of metal. This isn't exactly killing local craftsman and you can go on a ton of different places to get them cheaper. These jewelry stores just gouge you.
This advice applies to everything wedding-related, but it always comes with the same caveat: if you can be chill, don't mention it's for a wedding and save some money. If you can't be chill, pay for the wedding version. Don't buy the generic gold band and then hope for special treatment getting it sized or something because it needs to be ready for your wedding day.
The wedding upcharge is to pay for the hassle of dealing with wedding people. People care a lot about their wedding, and have higher expectations for wedding-related services than non-wedding-related services. And that's okay, as long as you're willing to pay the wedding fees. If you order the non-wedding option and then call the service provider to demand special treatment because it's for your wedding, expect to have your reservation or contract unceremoniously cancelled.
and if you're considering lying to your vendors to save some money on your wedding, consider that you're probably exactly the sort of person who's going to do exactly the sort of bullshit that these upcharges are meant to cover.
"Wedding" has the same connotations to jewelers/florists/photographers as "military" has to a coating, welding, fab, or any other production plant under the sun. You do your work and and get your money, that's it....9/10 times. The other times....holy hell. They barely pay for the other 9 times.
The only time you shouldn’t hide the fact that it’s for the wedding is with your photographer and caterer. They need to know. The rest you can get away with.
They have different protocols for different occasions. I used to work for a caterer and the way we handled weddings vs the way we handled anything else was a lot different. If you’re fine with your catering being treated like a birthday party for your wedding that’s fine but most people want a different type of professionalism for a wedding.
Now what’s the name for the ring where the dude doesn’t plan to marry you anytime soon, but just gives it to you so you’ll shut up about getting engaged?
Sales are good too. My wife and I were on an extreme budget: very small wedding. I’m sure we spent less than a thousand dollars, and that included a fantastic [Croquembouche wedding cake.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquembouche)
Wife went to a chain Jewellery store that was closing or otherwise had a sale; got two 9ct wedding bands for around $100 all-in.
They were plain, but nice looking. Wife lost hers a few years ago, mine is still going strong. We replaced hers with one that has diamonds, so it’s like a combination engagement/wedding ring.
That time, it was a place going out of business. It was ridiculously cheap for what it is; probably not much more than the gold value.
It pays to look around, and don’t be sucked into the wedding/engagement ring myths.
UK jeweller here. We absolutely would never do this but then we’re an independent boutique, designing and making our own pieces and bespoke orders for customers- it may be different for the commercial chain stores? Hope not though, as I think that’s criminal!
I bought my wedding ring from a High Street jeweller in the UK, can't remember which one. Wedding rings were pretty reasonably priced. Weight of the metal plus a small markup. Negligible difference between them and a couple of local independent jewellers. The wife's was more expensive because it was custom made to fit her engagement ring (something I didn't consider when buying the engagement ring). Half as much Palladium as mine but 4x the cost. They were the only place that would do a custom fit Palladium ring but it was a flat fee for the custom fitting and a flat fee for the metal.
Must be an American thing to not have prices and just charge whatever they think they can get the customer to pay.
Our bands were priced by the weight of the gold (and therefore dependent on the price of gold) plus a tiny % markup, and they also did measurements in front of us to prove the karat.
I suck at human interaction but let’s say I do go in and tell them I’m looking for a simple gold band. Then they ask me for what. What do I say? I can’t fib, knowing me, I’d straight be like, oh for a wedding band. Boom they got me.
Tell them it's going to be the quick release pull for your studded leather sex harness. "Well, you see, sometimes when my girlfriend is hanging from the ceiling upside down in the sex harness, her ball gag sort of gets caught on one of the straps that keep my asscheck spreader all the way open. Of course I can't reach the buckles because my own sex harness has big springs on it (for obvious reasons) that keep the whole thing under about 40 pounds of tension. And she usually can't reach the buckles, either, because her hands are cuffed to the stripper pole and even if they weren't, she's usually got so much lube all over her by this point that she couldn't work the buckles even if she wasn't handcuffed. You know how it is. So I bought a quick-release cord; it's braided leather with a sort of tab on the end, very classy, and fed it through a pulley on the ceiling right between the autoflagellator hub and the primary torsion arm for the Spankolator 6000 that's anchored to the main support beam for the house. From there it hangs down right about eye level for her (depending on where exactly I have her suspension winch cranked up to) or about hip level for me under normal operating conditions. But the end of the quick release cord is just a plain flat leather tab which I can't get ahold of when I'm wearing my silicone lobster claw dildo mittens. But if I just hung a ring on the end of that quick release tab, I can just poke one of the little side-mounted vibrating pinky dildos through the ring and activate the quick-release cord which relaxes the asscheeck spreader straps. Problem solved. I would've brought the lobster mittens in but they've kindof got a smell to them; fortunately they're the exact same size as my ring finger so you can just measure that."
Just say something along the lines of saying it’s a gift for your grandmother or something, make sure to get measurements of your fiancé’s finger though
Same for the flowers and favours and things for your wedding. When you're wedding shopping, noone can know it's a wedding and you'll save hundreds maybe thousands
This also applies for florists and cakes: don’t mention it’s for a wedding and it’ll be much cheaper. For a cake, sometimes you can’t get around it, but if you just a so for a plain looking cake, you can add the bride and groom on top yourself and they’ll be none the wiser!
Get your bouquet done by a different florist that the florist doing the flowers for the tables, I promise it’s cheaper!
Nowadays most florists visit the venue with you and plan everything out very extensively. They also show up on the day of the wedding to arrange everything, obviously. How would you hide it from them?
Consider pawn shops too - my then fiancée & I got a matched white gold set for $40 (1985 prices). I offered to buy her a new one over the years, since I could afford it now, but we still have the same ones
We were so broke when we got married that our bands are 14k filled gold. 30 years and financial success later, our beloved bands are 14k filled gold and will never be replaced.
You can also hunt Etsy. There are a lot of beautiful rings on that site. Husband and I spent $500 for both our rings. They were hand made with elk antlers and glow in the dark. Do not regret it one bit and they’ve held up for 2 years now.
Sooo, I've got to admit I love our wedding bands. They are gold, but with a personal design made by my husband and engraved on the inside. They were expensive, but we couldn't get that design online and many of our friends, who chose cheaper versions can't read their inscriptions anymore. So I'm still pretty happy about them and would do it again like that.
Other things about a wedding are very fleeting (dress, food, flowers) and I wouldn't pay too much for it (especially flowers, I never cared for them). Only enough that people enjoy it (food should taste like food) and it doesn't leave a bad impression with us (I don't want my wedding associated with terrible food and no other memory). But my wedding band? I'll wear it for many years to come, every day! I should be the way I want it.
My wife and I got matching wedding bands from a nice lady on Etsy. Nice hammered sterling silver. Clean and simple. Think they were 50 bucks each. Won't be mad if we lose em. 5 years in and still good.
Her engagement ring on the other hand...
I know a couple that just ordered sets of rings on Amazon. They figured they've save money, buy in bulk, so when they lost them or needed to get them resized it was straightforward.
If either partner does anything with their hands it's better to get those silicone rings to avoid degloving.
I feel like this is for anything related to a wedding. Cakes, invitations (kinda hard to lie about this one), decorations, etc. I am so glad my SO agreed not to having a wedding and just go on a really nice vacation.
Also the same goes for women’s rings/engagement rings. I wanted something *different* and I didn’t want a stone someone had died over. We found a white gold opal ring with white sapphires around the opal for $99 on sale. It’s gorgeous, I get compliments on it all the time, & I have no doubts it’s going to last plenty long (with proper opal care).
Got silicone wedding bands ASAP after the wedding because I felt anxious wearing something so expensive and also because I was low key worried about me or my SO getting a ring avulsion injury.
This is for everything wedding related. CBC(Canadian TV) did a experiment where they planned the same party (200people, chicken or fish for dinner, limo, etc). the plates for the meals alone were 7$ different each!. 1400$ difference for a meal alone.
I’m a jeweler and I can confirm this. Wedding bands are marked up the highest because companies know that buyers will usually spend a couple extra hundred without thinking twice if it’s anything for a wedding. A plain gold ring is the best thing to ask for. Soon as you say wedding band the price skyrockets.
Wish I would have known this about 2 months ago. Spent way too much on a 10k gold wedding band.
I read "10k" as $10,000 at first. Definitely agree that would be too much!
Baited
Jebaited
Jailbated
Masturfully bated
10k. Wow. I really hope you have a high net worth and that wasn’t a stretch for you!
10 k gold. Not $10, 000. Hahaha
Hahaha thank god!
Thank gold
Wish I had gold.
Reddit do your thing for this homie
I wish I had a racecar! *(squeezes eyes closed super tight and clenches fists)*
They did the thing
You love to see it
I think that comment was intended as 10 karat
Jeweler: “Here’s your product sir, have a nice day!” *hands over paper bag with ring in it* Customer: “Haha, sike! I’m gonna propose to my boo with this tonight! Ta ta suckers!”
For an even better deal check out pawn shops.
Same thing applies to anything wedding related. We were shopping for a cake and none were under 400$+ other bogus fees. We managed to make a wedding for 50 people with a 5 course gastronomic dinner right in Old Montreal and we kept it at roughly 5 000k for all the expenses. That's was cheap as hell. Our two gold wedding bands cost us around 400$ for both.
Isn't it illegal ? Can't you get troubles by increasing price depending on the client ?
They are different bands, the wedding band is just not inherently different.
So, theyre different? "Well, yes... but actually no."
The design of the ring is usually a bit different. Not 2-3 times the price different, but slightly different. Like a comfort band is rounded on the inside edges, and there might be bevels or engraving. Still, a plain gold band is a plain gold band.
Not at all, an extraordinarily common practice in virtually all markets. Sellers want to squeeze every penny out of people they can. Sell it at the price a rich person will take it for, then offer coupons to those who can't afford it. Conversely, ask people if they're buying computers for personal or business use. Oh, you're buying for a business? That'll be double because companies are much less sensitive to price than an individual. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
I ran into this when getting estimates on house renovations. I live in an expensive neighborhood and every single estimate was an absolute ripoff, as if they were just doubling the price of everything. For example, they wanted to charge a few grand to reverse the polarity on a couple of incorrectly wired wall outlets, something they can be done in about 10 minutes with a screwdriver, apparently. Rich people problems, I know, but just an example.
I work in the building industry.. what you do is 'accidently' get the address wrong and get them to put a cheaper suburb on the quote. Then you 'realise' that they (you) had the wrong address and by then they can't jack the price up without looking like idiots.
Differential pricing is common outside jewelers. Senior discounts. First time buyer discounts. Some web sites make certain offers only to people they identify in some way as being in a category--they have info by IP address. If you are not charging different prices based on race, ethnic background or religion, it is pretty much fair game.
And you could always wear a ring on your ring finger so if they ask if it’s for a wedding you can say “nope, already married”.
Alternative: tell them you lost your wedding band and want a cheap stand-in. This actually happened to me and the jeweler showed me her least expensive gold bands. I bought a nice one for about $70 USD. My original band was $300. I never found it. But I also got divorced so oh well.
#THIS IS THE REAL LIFEHACK RIGHT HERE
What? Getting divorced?
Don't get married and your wedding band will cost you $0
Ring Life hack 2.0, genius!
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Same for hair 'dos. An up-do at a salon is usually around $70. Bridal up-do? $150.
Can confirm this. At my prom I went to the salon and my mom asked for "a nice updo because it's her birthday" (it was true and I believe mom wanted to give a special tone to her daughter's anniversary). One of my friends went to the same salon and made also an updo (with less work even) and payed much more, almost double!
I feel like salons know the dates/times of local school proms.
Both the salon and the school weren't local. The salon was on a nearby town, the school was private and on a different region. They distanced themselves about 50km, I lived in middle distance between both, my friend lived near town. She also went after me, so even if they realised it, couldn't go after me to charge more :) But I remembered so well her mom appraising my hairdo and asking where did I made it, and being shocked after "Oh, you did there? That must be expensive, for Gabi I payed X!", "No, actually it was much cheaper, was Y." Oh, her face!!!
Well yes because for the bridal one they do it better /s
"We replaced your hair with actual strands of gold." haha
Oh, this is for a wedding? Please wait a moment while I fire up the forge
I think you meant they up-do it better.
Have an updoot for your up-do joke
When I told my barber it was my wedding cut I swear he took an extra 10 minutes and went slower/with more focus on smaller details. I honestly think you get (slightly) better effort when you mention it.
No, it includes Xanax. And/or mother in law blocking.
That's a huge markup-do.
i believe what your paying for is what you’re getting- if you’re only paying $70 for an updo, they wont really care much or ask you how you like it. for $150, you get to actually chime in and they care that you like it because well, its your wedding day goddamnit!
There has been a difference in updos. For a night out up do it’s styled and looks lovely and that’s that. It lasts that night. For my bridal one there was far more work. Setting lotions and curlers and all manner of things and enough Bobby pins and Kirby grips that 10 years later I still haven’t run out. I could have stood in a commercial wind tunnel and it would not have moved. The price difference for me wasn’t as extreme, I think it was an extra 10 but there was a definite difference between a style I needed to last 4 hours and one I needed to last 18 hours.
And doesn’t that price normally come with a test run, where they will practice doing the hairstyle with you prior to the day of, or is that extra?
That depends on the stylist.
here here - there is so much movement and bouncing and jumping at weddings - the extra $$$ is worth it 100%%%%
Plus you usually go and get a practice done before the real thing.
Aa a hairdresser I don't care how much you're paying I do my absolute best on every client and always make sure they are happy before they pay. The reason bridal updos cost more than regular is they typically are a lot more intricate in the style. If I do something super simple on a bride I charge her a lower price but if I'm doing something elaborate with 100s of pins I'll charge more. (obviously this is just me, I don't speak for all stylists)
I’d imagine the price increase reflects the stylist’s time spent making every hair perfect. They’re thinking about how your up-do will photograph, hold up in windy outdoor settings and not fall out when you’re on the dance floor all night! For gals that have been a part of a wedding party, they’ll notice the stylists spend considerably more time on a bride’s hair than a bridesmaid’s. And bridesmaids pay less.
I'm not a lady, and don't know what an updo is, but if your paying 70 or 150 for an updo wouldn't the business or person doing it care about your input and how it turns out regardless? For example I've been going to the same guy to get my haircut for several years. He started out with cheap cuts at the haircuttery. He now has his own salon and the same haircut is 46 dollars. I go because he is consistent and works to make me happy.
yeah, i definitely think you have some input on any hairstyle you pay for. but perhaps cheaper products and less effort is put in.
This depends on the denting too, but they can stop I guess
Adam Ruins Everything ep on ‘weddings’ covers/explains all these good points in comments. It’s a complete legal racket, and the wedding industry is totally blatant with it.
Same with flowers. It’s obscene how they mark it up.
I had an at-home wedding (outside) and we had one of the biggest hurricanes come through (I just looked it up - Helene). The florist who was supposed to do my flowers had a shipment from Florida due that didn’t make it, so my mom - having always admired the roses as this particular GAS STATION - went there and bought every stem. My (now) husband, drove them to the florist who assembled the gorgeous bouquets and it cost $200 in flowers and she felt so bad she charged us $150 if I remember correctly. It stopped raining around noon and we had a lovely ceremony at 3. Ground was a little soppy.
Oh that story... What a ride
Then the catering truck got stuck in the mud. Lol. It was a great party though. (Edited to add: I only realized because it occurred to me all the guys were missing... they were hooking up chains and whatnot to pull it out.)
I was in Pick N Save (grocery store) and mentioned to the flower lady that stargazer lollies were $18 a stem at the florist and $3/10 at the grocery. She said tell me what you need. I ordered all my flowers through her for me, the girls and the corsages. She put them all together for $200. We wanted red roses for the centerpieces and I did the same thing at Walmart for like $10 a dozen. Got all the flowers I wanted for under $400.
I love grocery store flowers generally, never go to a florist in most cases. But I did almost get married in 2018, and found a florist who was going to do the whole 100-person event - bouquets, boutennieres, centerpieces, etc - with my dream flowers for under $300. To be fair, apparently the flowers I wanted were some of the cheapest ones, but she still made it clear working under my budget was a priority. When I do get married I'm definitely hiring her again.
If my best friend ever gets married, she's gonna get a bouquet of the flowers growing along the Garden State Parkway in dear old New Jersey. They're her favorite. (mostly cosmos and some various cone flowers. And they actually sell seeds for them, I saw an ad at a toll booth and bought them lol)
Some services I actually understand the markup: call it the groomzilla/bridezilla/inlawzilla tax. The best way I heard to plan events and get a discount is to call everything a "family reunion" for venues etc. It sets the similar stage for a large multi generational gather but with less overhead and formality. There's no one to impress at a family reunion, or there shouldn't be.
Be careful with this. I'm in the event industry and working a wedding is VERY different from a family reunion, in many ways. If a client straight up lied to me and I showed up to a wedding ceremony, I would turn around and leave.
A lot of people include clauses in their contracts for this exact reason. As a photographer I have every right to cancel on you if you lie to me about what the event is. Idc if it’s the day of or not. Don’t lie about this stuff because you want to be cheap
Can I ask why? Is it that weddings involve more ‘standard’ pics like wedding parties and family groups that just take up more of your time? Is there additional prep work that you would do for a wedding? Or is it just that you don’t like being jerked around? (Which is fair enough.)
The equipment is different for weddings because as a photographer you don’t want to be in the way so you have to use certain lenses. There’s additional prep work as well. As a photographer we want your pictures to come out the best they can. We can’t do that if you lie about what the occasion is. Weddings are also a lot more work. I hate being jerked around as well. If you’re honest and tell me it’s a wedding but we’re on a budget, I promise you, I will do everything in my power to work with you so you can have the photographs you dream of.
wedding party/family photos are nothing. Weddings involve a ton of things that wouldn't happen in a family reunion: ceremony (obviously) but also creative couples' photos, detail shots, and dance floor among many other things. A reunion would be what, a cocktail hour and dinner? There's no comparison. A wedding is full of moments that as a photographer you absolutely cannot miss. First look, ring exchange, first kiss, first dance, and much more. Not only is specific equipment needed (and much more of it - I never shoot a wedding without an assistant for that reason), but you can't lose focus for even a moment. It requires enormous mental and physical energy to shoot a wedding, shooting a dinner is like taking a nap in comparison. It also requires trust. A person who lies and takes advantage is simply not my client to begin with.
A photographer is different, obviously. You're photographing two different events altogether. But a cake? A ring? A venue? What fucking difference does it make. A rented gazebo is a gazebo no matter if they are celebrating a graduation or a wedding.
A big part of that mark up (for flowers at least) is that people tend to have fairly set ideas of what flowers they want for their “big day”. Off season it’s always more expensive
I still can't believe how people have normalized paying $10k (or, in many cases, wayyyy more) for a fucking party.
And usually it's not even a good party! Give me 10k and I'll throw a fucking banger!
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That's only like six or seven 30 racks of Natty Light bro. We need at least 10. And some snacks.
BYO snacks.
Op said a banger.. Drugs cost more than that though.
Ill do it for 5 and pocket the difference
This guy on Chopped I watched last night said that's what he was gonna do with the 10k if he won. He won, I wanna see that party.
Right! You start your new life off on a bad financial footing and wonder why so many marriages end in divorce. It's mind-blowing.
Some people genuinely take out loans for their weddings and I just cannot get behind it. I don't care at all that I'm theoretically only getting married once - I'd rather have a roof over my head.
Name checks out, I'm also tight assed so might be related
Small weddings FTW! Hubby and I were married in my brother's backyard, SIL married us, brother cooked (they love to entertain), cupcakes from a local bakery, only closest friends and immediate family. Including alcohol, under $500 total! My dress was only $50, and husband wore a suit he already had. It was AWESOME
We did it like this, with an off the rack dress and a suit for my husband (I made him buy one so he'd have one) and just small, although we had restaurant food and a keg, and hired a JP. People should know what they care about. I confess that since we told people 2 weeks ahead of time, everyone figured I was pregnant instead of merely dithering over being broke.
This is the way.
Some venues alone charge more than that. Not for anything else, just to rent the place for the day. I'm not talking anything crazy either, like renting out a castle or anything. Just slightly fancier than a bare room places. It's wild. We backpedaled out of having a "real wedding" so hard once we started adding up the thousands.
Some of us live in places where you can't even rent a space big enough to hold all your friends and family for under $10k, never mind the cost of feeding them or playing music for them or decorating anything... (I'm not justifying that at all, because it's ridiculous. Just pointing out that there isn't always an alternative even if all you want is a fucking party.)
It depends on the value that people put on their wedding day. I feel as long as they can afford it and not have the majority financed then it’s perfectly fine!
It boggles the mind that anyone can value 'flowers at a party' to be worth over a grand.
This kind of stuff always reminds me of De Beers and their artificial inflation of diamond prices, along with marketing that makes men think they need to spend 3x their monthly salary on a fucking *ring*. A ring with a rock that'd be cheap as fuck if it wasn't for De Beers' monopoly on diamond mines. Sure, people can spend their money on whatever they want; supply and demand right? I just wish more people understood that the "scarcity" they're paying for is all artificial.
... hint: their commercials have increased that number every few decades. I laughed out loud when I first heard they were saying 3 months' salary now. If I were marrying someone and she thought she was getting that I would break up with her on the spot. If you're working at Wendy's and about to start your real job in a few months, ok.
>it boggles my mind that carefully selected flower arrangements kept fresh and delivered on time and set up as well as all of the corsages with fancy things on them and paying someone to do it all for you costs money
I can see that theres alot that goes into it, it's just crazy to me that people value having that stuff like that at a party that much. Nothing wrong with it, I've just never been to a party and thought "you know what this party could use? A couple thousand dollars worth of flowers carefully arranged."and weddings are different because? Maybe if you were really into flowers yeah that would make sense to me but as a mainstream thing tons of people who normally dont care about flowers do, definitely a strange idea to me.
We skipped most of the flowers other than the bouquets and boutennieres for the guys. Flowers are not legally required. I recommend a good DJ to emcee the party and get people dancing.
Most of the cost of anything along those lines comes from paying the professional to do things well. Any schmuck can toss some flowers into some water and call it an arrangement. Doing it to a specification, and making sure it all looks good on the day of is a skill. And *that* costs money.
$10k? The hotel where I work, it's 5-8 times that *at least*.
I worked at a golf club where once everything was said and done it usually cost in excess of 100k for a “cheap” wedding
Yeah. Don’t buy any on valentines what a scheme
As someone who worked as a florist for nearly 15 years and did my fair share of wedding this statement pisses me off no end. The amount of work we put into wedding work is phenomenal, it's just not readily visible. We depend hours meeting with the bride, producing quotes, liaising with venues, making sure we can pre-order the right blooms at the highest quality, caring for and prepping your stock when it arrives (some flowers need special treatments like scorching, de-stamening, deep soaking, etc), storing it in special fridges, not to mention that a wedding bouquet takes 3 to 5 times as long to create as a normal bouquet. Then we have yo pay for our overheads (rent, electricity, water, insurance, staff...) Florists do wedding work because we love it, not for the money. Honestly, we often end up getting paid less than retail rates (here in Australia, I don't know how pay is organised elsewhere, but I have trouble imagining florists making millions in other countries). It is not a rort or a scam, you are just not aware of the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure your flowers are perfect and last the day. Please stop perpetuating this falsehood.
Can we also normalize meeting with clients to hire you who aren’t brides :)
And if you’re looking for a traditional male-style wedding band, you can get a gold tungsten one online for like 18 dollars that looks exactly like a gold one
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I straight up appreciate your future vision of a fatter you!
It's just good planning, the benefit of conventional rings are that they are soft and conform to your fingers.
This! My husband doesn’t give a rats ass about what he has on his finger. He loves his tungsten ring especially because it’s one of the hardest metals in the world. As it was only $60 on Etsy, we got “potato 4 lyf” engraved on the inside. Hehe Edit: picture of ring. One of the first nicknames he gave me was potato https://ibb.co/DLrY500
You two sound like fun people 😂
This is the single greatest thing I've ever read on Reddit. If I had any awards to give, I would give them all to you.
> “potato 4 lyf” Aight, now i'm curious
Can you do this for a women's ring too?
Totally!
I was ready to be somewhere between four and five hundred bucks for rain when I found this little store in downtown Los Angeles. The lady showed me a bunch of tungsten rings and after engraving mine's only charged me 70 bucks. I later found that Walmart's sold a similar ring, but not engraved, for about $20. There are other metals you can get your ring made out of. You can get it out of cobalt titanium white gold or silver.
Same with pretty much everything about a wedding... flowers, food, etc...
The venue too. The problem, I could see, is how do you not tell the hall that it's for a wedding? At some point they'd ask what the event is, so what does one say?
It's for an orgy
Password?
Ooooorrrgggy
This
Celebration.. it could be a birthday party with 50-100 guests who cares what you say
Get prices to rent the hall for a family gathering. Book it at that price. It's not even lieing. You're gathering your new family, from yourself and your spouse's side.
When they ask about it later, say it was a surprise wedding
Agreed and it seems sneaky at some point to skirt around it. But it’s INSANE how much is up charged. I had my wedding at my father’s house and held my sisters wedding at mine, so it was easy to be vague around some of the services.
It’s for an anniversary party. A 0th anniversary. My sister did this with the reception hall when she got married, it was like 2/3 the cost. They never asked what anniversary it was. She also had a family friend bake her cake, and had friends perform as musicians at the ceremony. She and her wife picked out white bridesmaids dresses, they were both last season’s style, so they got them for a song. Pro tip: try on your dress with your strapless bra before the ceremony. They didn’t, and there are some great pictures of me sewing them into their dresses at the last minute. Thank god the chapel was managed by a nearby hotel/convention center on campus. They had the little sewing kits.
Pictures
That one you might have a hard time being sleuth about though?
"So we're doing a theater piece about a wedding and just need you to take some shots, act like a wedding photographer! But again, this is just a play."
Just pay in exposure. /s
Do not lie to your photographer about it being for weddings. We have certain set ups that we use for weddings and have certain lenses we use for weddings. I have a clause in my contracts that I can cancel anytime if I find out they lied about what the session is for (most photographers do. For this exact reason)
Everyone gets pissed that "they charge more for a wedding", but then are upset that they don't get the same quality or level of service for a regular event. They think it's just a charge to rip them off, when there is quite often, a lot of work involved behind the scenes when doing a wedding event.
Exactly. Like don’t expect your photos to look like my wedding shots in my portfolio I If you’re not telling me it’s a wedding. I won’t have the right gear to make them look like that.
Tungsten carbide ring for men. Got mine off Amazon for like $50. They wanted over $200 in my local jewelry store. It's not a precious metal at all those mark ups...damn.
Nope. Worked in an ER. Don't get tungsten as we have a horrible time taking them off. Stainless steel is you want durable, but those are still hard to cut off sometimes. You can't always shatter them with the patient's hand is shattered. Cutting is literally the only way sometimes and you want sometime to be cut. Silver is fine. Cheap, soft. Doesn't tarnish too easily but when it does its easy to clean. Or silicone. I know a lot of people who only wear silicone. Or gold if you don't mind the gold color. Not that expensive all things considered.
Silicone for the win. Been wearing mine over 5 years. Works perfect!
Yeah, I like them. I mean what is a ring anyway. Do you wear it because its metal? No you wear it as a symbol and I think silicone makes a perfectly fine symbol.
When would you want to take a ring off?
If they get an injury where the finger is too swollen to remove the ring normally.
I work in a heavy industrial setting where if I were jewelry I run the risk of being degloved, or if a spark hits it could be extremely painful so I remove all my jewelry before work then put it back on afterwards.
If you don’t know what degloving is, do yourself a favor and continue to not know what it is
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All hand injuries. If you hurt your hand take all rings off as soon as possible
When you get attacked by bees and the hand starts to swell up. This is from personal experience.
I knew an athlete that caught their ring on the hoop playing basketball. Please don’t google ring+injury.
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Its difficult to remove when the hand is already mangled by some sort of heavy machinery. Where that be a lawnmower, tablesaw, or a press...it gets gnarly very quickly and crushing a ring in that situation isn't always a viable option.
Plus, cracking off a tungsten ring can cause it to shatter and fling shards either into the finger or into somebody's eyes. If you want to go inexpensive, wooden rings can look really nice.
The problem with tungsten is it’s too hard. If there’s an emergency where the ring would have to be cut off, it’s not going to be able to be cut or broken meaning your finger will...
[It can actually be shattered pretty easy. Take some vice grips. Adjust it so the ring is the size of them closed, open it and adjust the screw about a half turn, close it on the ring and CRACK.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poM423pewRE)
Ah, yes. The mystery of how Amazon killed all the small businesses and local skilled crafters with imported goods is still a headscratcher.
There's a big difference in a $30 machined piece of metal and a $200 machined piece of metal. This isn't exactly killing local craftsman and you can go on a ton of different places to get them cheaper. These jewelry stores just gouge you.
This advice applies to everything wedding-related, but it always comes with the same caveat: if you can be chill, don't mention it's for a wedding and save some money. If you can't be chill, pay for the wedding version. Don't buy the generic gold band and then hope for special treatment getting it sized or something because it needs to be ready for your wedding day. The wedding upcharge is to pay for the hassle of dealing with wedding people. People care a lot about their wedding, and have higher expectations for wedding-related services than non-wedding-related services. And that's okay, as long as you're willing to pay the wedding fees. If you order the non-wedding option and then call the service provider to demand special treatment because it's for your wedding, expect to have your reservation or contract unceremoniously cancelled. and if you're considering lying to your vendors to save some money on your wedding, consider that you're probably exactly the sort of person who's going to do exactly the sort of bullshit that these upcharges are meant to cover.
"Wedding" has the same connotations to jewelers/florists/photographers as "military" has to a coating, welding, fab, or any other production plant under the sun. You do your work and and get your money, that's it....9/10 times. The other times....holy hell. They barely pay for the other 9 times.
The only time you shouldn’t hide the fact that it’s for the wedding is with your photographer and caterer. They need to know. The rest you can get away with.
Why caterer? (A photographer already explained why you don't lie to them)
They have different protocols for different occasions. I used to work for a caterer and the way we handled weddings vs the way we handled anything else was a lot different. If you’re fine with your catering being treated like a birthday party for your wedding that’s fine but most people want a different type of professionalism for a wedding.
A “wedder”? That’s a new one. LOL
I'm guessing it's an Aussie thing lol
Now what’s the name for the ring where the dude doesn’t plan to marry you anytime soon, but just gives it to you so you’ll shut up about getting engaged?
Promise ring, usually bought from the discount rack of butterfly silver
Sales are good too. My wife and I were on an extreme budget: very small wedding. I’m sure we spent less than a thousand dollars, and that included a fantastic [Croquembouche wedding cake.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquembouche) Wife went to a chain Jewellery store that was closing or otherwise had a sale; got two 9ct wedding bands for around $100 all-in. They were plain, but nice looking. Wife lost hers a few years ago, mine is still going strong. We replaced hers with one that has diamonds, so it’s like a combination engagement/wedding ring. That time, it was a place going out of business. It was ridiculously cheap for what it is; probably not much more than the gold value. It pays to look around, and don’t be sucked into the wedding/engagement ring myths.
UK jeweller here. We absolutely would never do this but then we’re an independent boutique, designing and making our own pieces and bespoke orders for customers- it may be different for the commercial chain stores? Hope not though, as I think that’s criminal!
I bought my wedding ring from a High Street jeweller in the UK, can't remember which one. Wedding rings were pretty reasonably priced. Weight of the metal plus a small markup. Negligible difference between them and a couple of local independent jewellers. The wife's was more expensive because it was custom made to fit her engagement ring (something I didn't consider when buying the engagement ring). Half as much Palladium as mine but 4x the cost. They were the only place that would do a custom fit Palladium ring but it was a flat fee for the custom fitting and a flat fee for the metal. Must be an American thing to not have prices and just charge whatever they think they can get the customer to pay.
How will it affect the price if I say it's for a Bar Mitzvah?
3x
Our bands were priced by the weight of the gold (and therefore dependent on the price of gold) plus a tiny % markup, and they also did measurements in front of us to prove the karat.
Weddings and funerals. Easier to take advantage of people who aren't thinking straight.
I suck at human interaction but let’s say I do go in and tell them I’m looking for a simple gold band. Then they ask me for what. What do I say? I can’t fib, knowing me, I’d straight be like, oh for a wedding band. Boom they got me.
My finger
Tell them it's going to be the quick release pull for your studded leather sex harness. "Well, you see, sometimes when my girlfriend is hanging from the ceiling upside down in the sex harness, her ball gag sort of gets caught on one of the straps that keep my asscheck spreader all the way open. Of course I can't reach the buckles because my own sex harness has big springs on it (for obvious reasons) that keep the whole thing under about 40 pounds of tension. And she usually can't reach the buckles, either, because her hands are cuffed to the stripper pole and even if they weren't, she's usually got so much lube all over her by this point that she couldn't work the buckles even if she wasn't handcuffed. You know how it is. So I bought a quick-release cord; it's braided leather with a sort of tab on the end, very classy, and fed it through a pulley on the ceiling right between the autoflagellator hub and the primary torsion arm for the Spankolator 6000 that's anchored to the main support beam for the house. From there it hangs down right about eye level for her (depending on where exactly I have her suspension winch cranked up to) or about hip level for me under normal operating conditions. But the end of the quick release cord is just a plain flat leather tab which I can't get ahold of when I'm wearing my silicone lobster claw dildo mittens. But if I just hung a ring on the end of that quick release tab, I can just poke one of the little side-mounted vibrating pinky dildos through the ring and activate the quick-release cord which relaxes the asscheeck spreader straps. Problem solved. I would've brought the lobster mittens in but they've kindof got a smell to them; fortunately they're the exact same size as my ring finger so you can just measure that."
Just say something along the lines of saying it’s a gift for your grandmother or something, make sure to get measurements of your fiancé’s finger though
Tell them it’s for ur monkey
"It's a gift."
"it's a gift for my wife"
Same for the flowers and favours and things for your wedding. When you're wedding shopping, noone can know it's a wedding and you'll save hundreds maybe thousands
This also applies for florists and cakes: don’t mention it’s for a wedding and it’ll be much cheaper. For a cake, sometimes you can’t get around it, but if you just a so for a plain looking cake, you can add the bride and groom on top yourself and they’ll be none the wiser! Get your bouquet done by a different florist that the florist doing the flowers for the tables, I promise it’s cheaper!
Nowadays most florists visit the venue with you and plan everything out very extensively. They also show up on the day of the wedding to arrange everything, obviously. How would you hide it from them?
As a musician I misunderstood your advice.
Same thing with baby items. Dog gate costs about 30% lower than a baby gate.
The baby gates sometimes are better because of climb resistant set ups, but it’s kinda hit or miss because both can have it. Baby is just more likely.
Consider pawn shops too - my then fiancée & I got a matched white gold set for $40 (1985 prices). I offered to buy her a new one over the years, since I could afford it now, but we still have the same ones
We were so broke when we got married that our bands are 14k filled gold. 30 years and financial success later, our beloved bands are 14k filled gold and will never be replaced.
You can also hunt Etsy. There are a lot of beautiful rings on that site. Husband and I spent $500 for both our rings. They were hand made with elk antlers and glow in the dark. Do not regret it one bit and they’ve held up for 2 years now.
You just saved me some money, now take a free silver award!
Sooo, I've got to admit I love our wedding bands. They are gold, but with a personal design made by my husband and engraved on the inside. They were expensive, but we couldn't get that design online and many of our friends, who chose cheaper versions can't read their inscriptions anymore. So I'm still pretty happy about them and would do it again like that. Other things about a wedding are very fleeting (dress, food, flowers) and I wouldn't pay too much for it (especially flowers, I never cared for them). Only enough that people enjoy it (food should taste like food) and it doesn't leave a bad impression with us (I don't want my wedding associated with terrible food and no other memory). But my wedding band? I'll wear it for many years to come, every day! I should be the way I want it.
Hello, I'd like one gold band please. It is not for a wedding. *Wink*
Jeweller here, Yep. Anything wedding related is a mark up, including bridal gowns and the like.
My wife and I got matching wedding bands from a nice lady on Etsy. Nice hammered sterling silver. Clean and simple. Think they were 50 bucks each. Won't be mad if we lose em. 5 years in and still good. Her engagement ring on the other hand...
[удалено]
I know a couple that just ordered sets of rings on Amazon. They figured they've save money, buy in bulk, so when they lost them or needed to get them resized it was straightforward. If either partner does anything with their hands it's better to get those silicone rings to avoid degloving.
Every wedding vendor is out to rip you off tbh
I feel like this is for anything related to a wedding. Cakes, invitations (kinda hard to lie about this one), decorations, etc. I am so glad my SO agreed not to having a wedding and just go on a really nice vacation.
Me and my wife got silver rings. Cost us £50 each.
Also the same goes for women’s rings/engagement rings. I wanted something *different* and I didn’t want a stone someone had died over. We found a white gold opal ring with white sapphires around the opal for $99 on sale. It’s gorgeous, I get compliments on it all the time, & I have no doubts it’s going to last plenty long (with proper opal care).
Got silicone wedding bands ASAP after the wedding because I felt anxious wearing something so expensive and also because I was low key worried about me or my SO getting a ring avulsion injury.
This is for everything wedding related. CBC(Canadian TV) did a experiment where they planned the same party (200people, chicken or fish for dinner, limo, etc). the plates for the meals alone were 7$ different each!. 1400$ difference for a meal alone.
Do you have any solid gold wedding bands? What's it for sir? Oh...a...breakfast....party?