Americans Turn Weddings into a Commodity, Charging Guests to Attend
A US website allows couples to sell unused wedding reception seats to vetted strangers, with some charging up to $200 per person.
A new trend is emerging in the United States where couples are selling tickets to their weddings to strangers, transforming a once-private event into a purchasable experience. The website "Not A Wedding Crasher" facilitates this by allowing couples to offer extra or unused reception seats to carefully vetted individuals.
This practice, which allows people to attend weddings of strangers for a fee, has gained traction with thousands of sign-ups. Couples are charging anywhere from $40 to $200 per seat. One couple, Jason England and Kimberly Gedeon, who held their wedding in New York, sold 14 tickets at $40 each to strangers to help meet their venue's minimum headcount requirement. Gedeon mentioned that the idea came from the "Not A Wedding Crasher" website, and she was surprised by the overwhelming response.
"I thought that nobody would care to come to a stranger's wedding so I charged $40 as an incentive to get people to sign up," Gedeon told Radio 4's Today programme. "But the requests came flooding in – I should have charged $150!"
According to Gedeon, her family and her fiancé's relatives were unaware that some guests were paying attendees. She noted that the paying guests "really came out and brought the energy." The platform requires potential guests to undergo identity, facial recognition, and background checks before they are accepted.
One participant, Kylie Perlow, defended the concept, stating, "Everyone thought I was crazy. But for $40 we had an excuse to go out, have a nice night to dress up for. We had tons of food, an open bar and an excuse to party."
The "Not A Wedding Crasher" platform was founded by San Diego couple Jeff and Karina Besen. Currently, the website lists 24 weddings with prices ranging from $25 for a celebration in Charlotte, North Carolina, to $200 for a more elaborate event in Baltimore. The trend, while originating in the US, has potential to spread, with Kimberly Gedeon suggesting it might slowly catch on in other countries, possibly starting with more adventurous individuals.