Everyone’s Getting Married—and It’s Costing Me a Fortune

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reality check, Doll says. Wedding season can whip everyone into a frenzy, but if the newlyweds are considering their guests and their needs, they’ll understand that everyone can’t come to everything. “We talk so much about the couples, and while that is important and interesting and love is a great thing, the people who are going to the wedding are often as important a part of a wedding as everything else," Doll says.

“If you’re putting on a wedding, try to think about what you’re asking from your guests. If you do have your heart set on some wedding in Fiji, know that not everyone is going to be able to come, and that doesn’t mean they’re not your friend." Learn to compromise Learning to make compromises can make this planning process less stressful for wedding guests, Doll says. Once you receive the official Save the Date card, that is your time to price out how much you can reasonably set aside for attending this wedding and its ancillary events.

If you’re going to have to take on debt or plunder your savings to make it to everything, that should be a sign that you’ll have to find some compromises, such as attending fewer pre-celebrations or staying for less time over the actual wedding weekend. “You need to have pretty firm boundaries, but that is something that’s way easier to talk about than to do," Doll says. “Don’t feel like a failure that you can’t do everything because of your bank account." After talking with Doll and Arlotta, I looked at my 2024 calendar: two weddings, both in honor of people I absolutely adore.

My girlfriend mentioned another wedding she’d love me to attend as her plus-one. Over the years, after being in several weddings and attending many more, I’ve come to my own set of compromises. On a