8 Wedding Habits Michiganders Say Have Gotten Out of Hand

Michigan couples now spend an average of over $30,000 on a wedding, according to The Wedding Report, a wedding industry research firm.

That number only covers the couple.

Bridesmaids charge flights to credit cards, and guests fly across the country just to watch two people get married.

These are the wedding habits Michiganders say have gotten out of hand, and couples and guests across the country say the exact same thing.

1. Bridal Party Costs

A wedding’s bridal party used to mean a matching dress and a toast.

Members now spend an average of $824 per wedding on attire, pre-wedding events, and the wedding weekend itself, a 2022 LendingTree survey found.

That’s before the gift.

Sixty-two percent of past members call the costs excessive.

Half say they’ve gone into debt just to keep up.

Forty-three percent blamed themselves for the pressure to spend, and 42% blamed the bride.

2. Multi-Day Wedding Weekends

A wedding rarely means one event anymore.

Couples now stack a welcome party, a rehearsal dinner, a ceremony, and a day-after brunch into one weekend, and they expect guests at all four.

It’s not just the wedding anymore.

The whole weekend counts now.

A 2025 Credit Karma survey found 46% of wedding guests call these multi-event weekends selfish.

Twenty-two percent take four or more days off work just to attend one wedding.

Michigan’s average wedding already runs $30,734, and that figure is just the couple’s side of the ledger.

3. Destination Wedding Costs

A destination wedding means travel for the guest, not just attendance.

Guests who fly in spend an average of $1,680, according to The Knot’s 2024 Guest Study, compared with $270 for a guest who stays local.

That’s a plane ticket, a hotel room, and a gift, all for one weekend.

That adds up fast.

Fifty-eight percent of guests call destination weddings an unfair financial ask, the same Credit Karma survey found.

Forty-two percent say they’ve lost a friend who couldn’t afford to make the trip.

Seventy-one percent have gone anyway, or plan to.

4. Bachelorette and Bachelor Blowouts

Bachelorette and bachelor parties don’t stay local anymore.

Attending one now costs $1,500 on average, up from $1,400 the year before, according to a 2022 Savings.com survey.

That’s just to show up.

International trips push that average past $2,000.

Fifty-five percent of attendees admit the cost leaves them resentful.

Fifty-two percent put some of it on a credit card.

One in five of these trips now runs four days or longer, closer to a vacation than a night out.

5. Cash and Registry Demands

Wedding registries used to mean china patterns and towel sets.

Now they lead with a cash fund for the honeymoon or a down payment, and some couples publicly call out guests who don't give enough.

One bride publicly flagged a guest's $100 mobile payment as an inadequate gift, Fortune reported in 2024.

Another called out eight guests who gave $50 combined.

That wasn't subtle.

Longtime etiquette expert Lisa Mirza Grotts says a gift is something given without payment attached, and demanding one defeats the purpose.

A gift stops being a gift once it comes with a price tag.

6. Strict Wedding Dress Codes

More wedding invitations arrive with a rulebook attached.

One couple's invitation came with a 14-point list of attire rules, right down to fabric and color, Fortune reported in 2024.

Guests called it controlling.

One bride confronted a guest over her dress within minutes of arrival and said she'd normally send people home for breaking the dress code.

Her husband caught similar criticism over his pink tie and was asked to remove it.

The story went viral, and most viewers sided against the bride.

7. Guests Paying Their Own Way

A few couples now sell tickets to their wedding instead of hosting it.

One Idaho couple charged $57 for a basic ticket and $997 for a VIP pass covering a rehearsal dinner, the ceremony, and a post-wedding brunch.

About 130 people paid up.

Not everyone laughed.

The idea sparked enough debate that a stranger publicly challenged the bride to defend it online.

She accepted, and they debated it live.

The couple ended up donating more than $130,000 in leftover proceeds to a nonprofit in Kenya.

For destination weddings in particular, Credit Karma's same survey found 56% of guests say they shouldn't be expected to give a gift at all.

8. Adults-Only Guest Lists

Adults-only weddings sound simple until the invitations go out.

Only 9% of people in a YouGov U.K. survey support banning every child from a wedding, while a quarter think every guest's kids should be welcome.

Many land in between.

A Rockford, Illinois bride capped her 2022 guest list at zero children and lost contact with family members who still haven't spoken to her about it, Newsweek reported.

She cited the venue's stairs, an open bar, and lit candles as safety concerns for the roughly 20 children she would've otherwise invited.