Keeping Your Bridesmaids From Going Into Debt

It's an established fact that weddings these days are getting more and more expensive, averaging around $30,000 for everything! To you this might seem like a perfectly justifiable expense - you only get married once, and you deserve to have your dream ceremony, maybe one you've been dreaming of since you were young.

If you want to go all out with a three day destination wedding extravaganza, complete with bachelorette party trip to New York or Las Vegas, a day at the spa and professional hair and makeup for you and your bridesmaids, why stop yourself? After all, your sincere thanks and a few cute bridesmaid gifts will make it worth it for your best friends, right?

Not so fast. What you may not know about the modern wedding budget is that it doesn't ordinarily factor in the expenses paid out by the ones that make your ceremony the memorable affair you want it to be: your guests, and most especially the members of the wedding party. Today's bridesmaids spend an average of $1000 to $1400 as a participant in a wedding, and for a lot of people, especially in their twenties, that can be an entire paycheck! Makes giving out a cute necklace or bracelet as bridesmaid gifts seem a little insufficient, huh?

While they're your best friends and you know that attending your wedding will be worth it for them, you have to keep in mind that your wedding might not be the only one they're asked to attend, whether as a guest or a bridesmaid again. That can add up to a great deal of expense during the high wedding season, taking into account the time they'll have to take off work, flights out if they live out of state or you're having a destination wedding, the cost of a bridesmaid dress plus alterations, and any other event you'd like them to attend, whether it's a destination bachelorette weekend or a simple day at the spa. But not to worry - there's more you can do to offset the cost than simply offer up bridesmaid gifts in thanks.

Modern brides often see fit to contribute at least part of the expense of attending the wedding to their bridesmaids as bridesmaid gifts. You don't have to pick up every cent of the cost, but if you're asking a lot from your best friends to come to your wedding, they'd certainly appreciate you helping out. If you're having a destination wedding, offer to pick up plane tickets or hotel fare. Got your heart set on a lavish weekend out in Atlantic City? Same thing: offer to get the flights or hotel rooms. If your pre-wedding primping activity is going to be a day at the spa, at least volunteer to drive them all there and chip in for a massage or a pedicure for each girl. They've probably already resigned themselves to buying their bridesmaid dresses, but if you want more from them than that, it's only courteous to keep the expected spending in check.

If you just don't have room in your budget to assist your bridesmaids with the cost of coming to your wedding, do what you can to keep their expenses low by choosing inexpensive bridesmaid dresses that they can wear without alterations, or skipping a day at the spa in favor of a day of pampering at your house with a 7 Piece Personalized Spa Gift Set for each of them as bridesmaid gifts. You've already taken the first step, which is awareness of your bridesmaids' potential expense - now how you choose to help offset that is up to you.