There is a new wedding trend sweeping Europe – couples are selling wedding tickets to perfect strangers to help cover the rising costs of these momentous events.
Katia Lekarski, who founded Invitin earlier this year, came up with the idea of selling tickets to weddings while renting her home in south-eastern France to some people who were attending a wedding. Her five-year-old daughter asked, ‘Why aren’t we also invited to weddings?’ and that’s when it hit her – there are other people who simply don’t get invited to weddings as much as they’d like, so what if she could sell that as a service. She would be helping newlyweds cover some of the costs of organizing a wedding and make some money for herself as a commission. Now Invitin has several couples willing to sell tickets to their wedding on the platform, and plenty of people willing to pay hundreds of euros to attend.
Photo: Alvaro CvG
“I thought selling tickets to your wedding to strangers sounded interesting,” Laurène, who paid to attend some strangers’ wedding, told The Guardian. “I don’t have a big family, so I don’t get to go to lots of weddings, it’s great to be able to experience a wedding and different traditions, even if it’s strangers. I’m keen to check out the decoration and music, and we’ll be partying on the dancefloor.”
As for the couples selling the tickets, some do it for the money – weddings are anything but cheap, after all – but some claim it’s more for the experience. Jennifer, 48, and her husband, Paulo, 50, plan to invite close to 100 of their family and friends – 80 adults and 15 children – to their wedding at a country manor an hour’s drive from Paris, but thought having a few strangers take part would be intriguing.
“I thought: ‘woah, that’s quite something’, having people you don’t know at your wedding,” Jennifer said. “It’s not only about the money, which is a drop on a hot stone in terms of the overall wedding cost, although it will help a bit in terms of the cost of things like decoration and the dress. It’s also because we thought it could be fun and we’re extroverted and open to sharing things.”
Couples get to screen the strangers on the Invitin app and choose who to accept. They also don’t have to interact with them during the event if they don’t want to, as Katia Lekarski believes “a wedding has its own ecosystem where guests get chatting to each other of their own accord.” Guests, on the other hand, have to sign up to strict rules including dressing appropriately, arriving on time, drinking with moderation, and only sharing photos from the event with authorisation.
France isn’t the only country where the pay-to-attend-weddings model is gaining traction. In Italy, a company is charging people up to €5,000 ($5,800) to attend traditional weddings as a sort of luxury experience. Wedding Privè, a startup founded by David Genovesi and Luca Manelli, targets big-spending tourists interested in exclusive experiences.
Wealthy tourists and foreign travelers can attend an Italian wedding, learn about its traditions, and participate firsthand in the rituals and vows, while newlyweds get to cover a considerable part of the costs of organizing the wedding. It’s a win-win situation, although the founders of the Italian startup admit that couples do consider it a bit strange at first.
Photo: Drew Coffman
“There are also some reservations, which is normal, because it’s something new,” Davide Genovesi told Si Viaggia. “That’s why we always make sure to hear from them firsthand and explain how the project works. They are never left alone: the international guests, in fact, are accompanied by a sort of guide who translates and explains in real time what’s happening, but who also guarantees the newlyweds’ safety to protect and preserve their special day from any inconvenience.”
Wedding Privè charges clients between €1000 and €5,000 to attend a traditional wedding, depending on how involved they want to be in the event, whereas French startup Invitin’s ticket prices range from €150 to €400 per guest.
