It pays to say “nay” to a big day — according to one money-conscious mother-of-the-bride.
Blowing wads of cash on a wedding bash isn’t worth it to Kate, a mom of four daughters, who’s bribing her brood to forgo saying “I Do” with extravagant nuptials.
“I will pay each of my daughters $35,000 not to have a wedding,” announced the pennywise parent to the over 1.5 million viewers of her viral vid. She captioned the clip, in part, saying, “I’ve told them since they were young, they can [either] have a check or a wedding.”
Kate’s kiddos, however, simply can’t have both.
It’s not that the brunette is anti-tying the knot. Instead, her five-figure proposition is an effort to help her daughters avoid kicking off married life in deep debt.
From coast-to-coast, brides and grooms are getting hitched to the tune of $26,665, on average, breaking the bank on voguish venues, fancy food, wow-worthy wedding garb and a laundry list of exorbitantly expensive indulgences.
Sweethearts in NYC and it neighboring New Jersey typically spend upwards of $53,000 on haute holy matrimonies, while Washington, D.C. couples fork over approximately $70,000 to swap vows in style, per a recent report.
But the choking cost of those splashy celebrations often puts newlyweds in the red.
A startling 58% of fiancés plan to take on debt to finance their weddings, according to a June 2025 study via U.S. News & World Report. Researchers also found that 84% of lovebirds are “stressed” about paying for the shindigs, with 63% confessing that their financial statuses have worsened since beginning the wedding planning process.
Kate hopes her girls sidestep the struggle.
“If they choose not to have a wedding, they’re gonna get a check,” she reiterated. “And the reason I’m gonna that is because most married couples start off their marriage in debt.”
The economizing mama — who admittedly had the “big, fancy, poofy wedding” — went on to deem the pricey parties a “huge waste of money.”
“My husband and I spent the first five years of our marriage paying off that wedding debt,” said Kate. “If I could go back and invest that money in a home, the stock market or literally anything else — and just have gone to the justice of the peace or had a small backyard family wedding — that would have been a better start for us.”
“That would have taken a lot of the pressure off our first few years of marriage.”
And while she’s committed to supporting her children — both morally and financially — should they opt for an over-the-top todo, Kate remains firm that going broke for one beautiful day of fun is dumb.
“We should normalize not having weddings,” she said in closing, garnering applause from a sea of agreeing commenters. “They set new couples up for failure.”
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