Annie Joy Williams

I interviewed a woman who had been to 20 bachelorette trips.

I know.

She had spent so much money and gotten into so much credit card debt during that process that when it was her turn to say, I do, her husband and her sat down and they said, we pay off the credit card or we have a wedding.

And there was really no option to have the wedding at that point.

So they paid off the credit card and they eloped.

The most I've probably spent on a wedding was one of the weddings that I was a maid of honor for.

I spent around $4,000, I would say, all in.

All the weddings I've been in have been in like rural America.

So these are the cheapest places you can get married and it's still costing this much for the guest and the bridal party.

No, you're definitely not delusional.

And when I was writing this article, I kind of was thinking the same thing.

I was like, okay, why are only women spending so much more money?

Data from The Knot from 2023 would suggest that's actually not the case.

Men are spending almost the exact same on bachelor parties.

My jaw has dropped.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, yeah.

And then anecdotally, when the story was published, my DMs were flooded with straight men who had been on all these bachelor parties saying, well, we felt pressured to buy table service or bottle service.

And they ended up, a lot were spending more than the women.

And I think guys might be actually greater victims of peer pressure, I think, in these moments.