Did Social Media Raise the Cost of Getting Married?

Thirty years ago, most weddings were planned using a handful of references. Family albums, friends’ ceremonies, local venues. Expectations were shaped by what people around you had actually done. Today, a couple planning a wedding scrolls through thousands of curated ceremonies before they’ve even booked a registrar. Outdoor arches covered in flowers. Colour-coordinated bridal parties. custom signage. Fireworks. Drone footage. What once counted as “a nice wedding” has been replaced by a global highlight reel.

Social media didn’t just inspire weddings. It standardised higher production. Platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok created an endless stream of perfectly staged ceremonies that act like a rolling catalogue of what a wedding should look like. But there’s a system effect most couples don’t notice. The content that performs best online isn’t average weddings. It’s the most visually impressive ones. Large venues. Huge floral budgets. professional styling. custom details. Algorithms reward spectacle.

Over time, this shifts perception. What used to be luxury starts to feel standard. When every scroll shows dramatic décor and flawless aesthetics, simpler weddings begin to feel like cutting corners. Expectations rise quietly. Budgets follow.

There’s also a practical inflation effect. Once couples expect certain visual elements, suppliers adapt. Florists move from bouquets to installations. Venues shift from renting rooms to staging experiences. Photographers go from taking photos to producing cinematic content. Each upgrade adds cost. What used to be optional extras slowly become assumed basics. Social media expands the scope of what a wedding includes, and more scope always means more spending.

Then comes comparison. Before social platforms, couples compared themselves mostly to friends and family in similar financial situations. Now they compare to strangers with unknown budgets, sponsorships, or influencer partnerships. A wedding that cost £80,000 sits next to one that cost £10,000 and both appear equally “normal.” Context disappears. Couples feel behind before planning even begins. Many stretch budgets to meet an aesthetic baseline that was never realistic for most people.

Vendors respond to this too. Their portfolios increasingly feature the most elaborate weddings because those attract attention online. Those projects bring more clients who expect similar results. But recreating those showpiece events requires the same level of spend. Over time the market drifts upward. Simpler weddings get fewer options. Smaller budgets get less focus. The industry follows where attention goes.

There’s also a psychological shift. Social media turns weddings into performances. They’re no longer just events for the people attending. They’re content moments. Couples think about how it will look in photos, how it will appear in videos, how it will be shared. This drives spending on visual elements that matter far less in real life but matter a lot on screens. Lighting. Backdrops. Coordinated colour schemes. Decorative details most guests barely notice on the day. The wedding becomes a production designed for documentation. And productions cost money.

Interestingly, this doesn’t always improve the experience. Many couples who spend less report lower stress and more enjoyment. Guests tend to remember conversations, food, atmosphere, and connection far more than centrepieces. But the system pushes money toward what photographs well, not what feels meaningful. Social media optimises for visuals, not memories.

Over time this creates a feedback loop. High-budget weddings get more visibility. Visibility sets new expectations. Expectations drive higher spending. Higher spending produces more high-budget content. Which gets more visibility again. The cycle keeps climbing.

Social media isn’t the only reason weddings have become more expensive. Rising venue costs, labour, and general inflation all play roles. But social platforms accelerated the perception shift. They compressed luxury into normal. They removed financial context while amplifying spectacle. And once expectations rise, spending almost always follows.

This is why budget weddings sometimes feel radical now. Not because they’re new, but because the visual standard moved so far upward that simplicity looks like rebellion. Many weddings from decades ago would today be labelled “budget” despite being perfectly normal at the time.

The bigger insight isn’t just about weddings. It’s about how social media reshapes cost expectations across life events. Birthdays. Holidays. Homes. Parties. When the most extravagant examples dominate what we see, average experiences start feeling insufficient. Markets respond to perceived demand.

So did social media raise the cost of getting married? Not directly through prices, but through expectations. By changing what feels normal. By expanding what feels necessary. By rewarding spectacle over simplicity. The hidden system isn’t couples becoming materialistic. It’s perception being reshaped by what gets amplified. When luxury becomes the baseline in people’s feeds, everyday budgets struggle to keep up — and the cost of getting married climbs one scroll at a time.