Death, Sex & Money - How Much Should You Spend on a Wedding?
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, listeners share what it’s like to plan a dream wedding when money and family relationships lead to conflict and compromise. We hear from couples with vastly different ideas of what they wanted to spend, about opinionated parents and in-laws, and tips from people who managed to spend less. This episode first ran in 2023 and includes new updates from some of the happy couples.
Podcast production by Zoe Azulay with help from Cameron Drews.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This past weekend was a big one for people in the United States. |
| 0:04.5 | There was a gigantic celebration that dominated our news feeds. |
| 0:08.6 | And no, I'm not just talking about America's 250th birthday. |
| 0:13.5 | I'm, of course, talking about the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. |
| 0:19.2 | Congratulations, you two. |
| 0:24.1 | You probably heard they celebrated with a blowout event with celebrity guests, a celebrity efficient, and one of the most secure yet public wedding venues, |
| 0:30.9 | I can imagine, Madison Square Garden in New York City. How one chooses to celebrate a wedding day, what does it say about us? |
| 0:40.9 | The size of the party, the dress code, the budget. |
| 0:44.4 | My personal opinion, when it comes to weddings, you do you. |
| 0:48.5 | But even that, figuring out your wedding personality, that is a process between you and your intended, you and your |
| 0:57.6 | extended family, you and your bank account. That is what we heard a few years ago when we asked |
| 1:04.0 | listeners to tell us about their wedding planning choices. For some, it was important to keep |
| 1:10.2 | things small, low budget, and intimate. |
| 1:13.6 | Others wanted to go big, but couldn't afford to. And some had a very precise vision for their |
| 1:20.0 | wedding that differed from their parents who were paying a lot of the bills. We are sharing that |
| 1:26.4 | episode with you again this week because your stories |
| 1:29.7 | about logistics and stressors and hard conversations with future in-laws, they revealed some |
| 1:36.0 | really fundamental dynamics about the culture we live in, our relationship to rituals and |
| 1:42.1 | consumerism, and the kinds of family partnerships you are building. |
| 1:48.2 | And then the guest list started to balloon. |
| 1:54.6 | A tent and porta potty and lights and chairs and tables. |
| 1:59.1 | And I was like, absolutely not. |
... |
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