Guests skip weddings as cash gift expectations rise

In Korea, it is customary to gift the wedding couple cash in envelopes. [GETTY IMAGES]

 
Koreans invited to weddings face a dilemma: gift 50,000 won ($36) and stay home or attend and give more?
 
Amid high inflation and rising living costs, lavish weddings are making less sense — for both happy couples and guests.

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The average cost per guest, paid by the bride and groom, to hold a ceremony at a wedding hall in downtown Seoul is around 82,000 won, according to The Asia Business Daily. For hotel weddings, a meal alone costs 130,000 to 200,000 won. Those high expenses pressure wedding guests to, at minimum, cover the cost of their attendance.
 
Kim, an office worker in his late 20s, gave his colleague 50,000 won in an envelope to pass on to a fellow worker at their wedding.
 
“If I had gone to the wedding, I would have had to give at least 100,000 won; I would feel bad if I gave less, since I heard they are very expensive to hold,” Kim said. “50,000 won wouldn’t even be enough for the meal.”
 
For close friends’ weddings, Kim says he is expected to give a minimum of 150,000 won when he attends — and even more when it comes to small weddings with shorter guest lists.
 
Kim also recently aided the money collection at a family member’s wedding. He recalled that some guests had brought multiple envelopes and signed the names of those who couldn’t attend in the guest book. Those envelopes held an average of 50,000 won each, while guests who came to the wedding paid around 100,000 to 300,000 won, he said.
 

The average cost of a 2024 wedding -- combining venue rent and wedding planning packages -- is projected at 16.43 million won by matchmaking agency Duo Information. [DUO INFORMATION]

 
Wedding costs have steadily risen in Korea following the Covid-19 pandemic. Matchmaking agency Duo Information projected the average cost of a 2024 wedding — combining venue rent and wedding planning packages — to be 16.43 million won based on a survey of 1,000 newlywed couples published in late 2023. This was a 15.4 percent on-year increase from the 13.90 million won projected for 2023 and up 22.2 percent from 2022.
 
The rising costs mainly have to do with the decreasing number of wedding venues and wedding-related businesses such as dress shops, photo studios and hair and makeup stylists, as many closed down during the pandemic. Couples are also rushing to organize ceremonies that were held back or postponed during lockdown, effectively resulting in increased demand for a downsized supply.
 
The number of wedding halls in Korea dropped by more than 30 percent from 1,019 in 2018 to 714 this year. Their revenue, however, jumped compared to pre-pandemic levels, from an average of 201 million won in 2020 to 530 million won in March of this year, according to industry tracker Pinda's big data analysis platform. This is in line with the increase in weddings held at each venue.
 
According to the Duo Information survey, the average price of a wedding package — which includes prewedding photos, dresses, makeup and hair — rose from 2.99 million won in 2019 to 3.6 million won in 2024.
 

Bride dresses for her wedding [GETTY IMAGES]

 
The burden of those rising costs has fallen on guests. On online community websites in Korea, users have suggested that guests not attend weddings if they can't gift enough money to cover their meal. Though it was once common for a guest to pay 30,000 to 50,000 won, social norms now dictate 50,000 won for absent guests and 100,000 won for those who are present.
 
In a Shinhan Bank email survey conducted on 10,000 people aged 20 to 64 last year, 52.8 percent of respondents said they paid 50,000 won if they did not attend someone’s wedding while 36.7 percent said they paid 100,000 won and 3.3 percent paid 200,000 won.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]