Till death do us part? The classic closing of wedding vows in every marriage is on the verge of extinction. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2024 there were 8.2% more divorces than the previous year, after two years of decline. But in marriage there is another increasingly close – and almost indestructible – bond with the third protagonist in question of this event: the bank. How to collect Bridal Sector Report 2025 Weddings.netSpanish couples invest an average of 24,618 euros to celebrate this day, while 11% of the population goes all out and decides to invest more than 45,000 euros in this celebration. To cover expenses, one in 10 couples are forced to take out a loan, waiting for the gifts to support a debt that ends up lasting a lifetime.
The media exposure of obscenely expensive weddings (like the one held by Jeff Bezos with Laura Sanchez last June on the Island of San Giorgio, which cost around 30 million euros) encourages you to fantasize about a full-fledged wedding when the time comes, even if the headaches are heavy and – even more so – the expense. Rent an entire estate to realize your fantasy of getting married in Provence wedding content creators or a jazz band to entertain guests, or un tramp bar of oysters are extravagances that end up seeming like necessities for a wedding to be a marriage-wedding.
Nor is it popular to limit the number of guests at the party to save costs and throw a closer, more intimate party. According to the same report, the average number of guests at a wedding in Spain is 116, although the trend has been to reduce it by 4% in the last year. “Most couples leave guests aside due to commitment, thus reducing the guest list. The goal? To celebrate such an important day only with the people who really matter to them”, explains Cristina González, press and communications manager of Weddings.net. The expert emphasizes that this does not mean that spending is reduced, but rather that the palpable trend is that the amount per guest increases, reaching 212 euros (8% more than the previous year).
The wedding celebrated by Saray Oñate does not come close to the economic statistics or participants managed by the platform. This young woman from Logroño, who confesses that she is not a fan of conventional weddings, decided last summer to agree with around twenty friends to celebrate their wedding on the run in Asturias, before formalizing the marriage process in court. “We were recommended a 17th-century palace that could be rented by the day and was hidden in a village in the Asturian mountains. We were all fascinated when we saw photos of the place; it was surrounded by green mountains in a valley through which a crystal-clear stream flowed.”
There was only a month left before the celebration, and since they couldn’t afford a wedding in such a place, they proposed that everyone pay for the elopement. Each would have paid for the accommodation and the couple would have taken care of the food, a snack of shrimp, barnacles, empanadas and cheese that would not have exceeded 400 euros. Oñate and his friends decorated the tables with vegetables, flowers (about 140 euros), some candlesticks and pieces of glass from the palace. “Another lucky thing is that many of the friends we rented the villa with are DJs, so all we had to do was bring the musical equipment and organize everything. training”.
Another exception to the rule was the dress. In Spain, the average cost of a wedding dress varies between 800 and 3000 euros, depending on the brand or handmade we choose. Oñate’s outfit was, however, a birthday present from her current husband, which she personalized with lace and satin ribbons purchased in her neighborhood haberdashery. “The shoes cost me 50 euros in a shop vintage and Jacobo’s (the groom) suit was lent to him by our friend Luisma. The guests had a dress code to follow: fragments of fantastic films and medieval gems. “It was fun to take them out of their comfort zone and let them unleash their creativity. A detail and effort for which we will always be grateful.” The result was a neo-romantic wedding that far exceeded expectations. “It all turned out to be a very intimate, totally improvised wedding. And if I had a big budget, I would have done the same. It was a story come true.”
Journalist Selene Moral was also clear that she didn’t want a big wedding. “Just thinking about it made us feel incredibly lazy,” he confesses. “Everything was quite express, at that time I had an 11 month old baby and the priority was that it was comfortable, close to where we lived and that it could be organized in a short time.” While the portals are liked Weddings with love They recommend planning the event at least a year and a half in advance, Morale resolved all the details in four months. The initial idea of signing and drinking a few beers in the Plaza Mayor turned into a banquet for 50 guests in a restaurant near the Casa de Panadería, where they got married. Morale chose a Mango dress and her friends took care of her makeup and hair. “Despite the 40 degrees in August, it was a beautiful day. We invited family and closest friends to a delicious menu and then some cocktails at Marrufo.”
Communicator and creative director Natalia Ferviú had an initial dilemma about how to approach her marriage to musician Carlos Pereiro. With a busy agenda, the founders of the Caries Records label considered several possible scenarios in relation to the number of guests; from the intimate wedding to the classic wedding or the macro festival. “Interestingly, the standard wedding is the one that seemed most difficult to us, because my family is large, we both know a lot of people and we have certain commitments, it was very difficult for us to narrow down the field and just thinking about it made us sad and tired,” confesses Ferviú.
In the end, they opted for the first option and celebrated it in Galicia for three days with 11 family members, coinciding with the birthday of their son Marcelo, Pereiro’s, and the Night of San Juan, a very special day for the couple. “The first day, June 23, we spent in Monterroso (Lugo) and my son chose the menu: fried eggs with potatoes. A delicacy.” That night, his brother-in-law, also a Galician and chef, prepared a sardiñada, and the banquet after the signing of the marriage certificate was held (for obvious reasons) in the gardens of Casa Marcelo, in Santiago, a Michelin-starred restaurant located a few meters from the cathedral. “They were three days full of family anecdotes that even today, when we remember them, make us laugh.” To top it off, they spent their honeymoon with their son on a campsite in Soria. A proposal very far from the ambitious destinations that are at the top of the list: Maldives, Seychelles, New Zealand or the classic safari in Kenya.
Without identifying much with full-blown weddings – “if we had a big budget our dream would be to hire Kiko Veneno and Jeanette,” he confesses with a laugh – his only concession were the wedding dresses designed by Madrid Manso. After numerous conversations and an extensive panel of references to Victorian aesthetics and the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, a headdress that Ferviú found at a flea market 15 years ago was the starting point for two exclusive creations in mikado and silk organza. “I am a designer and these types of garments have a special value for me, even more so when your best friend makes them for you, as was the case with me”.
González points out, however, that renting space usually takes up the majority of a wedding. “The average investment is between 13,000 and 14,000 euros. If you take these figures into account and knowing that on average 116 guests participate, the coverage is between 112 and 120 euros, but just what is the coverage”, he specifies. The dream of the majority (32%) is to celebrate a grand banquet in a country estate on the outskirts of the city, resorting to a luxury hotel, a casino or an art gallery (an option that is gaining more and more followers) with an astronomical expense behind it. But singer Charli XCX acted great extravagance this summer by organizing an authentic rave for their second wedding at Tonnara di Scopello, a private villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. The rental of this ancient Sicilian tuna fishery from the 13th century is usually around 20,000 euros per day.
Doing without this game should be every couple’s dream, something that journalist Paula Movil realized in October 2012. A gastronomy expert, she decided to organize it at LeCafé, the now defunct restaurant on Recoletos street, where she worked as a waitress at the time. From experience she knew that they sometimes closed the space on Saturdays at noon for events, and she and her partner Roberto Castán, founder of the Amarguería agency, thought it would be a great idea to celebrate it there. “I was fascinated by the food they served, the love the owners put into it and the commitment they made to always find the best product, before this phrase was trivialized in gastronomy.” In just six months they created a standing cocktail party for 50 people, attended by only their closest friends and family. The cutlery didn’t exceed 40 euros but the food and drinks were in abundance. “It was a lot more fun than a sit-down banquet,” he notes.
Aware of their limited budget, they decided to do without floral decorations, asked a family member to act as photographer and the invitation design was a gift from Adrián LeFreak, a friend of the couple. “We said it was a fun party (like when we went out in Madrid), and we decorated it with quite surreal elements that fit our sense of humor at the time, like the animal masks or the dolls on the cake: a Hello Kitty and an imperial soldier.” To top it off, the after-party took place in a bar on Calle Barquillo and they stayed for their wedding night at the AC Hotel Recoletos. “We always try to rely on friends and family for everything. In the end, it not only helped us cut costs, but it made everyone feel like a part of our wedding.” Perhaps this is precisely the great luxury of such an important day.
