I've just been watching Dragon's Den (Series 9, Ep 9). There were a nice couple of ladies who had had the idea of hiring out broadcast quality cameras to the public so that they could film their own wedding day. The ladies would then edit the footage and send the completed DVD back.
That sounds like a great idea and I wish them well.
However, the pitch did raise a point that I believe is prevalent across the 'wedding industry'. The point being that price schemes seem to be based on what people are willing to pay rather than what it costs to provide the service (with a chunk of profit on top of course - I'm not saying they shouldn't make a profit).
For instance, the above video company was started as a "cheaper alternative" to traditional videographers. They started charging £399 for their services but this wasn't meeting their overheads so they, quite rightly, increased their price.
The bit that bugged me the most was when they said that they kept pushing the price up so long as people kept booking. I interpreted this to mean that they kept upping the price as much as they could get away with.
I don't for one second believe that this is limited to just these ladies and I would not like people to draw the conclusion that I am criticising these entrepreneurs specifically. I would say that a lot of the wedding suppliers do exactly this and it annoys me. To me it is profiteering on the back of people wanting to make even a modest effort for their big day and since all other companies charge the same amount I'm tempted to believe they are informally price-fixing.
Now if someone would like to sit down with me and talk me through their price structure and explain to me why any product with "wedding" in the name is more expensive than other such items and thus if they can prove to me that they are not profiteering then I will gladly eat my words and grovel for forgiveness.
Until then I am not happy about how much it costs to go through something that is essentially routine and commonplace.
For that matter, funerals seem to be getting more and more expensive too. For what reason?
And finally I would just like to specifically make the point that I don't believe that all companies do this. In fact, I would hope that in planning my wedding I have used my power as a consumer to specifically choose companies who are not milking me for all I'm worth. Still expensive tbh, but not as bad as it could be.