Behind the Wedding Scenes: The Price of Love

Many people dream of stepping into a wedding hall, anticipating the beginning of a new life chapter with the person they love. However, many soon-to-be married couples in South Korea face financial burdens from overpriced sudeme wedding packages, including studio photography, dress rentals, and make-up services. The average cost of such packages surged by 87% over just four years, rising from ₩2.35 million in 2020 to ₩4.41 million in 2024. Thus, the Sungkyun Times (SKT) seeks to examine the current wedding crisis and seek ways to resolve relevant issues.

Unveiling the Trajectory of the Wedding Culture

-Journey from the Past to the Present

A wedding is a pivotal celebration that marks the union of two people in marriage. In Korea, wedding traditions gradually changed over time, incorporating elements from various cultures. With the influx of customs from the United States (U.S.) in the 1950s, wearing a white wedding dress and a tuxedo became a new trend. By the 1990s, wedding planners emerged to help organize weddings, making it a more formal and elaborate ceremony. From the 2000s, extravagant weddings at luxurious hotels became the hallmark of status among the upper class and celebrities. On the other hand, many people began to raise concerns regarding these lavish affairs. With a 700-guest wedding at a luxurious hotel in Seoul City costing up to about ₩100 million at the time, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MGEF) and the press criticized such practices, largely pushing for financially viable, smaller-scale events. Today, the deeply rooted issues within the wedding culture persist and are now amplified by social media. The Korean wedding industry has become more multi-faceted across time, playing an active role not only in the wedding itself, but also throughout the preparation process, involving wedding halls, sudeme vendors, and planners.

-Ongoing Trends in Wedding Culture

The modern-day wedding ceremony and preparation processes in Korea follow a conventional pattern — booking venues, purchasing wedding packages, and taking prewedding photos, often coordinated through planners. These complex, costly preparations have become a significant source of pressure for many young adults. A 2024 report by the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy (PCASPP) revealed that 80.8% of the respondents who were unwilling to get married stated the burdensome wedding and economic costs as the key reason. With increased costs following the surge of rescheduled weddings postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative, more selective ways of celebration have emerged. For instance, many couples now opt to take pre-wedding photos and do the necessary preparations themselves. This is reflected in the 1.73-fold increase in transactions of wedding photography-related products compared to the previous year, based on the women’s shopping e-commerce platform, Zigzag. Others choose to cut expenses at their weddings and place it towards their honeymoon instead, or replace the event entirely with a meal with their loved ones and a covenant ceremony. However, despite these trends, extravagant ceremonies remain the norm, and many couples still struggle with costs that far exceed their budgets, illustrating the urgent need to resolve the underlying problems in the wedding industry.

Wedding Industry’s Hidden Costs

-Unremitting Pressure from Weddingflation

Weddingflation — an overall increase in wedding-related prices — has increased the financial burden of many. According to a 2024 wedding expense report by a marriage information company, the average wedding preparation cost amounted to ₩54.99 million, a 25% increase from 2020. In an interview with the SKT, a newlywed couple living in Pyeongtaek City said, “We felt distressed from the costly wedding services, so we decided to hold our wedding ceremony outside of Seoul.” This problem is fueled by the lack of transparency on additional service fees, which tend to be billed on top of the contract. Planners typically disclose only the prices of basic bundled services. As such, costs beyond the contract terms, such as dress-fitting fees, extra transportation fees, and snacks for staff, significantly increase overall expenses. In fact, there has been a recent case where a couple was charged an additional ₩500,000 on top of the contract amount to receive the original photo files. To address such unfair practices, in April, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) introduced a standard contract for the wedding planning industry, which includes detailed prices on basic services and additional options. However, due to the lack of enforcement, only a few businesses are shown to have adopted this standard contract, and the weddingflation issue remains far from being resolved.

-Broken Promises of the Wedding Industry

In addition to inflated costs, many engaged couples bear the consequences of unfair contract fulfillments by wedding companies. Some businesses lure clients through misleading advertising, with phrases such as “number one in Korea” and “most partnered vendors,” which has led to sanctions imposed by the FTC. However, despite such claims, some establishments assign non-professionals to provide the services after the contract is signed, resulting in poor quality outcomes that fall short of consumer expectations. Several of these cases involve iPhone wedding photography, which has recently become a popular budget option. There have been reports of unqualified part-time workers being sent to take photos of the wedding instead of professional photographers, resulting in low quality services. In addition, there have been fraud cases where wedding companies suddenly shut down after signing contracts, leaving consumers in limbo without financial compensation. In a 2022 case, a wedding photography company disappeared after signing a contract with a couple who paid a ₩600,000 deposit. As a result, the couple had to endure over a year of legal proceedings to receive their photo album and compensation. Such broken promises in the wedding industry must be addressed to prevent further fraudulent services.

The Aisle Toward Responsibility

-Restoring Trust Through Transparency

To terminate weddingflation-related problems, the government could establish a central wedding platform that transparently displays the price of different wedding services. Consumers would be able to make wise decisions based on unambiguous information gathered in a single place to compare prices, reviews, and ratings on a particular service. Recently, there have been talks surrounding this, including a party’s pledge to construct a government-led online platform for booking wedding venues. Similar mechanisms would help enhance the price transparency of services and foster competition. Furthermore, the standard contract recently introduced by the FTC must be strictly implemented under the law rather than remaining as a mere recommendation. In an interview with the SKT, Lee Eun-hee, a Professor at the Department of Consumer Science at Inha University, mentioned that “it is crucial that consumers are clearly aware of the individual costs of each wedding service written in the contract.” These enforcements should also be accompanied by specific guidelines. For example, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) under the United Kingdom government promoted fair competition and protected consumers in the wedding industry by warning businesses of legal consequences for unfair contract terms through guidelines they shared in 2020. Likewise, legal enforcement and mandatory education on standard contracts will ultimately ensure greater fairness and accountability in the Korean wedding industry.

-Enforcing Strict Legal Regulations

Stronger legal regulations against wedding companies that offer substandard services or do not abide by contracts must be implemented to alleviate consumer concerns. Such a basis will establish a remedy system to help protect the rights of soon-to-be married couples. In a 2021 court case in Canada, a wedding photographer was ordered to pay $22,000 for breaching the contract terms, where $10,000 was charged for mental distress. Considering the increasing number of wedding service fraud cases, a stronger legal framework must be established in Korea as well. Additionally, smallscale contracts such as those that involve iPhone photography services should be explicitly included in standard contracts to prevent legal loopholes and fraudulent activities. Prof. Lee commented to the SKT that “small-scale wedding businesses that run without a business license must be regulated with legal penalties, and consumers should be cautioned not to engage in transactions with these businesses.” Setting robust legal guidelines in the Korean wedding industry will ultimately help ensure fair contracts and protect consumers’ rights.

It is time to crack down on the issues behind the wedding scene. Many people getting ready for marriage today are facing more anxiety than excitement. In light of this, it is now the moment for Kingos to recognize the problems within the wedding industry and work towards restoring trust through cooperative efforts.