When I was a child we were very poor. I had a rather plump aunt who would knit herself a dress based on the slim model on the pattern. Of course she rarely liked the end result and gave my mum the discarded outfits. My mum would unravel the dress, wash the wool and knit about 3 children’s outfits. Unfortunately the skills needed to help oneself are few these days. Charity shops however do have good clothes but I avoid Oxfam and such as they are ridiculously expensive. I’m also v. picky, if it’s a cheap label I don’t buy it.
I have a lovely blue Joules shirt which was brand new with labels intact, cost me £3.99.
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Why do weddings cost so much, well because the bridal industry is greedy and powerful. One of my first jobs was working for a publisher that published a magazine for the bridal industry and I was never very comfortable with it. The industry markets itself hard and makes huge profits, fair enough but what I disliked was that there was often an element of emotional blackmail in the articles and ads we ran - making parents feel guilty unless they spent more than they could comfortably afford on giving their kids a good wedding, making brides and grooms feel they needed to spend spend spend or their wedding wouldn’t be worth having. And people fall for it, common sense goes out of the window and they let themselves be pressurised into spending silly money that they don’t have. Saddest of all is when the couple splits up and the parents are still paying off the debt. How much money you spend on the wedding has doodle squat to do with how happy the marriage will be.
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Does no one rent wedding dresses these days ?
I buy some of my clothes from the Red Cross and have found some lovely things.
My best buy a few years ago was for mum, 4 brand new blouses, lacy collars and sleeves, with the labels still on - (Blanche Porte distribute their unsold seasons clothes amongst charities) for the princely sum of 4 euros 
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One of my distant relatives in uk… I’ve never met her…is married to a French business man…their wedding has just cost around £140,000…!
One of my aunties attended…she was really worrying about her hat…my auntie and uncle paid for their own overnight stay in a hotel so accommodation for guests wasn’t included in the overall figure…
We obviously wish them (and their children) every happiness but for the vast majority of us £140 k would buy a house outright…x
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Some people just have too much money
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I love charity shops but like Teresa won’t buy anything ’ cheap ’ to start with I have had some great bargains over the years
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When Oxfam first started in Munich we had very good bargains via our daughter, mainly shirts for Jim.
She has a very good salary now, but still loves a bargain.
Both our girls were brought up not to waste money.
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We did all the arrangements ourselves, didn’t go for expensive clothes; local, small, parish church so kept the guests list down. IIRC we had change from £3k - even including the honeymoon trip to Rome was probably still under £4k for everything IIRC.
I actually don’t understand the current fascination for “big” weddings, we were spending our own money so every penny counted.
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We had change from £300 … including a honeymoon taken a couple of months later !
As my parents were unable to attend, I had moved south - north, and there were too many logistical problems for them, there was just us and two witnesses.
Dress was in a sale and could be worn (loads of times )after, pub lunch for 4 and then sat in the garden with some home made wine , some neighbours called round later and we all inbibed.
No stress, low cost but personal to us and not to please or show off to others !
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Many people try too hard to please others instead of pleasing themselves.
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I have seen it all as well. But at the end of the day its the parents fault for allowing it to happen. My 2 sons had their education funded by me to equal amounts. Got their first cars, funded by me to equal amounts. The weddings and subsequent house purchases not by me. I made it clear at an early stage it wouldnt happen so dont bother thinking about it. The grand children yep you guessed funded by Grandad, and i love every minute of them little buggers when they come to stay with us in France, but they will find out who foots these rediculous lifestyle bills soon enough and it wont be grandad.
Our second wedding each, cost 2500 CHF. we had the street invited, and a “honeymoon” wasnt on the cards as we already lived in the alpine region of Switzerland. She who will be obeyed had a new dress of her own choice, which since has served it purpose at a friends wedding in Andorra, and she sold it on after. We were told late by many of the neighbours about the good time and also we had achieved to get all the neighbours under one roof at the same time. Great day was had by all.