- Sian Taylor went viral on TikTok for sharing things she won’t be spending money on for her wedding.
- Taylor won’t have real flowers, a big cake, a guest book, or save-the-dates at her weekday wedding.
- “We want to invest our money into more meaningful things for the wedding,” Taylor told Insider.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Weddings are full of traditions — the bouquet toss, the ceremonial walk down the aisle, the cutting of the cake.
Many couples modernize or do away with the traditions that don’t feel right to them, though many of them are still overwhelmingly popular within the institution of weddings.
But for Sian Taylor, a UK-based bride, it made more sense to approach wedding traditions with a practical and financial mindset than sentimental notions.
Taylor, 24, took to TikTok last week to share things she and her fiancé Andy won’t have at their wedding, primarily because of how costly they are.
In the video, which has over 300,000 views at the time of writing, Taylor explained that she won’t be sending save-the-dates, having a guest book, giving out party favors, or using real flowers at her nuptials. She plans to use silk flowers herself, DIYing her arrangements.
She also said she is getting married on a weeknight, as her venue is markedly cheaper to reserve during the week than on the weekends.
In a second video, Taylor said she won’t have a three-tiered wedding cake, as the base cost of a cake with no decorations in her area is over $500.
Instead, Taylor bought a small cake she and her fiancé can cut, and she’s providing her guests with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The cake cost about $40 dollars, and the doughnuts will be $83.
She is also only hiring a DJ for a portion of the evening and intends to use a playlist for the rest of the night, and she is buying her veil on Etsy or eBay to further cut costs.
Her guests will also RSVP through a wedding website rather than through the mail, which saves money and is better for the environment.
Taylor told Insider that she and her fiancé are saving money by focusing on the parts of the wedding that are most important to them, and they hope other couples do the same.
“For us as a couple, we want to invest our money into more meaningful things for the wedding — a photographer and videographer are priceless to us — rather than spending small bits of money that add up to a huge amount,” she told Insider.
Taylor also said she received some criticism from viewers on TikTok.
“To all the Karens who blew up my TikTok overnight because I don’t want a guest book and are having a midweek wedding for our wedding, this is our wedding, not yours,” Taylor said in a response video. “We hope our guests are coming to celebrate us as a couple and not for the free stuff.”
Taylor told Insider that her videos weren’t intended to dictate what others should do with their weddings.
“We believe everyone should have the wedding of their dreams, and if they love the ideas we’re scrapping, then 100% they should have them,” she said. “I mainly made the TikToks for anyone who was budget conscious and wanted more ideas to cut spending.”
“We’re not a traditional couple, and due to Covid, the prices for weddings seem to have skyrocketed, so we jumped at the chance to save money in some areas in order to have the things that truly mean a lot to us,” Taylor went on to say.
“I think a lot of people get caught in the materialistic side of weddings, but we want to focus on things that are important to us as a couple,” she added.
