I have written before about the cost of a wedding and used mine as an example. It’s been years and recently I had the opportunity to be a groomsman in a friend’s wedding. I said yes right away, but if you were tight on money you may want to really think about it because the costs do add up.
Bachelor party
We went to Mexico City, which wasn’t that far a flight, but it did cost $250. We shared hotel rooms, so that was around $100 a night per person for four nights. Food was at really fancy restaurants and that ended up being around $400 for the trip.
Wedding
The wedding required a flight, so $300 roundtrip. Fortunately I stayed with my parents, so that was free. You have to match for a wedding, so that was a $200 suit rental. Other than that is was just the duties of being there and not much cost (for me).
If you weren’t in the party, then you could skip the suit rental, but you’d still need a flight and probably hotel.
Conclusion
$1150 to be in the wedding. I didn’t feel like anything we did was extreme and I know for sure others must spend upwards of $2000 to be in a wedding. I was happy to take part and glad that money was no issue for me. I once heard a horror story of someone who did a destination wedding in Mexico and all their guests had to pay $800 a night to stay at the resort. So, I’m pretty happy with the cards I was dealt.