Monday, April 9, 2012
Why Did My Wedding Dress Cost So Much?
Due 13 April 2012. What resources did you give up to get it??? What is your opportunity cost of a big wedding?
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Welcome. This is a blog dedicated to the students enrolled in the CSHS AP Economics classes. Click on the title of the article, read, and click comment.
People who are buying wedding dresses or even prom dresses are honestly getting ripped off. Corporations are advertising that we have to have a perfect wedding with the perfect dress or venue, or flowers, party planners, and etc. They earn billions of dollars off it. The mark-up in prices are ridiculous. You're paying for a dress that will probably be worn once. The dress is around thousands of dollars but only cost maybe at most fifty dollars to make. I would have to sacrifice miscellaneous spending on a dress that I will probably wear once or a few times. The opportunity cost of a big wedding is that I would spend a lot of money for a one day wedding that it will take awhile for me to pay off. The wedding industries are making billions of dollars off of this.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why the wedding dress costs so much is because an average person is not going to be married for several times. The companies know this and know that people are probably going to buy one or two wedding dresses in their whole life in general. Although we know companies usually mark up prices for the clothes, the markup for the wedding dresses tend to be a lot more than the ones for other apparel. In the video, the lady paid $2730 for a wedding dress which should cost around $1500. The opportunity cost is dearly. She would have used the extra $1200 to buy more furniture or other luxury goods or even travel a little bit farther for her honeymoon. The opportunity cost of a big wedding is all the extra activities you can do with all the money.
ReplyDeleteThe whole prom dress, wedding dress, special occasion dress phenomenon is what drives big designing businesses up the walls. They know that events their customers go to are once in a life time and they will do anything for that special outfit they will be remembered in. The money the woman paid for her dress could have gone anywhere/everywhere else. If she bought a cheaper dress, her and her husband could have had steak instead of chicken served to their guests. Personally, if it was my wedding, I would want the perfect dress keeping a maximum budget in mind. It is an event you will always remember and you are the center of the attention. I think that the dress companies are smart that they can rise their prices so high and still stay in business. That is to their benefit.
ReplyDeleteI think that the businesses associated with weddings make so much money on dresses because people think that their wedding is the one time where they are allowed to spend thousands on a some fabric and not feel bad for it. Women look at it like its the most important thing and that a budget isn't so necessary when planning. But in fact, the budget in my opinion is one of the most important things you should be worrying about. There are many opportunity costs for an extravagant wedding that the any bride would want to throw. They could use a lot of the money that they are wasting on unecessary things for important goods like insurance and housing and everything else that goes along with getting married. The dress companies are very smart to drive their prices up so high though, because they know that no bride would turn down their dream dress just because it was a little expensive.
ReplyDeleteBefore I actually respond I want to say that my answer will be short considering I can't really provide real insight on wedding dresses or dresses at all for that matter.
ReplyDeletePurchasing a wedding dress is always quite expensive; especially, when there is a sentimental value to whatever you end up buying. By buying a very expensive you are giving up money that could be used on a honeymoon or a house. Also, the opportunity cost a big wedding is that you get one night to remember but end up paying too much. In a few years it won't matter that you spent a great deal of money to have the perfect wedding therefore, it is an unwise choice to spend that much.
Wedding dresses are marked up so much so that businesses make a profit. The woman bought her wedding dress for $2730 when in fact the fabric was only about $500 and the labor costs were about $200. Women usually only buy one wedding dress during the course of their lives. A woman usually spends an excess amount of money as her wedding day is one of the most special days of her life. The opportunity cost, as the woman in the video realizes, is overpaying for one special occasion when she could have bought a similar dress for a lesser price. The main resource that is given up when buying a wedding dress is of course money and also time looking for the perfect dress.
ReplyDeletePeople like to exaggerate every special occasion on their calendar, and women especially, like the feeling of attention. This desire feeds businesses to drive up the price from $500 to thousands of dollars. Obtaining pompous dresses for wedding, prom, etc. allows women to flaunt all the nooks and crannies of their lifestyle. A woman uses this excessive amount of money on one wedding night and in return receives numerous opportunity costs that her money could have been attributed to. Her future expenses that could have been paid for, like mortgage, rent, food, and even gas, are still there. This time consuming project ends up losing her more resources than she put in.
ReplyDeleteBuying a wedding dress in one of the more expensive aspects of the wedding experience. Women feel that since their wedding is a once in a lifetime event, paying an outrageous amount of money is worth it for the opportunity to wear such an extravagant dress. The dress in the article cost less than 700 dollars to make, yet sold for over 2000; a huge profit for the producer. The resource that she is giving up is money that she could've used to pay for the rest of the wedding costs, or even food, electricity, or mortgage.
ReplyDeleteWedding dresses cost so much because the businesses that sell them know that we will buy them. These dresses are for once in a lifetime events and they want the best dress even if it means paying an outrageous sum of money for it. The opportunity cost of a big wedding is a closer and less extravagent honeymoon as well as less money for when the honeymoon is over and its time to face the reality of bills.
ReplyDeleteDespite the cost of a wedding, the consumer surplus is often much greater than the cost of the wedding in most cases, unless you don't much care for your significant other...
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it is -- If it means a lot to them, why not spend the money? If it makes you happy, it's money well-spent.
But in a purely objective view, one could very easily see how pricy weddings are and how HUGE costs can easily be avoided by toning things down if their economic situation called for the need to not spend so much money.