<\/p>\n
After the couple broke even, they donated the rest of their proceeds \u2014 totaling more than $100,000 \u2014 to Village Impact<\/p>\n
A bride and groom are trying to revolutionize the wedding industry, and they started by charging admission to their own nuptials.<\/p>\n
Entrepreneurs\u00a0Marley Jaxx<\/a>, 34, and\u00a0Steve J. Larsen<\/a>, 37, were “baffled” by the “overpriced” traditional wedding planning model that often breaks the bank due to the “outrageous cost attached to the smallest things.” Consequently, the pair decided to create a case study on their wedding by\u00a0selling tickets<\/a>\u00a0to prove that weddings can be funded so that marriages start without financial strain.<\/p>\n “Weddings are this multi-billion-dollar industry where couples often go into debt for a single day and I wanted to challenge that,” Jaxx tells PEOPLE.<\/p>\n There were two ticket tiers. A basic ticket, valued at\u00a0$57 per person, covered admission to the wedding ceremony and reception on Friday, Aug. 1, at\u00a0Honalee Farm<\/a>\u00a0in Eagle, Idaho. Those wanting to “make a full weekend of the event” would purchase the second option, valued at\u00a0$997 for two tickets, which additionally included access to the rehearsal dinner on Thursday, July 31, and the “biohacking brunch and recovery lounge” on Saturday, Aug. 2. Plus, the VIP guests would get priority reserved seating and have their brand profile spotlighted in the wedding programs.<\/p>\n “I know this idea is new. It\u2019s disruptive,” Jaxx says. “Some people might call it tacky or a money grab. But to me, a cash grab is something done purely for profit with little regard for value or integrity. That\u2019s not what this is. We\u2019re creating an experience to celebrate our wedding with people who want to be part of it, and the contributions go directly toward making that possible without going into debt, while also supporting one of our favorite causes.”<\/p>\n Before the couple got engaged at an ice skating rink on New Year\u2019s Day, they joked about selling wedding tickets. But once the duo, who have both previously been married, actually started planning their wedding, their joke turned into a reality.<\/p>\n “We run businesses and do events all the time, so we\u2019d say things like, ‘Wouldn\u2019t it be funny if our wedding was a main event and we sold tickets to it?’ Totally a joke at first,” Jaxx says. “But then we got engaged, and when we started looking at venues and saw the quote for one, there was a $650 cake-cutting fee. Like\u2026 just to cut the cake. Not the cake itself. Just to cut it.<\/em>“<\/p>\n Jaxx asked her thousands of followers if the financial investment and expectations attached to weddings\u00a0added pressure to spend more than anticipated to meet the traditional standards. Her comments were “flooded” with couples sharing similar experiences of “wild wedding markups.”<\/p>\n “So then I made another post and said, ‘People should just sell tickets to their weddings at this point,’ ” Jaxx explains.<\/p>\n She took a poll within her social community about turning her wedding into a proof-of-concept, and was “shocked” by people’s openness to buying tickets and the high figures they’d hypothetically be willing to spend.<\/p>\n “Eventually, we landed on this idea that felt really good to us: don\u2019t buy us a gift, just cover your meal and come party with us,” Larsen says. “It took the pressure off gifts, helped us manage the guest count, and made the whole thing feel a lot more fun and collaborative.”<\/p>\n Although there were a lot of positive responses, some people weren’t happy. The couple’s family and closest friends didn’t need to buy tickets and were just sent wedding invitations.<\/p>\n Everyone else, however, had to decide whether or not they wanted to pay to attend the wedding when they saw the concept online. One man “didn\u2019t hold back” in telling the bride that he was against the idea, and even challenged her to a Facebook Live debate.<\/p>\n Jaxx accepted the debate because she thought if she “really believed in this idea, [she] had to be willing to defend it.”<\/p>\n “I wanted to bring weddings back to this idea that it takes a village, and to show that there could be a different model where couples don\u2019t have to go into debt,” Jaxx says, with Larsen adding, “It wasn\u2019t about making money, it was about covering the cost of their meal and creating a really cool experience.”<\/p>\n Jaxx continues: “For couples who do want to bring together a big community, the current system often sets them up for failure. I mean, financial conflict is the number one cause of strain in marriage. So the idea that you should start your life together by going tens of thousands of dollars into debt over one day feels backwards.”<\/p>\n Jaxx and Larsen, who met through the online marketing world and have been in a relationship for five years, tell PEOPLE that they sold approximately 100 basic tickets and 30 VIP tickets.<\/p>\n The couple determined their basic ticket pricing on the typical per-head cost of a wedding guest.<\/p>\n “Most people would spend more than that on dinner, a concert ticket, or a random night out, so asking $57 to cover your meal and be part of an experience like this felt reasonable,” Larsen says. “It also made it easy to take the pressure off gifts entirely.”<\/p>\n At the “over-the-top” wedding \u2014 which was planned by\u00a0Lisa Ball<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 guests enjoyed smoked salted caramel ice cream from\u00a0Stella’s Ice Cream<\/a>, wedding cake from luxury cake artist\u00a0Michelle Sohan<\/a>\u00a0and cookies from\u00a0Mama’s Secrets<\/a>. Musical performances included\u00a0dancing trombonist<\/a>\u00a0Jonathan Arons<\/a>, husband-wife DJ duo\u00a0Team Ragoza<\/a>, and\u00a0DJ Dynamix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the couple broke even, they donated the rest of their proceeds \u2014 totaling more than $100,000 \u2014 to Village Impact NEED TO KNOW Entrepreneurs Marley Jaxx and Steve … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33479,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33477\/revisions\/33479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}