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Bride reveals how she managed to spend just $500 on wedding

The bride’s wedding dress cost her just $47

Furvah Shah
Tuesday 18 October 2022 18:21 BST
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<p>Kiara and Joel Brokenbrough went viral on social media for their affordable wedding. </p>

Kiara and Joel Brokenbrough went viral on social media for their affordable wedding.

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A couple has gone viral for sharing how they spent just $500 (£380) on their wedding day.

Kiara and Joel Brokenbrough from California tied the knot in the inexpensive ceremony in Los Angeles, where they cut costs by getting married in a public place with few guests and hosting their reception in a local hotel lounge.

Brokenbrough even bought her wedding dress from fast-fashion website Shein, costing the bride just $47 (£36), and has since received more than one million views on TikTok, where she documented her frugal celebration.

“Our goal was to just be as minimal as possible and to spend the least amount of money as possible,” she said in an interview with Good Morning America earlier this year.

According to Brokenbrough, when it came to shopping for her wedding dress, she knew she didn’t want to spend a lot because she “had the mindset that I’m gonna wear this [once] for a few hours”.

The newlyweds also saved money by being gifted their wedding cake and flowers by friends and family, and getting married on a public hilltop at sunset, with the couple revealing their wedding took just two months to plan.

Since documenting the steps they took to cut down wedding costs, they have been applauded by TikTok users for their frugality.

One person said: “A wedding is just one day and people spend hundreds of thousands, for what? Congrats madam, you looked beautiful. I wish you both happiness.”

Another commented: “This is everything! I’m not going broke to feed and entertain anyone I don’t hear from on a regular [basis].”

“This is definitely possible! You don’t need to spend 20k on a wedding! Congratulations, you looked stunning,” someone else wrote.

According to wedding-planning website Hitched, the average cost of a UK wedding is a whopping £17,300, with a wedding dress alone costing around £1,300. In the US, the average cost is for a wedding in 2021 was $28,000, according to The Knot.

The couple also acknowlledged that they wouldn’t have been able to pull off the event without the support from their friends and family throughout the planning process and wedding day. They said: “The people we had there, they understood the assignment, they understood the things that we were trying to do, and they really supported us.”

"You have a wedding, with witnesses there to witness you, vowing to your spouse, vowing to God that you guys are going to stay together for life," Brokenbrough added. "Then you celebrate with food, drinks and dance - and that’s exactly what we did."

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