18 married people share the one thing that's worth spending money on for the wedding.

Weddings these days can seem like expensive beauty pageants between the destination bachelorette parties and the elaborate photoshoots for Instagram-worthy moments...

Still, there are some things that are surprisingly worth paying full price for to make your wedding the day you've always dreamed of and more. Yes, your cousin is technically a bartender but why not just hire a catering crew? So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What IS worth the money with a wedding?' married people everywhere were ready to reveal the one thing they don't regret bending the budget for on their wedding day. Don't get the discount photographer...

1.

The booze. - Unleashtheducks

2.

Music, both during the ceremony and at the reception. Putting some thought into it and hiring someone who has decent chops will really elevate, rather than sink, the entire atmosphere. Doesn't matter what your taste in music is...hire a violinist, hire a DJ, hire a saxophonist...but hire someone good if you can. Get references. - [deleted]

3.

An amazing honeymoon. Don't spend your money on one day. - fizzjamk

4.

Videographer. Photos are great but nothing like a professional video to experience it all again. - punk_fiction

5.

The only things that I felt good about paying out the money for was a good venue, catering and the bar. - Louwye

6.

A lot of people are saying food. As someone who has attended about 12 weddings in last 4 years, quantity over quality for food. I don’t have any memories about food from weddings except one wedding that had no food at cocktail hour... No food is bad, fancy steak is a waste.

Serve food during cocktail hour, can literally be anything bite size as long as it’s plentiful. Have a chicken option, a fish option, and a vegan option for dinner. Make sure everyone gets dessert (can be as simple as cookies or ice cream). Provide late night snack like pizza and fries. You don’t need an expensive caterer, you just need enough food. - bdgr4ever

7.

Live band! - bonelard

8.

An open bar (free drinks) goes a long way towards ensuring your guests have a great time. If they do, likely do will you. I can’t remember how mush it cost us but it was well worth it. - Kinkin50

9.

Food and photographer. Hands down the most important investments lol - txaggiearcher

10.

This is apparently an unpopular answer, but: the dress. I originally set a low budget with the whole “I’m not spending a fortune on something I’m going to wear for a few hours” mentality. After being frustrated with the options in my budget, I loosened the purse strings and found a dress I really liked.

Years later, I still like the way I looked in that dress. I’ve been to some wedding since where you can tell the bride skimped on the dress and I wonder if they will love their wedding pictures twenty years from now. - usehernamechexout

11.

A day-of coordinator. Or, a week-of coordinator. A lot of people would probably see planners or coordinators as a waste of money, but hear me out for a second. This is your wedding day. You'll be putting on the dress, you're putting your makeup on/having someone put your makeup on, you're dealing with your hair, you're dealing with your own bridal party. You're a ball of nerves and so are the people closest to you.

Who is going to oversee the cake, flowers, the setups, making sure everyone's where they should be, at the right time? Someone has to do it.... and it is NOT going to be you. And it most certainly will not be your mom, or your aunt, or your sister, or your friend who 'really knows weddings.'

Generous and lovely as they may be, they have no idea what they are doing and they are too emotionally invested. What you need is someone not emotionally invested, to make sure sh*t is going the way it should. Because trust me...I've never seen a wedding go 100% as planned. And if you are emotionally invested in a wedding, and a change has to happen, or something isn't going as planned and now we have to figure out plan B, you'll lose your mind. The coordinator won't.

If you can't afford a wedding planner, I highly recommend investing in a day-of coordinator, or someone who can be there week-of, to help things go the way they should. It's a lot more affordable. I say this as a person who worked around many weddings, I was a catering manager at a resort. I saw many disasters at weddings. Get the coordinator. - spaghatta111

12.

Photographer. We cheaped out on a photographer (who was recommended as very good) and I was devastated when we got the photos back. Photos are memories. - miniaturemarrow

13.

We spent most of our budget on the reception. We invited our friends and family to celebrate with us and wanted to show them how much it meant to us that they shared our day with us. Live music, free drinks and an amazing night in a $400 dress. Would 100% go that route again. - mishel13

14.

The DJ. I have been to really cheap weddings with great music that everyone enjoyed and expensive weddings with terrible music that were awful. - MaximumStock7

15.

I skimped on my wedding photographer 14 years ago. I regret it to this day. If you spend money on nothing else, spend on the memories. - danabeezus

16.

Good food and entertainment. No one's going to remember your wedding favors or your decorations or your flowers. They're going to remember if they had a good time. - norathar

17.

Your rings! When we got married, we had a tiny budget so before anything else, we wrore out a list of everything we would need for the wedding (dress, cake, rings, venue, etc etc) and each ranked them from 1 to whatever#. Scores were added and that was how we decided where to spend the cash.

We both put wedding rings at the top of the list. I honestly barely remember what the cake looked like, couldnt tell you any music played other then our first dance & have bo idea what dinner was, but I look at my wedding band every single day. Never once have we regretted spending half the wedding budget having custom (matching) two-of-a-kind rings made for us. - Amraff

18.

If you’re having any type of reception, big or small, then spend a reasonable amount of money making sure your guests are fed and comfortable. So if you’re having an evening reception that means some type of dinner. With plenty of seating for everyone. If you’re doing more of a simple cake-and-punch party, then schedule it to NOT be at lunchtime or dinner time. - [deleted]