A New York couple who sold tickets to their “wedding experience” last June defended their actions after videos and social media posts summarizing their 12-hour event went viral this month.
Kareem (“Reemo”) and Nova Styles got married on June 24, 2023, and videos of their day have sparked debate on social media.
“Unconventional things we did at our wedding, part 1: We sold tickets to our wedding,” Nova Styles said in a video posted to the TikTok account “The Styles Familia” as part of a series detailing the couple’s unique wedding.
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In the video, the bride said: “We had a guest list of 350 people, of which only 60 were invited due to the dynamics of the day.”
Instead of cutting the guest list themselves, the couple sold their guests tickets to the “Styles Wedding Experience” valued at $333.
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“They chose us,” she said. “They put their trust in the process by purchasing a ticket to our wedding.”
In follow-up videos posted on TikTok and Instagram, the couple said their guests boarded a custom-made “hop-on, hop-off” double-decker tour bus that took them to the wedding festivities – starting with the wedding itself at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan.
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Following the wedding ceremony, guests went to Hudson Yards, a movie theater and One World Trade Center to dance, dine and celebrate – and there were also photo shoots in between, Nova Styles said in the videos.
In the comments on the posts, many were critical of the couple’s approach to their wedding day, with several people saying the couple was “greedy,” “tasteless,” and “embarrassing.”
“Oh you’re broke, broke,” said one Instagram user.
“Only 60 guests out of 350. That says a lot,” said one TikTok user, adding that he or she would be “totally insulted if asked to spend $333 per guest.”
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“If you can’t afford it, don’t do it,” said the same user.
In a response to a comment, the couple defended the ticket prices and ticket sales, saying that the total proceeds from the 60 tickets were not enough to cover the costs of the wedding and that they could only accommodate a certain number of guests due to the size of the bus.
“It’s silly to think that 60 tickets could fund our 12 hour wedding day!! That definitely wasn’t the case and we paid for our wedding entirely ourselves!!,” the couple wrote.
However, other people defended the couple’s unorthodox approach to their wedding day.
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“Hey if they’re willing to pay that means they wanted to be there,” said one Instagram user – to which the Styles account replied: “Bingo.”
Others pointed out that ticket sales could be an innovation for wedding anniversaries to save costs.
“Weddings are expensive as hell. Nigerian weddings are huge. Lots of people arrive late and leave early, and most don’t bring a gift. That would work well culturally,” said another Instagram user, adding that “$333 is not a bad way to weed people out.”
The couple told the New York Post that by introducing paid wedding cards, they saved $70,000 on the cost of the reception and that they hope to use the money to start a family.
Despite the flood of negative comments, the couple seems to take the situation in their stride.
In a video posted on their social media pages and captioned, “We liked the comments…,” the two are seen pretending to cry before smiling and dancing.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the couple for further comment and details about their wedding day.
Source of the original article: Couple hosts luxury wedding in famous cathedral and charges guests $333 each
