<!DOCTYPE html><htmllang="en"dir="ltr"><head><metacharSet="utf-8"/><metaname="viewport"content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"/><linkrel="icon"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/favicon-3888b0e329526a975703e3059a02b92d.ico"/><linkrel="apple-touch-icon"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-default-b504d70343a9438df64c32ce339c7ebc.png"/><linkrel="apple-touch-icon"sizes="76x76"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-76x76-d5accc11b8265af76495fbfa9d38dd3b.png"/><linkrel="apple-touch-icon"sizes="120x120"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-120x120-419ba228184c040a691628d3dd82c206.png"/><linkrel="apple-touch-icon"sizes="152x152"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-152x152-aafde20dd981a38fcd549b29b2b3b785.png"/><metaname="application-name"content="theatlantic"/><metaname="msapplication-TileColor"content="#FFFFFF"/><metaname="msapplication-TileImage"content="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-default-b504d70343a9438df64c32ce339c7ebc.png"/><metaproperty="og:site_name"content="The Atlantic"/><metaproperty="og:locale"content="en_US"/><metaproperty="fb:admins"content="577048155,17301937"/><metaproperty="fb:app_id"content="100770816677686"/><metaproperty="fb:pages"content="29259828486,1468531833474495,1061579677251147,457711054591520,370457103090695,1631141167169115,148681772342453,1510507419185410,128344747344340,128377530562508,236061986423933"/><metaname="p:domain_verify"content="68e1a0361a557708fefc992f3309ed70"/><metaname="twitter:site"content="@theatlantic"/><metaname="twitter:domain"content="theatlantic.com"/><scripttype="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","name":"The Atlantic","url":"https://www.theatlantic.com","inLanguage":"en-US","issn":"1072-7825","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://www.theatlantic.com/search/?q={q}","query-input":"required name=q"}}</script><scripttype="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.theatlantic.com/#publisher","name":"The Atlantic","url":"https://www.theatlantic.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","unitCode":"E37","value":224},"height":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","unitCode":"E37","value":224},"url":"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/files/atlantic-logo--224x224.png"},"sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic","https://twitter.com/theatlantic"]}</script><styleid="_vis_opt_path_hide">#paywall,#nonMeteredNudge,#gate{opacity:0;}</style><title>Confessions of a Luxury-Wedding Planner - The Atlantic</title><metaname="description"content="Confessions of a wedding planner"/><metaproperty="krux:title"content="Confessions of a Luxury-Wedding Planner - The Atlantic"/><metaproperty="krux:description"content="Confessions of a wedding planner"/><linkrel="canonical"href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/luxury-wedding-planners-industrial-complex-cost/674169/"/><linkrel="image_src"href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Hm7RqHWVFylQTJ4DC8FcVq95d_8=/0x43:2000x1085/1200x625/media/img/2023/06/0723_Gonzalez_Weddings_topper_hor/original.jpg"/><metaname="author"content="Xochitl Gonzalez"/><linkrel="ia:markup_url"href="https://www.theatlantic.com/facebook-instant/article/674169/"/><metaproperty="article:publisher"content="https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic/"/><metaproperty="article:opinion"content="false"/><metaproperty="article:content_tier"content="metered"/><metaproperty="article:tag"content="family"/><metaproperty="article:section"content="Culture"/><metaproperty="article:published_time"content="2023-06-16T11:00:00Z"/><metaproperty="article:modified_time"content="2023-06-16T21:57:38Z"/><metaname="robots"content="index, follow, max-image-preview:large"/><metaproperty="og:title"content="The Fake Poor Bride"/><metaproperty="og:description"content="Confessionsofaweddi