The Wedding Packages

My fiancee and I decided to take a little trip to St. Augustine, Florida and determined after our first night there we would have a destination wedding. The ceremony would take place on September 9, 2009. Our first appointment was at The Wedding Authority in the Lightner Museum, where we were faced with the first experience of price discrimination. The owner of The Wedding Authority was explaining the six different courtyard ceremonies to us. Each package would include one hour in the courtyard, minister, wedding director, bridge decorations, and traditional wedding music (CD). Everything included in the packages were serviced solely by The Wedding Authority staff, which included two people; Carla and Bill Young. Most ceremonies were conducted on the bridge of the courtyard, although as we were standing on the bridge we noticed one big downfall and that was the fountains which limited the hearing of attendees. We opted against the bridge, and chose one of the corners in the courtyard. The bridge decorations included in all of the packages was only a white streamer wrapped along the bridge railing. After looking at the streamer, we decided it would be too tacky to use. The minister was the wedding director's husband, Bill, although we had already planned to have a family friend marry us instead. The package included one hour, although it didn't seem like that much time for a wedding ceremony and pictures. She explained that we would have to apply for a city permit for any of the packages costing $100, although for an extra fee of $150 we would be able to stay for an additional two hours. There were two different types of chairs offered that were an extra cost in addition to the package. With the chairs not being included she produced a tie-in sale, since we would obviously need to provide seating for our guests. The first set looked like they were loners from the bingo hall and they cost $1.50 a chair. The second set consisted of a more appealing chair costing $2.50 a chair. She knew some of our buying characteristics; we were from out of town, our willingness to pay a higher price, and our limited amount of time to make decisions. She explained that normal brides buy their own decorations in order to use the cheaper chairs, although with being from Ohio she knew we would not be able to do what the "normal" brides do. She created a "damaged good" item to practice versioning to make a higher profit.

After reviewing all the features included in the packages, we began to question our decision to choose The Wedding Authority as our ceremony site. The only appealing quality was the actual courtyard, with the flowers, stream, and unique structure. We learned the money we would be paying would only be for the courtyard. When purchasing bundled items consumers want the most for their money, but a happy wife equals a happy life.