‘Rent-a-guests’ send wedding costs spiralling

A new phenomenon, the rent-a-guest is inflating the average price of a wedding; Billed as a quick and simple way to save red faces, spouses realising they’ve married a social leper can be assured of an unlimited supply of friendly, charming guests to make them look good.

Good looks at a premium

In India, prices start from just a couple of pounds, but the more you are willing to shell out, the better looking your guest will be. For £7, you can get a suited and booted guest who is tall, well-built and able to charm his or her fellow guests.

MI Syed, founder of ‘Best Guests Centre’ says that he decided to form his rent-a-guest agency when a friend was married with very few guests because the family disapproved:

“I began thinking, if we could just somehow get some more people into this place, we could all have a good time together and my friend would feel good as well.”

A career for some

In Korea, the prices are a little higher with the average guest costing £10-15. Rent-a-guests can make a tidy sum attending two to three weddings a day during peak season.

“People don’t want to look as if they don’t have close ties with friends. Also, a bride seeks fake guests when the number of her guests is apparently smaller than the bridegroom’s, and vice versa, as the number of guests is often regarded as the family’s power,” said Lee Mi-young, director of Hagaek Friends.

Guest performers

It’s a different story in Japan, where the price jumps to around £125 per guest. But in a culture where a balanced guest list is a must, many brides and grooms are deciding it’s a price they can’t afford not to pay. Throw in an extra £60 and your guest will sing for you, while a further £32 will buy you a heart-felt speech from your new best friend – packed full of anecdotes to make you sound fantastic, of course.

Hiroshi Mizutani, heads ‘Office Agents in Tokyo’, a firm that supplies friends for the day.

“We’ll attend the wedding as your friend instead of your friend,”, Mr. Mizutani told news agency Reuters. “Suddenly, a guest might not be able to make it. Or maybe you are concerned about the gap in the number of guests you have compared to your partner. Or, there are many temp workers these days and they may be uncomfortable inviting the boss.”

Wedding secrets

A lack of friends is not the only reason to hire in new ones. One groom is reported to have hired in guests to attend his second marriage, because he didn’t want anyone there who had attended first time around.

You might think hiring in fake friends is one expense too far in the name of matrimony, but it could prove a drop in the ocean compared to your total wedding spend.

According to a recent survey, around 13,600 personal loans worth over £113 million were taken out to pay purely for weddings in the first four months of 2009 alone, with the average loan amount standing at £8,292.

So, for those out there reluctant to tell their future spouses that they only have two friends, this could be the solution: fly over to Asia for a budget wedding and you could have enough left over to buy several hundred fake friends.