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“Yes” is the most expensive word
Happy Sunday {{first_name}},
If you’ve been involved in planning and paying for a wedding before, then you’ll know that “I do” is an expensive process.
“I wish I hadn’t” costs far more, but more on that later.
Here’s an interesting thing: merely saying “yes” has become an industry in and of itself. There are couples spending an absolute fortune on the engagement, let alone the rest of the journey.
Could this be because the number of weddings appears to have decreased remarkably over the past decade, prompting service providers to find ways to make more money off people who are still willing to tie the knot?
Dominique Olivier explores this concept in her latest piece here.
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Read on for a tale of an unusual businesses aimed at helping couples get a quicker divorce, as well as the Fast Facts themed around particularly unusual fights when couples are splitting.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday - and go buy some coffee!
The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)
“Yes” is the most expensive word
The number of new civil marriages in SA has dropped sharply over the past decade. And it’s not just a local phenomenon, creating a serious problem for the wedding industry.
But as the audience has evolved from those attending the ceremony to anyone scrolling through Instagram, service providers have found new ways to make serious money.
Dominique Olivier explores the rise of the costly proposal.
Check in married, check out single
TL;DR: A Dutchman who has never been married built a business on ending marriages in a weekend, spa access included.
On Valentine’s Day 2011, Jim Halfens opened for business in the Netherlands. His product was a weekend at a five-star hotel, complete with room service, spa access… and a team of mediators and lawyers.
You’d arrive on Friday as a married couple (in separate rooms, naturally). By Sunday, you’d have agreed your terms and signed everything, and all that remained was for a judge to stamp it.
A moment’s pause for nominative determinism - that a man with the surname “Halfens” should start a business that literally splits couples (and often their assets) in half.
He called it DivorceHotel, although it isn’t a physical hotel at all. It’s a package, hosted by upmarket hotels that are otherwise busy selling romance. Prices started at around €2,500, which Halfens pitched as a bargain vs. lawyers who bill by the hour and have little reason to hurry.
It worked, mostly. Of the first 17 couples, 16 left with their paperwork ready. Within three years the company was closing in on its 100th divorce.
In 2014, the idea crossed the Atlantic to the Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, a venue best known for (what else?) weddings. For $5,000, a couple got separate rooms, the spa, the golf course and the lawyer. The hotel’s spokesman was unbothered: divorcing guests, he said, were no different from any other group.
One Long Island couple, married for 25 years, booked their split for Valentine’s Day 2015. As the wife pointed out, if the negotiations got stressful, you could always pop out for a facial.
As for Halfens? Never married, never divorced. He’s seen what both cost. He also launched a career as a keynote speaker, where we assume he charges by the weekend, not by the hour.
How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads
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Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.
The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.
Dominique’s Fast Facts
Inspired by the unfortunate realities of the divorce rate, this week’s Fast Facts section is titled: "What’s yours is mine”.
In November 1999, a Las Vegas family court judge ordered a divorced couple to bring their Beanie Baby collection to court. Frances and Harold Mountain had been divorced for four months and still couldn’t agree on how to split the collection of soft toys, worth an estimated $2,500 to $5,000. Judge Gerald Hardcastle had them spread the collection on the courtroom floor and pick one at a time, with reporters invited to watch. Maple the Bear went first, and it was all over in ten minutes.
In 2008, after 40 years of marriage, a husband in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province moved his belongings to one side of their traditional wooden family home. Then he and his friends sawed that half off and moved it to his parents’ property. The man was allegedly angry that his wife hadn’t looked after him when he was ill. She stayed on in the half that was left. The couple never went to court, so it wasn’t a legal divorce.
In 2001, Long Island surgeon Richard Batista donated a kidney to his wife. About four years later she filed for divorce, and he told the media she should either give the kidney back or pay him more than $1 million. In court, he asked for the organ to be valued as marital property. In 2009 a New York court ruled that marital property does not include human organs, and added that trying to get money for one could expose him to criminal prosecution.
In 2010, a North Carolina start-up called Safeguard Guaranty was selling WedLock, billed as America’s first divorce insurance. Each unit cost $15.99 a month and bought $1,250 of cover, rising by $250 a year, paid out as a lump sum on proof of divorce. The catch was that the policy had to run for 48 months before it paid anything.