Hannah Williams has turn out to be a TikTok phenomenon with a easy method. Underneath her model, Salary Transparent Street, she asks random passersby what they do for work and the way a lot they make. Since April of final 12 months, Williams, 26, has amassed 1.3 million TikTok followers and practically 32 million likes. She additionally simply landed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and, per Forbes, has notched over $1 million in model offers. She shares all of the credit score along with her solely full-time worker: Her cameraman and new husband, whom she wed this 12 months in an occasion costing simply $11,000.
A TikTok video Williams made breaking down the price of her wedding ceremony was enormously standard amongst her viewers, she advised Fortune in a latest interview.
Their ceremony venue was free (they wedded in Gravelly Level Park simply exterior D.C., the place folks usually picnic to look at planes soar at shut vary overhead to close by Ronald Reagan Airport.) Williams’ easy, billowy white gown was $75.65; her husband’s swimsuit was $752.40; their rings collectively got here to $2,380; a photographer price $2,600; their reception venue—Spider Kelly’s, a bar in Arlington—replete with an open bar and buffet price $4,400; the bouquet Williams held price $134.86; the couple’s matching sneakers totaled to $190.80; a rental Porsche price $170, plus $10 for gasoline; momentary customized tattoos for company got here to $45.58; a macaroon tower, in lieu of a cake, price $240; a Polariod visitor guide was $180; they used a Spotify playlist, which price nothing, to keep away from paying a DJ.
Grand whole: about $11,000. (The common American wedding ceremony final 12 months price about $30,000. Within the D.C. space, the place Williams acquired married, that’s nearer to $60,000.) The marriage business as a complete is boiling over; it’s value over $70 billion within the U.S. alone.
“We got some really interesting comments—definitely the cheap wedding dress versus expensive tux was a huge point of contention, but I didn’t even give it a second thought,” Williams stated. She solely created the video in alignment with the mission of every of her different movies: Transparency, which is confirmed to improve equal pay.
Whereas $11,000 is considerably lower than what the common couple spends on their nuptials—and Williams and her accomplice earn six-figure incomes with no children—she nonetheless deliberate to spend not more than $5,000 initially. The couple “wasn’t super happy about” ending up with a invoice greater than twice that a lot.
“People now see us as celebrities of some kind,” she stated. That carries an expectation that, if you happen to make some huge cash, your wedding ceremony spend ought to show your wealth. “I think that’s wrong.”
The eye to her private expenditures (and that of any influencer or superstar) is in the end unhealthy, Williams stated. “My husband and I really just cared about making it a special day that was personal to us,” she stated. As for the extraordinarily cheap wedding ceremony gown—$76 in comparison with the national average, $1,900—Williams stated she thinks spending 1000’s of {dollars} for a one-day gown is “insane.”
“I say that lightly [because] a lot of brides do it, and I’m not judging at all,” she added. “I think people should spend money on what’s special to them.” Plus, Williams had a “really hard time” discovering a gown she appreciated, so she was thrilled with the $76 gown she landed on. “I thought it was amazing, [and] it allowed us to spend money on other aspects [of the day] that were more important to both of us.”
One other space she didn’t shell out on: Her engagement ring, which she stated price about $2,000. (Nationwide common: About $6,000.) Bucking custom, she opted for, as an alternative of a diamond, a moissanite ring, a vastly extra inexpensive lab-grown stone. A diamond, a fixture of engagement tradition, didn’t matter practically as a lot to Williams as the wedding itself.
“I have this traumatizing memory of my mom losing her engagement ring—a real diamond—when I was a kid,” she added. “I’m very clumsy; I do a lot with my hands. So I didn’t want a situation of losing a ring worth a ton of money. I felt [$2,000] was a fair amount to spend—I’m just hoping I don’t lose it in 10 years.”
