Eva Marcille and Michael Sterling’s dream wedding came with a hefty price tag…we’re talking $350,000 hefty. Though the function was exquisite and every detail was top notch, some of Marcille’s cast mates questioned the finances behind her saying “I do.”
During an episode of Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked Kandi Burruss and Shamari DeVoe if they thought it was worth the Sterlings paying $1,000 per guest, to which DeVoe adamantly replied, “no!” Burruss tried to soften the blow, replying, “I mean, but it is a lifetime worth of memories.” During the episode, Kandi and Todd discussed en route to the wedding, with Kandi disclosing that she’d gotten way more and paid way less for her wedding day.
Marcille, fed up with the inquisitions about the costs and rumors that she dug herself into debt, set the record straight on Instagram. “There’s this big curiosity about how much money I spent for my wedding, and how much per plate, and all this good stuff. Let’s be very clear – I paid for my own wedding,” she said in a video captured by The Shade Room.
“There were no loans. Nothing was done on barter. And I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but if you’ve ever planned a wedding – it’s per person, not per plate. So when it comes to floral decor, when it comes to chairs- I didn’t have plastic chairs. When it comes to tables, when it comes to the champagne you sip from the moment you walked into the door from the moment you left, from valet, to security, to lighting – to everything. I mean, I had musicians around the clock- like, let’s be clear.”
She concluded her statement with some advice for her haters: “When I say it was $1000 a head, it was $1000 a head- not $1000 a plate. Get your life together. And how about we start minding business that we invest in? How about that for starters? Have a good one!”
Marcille spoke to ESSENCE exclusively about her lavish ceremony, revealing she’d gone over budget due to a guest list that stretched from 150 to 239 guest. “I was naive enough to think that I can plan a wedding for $80 to $100,000,” she told ESSENCE. “I spent well over $350,000.”