COUPLE’S SITE LETS STRANGERS PAY TO ATTEND WEDDINGS
Jeff and Karina Besen, a San Diego couple married for 19 years, built Not a Wedding Crasher, a website where couples list empty seats at their weddings and approved strangers pay to fill them. The idea started when the Besens ran out of date-night options and decided it would be fun to dress up and go to a wedding.
“We were doing the same thing over and over again,” Karina told NewsNation. “One day, Jeff looked at me, and he said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be really fun if we could dress up and go to a wedding?'”
Her reaction was less enthusiastic. “What are you talking about? You can’t just go to a wedding,” Jeff recalled her saying, adding that she pointed out they didn’t know anyone getting married. Once they started talking it through, Karina said they “realized nothing like it existed.”
They built the platform with a developer and launched it in March 2026. The site describes the goal as a wedding “where your presence is welcomed and intentional,” Yahoo Lifestyle reported.
Couples can list seats left open by last-minute cancellations or by a venue’s guest minimum. They choose how many seats are available and what contribution they want. Interested people send a request with a message explaining why they want to come, and the couple picks who gets invited. Paying does not guarantee a seat.
Applicants also go through identity checks that include an ID scan, and some reports mention a matching selfie or biometric scan. Everyone must be at least 21 because alcohol could be served, Jeff told KJZZ.
The contribution goes toward costs such as food, drinks and music, and prices vary by wedding. Dexerto reported listings from $25 a seat for a Tennessee wedding to $160 a seat for a South Jersey one. Jeff says that can come in cheaper than a night out at a restaurant.
“It’s reasonable from a guest perspective to go out and have dinner, an open bar, entertainment. I mean, it’s pretty awesome,” he said.
The Besens say the site has attracted nearly 20,000 users. Jeff told Fortune that close to 1,000 guests have attended about 60 weddings. The first one was in Los Angeles in May, and the Besens went.
Gabriela Alonzo and Stephen Ghormley-Jones used it to bring four strangers to their San Antonio, Texas, wedding, Yahoo Lifestyle Australia reported.
“People love love. They love celebrations,” Jeff said. Karina says couples end up with guests who are “truly super excited and thankful to be there.”
The site is now reaching the Boston area. On October 23, 2026, The Boston Globe reported its first listing there: four seats at $125 each for a November 1 wedding, with braised short rib, a full dessert bar and a playlist of Egyptian Arabic hits, Top 40 and millennial pop.
