Bride and Groom Saved $10,000 by Using AI to Plan Their New York Wedding

A bride and groom used ChatGPT to plan their upcoming New York wedding — and it helped the couple save big.

Maria Cortese, who is set to marry her fiancé Ryan in Poughkeepsie this summer, opened up to NBC News about their decision to use artificial intelligence to coordinate their August nuptials.

She estimated that the chatbot ended up saving the couple somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000.

As Cortese told the outlet, ChatGPT helped with everything from finding a photographer to arranging their save the date invitations for what she hopes to be a “flowy, summer” wedding.

“I said, you know what, I’m just gonna take a gander at this and I’m gonna type in something for a wedding’,” she told NBC News. “Google’s so generalized, right? When you’re typing into Chat GBT, it’s very specific as to what you’re asking.”

ChatGBT was first launched in November 2022, and as NBC News notes, it played a big role in Cortese’s big day.

“I ended up finding a photographer that did engagements, then bridal shower and photography for almost half of the price of what it would have cost me to get a photographer to do the wedding on its own,” she shared.

According to Zola, which surveyed 7,000 couples getting married in 2024 for its annual First Look Report, 11% of couples said they were planning to incorporate artificial intelligence tools into wedding planning, while 36% were “considering it, but not sure yet.”

“In total, this equates to 54% who said yes or maybe, vs. 46% who are unlikely to use AI,” Zola reports.

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And while Cortese said AI “pretty much” does everything except walk her down the aisle, wedding planner Katy Turich-Martin told NBC News that it can’t take the place of a human planner.

Speaking to the outlet, Turich-Martin said that she herself has used AI to “explain a few things to clients,” but there’s many things it cannot do.

“It’s the man power, setting of the tables, making sure the table numbers are right, making sure the chair counts are right, and honestly, peace of mind a lot of times where we know the person so well,” she said.

“By the time they get to their wedding, if I see them nervous about anything, I can fix it.”