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The average wedding these days costs in the tens-of-thousands of dollars, but if you happened to invest early in bitcoin, you could tie the knot for a steal. Broadbean Catering and Events, who run the catering and functions at the National Portrait Gallery and the Museum, will now accept bitcoin as payment for weddings. Broadbean Catering's Anthony Barhoush said they believe they're the first Australian company to accept cryptocurrency as payment for nupitals. "We had a wedding couple enquire at the Portrait Gallery and we were just casually talking about bitcoin pricing and they were joking they wanted to pay for their wedding in bitcoin, cause they actually bought a couple of bitcoin about a year ago," he said. "We had a discussion and thought why not skip the middleman and accept bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments? There's lots of smaller businesses starting to accept them and lots of wedding companies overseas accept them as well." While they're yet to book in, if that particular couple does book their wedding and pay in bitcoin, they could be getting a bargain. They paid less than $1000 for their bitcoin just over a year ago, and while the market value fluctuates regularly, one bitcoin is currently worth more than $23,000. The wedding package that the couple was looking at is worth about $13,000. "It's pretty incredible, they can actually pay for a wedding now and have some bitcoin left over," said Mr Barhoush. Couples are expected to pay for their weddings a few weeks in advance, and Broadbean Catering will now provide the option to pay in cryptocurrency, with a quote based on the market value, at the time of payment. "Offering payment in cryptocurrency makes it a lot easier to receive payments from couples. With credit cards there are very high fees. And when people are paying for weddings there's often a daily limit for banks so they have to pay over several days so it's such a hassle," Mr Barhoush said. "With a lot of these cryptocurrencies, the transfer is instantaneous, it's unlimited and the fees are very very minimal. So it's just providing wedding couples with choices and giving them the option." As well as bitcoin, Broadbean Catering and Events will also accept other cryptocurrencies including Litecoin and Bitcoin derivatives Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. While some investors argue bitcoin is a 'bubble' that could burst at any moment, Mr Barhoush said they believe it's the future. "I do think we'll start to see more and more cryptocurrency payments. Right now there's not many options in Australia but I look forward to it."

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