There is only one relevant question imho. Are you getting paid for the wedding and for bringing the gear? If so, I personally feel you can not show up with sub-standard gear. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that 250 dollars worth won’t get you anything even near decent. To give you an idea, I have speakers that cost close to 1000 dollars for one single speaker. You can find speakers in the 500-600 dollar range per speaker that are good enough to take to a paid gig, under that it gets increasingly hard to find quality gear worth charging for.
It’s just not possible to get two decent (let alone good) active speakers plus stands and cables for 250 bucks. There is no miracle cure in PA. You get what you pay for. And if you pay next to nothing, that is exactly what you’ll get. These speakers might be fun stuff for a 12-yr old’s bedroom, but not for actual use with real people at a real gig/party.
So, as always, my advice is rent professional gear (and you can actually make some money on the gear by making a deal for discount from the party you rent from) until you can afford owning your own professional gear. And only buy your own gear if you play out enough that the money you charge for renting your own gear will pay for your new gear in about 14 to 16 months.
Average rental price is about 4% of new value. So you need to rent out 25 times in 14-16 months to make purchase of your own gear a financially sound decision, which roughly translates to 1,5 to 1,7 gigs a month where you get paid for the gear.
When I started I had an “emergency” set of speakers for impromptu things (and those were still 250 dollar a piece without stands and cables) for years, while I rented everything for my paid gigs. That way I always had access to well-kept, well-maintained and high quality gear, without having to spend a dime of my own money. The rental company first awarded me 15% discount and after a while that went up to 25%.
It wasn’t until my 5th or 6th year and after having made quite a bit of money playing paid gigs that I actually bought my own PA (Mackie HD-series 18″ sub and two 12″ fullrange) in two batches (fullrange first few months later my sub).
If you get paid for the work, be a professional about it, accept that your customer deserves the best and let that reflect in your choice of gear as well.
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