Wedding Costs....

[MossRoad]

For anyone that's listening to a young couple wanting to spend huge money on a wedding..... this is something to think about...

Wedding cost VS what if I'd have invested that instead calculator! Enjoy! :laughing:

Wedding calculator: What would I have if I invested instead?

 

[mark02tj]

When I got married 25 years ago, we did a "budget wedding". My wife (now ex-wife) loved to sew, so she made her dress. At the time, I was working for an accounting firm and wearing a suit every day. So, instead of renting a tux, I bought a new suit for not much more and got several years of use out of it. Simple church wedding, 1 attendant each. A friend and his father provided the music for the ceremony on their violin and cello (both were concert musicians). Reception was a cookout in my old business partner's back yard. We rented a tent, pre-cooked a bunch of chicken and finished it on the grill. Our friends jumped in for grill duty while we socialized. A couple of cases of wine and a keg of beer (one of my clients was the local Coors distributor - I got a deal on it! ) and we were set! All in all, I think we spent somewhere around $1000 for everything.

About the same time we got married, the next door neighbor's youngest son got married. His parents offered the couple $5000 that they could use for either a down payment on a house or a trip to Hawaii. Of course, they took the trip. As far as I know, they're still renting.

 

[dave1949]

David, are you some sort of fifth column subversive? You keep on with this crazy talk and the entire US economy will crumble. :laughing:

 

[MoKelly]

I'd like to know how women would vote on this topic vs. men.

I think I know the answer.

I also think I know who would win the decision.

MoKelly

 

[Bird]

I've wondered how long the marriages of some of those elaborate and expensive weddings last. I can remember a sergeant, who was working for me, taking out a second mortgage on his home to pay for a huge, expensive wedding for their daughter. Of course it was none of my business, so I certainly didn't say anything, but to me, that borders on insanity.

 

[dave1949]

Sharon and I had a simple wedding 44 years ago. The ceremony was in the Presbyterian church around the corner from her parent's home. The reception was in the local Grange Hall. The food was homemade and brought to the reception by family friends. No music, no spirit beverages.

I don't think either one of us has ever felt like we missed out on something or that our wedding wasn't 'good enough' in some way or other. The folks who mattered to us were there to share the occasion.

 

[MoKelly]

My wife and I had a pretty frugal wedding ... married in our Church, a small reception at the hotel we were staying overnight before leaving for a week to a golf/tennis resort in Northern Illinois.

All was good (she agreed to everything) --- except we didn't get a limo for the trip from the church to the hotel. My Dad drove us in his car. My wife trying to get into the car with her wedding dress was, well, shall we say challenging. Getting out was even more fun.

To this day (24 years later), she will sometimes mention that to our kids about how "cheap" their father was on the wedding.

Women are different --- they never forget. They are good at forgiving --- but they do not forget.

MoKelly

 

[Industrial Toys]

With a fifty percent divorce rate, why not forgo the expense and have a BIG celebration after twenty or so good years?

Frugal women are what men should be looking for. (Hey, spending money on equipment, isn't really spending it as it holds it's value, got that sweetie?)

 

[jerrybob]

How do most men define a wedding? An expensive way to get laundry done for free. :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

My wife and I had a pretty frugal wedding ... married in our Church, a small reception at the hotel we were staying overnight before leaving for a week to a golf/tennis resort in Northern Illinois.

And you call that "frugal"?:laughing: Of course you're right . . . by most standards. Before we got married, we arranged to be assistant managers of an apartment complex, and we moved most of our stuff into the apartment a day or two before the wedding. Then the night we got married, we went directly to the new apartment after the wedding. And early the next morning, we were awakened by tenants with complaints knocking on the door.

The assistant manager had told the owner he was moving out, after a tenant had hit him in the mouth. But then the manager decided to leave and that assistant manager said he'd stay since there was going to be a police officer living there. So the owner asked us to be the managers instead of assistant managers. But we quickly learned that the apartments were in bad shape, the owner refused to do any maintenance, hoping the tenants would move out. When one moved out, then he completely refurbished that apartment and wanted to rent it at a much higher rent. Fortunately, we were only there a couple of weeks when the owner of a much larger and nicer apartment complex contacted me to see if we'd take the job of assistant managers at his apartments, and we did.

But our first "honeymoon" trip was more than 2 years after we got married and a year after our first daughter was born.:laughing:

 

[MoKelly]

But our first "honeymoon" trip was more than 2 years after we got married and a year after our first daughter was born.:laughing:

Hey, that reminds me. Does the daughter's parents still pay for the wedding, or is that a bygone tradition? In my case, we paid for our own wedding.

How many daughters do you have?:laughing:

I have 2 sons!

MoKelly

 

[Teachu2]

My second (current, and last!!!) wife and I put on our Sunday best, invited friends and family (including her three young sons) to a friend's ranch, and stood under the oldest known example of a particular oak tree in California. The County Clerk was a friend, and he performed the ceremony. Family provided some snacks, and it was a done deal. Total cost with the inexpensive rings was under a thousand bucks. Twenty-seven years ago next week. Instead of a big wedding, we bought our first house. Got all the kids raised, and now live on 5 acres of our own oak trees. About our fifteenth anniversary, I upgraded her wedding ring considerably....

Fairy-tale weddings establish expectations of luxurious lifestyles. Not our style, nor our tax bracket.

 

[DT86]

My fiancé wanted one of those cliché barn weddings. The rental was going to be north of $5k. That is a ridiculous amount of money to give away. I decided $5k worth of improvements to my farm would make it nice enough to have the wedding here.


Best part is, when the tables are folded up and everyone is gone, I will still get to benefit from those improvements. Some gravel for the farm roads, weed eating fence rows, pruning some trees, spraying weeds, 1000' of new fence, ect. All things I need to get done anyway, gladly paid for out of our wedding fund.

 

[DT86]

My fiancé wanted one of those cliché barn weddings. The rental was going to be north of $5k. That is a ridiculous amount of money to give away. I decided $5k worth of improvements to my farm would make it nice enough to have the wedding here.


Best part is, when the tables are folded up and everyone is gone, I will still get to benefit from those improvements. Some gravel for the farm roads, weed eating fence rows, pruning some trees, spraying weeds, 1000' of new fence, ect. All things I need to get done anyway, gladly paid for out of our wedding fund.

 

[ultrarunner]

Weddings do seem to be extravagant affairs more than not among those I know...

Quite different from the weddings I attended in Austria which were very large and continued well into the night.

The big difference there is the Bride and Groom pay for the church, Bridle Table and parents, grandparents and godparents and music...

All the rest of the attendees which could number 500 or more pay their own way... namely food and drink...

Still remember when another co-worker from California visited and attended a wedding with me... he was ordering shots and drink like a sailor on leave... was in for quite a shock when he got the bill for his libations at the end of the evening...

The conventional thinking is if the young couple can't afford to pay their own way... then what business do they have getting married...

My parents paid for their own wedding as did just about all of their friends...

Here is another kicker... my first Austrian wedding I asked about the rehearsal dinner... the old priest put me in my place quick... he said marriage is a sacred sacrament not a Hollywood production...

Since then I have walked my cousin down the Isle... not having kids, it is something I never thought I would have the chance to do... and have been best man more times than I can count...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Women are different --- they never forget. They are good at forgiving --- but they do not forget.

MoKelly

:thumbsup:

 

[aczlan]

We had our wedding on one weekend, then our honeymoon, then a small reception at church the next weekend. There we had a "Dairy Bar" (small cartons of various flavors of milk on ice in a John Deere wagon) and a build your own sunday (lots of ice cream and toppings).
Then we left the reception in a John Deere tractor . Simple, but we both liked it as did most of the guests.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

David, are you some sort of fifth column subversive? You keep on with this crazy talk and the entire US economy will crumble. :laughing:

That's phase two of my evil plan.... :cool2: