Weddings Are Big Buck$
>> Wednesday, February 27, 2008
OK, so I just read an article that said the cost of weddings comes as a surprise to engaged couples.
Seriously? I was well aware of the cost of a wedding when Doug & I got married. Maybe it was because I was older and had no grand ideas of big white dresses, towering cakes and elaborate meals. Or maybe it was because I knew my parents wouldn’t be paying for any of our ceremony. So we eloped.
My cousin is getting married in April. I just got the invitation last week. I have to admit that I am a bit surprised. First, the wedding is in Dallas where the couple lives but neither has family. So everyone has to fly in. Second, the wedding is being held at a nice hotel and they are serving a full dinner. Third, these are young kids, early 20’s, and I know thir jobs are pretty mid-level. Not “big bucks” by any means.
How are they affording this? Are they putting it on credit cards? They don’t own anything so if they are taking out loans they aren’t Secured Loans with a low interest rate.
The fact that so many people begin their lives in debt paying for this one day scares me.
Did you have a big wedding? How did you pay for it?
5 comments:
My wedding is in June of '09. Laura and I will both be 26 at that point, likely working mid-level jobs.
I think expensive is a relative term. Laura and I are spending around $12-$15k and I don't feel like that's a lot. I've certainly seen people spend more. After some debate, we are serving a full dinner. I feel like it's rude to ask people to travel (in our case, my family is going to have to drive 100-200 miles, and our friends from Des Moines over 400) and not feed them.
It's expensive, and it'll take a while to pay back, but in all likelihood we're both only going to get married once, so why not spend the extra dime and have something more to add to the day we'll remember for the rest of our lives?
I was told by my mom that they would spend $4000 on the wedding...period! I spent $700 on the dress, which left me with about $3k. Our church at the time, met at a local school (which was awesome for me because it was where I went to elementary school, as well as where Chris proposed to me) so that is where we got married. We had 250 people attend and did NOT have a big reception. We stayed right at the $4k mark, but wish we would have spent a little extra on the photographer and at least had sandwiches or something for the guests. We just did cake, nuts and mints. I think it would have only cost maybe one grand more. Oh well! Live and learn. It doesn't change the fact that we are married and will be forever.
I think it's funny the way weddings work today. People put themselves in debt for weddings and only 50% of them even stay together. My grandma got married in a pink party dress with one sister there to witness and no reception. They left the wedding and went straight to Indianapolis for the Indy 500 and spent the night in their car so they could get good seats. What a honeymoon! BUT...the point is, they are STILL married over 50 years later. It doesn't matter whether you spend $40,000k or $40 it's whether it lasts that matters. :)
We were given $250 for flowers from his parents and they paid for his tux. My parents paid for the meal at the reception and the DJ - they planned that portion, and I had no say in any of it. I paid for everything else - decorations etc. and it went on a credit card... stupid, stupid stupid. Because who remembers what the center pieces looked like, or any of that. I'm guessing that total cost was under $5K.
I had a smallish wedding about 100 guests, no frills. We did serve dinner. Open bar. We danced. We had fun, as did our guests. We spent roughly around 4k. Ok, we will celebrate our 20th next week, so it was along time ago. I owned a home that we would be living in & were free both free of debts. We also received about that much in cash gifts since we were not registered anywhere.
My husband's friend got married about a month after us. He had about 300 guests and spent about 30k. I don't know who paid for what. But I do know that they moved in with her parents because they could not afford their own place! 30k would have been a great down payment on a house dontcha think? Anyhoo, they divorced 2 years later.
If I had it to spare, why not. But I would not go into debt for a party.
This is the longest comment that I have ever posted in my life! :)
My entire wedding cost maybe $7,000 that's right down to the ribbon that tied the favors.
That was also 9 years ago.
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