Posted on 02/03/2017 7:29:25 AM PST by NOBO2012
I currently have 4 nieces/nephews engaged, with weddings planned over the next 2 years, so this news caught my eye: the average cost of a wedding peaked at $35,000 last year. Wow, that’s a pretty big investment. Especially when there seems to be an inverse relationship between the cost of a wedding and their longevity.
Or as Willie Nelson put it: “it would be cheaper if I just found a woman I don’t like very much and buy her a house.” In fact, a tiny house is one of the items the WaPo notes could be bought for the cost of the “average” wedding. Something else on their list: four club level premium tickets on the 50-yard line at the Super Bowl: $36,000.
So shoot, skip the ceremony and the party and just go to the Super Bowl with your two best friends where you can hear Lady Gaga at the halftime show espouse her views on ‘inclusion’ and ‘equality’ – because who would know more about that sort of thing than Lady Gaga? Watch for her to make it her coming out party, because with the glitterati class it’s always about them.
You are just there to pay the freight.
Lady Gaga don’s a bridal veil, as she takes her vows with a fellow crystal globe.
Posted from: Michelle Obama’s Mirror
I don't understand why, in today's world, the parents are expected to fund someone else's wedding, even if it is their child.
You want to get married? Fine. Then pay for it.
This isn't like the past where brides were considered a non-earner and the family was glad to unload her onto someone else and pay for the privilege.
I really admire those people who picked well and have lifelong marriages (my parents). I love the idea of marriage. I just didn’t do very well at it. I’m so happy for the FReepers who did so well.
I blame a mix of reality shows pushing up the expectations, feminist / self-centered indulgence when they do get married and rise of self-centered “destination” weddings that inflate the cost with travel expenses for everyone.
I’ve had people get mad at me for saying we’re not traveling to their honeymoon destination for a wedding, we’ll send a gift. Or in two occasions, since we showed up as a family of four, here’s a token gift. We traveled with children, our presence IS the gift.
You are so right. Family memories to be cherished.
Just curious...when your wife sees those lovely young women trying on those beautiful, expensive gowns, does she, like me, cringe when she sees the ones covered in tattoos on their arms, back, neck, etc.??
My ex and I got married in my his scuba instructor’s back yard (they had a nursery so it was pretty). Two witnesses from my workplace, couple bottles of champagne for the seven of us, I wore a two piece purple silk dress, he wore a suit. Lasted 23 years.
I watched the old movie “The Catered Affair” last week when TCM ran their Debbie Reynolds tribute. She plays a young working class bride whose mother (Bette Davis) wants to give her the big wedding she never had even though her father (Ernest Borgnine) is a cabbie who can’t afford it. It was quite the contrast to today’s weddings.
We were married in the living room of the house we had just bought (basically, had to schedule the Justice of the Peace)
Threw a reception in it, that weekend, at a cost of ~$200.
Engagement ring was an antique bought at a government estate jewelry event (I was traveling overseas as an Air Force contractor at the time. . . .). Cost $87 bucks plus 20 to get it resized.
Wedding rings were from the JC Penney catalog. We’ll be married 18 years, come May. . .
I'm in my early 20's. My firsthand opinion of the current crop is that many men are emotionally immature capable of improving..But many, even most, women are emotional toddlers with entitlement attitudes, wild expectations, no respect for others and a breathtaking capacity for psychological and emotional cruelty.
I'm not some kind of "woman-hater" by any means. But the current state of society, a potent mixture of sloth, greed and post-Christian ethics, is such that it brings out the worst possible potential in females and squashes, if not inverts, their better tendencies. I suppose in the past society was pre-Christian and warfare-based, the worst in men was brought out. But the current social paradigm makes most women a nightmare to deal with.
It would take a semi-miraculous confluence of events to get a ring on me, that's for sure.
After my failed marriage to an unmedicated nutjob, I now believe that a candidate spouse should be vetted by friends and family. After I divorced her, family and friends asked why I put up with that for so long!
I agree. The day of living in your father’s house until you moved into your husband’s is long gone!
Ours ran $500 total - venue, gown, flowers, cake, invitations, etc. Got the gown at Penney’s trunk sale. The cake was made by a lady who did them out of her house. The venue (fancy word these days) was at a B&B and was the first wedding they had. It was much nicer than my maid of honor’s who’s gown was $2000 which was a fortune back then.
It’s unbelievable how stupid people are to spend so much on weddings. Don’t go into debt. Put that money into a car or a house or pay off loans/credit cards. Blah, such high credit card debt is another soap box.
Got my ring at Service Merchandise in 1991. Flushed it down the toilet in 2009.
It was an accident, though. I had lost a lot of weight due to an illness, and it just wouldn’t stay on my finger. Fell into the toilet as I was reaching to flush one night and off it went. Wasn’t worth pulling the toilet to see if it was still there, so we headed to Wally and got another one. 26 incredible years this April.
Told hubby a thousand times not to wear his ring to swim in the river....
Oh, the second time around I did! Because they admitted to having misgivings about #1, so I let them all vet #2. And they all loved him! But no one knew about the mental illness streak in his family, not even me.
I could never get into these bachelor shows. Getting married is not a prize in itself, even to a wealthy partner. It’s really tough if you don’t have a lot of insight or if one or both are not communicating honestly.
Didn't need the nice clothes we were going to wear for the JP...they were in our luggage that was loaded on the ship. So, we ended up getting married in T-shirts and shorts.
Our honeymoon was a two-day cruise to the Bahamas and 4 days at Disney World. Most of our time was spent fretting about our 10 month old daughter, who was safe and sound at Grandma's house.
Based on our experience, I strongly recommend that marriage should come at least a couple of years before kids, to build your relationship with your spouse. We had our first two kids within a year of actually getting married. I love them to death, but child rearing can be a strain on relationships.
We'd been together five years before we got married, but we had our periods of separation. She was working on her bachelors degree, and I did 18 months as a Battery Commander, a 24/7/365 job, further complicated by my pursuit of my masters degree.
If you are a conservative evangelical Christian, and really hope to marry someday, I would give this advice. I would suggest you move to the Midwest, South or Texas and get involved in a very conservative Bible believing church. Grow in your faith and serve there. You will meet a wonderful girl with your same values. I’ve known many many young people getting married in early 20s with happy, solid marriages that have lasted and weathered the storms of life (financial, health, etc) and are based on the right things (Biblical values for home and family), not on materialism or feminism. jmho
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