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
My wife and I were married in 1998 at a cost of less than $1,000. But we were both 44 and adult.
And the honeymoon ain’t over. Dead serious. It only got stronger.
Well, the rings were worth about $2,000 and pretty darned nice, thanks to Costco.
The Wife and I eloped in ‘94.
Her crazy a$$ psycho liberal sister (from Minnesota) is still upset that she was not invited to the wedding.
Not a joke.
Some brides are more emotionally invested in the wedding than they are with the marriage.
The tv show Say Yes to the Dress amazes me. I can’t believe those women who pay thousands of dollars on wedding dresses. What a waste. Would rather put it towards down payment on a house.
I thought my marriage would stay intact until I died, but it was not to be.
My divorce did not happen at my initiation. In my view, my ex-wife really wanted to be divorced all along, but needed to go through marriage to get there.
We bought one another expensive items, but our financial situation was good. We did not have to stretch or go into debt to finance our lifestyle, which was never as lavish as she wanted.
She’s not my problem any longer. On to better (and younger) things.
I think a lot of marriages fall apart due to financial issues, and starting off with a huge wedding debt is really just asking for it.
Same as ours in 1981.Made my dress, mom and church people made food, MIL made cakes. Reception in the church basement. Marriage is tough enough without the stress of spending so much money.
Neither of my weddings were expensive. First one was at an awesome ranch where I spent my childhood summers. Second was at a relative’s horrible country club and I hated the location. Gorgeous thick silk dresses for nearly free: my mom’s, and a rental.
But apparently it isn’t the cost of the wedding guaranteeing the divorce. The key seems to be knowing how to pick your spouse, dammit. I picked two men who are still my friends. But one was a foreigner with some scary mafia ties that I didn’t understand at the time would become a threat. And the other abandoned not just me but four kids, possibly due to his mental illness (sometimes bran dysfunction and character issues are hard to distinguish). I would have been a great wife to somebody.
I doubt I’ll get married again. I’m sad about it. But I think from now on I only have time for a boyfriend. My kids will always come first.
There should be a bridal magazine out there called “Grooms and Other Accessories”
Everything has to be a production now. We do not attend outlandishly expensive weddings that are performed in some unusual place that is difficult to attend. The goal seems to be the gifts, rather than the attendance anyway.
It’s become a big racket.
What fool would spend $7500-10K on a dress that will be worn one time only?
Mrs WBill and I had a very nice wedding. All these years later, people don't talk about the dress, or the location, or the food, or the décor .... all things that women (even my lovely wife, to some extent) obsess over.
They're more interested in the people who were there. We invited all of the out-of-towners to the rehearsal dinner, (obviously) the reception, then Dad did a bunch for people after the wedding. Turned out it was the last time my grandparent's generation all got together, ever, and it was a week-long party for them. Still makes me smile, and maybe a little mad that I missed most of it because I was on my honeymoon....
I guess my point is that time and money should be spent on what's important - Family.
Funny, we got married in 98 and in similar circumstances. Ours was a tad more, like about $3K. Coming up on 20 next year too.
In inverse relation, my wife’s daughter’s cost $20K+ five years ago....it lasted two years. My wife is sick she spent that much money for it and I have been quiet not to mention I suggested she just give them the cash and not that much.
I beat you: maybe $250 in 1975 plus a $100 suit for me and low-cost rings. We didn’t have the elaborate meal obviously, and use of the church was free.
Sorry, your marriages failed but not because of you. Yes, you have to put the children first now.
I have to ask, are you still married?
Mrs WBill designed hers and we had it handmade by a local jeweler. Set me back more than I'd like to admit, but I figure that she's only going to get one, and she'll wear it for the rest of her life, and likely pass it on to the grandkids. I don't mind if it's *perfect*.
As an aside, I took a friend to the jeweler shortly after my wedding, as he was looking for a ring too. Hilarious, the salesperson really rolled out the red carpet, laid it on thick... "Yes SIR, yes sir, MISTER WBill, Right this way SIR". My friend asked, "Jeez, Bill, you own this place, or what?"
Salesguy likely made his commission for the month, and the next month too off of me alone. :-) He was really happy to see me again.
The traditional concept of the wedding, reception and honeymoon has changed. Marriage was once the defining transition into adulthood. The wedding was a religious rite to ensure God’s approval of the couple and/or a legal bindIng arrangement with witnesses and certificates. The reception was the community approval of the marriage and the time to help ensure the couple had the basics to set up their new independent home. The honeymoon was a time of privacy for the couple to bind through consummation of the marriage without the community and family distracting them.
Today couples live together, sometimes for years before deciding to marry. They already have the homemaking basics and more. They couldn’t care less about community approval. I applaud those who finally make it legal or religiously binding but nowadays guests are merely expected to grant their wish lists for fabulous honeymoon trips or luxuries. And the wedding itself becomes a huge production intended to impress everyone at enormous expense. It’s just another competition for compliments or bragging rights. Social media has made it so much worse.
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