Posted on 04/11/2005 8:59:33 AM PDT by qam1
LOL! The poor grooms never usually do. :-(
I had to read that a few times. Details, please! What could possibly make it cost so much??
Carolyn
Pete Tarantino, a 35-year-old Kansas City loan officer who just got married to Susan, 31.
?It's important to stay focused on spending a lifetime together and not just a day,? Tarantino says of the planning process. ?It's about your relationship with your spouse and your relationship with God. Stay away from the magazines and the TV shows, and be involved with each other.?
?The focus has moved to the bride's dress, the size of the ring or how many people are at the reception, when it needs to be the exact opposite,? he says.
This is man with a good head on his shoulders! This marriage won't last, he is too sensible.
My cousin wasted 80K on her wedding. She nagged the poor schmuck so much he was in drug rehab within two months.
I am not allowed to tell how little it cost. ;-)
At the time, I was a Senior Airman and the DeBeers "3 months salary" mandate most pitiful buggers follow would have cost me more than the wedding did, and that's if I only went on raw pay without considering my quarters and meal allowances.
My advice to anyone planning on getting married: The industry sees you coming, and they have leverage. Opt out. The point is to celebrate your union with each other and Almighty God. It should be fun, not months of strees followed by years of debt.
Yeah, my ring is history. We tried to recover it, but no dice. Ah well. I learned a lesson from that...resize your rings if they get loose! LOL
For one, it was very large. Something like 400-500 people (including the Limbaugh family, Senator Ashcroft and whoever happened to be the Governor of Missouri at the time). Since Cape Girardeau is sort of in the middle of nowhere, they had to have caterers and musicians come in from St. Louis, so that added greatly to the cost.
His mother really went over the top, though, from what I understand. Ice sculptures everywhere, among other things.
Another friend's family spent close to $400K for a wedding.
My wedding cost something like $80K for 125 people. $15,000 of that was to rent out the Museum of Women in the Arts in DC for the reception, though. Thankfully, my father-in-law paid for everything, pretty much. I thought the price tag was over the top, but was outvoted.
I thought the price tag was over the top, but was outvoted.
Like I said above, the groom usually is. ;-)
My wife designed her own. She visualized exactly what she wanted, looked through a ton of bridal mags, cut out the parts from dresses in the mags that matched her mental picture, and created a picture she called "the Bride of Frankenstein because it was pieced together from said clippings. She took it to the seamstress and voila! Awesome wedding dress.
Yeah, we had an interesting discussion about this a few weeks ago. Our kids were highly amused and appalled at how the market can be SO manipulated!
Just curious, how long have you been married?
Spending much dinero on a one day event never appealed to me, but I don't have a problem with it if other people want to.
I have seen problems result, though, when middle class families (such as the one I come from) try to put on a shindig that rivals those of wealthy people who can easily afford them.
Young couples, early twenties, with no assets or savings, will go into debt, or put their parents there (second mortgages and all) to have the blowout wedding. I have known people who did this and wound up divorced a few years later, with a big load of debt to divvy up in court.
I mean really....what does a girl need with a $1,600. (in 1992 dollars) wedding dress when she and her beloved are living paycheck to paycheck, no real skills, no education, and parents of modest means. Sometimes people lose their heads over these things.
Damn, I'm in the wrong line of work.
Absolutely. He just gets yelled at by the female members on both sides of the family if he even dares to object to anything.
Anyway, it wasn't like there was any benefit to me if my wife kept the price low. So, I wasn't going to die on that partcular hill.
The wedding industry is amazing. It has brainwashed American women. And let's not even talk about the engagement ring industry.....
Your modest wedding was sensible but poignant but sadly today the tables have turned and conspicious consumption is the name of the game.
From what I see today,romance,weddings,marriage-the values I grew up with as something to treasure-have all turned into this weird charade of status seeking and false illusions.
Maybe it will all come together in the next life when God is in command.As far as I'm concerned,this bitter earth offers nothing but illusions.
Nah! My problem was that she wanted my opinion too much! I was content to let her plan every little detail if she wanted. To me, asking me to plan the minutiae of the ceremony was like asking, "Mr. Silverback, when we deliver the $100 million dollars to your door, what color should the armored truck be?" Besides, I thought the dress uniform was appropriate because I was wearing it when we met, and to quote her, she "never had a chance."
The wedding industry is amazing. It has brainwashed American women.
****
Yes, it really has.
I can't imagine spending that much. More than 5 years salary, gross? No way....
A good friend of mine had a huge shindig down in Newport RI - rented out the Astor's old place on Mansion row there.
That one was such a blast that it may have been worth the insane money it probably cost.
LQ
A ___________ and his ______________ are soon _______________.
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