Posted on 04/11/2005 8:59:33 AM PDT by qam1
Well, to put it in perspective for these folks $250K is about 3-4 months gross salary.
LOL!!! Sad, but true. There was very little planning to our wedding and reception, so Mr. RK was pretty safe there.
I love reading all the different ways Freepers got married. Everything from very small and simple to extravagant.
My dress was $250. Had it made by a local seamstress - it was pretty much made out of linen tablecloth material (white on white cotton with a sheen to it). It was easily the most comfortable dress I've ever worn - no itchy lace or annoying pearly thingies to deal with. Good thing it was comfortable, I ended up moving chairs in it just before the wedding started :lol:.
DH wore a gray suit - he had needed to buy one anyway so instead of spending the money on a tux he just bought a suit instead. I told all the guys (his bro, his dad, and my dad) to wear gray suits and white shirts (they all already had them) and I supplied matching ties for them all that I bought from the Lands End catalog.
My sister was my only bridesmaid (like his bro was for him), and it was so nice and easy to tell her "wear something that goes with a gray suit and a maroon tie". I told my mother and my MIL the same thing.
Bingo, instant color-coordinated wedding with very little effort!
The only thing I really didn't like was the headdress the florist sent me. I had wanted a wreath of greenery with a few white flowers in it, instead I got this wire circlet with sparse greenery and a daisy in the middle of it that looked like a miner's headlamp.
So I went out in the backyard, picked some attractive green weeds from next to where DH's motorcycle was parked, and stuck them in the circlet to fill it out.
It looked much better after that :lol: .
LQ
Yes, I figured with that guest list the wedding probably wasn't driving them to the poorhouse. :-)
Three years this Saturday, best three years of our lives!
You apparently are not aware of the many, many practical uses of diamonds that such as rubies cannot touch. Showpiece-quality diamonds are probably extremely rare. Diamonds are the "hardest thing in existence" and also extremely conductive, and as such are in huge demand by various industries.
Given all that, they are probably not rip-offs.
OILLINE, trust me, the diamond industry is a controlled and manipulated market... Gem Quality diamonds are not remotely as rare as DeBeer's et al want you to believe.
Yes there are many non Gemstone applications for diamonds....
Diamonds of huge size of gem quality like the Hope diamond are rare, however 1 ct and lower gem quality stones are not remotely as rare as the Diamond companies want you to believe. They are far more common than other gemstones... that's reality.
Its damn impressive that they have been able to keep such a scam going so long and such control over the marketplace/supply to such a degree. Trust me though, gem quality diamonds are not remotely as rare as the large diamond companies have conned folks into believing.
It's all relative. If you need to go into massive debt to pay for a $20,000 wedding, you should probably consider spending less. If $250K was burning a hole in your pocket, why not have a massive gala that will be remembered by all in attendance?
DeBeers executives can't visit the US or own property here, for fear of being sued or charged under anti-trust and/or RICO laws.
We're getting married on June 18th, and with approximately 100-125 guests, it's probably going to be around 10k. Of course I want a beautiful wedding - but I also want a great marriage. (I'm looking forward to the honeymoon more than the wedding!!)
You've apparently never met Bridezilla...
I can beat you on that...I got married ten minutes after I got engaged. :-)
This 20-something is not a moron! Neither is my fiance. We already own a home, own both of our cars, and have no debt! Our wedding isn't putting us into debt - we've been saving for the year and a half we've been engaged in order to pay for the majority of it ourselves! :-)
And we're are going to have a nice party. But we're not morons!
Divorce was 400 Grand!
Well just to keep in mind.. if you are in your early 20s and planning on spending 20k on your wedding... if you put that 20k in a growth stock mutual fund making about 1012% on average... you will retire with over 1 Million dollars in your retirement account without ever adding another penny to it... (assuming 25 years old and retiring at 65)...
Sorry, but blowing 26k for a 1 day party is well, just foolhearty.
If you aren't going into debt, more power to you, from what I have seen, most folks who are spending 20k or more on a wedding most certainly are borrowing to do it.
And you consumated it in between? :) Sorry, it was just too easy.
Oh I know about all the industrial uses of diamonds, but they're not the prettied up kind that shine in jewelry.
The high demand for diamonds both in the jewelry as well as industrial markets I'm sure has a great deal to do w/the high prices.
Rubies nor other gemstones don't have the value exactly because they don't have the qualities to be any good to industry. Although those same qualities are probably what add to their allure generally for jewels. Diamonds are very tough whether "ugly" or beautiful - assuming you don't lose it, nothing will hurt your diamond. It will not chip or scratch.
Yeah, putting that down on a house is a huge winner, because 5 yrs later, most people in Calif have over $250k of equity. Not that you would take out a second to go out and party, but having that cushion provides at least the mental comfort that you have a lot of leeway come what may.
Think of what that $ can do for your future. More than 1/2 of all marriages break up over money.
What about scholarships for the future kids? House down payment. Heck, even if you buy a vehicle cash in hand that is more money for the future.
This kind of spending for essentially ego is insane.
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