Wedding Question

[Gruntina]

Re: Wedding Question

Gruntina- are you kidding $7000 for rings? i nearly choked!

No not for the rings... Its for everything with the wedding including the rings.

[Gruntina]

Re: Wedding Question

Grutina, our wedding is on May 12th, when's yours? Don't want to have to photocopy vsjhoc or anything like that!

It's been fun planning the wedding so far and it's starting to get exciting.

To bad hubby to be has been really sick the last few days with Kidney Stones . I do wish there was a way to make it all better.

ooh! I sure do hope your hubby will get better soon. I had kideny stones myself a few months ago and it sure was painful. I hear it's much worse for men so I can't imagine.

My wedding is on May 19th! wow close... I am really excited and found the wedding plans to be easy because the venue pretty much made it easy with choices. I have a little pressure because all my family are flying in so I hope that they do enjoy the time they are here and that it was worth it for them.

[Elgin526]

Re: Wedding Question

Ours was $15k with the honeymoon included, that was in 2005. It was very, very nice for the money we spent and I wouldn't change a thing. Paid about half in cash, the rest was charged. Still paying it off, but it's on a 0% card so it's not as bad as it sounds.

My boss's daughter is getting married and is planning on spending $7,000 just on the invitations!!!!! I made our on our computer for $150 and people couldn't tell the differance, they all thought they were profesionally done!

[pearlieq]

Re: Wedding Question

My boss's daughter is getting married and is planning on spending $7,000 just on the invitations!!!!!

Ack!

For that price it had better be a personal singing telegram for each guest!

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Wedding Question

I long ago concluded that there was an inverse correlation between the cost of a wedding and how long the marriage would last. See it time and time again - the super flashy weddings - they marriages don't last long. SOunds like the same old story.

Obviously many exceptions to the rule, but you already cringe at the thought of a $100k wedding, and when they don't last more than a year - makes you cringe even more!!!

I think we spent around $12k for 70 people and it was a VERY nice wedding. We all split the costs somewhat. My parents were very generous and paid for the reception (around $5k - just for food - buffet -a beautiful public golf course - no fee outside of the food because it was a SUnday). My dad took the photos. I think I paid for the cake and the dress. The dress was a great deal but cost about $500 to aletr - don't even ask - if I had to do over I Would. We also paid for the priest and the ceremony, favors, etc. Dh's parents paid for the rehearsal dinner and tux rentals. We bought the rings. Did the invitations ourselves. My mom went crazy and spent $1k on flowers - but that was her thing. A friend did the music, another DJ friend did the DJing for low cost. IT was a beautiful, yet simple low-cost wedding. We drove off in dh's best friends old car just ebcause he offered to drive - no limos for us. I Was not a stressed bride in the least - not that much to do. One thing everyone loved is we had the reception and the wedding in the same place. We still get compliments to this day (got married in 2000) about how nice our wedding was. Oh yeah and we had one best man and one birdesmaid because frankly I did not want to deal with a big wedding party. Made it SO easy.

Oh yeah and dh's family paid for our honeymoon - they gave us their miles and timeshare - didn't really cost any of us much but we spent a week in Florida which was nice. Since we picked a Sunday only took about 3 months to plan.

Frankly I wanted to get married in Vegas like my grandma - LOL. I Would rather pay for a weekend getaway for our family and friends with that money. But dh really wanted a nice wedding. Frankly I think we spent too much. Vegas would have been cheaper. If our family was not so generous the $25 license fee would have done just fine.

[kashi]

Re: Wedding Question

boefixepa - congratulations! Is this a relatively new development? I don't remember reading this anywhere else...

Grunita - congratulations to you, too!

If I wanted to get married, I'd rather elope, myself. Preferably to a deserted tropical island.

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Wedding Question

Gruntina - congrats!!!

I think it is funny I am not the only one who got suckered into a bigger wedding by the groom. What is with the men wanting fancy weddings?

[boefixepa]

Re: Wedding Question

We have been dating for about 4 months now and I've known I would marry him for a while, he's just come to terms with it over the last month. The first time we talked about it he was so nervous. I've mentioned a few little things on the board, but no big announcements.

I'm hoping to get a web page up with pics and stuff for friends and family that live far away. If and/or when I do I will post the link so you can all see.

[poundwise]

Re: Wedding Question


I just wish people would put the emphasis and value that they do on weddings toward the actual marriage.

It is my own, personal view that much money is wasted on elaborate weddings and the surrounding trappings. The importance of the day is used as an excuse to spend excessively as celebration, however, it seems to me, in the end, to only cheapen the true significance of the event.

[Ima saver]

Re: Wedding Question

Well said Poundwise . although my wedding only cost me about $100, it was the happiest day of my life and I think about it all the time. I was happy and relaxed the entire event.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Re: Wedding Question

Well, I'm not sure more than 1 in 10,000 might give the thumbs up to our wedding. I don't even know how much we spent. Very little. It was goofy, kind of like a bunch of kindergarteners put it together. But it was so "us" that it was that way. We did not know anything about how others put weddings together and it did not occur to us to learn. In fact we had no idea how ignorant we were about the matter. Only in the years since have I realized how ignorant we were.

Let's see, our families were from out of town and had not met. We got them all together for breakfast at a well known greasy spoon restaurant. We did not make reservations, though the place is usually really busy. We were lucky to all get a big table together. I have no idea how much that cost. I don't remember who paid, but we had not discussed it with family before they came, so I don't think there was any expectation that "groom's family pays" or anything like that. Oh, I'm sure both mothers knew the customs, but they kindly did not act appalled at our ignorance.

Wedding invitations were on postcards, and because the printer kind of screwed them up (the print was not straight on the page), he gave them to us free of charge. Now I realize some couples would have been aghast at either post card invitations or crooked invitations, but it was fine with us.

Also, many more invitations were issued by word of mouth. And one person was free to invite the next person. All very casual. No postage or printing to do that.

There was just to be a brief, very casual reception afterward. We cut up a bunch of vegetables and made dip. My friend bought ingredients for an icecream and soda punch. She also bought us a simple white sheet cake from a grocery store bakery. I did not even go to look at it beforehand. She would have made it herself, but did not have a pan big enough. She decorated the cake herself and, well, it looked awful. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! No, it really did! So what?...Don't know how much the vegs, dip, cake, and punch cost. Very little. Other expenses were a few packs of napkins, cups, and paper table runners.... I'm not kidding, think kindergarten party.

My dress was a $14 t-shirt style. Husband wore his nicest (which is not saying much) slacks and dress shirt. No musicians, no attendants in special clothes, no special hair or makeup. Duh, we did not even know that it was expected to pay the celebrant. But fortunately, he brought up the matter and told us he would donate the cost. A few bouquets of roses were provided for the altar as a surprise by my friend. They were from the bushes she had planted in her front yard the year before. Other friends made a casual arrangement of large houseplants.

The two of us had met at the homeless shelter where we were volunteers, so the wedding was in the chapel connected to the shelter. The reception was in the dining room.

And because of the way invitations were issued, I was surprised to find hundreds of guests showed up. In this unheated chapel on a midwest July afternoon! Half or more of our wedding guest were homeless people-- men, women, and kids. Some had dressed up, some had come as is. I was delighted, but it turned out we did not have nearly enough refreshments for so many people. That was embarrassing, even for such a low-key wedding. But I guess that will happen when people come from off the highways and byways.

We didn't exactly slaughter the fatted cow. We should have spent more! More ice! More cups! More cold things to drink!

[Gruntina]

Re: Wedding Question

I think weddings can give "closure" to family that have a hard time letting go of their children as when they are married, they are cut off to form their own new family. The wedding is just one day and Marriage is for lifetime (should be!)... I have notices from many weddings I have attended, the parents of the bride/groom runs the wedding and are more dramatic with it also tend to foot the wedding bill.

My wedding is a big gift to my family who all has to fly to see me and my husband to be. There are about 25 of them flying from out of state. I really appreciate for them wanting to meet him in person and get to know some of his family members. I am not even going to do small details such as color themes, not buying flowers or favors but focus on everyone to have a good time together without stress.

If they did live in the area, a much cheaper wedding would happen but thus this far, I have full peace feeling towards this. The coordinator made it so easy that the planning is just about done and the wedding is about 5 months away. Since the wedding plan was so simple and easy, we focus on normal day to day stuff with ease. No stress at home and my fiancé and I do daily devotional reading and discussion book on relationships and marriage. Both of us have been enjoying that so I don't feel like we are taking focus away from marriage by planning a wedding.