Are large weddings worth the money?

[Tweety]

Sure, it's a huge event in people's lives, but is it really worth spending this type of money out of your PA on any 1 night event? Well-off people spend hundreds of thousands, and people with middle-of-the-road wealth and incomes spend enough to really feel the pain on their bottom line for years.

Given that there's a 50% chance the marriage you're spending all this money on partying over will fail, is it really worth spending that large a percentage of your net worth on it? Even if it's easy for you to afford, couldn't that money be better spent elsewhere, such as investing for retirement, investing for your children and grandchildren, giving it to the needy, or buying yourself a great piece of art or something?

If weddings didn't carry the status factor that people are so concerned with, I think the amount of money spent on them nationally would drop like a stone.

So what do you do as an alternative? Small, destination weddings are my vote. You have close family (not extended relatives you haven't seen in a decade), close friends (people you have known for at least five years and see/speak to regularly), and you do it in a nice remote location, far away from where you live. You save tons of money, you don't offend non-invitees (people understand when you tell them you're doing a very small, getaway wedding), and you don't have to deal with all the stress and insane costs of a normal, big wedding.

Why more people don't go this way I don't understand. My wife and I did it and we have no regrets.