Are large weddings worth the money?

[Hopey]

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LOL 'paycheque.'

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Anacardo makes a good point...all of the amounts I quoted are in Canadian dollars, eh? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[guids]

I just went to my cousins wedding last saturday, and they had a chocolate fondue fountain. 1. I was super scared I was going to get too drunk, trip, and knock the thing over and 2. I think I must have repeated the line from talledega nights about the nacho fountain about 1000 times.

[kidcolin]

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It might be a family by family thing, but I know my uncle paid for my cousins wedding, and one of my good friends is getting married this winter and her parents are footing 90% of the bill. Im pretty sure its still common around here, at least from my limited anecdotal evidence over the last couple of years.

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guids,

Maybe I should restate my claim. It's probably pretty common in general, but the average wedding isn't going to be this big 5 figure ordeal. I'm pretty sure my uncle paid for both my cousins' weddings, but they weren't huge ordeals. Decent ceremony at a church, and the reception at a pretty nice seafood restaurant on the water in RI. If I had to guess, the whole thing probably cost $5-6K, maybe even less. If my cousins wanted a fancy outdoor wedding and a guest list of 400, I doubt he chips in any more than he did for the smaller event.

fwiw, we all had a blast.

[Hopey]

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Of all the posts I've read, I liked Hopey's thoughts. Planning it with the guests in mind should pretty much make it an awesome time, regardless of the budget.

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Thanks! Had we planned it with only ourselves in mind, we would have been disappointed. The whole day went by in a blur. The ceremony started at 3pm and we left at midnight, but I remember very little of the 9 hours in between.

[Homer]

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this is a joke. 90% of girls want a big wedding. lol @ it guaranteeing a basket case. there is a difference between a wedding tyrant, and wanting a big wedding.

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90% of women are basket cases.

[prohornblower]

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90% of women are basket cases.

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and the other 10% are just plain nuts.

[The Glidd]

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This is what I've been wondering. Not a single person in this thread yet has said that parents (typically bride's) have paid for their wedding (someone mentioned a portion was paid). Are parent funded weddings almost completely non-existent these days?

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My parents gave $2000
My wife's about $6000
My wife saved about $6000
I saved about $13000

I think it's still most common for the bride's parents to kick in a large portion of the bill.

[BrunoThePug]

I was married on the 14th deck of a cruise ship. It took 5 minutes and we were instantly on our honeymoon.

[secretprankster]

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I was married on the 14th deck of a cruise ship. It took 5 minutes and we were instantly on our honeymoon.

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You are the Jason Kidd of OOT alleyoops.

[Los Feliz Slim]

My wife and I paid for our wedding ourselves and spent somewhere in the $40K-$50K range if we're including rings. We already owned our house, so there goes the "save for a down payment" argument. We had around 140 people, open bar, etc. Ceremony and reception were all in the same location. We also saved money by having it on a Sunday night.

We told our families that we didn't want anyone to pay for anything because we didn't want to relinquish any control. My parents insisted on paying for a rehearsal dinner for about 60 people and my wife's father ended up giving us a very generous check as a wedding present.

My wedding was an awesome time that I will never forget and I don't regret a dime of what we spent. People still talk about how much fun they had that night. I personally knew almost all of the people at our wedding, the only exceptions were the spouses of a couple of my wife's relatives.

While that may sound like a lot of money, if we were in a financial position to have a great party I really don't understand what's wrong, or selfish, or shallow about it. If we put ourselves into the poorhouse or set ourselves back several years that'd be pretty dumb, but it'd still be our problem.