Are large weddings worth the money?

['Chair]

easy to say its worth the money when it isn't *your* money. And even if parents decided to foot the bill, I'd still rather have the money for house/retirement/kids.

if my wedding night is the best night of my life...then kill me now.

100k for a wedding are you f-ing serious? when you are 50 years old and waking up at 730 am to head in to the office, are you thinking...man that was one helluva night...boy am I happy I did that. Or would you rather roll over, smoke some medical maryjane, pop a viagra, and [censored] the prom queen?

[dustyn]

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I believe the stat is 50% of marriages fail, not 50% of people get divorced. This is relevant because I think a large wedding is most likely a first wedding and therefore has a much higher success rate.

Also I'd be interested in the divorce rates across income brackets. I can't make up my mind on which side would have more.

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This is really interesting: http://www.economist.com/world/na/di...ory_id=9218127

Basically divorce is much more of a "thing that happens to uneducated people" than for educated people. Divorce rate for a pair of college graduates is closer to 15%.

[llayner]

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this whole '50% of marriages fail' statistic is misleading. 50% of all first marriages do not fail. the numbers are distorted by people who get divorced like seven times.

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"43% of first marriages end within 15 years

Isn't there an analysis that can be done based on rate of first divorce, loss due to divorce and both parties income entering into the agreement to calculate how much should be spent on a wedding?

[emon87]

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Everyone we've spoken to, including the videographer who did both weddings, has said that ours was much more beautiful and fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

well duh . No one is going to tell you that your wedding wasn't perfect.

[Tweety]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I believe the stat is 50% of marriages fail, not 50% of people get divorced. This is relevant because I think a large wedding is most likely a first wedding and therefore has a much higher success rate.

Also I'd be interested in the divorce rates across income brackets. I can't make up my mind on which side would have more.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is really interesting: http://www.economist.com/world/na/di...ory_id=9218127

Basically divorce is much more of a "thing that happens to uneducated people" than for educated people. Divorce rate for a pair of college graduates is closer to 15%.

[/ QUOTE ]

The most common cause of arguments resulting in domestic violence tends to be financial issues. So there you go.

[theblackkeys]

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Our attitude was that there are a limited number of times in life where you will have the opportunity to bring all of your family and friends together for a day. We wanted to make the day as enjoyable and memorable for them as possible.

Many people say that weddings are "for the bride". However, our attitude was that our wedding was really for our family and friends. We wanted to do something nice for all of the people we care about.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think perhaps the people who don't understand spending money on a wedding might tend to have weak family ties? My wife's family is big and they are very close. Her parents also paid for most of it (venue, alcohol, food). So it was basically a big party for both families. My wife and I didn't have any ridiculous demands or expenses, it was just a big party with free alcohol and good music.

I do think that we got lucky to find a good affordable place to host a 150 person wedding. I'm also not sure where $10,000 ranks as far as cost, but it was worth it to me.

Also, my DJ kicked ass. During the wedding party introduction, I got the DJ to loop the drum intro to When The Levee Breaks. That was pretty frickin sweet.

[4 High]

We had a 100 person 30kish Wedding last year. Had the time of our lives. Thankfully her parents paid for it. Outside of having more people, i cant see spending more money then we did.

[LetItBe]

My in-laws paid, they put aside a wedding fund for each of their girls...it was nice. My parents paid for the rehearsal dinner + some of the flowers.

I wanted a small wedding in this mountains, she (and her parents) wanted a big wedding. My choice did not win. Anyway, the wedding probably cost around $40k, we had about 250 at the wedding, and it was honestly the best thing ever. Before my wedding, I thought this was insane and the stupidest thing ever. After living through it, I could not have asked for a more perfect wedding. It was, quite simply, amazing. And I'm not just saying that because it was mine...numerous people told us it was the best wedding they had been to (a huge chunk of that was the mother-in-law and wife's awesome planning).

So anyway, my answer is yes, they can be worth it.

[TheBlueMonster]

[ QUOTE ]
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Everyone we've spoken to, including the videographer who did both weddings, has said that ours was much more beautiful and fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

well duh . No one is going to tell you that your wedding wasn't perfect.

[/ QUOTE ]
actually it was the videographer's assistant who is a good friend of my brother's. So is pretty honest with me.

[fluffpop62]

wow, you guys really ruined this thread. both of you displaying your precise examples that really don't apply to the general idea of weddings isn't going to accomplish anything but the asinine bickering you provided for our entertainment.

i also wonder why the OP asked if "large" weddings were worth the money...isn't the question whether expensive weddings are worth the money?