Wedding Sticker Shock

[SteveR]

First wedding was paid by FIL. I have no idea how much he blew spent on the thing. Full church wedding lavish reception at the Country Club. I would guess in the >$10k range.

Second wedding. We married at home by a JP and only close friends in attendance. The "receptions" was in the kitchen with a couple of bottles of Andre, a small cake and some "finger" foods.

Cost $400 (mostly on flowers, food and my wife's new dress (semi-formal only)

Third wedding. Married in the back yard with only family and a JP.
"Reception" was at the house with about 50 invited guests. We did a decent buffet and had beer and wine. We did hire a cheapo wedding photographer.

Cost $1000 (mostly for food, drink, flowers, table rental and the photographer) We have the digital rights to the photos so we saved a ton on prints. Family members provided a lot of labor so that saved us a bunch. We figured this will be our last one so we wanted to go out a bit more on the celibration side of things.

My kids are both boys so I will get off cheap if and when they get married.

[73ss454]

Warning! don't get married in NY. The prices for weddings in this state are crazy. 5 years ago DW and I paid for our DD's wedding 60K (gulp) for 120 people.

Don't yell at me, it was my only daughter.

[yelnad]

Don't knock NY! That's where I got married for 7k, and my sister is getting married for about 7-8k. Both beautiful weddings.

How about, "Don't get married in NYC"?

[bpp]

Ours was around $5,000, as best I can recall. That included flying our folks into Honolulu from Japan and the Mainland (with some help from frequent flier miles), and putting everybody up at the Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki (at kama`aina rates Nords, so don't have a heart attack). That was probably most of our total net worth at the time, but we paid for it all ourselves, somehow.

Bpp

[Maximillion]

Second marriages are the triumph of hope over experiance.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpp (at kama`aina rates Nords, so don't have a heart attack)

No, I'm cool, but I'm curious about how you managed to make your keyboard produce the correct okina in kama'aina... I've been living in fear of a punctuation bust.

[Danny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords No, I'm cool, but I'm curious about how you managed to make your keyboard produce the correct okina in kama'aina... I've been living in fear of a punctuation bust.

Kala mai ia`u - Time for an upgrade Nords! I got one of those on my new Dell board...I can ` and not ' like when ever now.
`A`le pilikia
Aloha Auina La
A hui hou kakou
Hau`oli la Ho’omaha loa
Kana

[bpp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords No, I'm cool, but I'm curious about how you managed to make your keyboard produce the correct okina in kama'aina... I've been living in fear of a punctuation bust.

It's a back-quote. It should be there somewhere. Try looking at the tilde key, to the left of the number 1, if you have a standard US keyboard.

Otherwise, you could cut-and-paste; here, have another: `

Bpp

[astromeria]

I've been married twice--cheap & home-grown both times. First honeymoon I went hiking in Maine. Second honeymoon we took my kids to DisneyWorld(!).

My daughter's getting married next weekend <EEK!>. I gave her $10,000 and apparently her in-laws-to-be did the same. (Her father didn't contibute $$ though his second set of children are bridesmaids.) DD & fiance planned the whole thing with little input from me--this is definitely not one of those mother-of-the-bride extravaganzas. They got engaged while he was visitng DD in Africa. Anyway, she lives in DC and he in Philly, so I took pix of venues last spring, made appointments to see caterers, florists, bakers, etc when they were here over Christmas, reserved hotel rooms, addressed the envelopes, and ordered the flowers that we'll arrange ourselves (bouquets will be professionally done). I am also cooking the food for the day-before barbecue and day-after brunch. I expressed the wish that most of the loot could be used for something other than the wedding, but I think between the wedding, rings, and honeymoon (Belize) there will be little left. Biggest expenses are the caterer (one of the creative chefs of Charleston), the venue (a beautiful plantation garden with reception on the veranda), and DD's silk dress. The rings are handmade and probably not cheap either. (My husband and I don't even have rings!)

Not sure where they will be living as DD still has work in DC and fiance in Philly. His lab is moving to England, and she starts her next project in Africa (10 months in Zambia) at about the same time. Oy. Guess I should start planning a safari!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpp It's a back-quote. It should be there somewhere. Try looking at the tilde key, to the left of the number 1, if you have a standard US keyboard. Otherwise, you could cut-and-paste; here, have another: `

Damn, there it is on my keyboard, too! `````!! I learn something new every day!

I was afraid I was going to have to Alt-ASCII or cut&paste from you guys for the rest of my life.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanTien Kala mai ia`u - Time for an upgrade Nords! I got one of those on my new Dell board...I can ` and not ' like when ever now. `A`le pilikia Aloha Auina La A hui hou kakou Hau`oli la Ho’omaha loa Kana

I got some of it but I'm not too proud to look up the rest:
`A`le pilikia: "No problem, brah", or elsewhere "You're welcome",
Aloha Auina La: "Good afternoon" (although I think that's a Western concept, why the ancient Hawaiians bothered with more than "aloha" is beyond me),
A hui hou kakou: "Later, dude", er, I mean "Until the next time we meet",
Hau`oli la Ho’omaha loa: "Happy long (or big) retirement", and
Kana: Tough one. That could be "Kansas Association of Nurse Anesthetists". Or maybe he means "Dan".

Hohonu no ke kawa!

[larry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kz We've been attending quite a few weddings lately (friend's kids) and have seen the whole gammit of costs. It's interesting that one of the two elaborate ones we attended, well the marriage itself made it 8 months. Sad, very sad.

Priest friend of mine states that he actually sees a correlation between the amount of money spent on weddings and time spent married, i.e. the more spent, the less time spent married.

Not sure if he is correct but it does seem plausible.

[BUM]

When my daughter started making her wedding plans I suggested she check out the availability of the community room down at the firehouse...all the women stopped talking to me after that.

[Adventuregirl]

Getting married on Saturday :....50 people,very nice place, no DJ, no limo, no hired photographer....having a great buffet brunch with mimosas and Belgian waffle station for 1/2 the cost of a sit-down....with rings and all probably about $4000(and the only reason we're spending that much is the main squeeze really wants it...).
Very tasteful and wonderful weddings can be had without spending outrageuos amounts of money.
I don't think it's a bad thing for the couple to shell out some of thier own dinero (if not all), for their own wedding. I think working hard and saving for their own wedding can teach some valuable lessons....
Then there's they honeymoon (that's where the real money is going)

Adventuregirl

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BUM When my daughter started making her wedding plans I suggested she check out* the availability of the community room down at* the firehouse...all the women stopped talking to me after that. *

Man, can I ever identify with that!

[astromeria]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adventuregirl Getting married on Saturday : Adventuregirl

Congrats to you and your hubby-to-be!

[Adventuregirl]

Thanks! Forcast is for rain right now :P...so everybody cross their fingers and hope for sun!!!! 8)

Adventuregirl