Average wedding in America $ 25,000

[ARCOgraphite]

Nuts. My wife and I had no intention of puting her parents or my parents into debit. We are not that self serving.

We did a pretty nice affair for around $4000. That included the photographer, reception with food and appetizers(no open bar), Clergy and Church, and Limo and a Live band!
45 people invited. I think her Gown cost $200. and I bought a nice Wool blend Burberry's suit for $350.

 

[Leo99]

Is it hypercritical to attend big fancy weddings but eschew them for your own family?

 

[Ewag2983]

My fiancée and I will be getting married in the next month or so. They dont marry at the courthouses here anymore so we have to provide our own officiant. All in, we will be in thr range of $210. Her parents wanted to pay for something big. Neither of us want that.

 

[Shannow]

No.
if they want ti show you slideshows from the skiing trip to whistler, then why is it hypocritical to show your holiday pics noodling for catfish ?

They are as equally interesting to those who haven't done either.

 

[dlundblad]

Our friends are getting married with these huge weddings, but we'd rather have that money to add to a house down payment, house upkeep, emergency money etc.

I was in one recently that was (I'm surmising) pushing 20k, but the groom's parents paid for my as well as the other groomsmen tuxes. We have no complaints about them or the ceremony whatsoever.. Just not for us. Different strokes for different folks.

I wouldn't mind spending $2k or so on the honeymoon. Airfare and an interior room on a cruise ship.

 

[CT8]

What does the average divorce cost? That is what should be the subject.

 

[dlundblad]

Why all the divorce talk? Bitter folks who've gone through them before?

Granted, I am not as old as some of you here, but I do know being your bride to be's friend PRIOR to dating/ marriage is the way to go.

We had meet when we were seeing other people thus we knew what we were getting into when we first started dating. Some of you will probably say I have a lot to learn and that is fine.. I'll admit I do.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: Ewag2983
My fiancée and I will be getting married in the next month or so. They dont marry at the courthouses here anymore so we have to provide our own officiant. All in, we will be in thr range of $210. Her parents wanted to pay for something big. Neither of us want that.


Is this a county or Indiana rule? We saw a courthouse wedding 1.5 years ago just 2 hrs north of you. It's actually what we want too.

 

[Ewag2983]

Apparently a relatively new deal with most counties here. From what Ive been told, theres only 2 counties left in Indiana where a clerk/judge will marry you. I have a co-worker that just got married in the same county. They paid an officiant to show up at the courthouse and marry them after applying for the license, then the officiant finishes the paperwork and you get a marriage license. Not sure why the change.

 

[JTK]

My daughter is going to be disappointed.

 

[Dyusik]

I think it cost me 10 miles worth of gas, 2 dollars for parking. And whenever the fees for filing.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Remember, it's all about enticing you to more debt.

Weddings, College Loans...keeping you worried on repayments makes a docile serving class.



Yep!


I think ours might have been closer to 8k 17 years ago...but most of it was the hall. But we also saved our money and payed cash for everything too....

 

[Stevie]

Been married for almost two years. We lived together for over 10 years. We went to courthouse gave the guy our DL, $37.50 and raised our right hand and said we're married. Took 15 minutes including the wait in line.

 

[andyd]

Chris standing on a box of dynamite. You aint just whistlin Dixie

1000$ back in '73. A small Catholic church, hers. My folk's choir organist, Episcopalian. maybe 30 people. Marriage isn't Ward and June Cleaver, at least ours isn't. 45yrs and most conversations end in an argument. Doesn't matter, its how we roll.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

My wife-to-be and I were planning to have a small wedding accessible to our folks in the general Chicago/Milwaukee area and finally decided to just get married at our honeymoon destination. I told my dad that we were getting married and all he cared about was if he had to wear a tie to the ceremony...she didn't tell her folks until after the fact. The trip itself wasn't cheap, but the extra cost for the wedding was maybe $500 to rent a gazebo from the resort and to pay the minister, photographer, and somebody from their office to be a witness.
We went snorkeling later that afternoon!

 

[PSS]

My Daughter is getting big bucks from me for college.

Money much better spent than on a one day event.

 

[ET16]

I read somewhere that there's an inverse relation between wedding cost and the chance the couple divorces: the more expensive the wedding, the more likely the divorce.

 

[nickaluch]

My wedding cost me 30k 25 years ago.That didn't include the honey moon. No help from anyone . Ran my new business during the day and worked as a school costudian at night to pay for it.Told my wife and three daughters I won't pay for there weddings let them work for it to test there future husband's. Day of the wedding I'll give them a nice check.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted By: ET16
I read somewhere that there's an inverse relation between wedding cost and the chance the couple divorces: the more expensive the wedding, the more likely the divorce.


That's been my observation as well. But I might be seeing the wrong picture because the low key weddings are not publicized as much so there might be a sampling error.

 

[SirTanon]

Little Chapel of the Flowers, in Las Vegas. Was cheap, looked nice enough, and we got plenty of pics and even a video recording. Luckily, the wife was totally cool with the idea.