So you decide to ask your significant other to marry you. This question is easy at first, but at a second glance you ask yourself, do you have the money, and if not, will your significant other slap you and leave you if you tell her (or him) that you would like a more economical wedding, or in the worst case give zirconium (OH NO...YOU'RE GOING TO BURN IN HELL FOR THAT! I'M MARRYING YOUR BEST FRIEND! she says.)
In 2005, the average cost of a wedding was about 26.5k! (article http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/20/pf/weddings/). The article also says that American couples spent roughly the same amount of money as Ireland's GDP--just on getting married! This was in 2005, so I figure the amount has risen by now.
Seriously, why spend all this cash. How about spend 10k on a wedding (still pretty expensive, but I don't think that a lower number can be attained in this country...even without a ring and rehearsal dinner and with getting your uncle to take pictures instead of hiring a pro) anhd then save the other 15-20k to buy a house, to start a college fund for the kids, or to pay off your previous debt (considering a majority Americans are in debt--and I'm sure wedding don't help this?
So I ask, why such a commercialization? Why do people have to pay so much money to show their love for each other? To put it in perspective, in 2005, 125 billion was spent on weddings, almost the amount spent on Iraq in 2007. Is it really worth it to spend so much money on one day in your life.
I'm getting married in July and my budget is 10k. We're finding friends to help with photography and whatnot. I honestly don't understand why people are dropping so much money on weddings either. I say save as much as you can and either have an amazing honeymoon or buy a house!
weddings. one in the states and one in vietnam... so yeh budget is an issue.. *sigh* like everyone .. i guess i wish i could be rich and pay for em...
The wedding industry is a bunch of predators. My wife and I were able to get married for a total of something like 6500 dollars, through a combination of luck (her wedding dress was only 600 bucks and it was beautiful) and our combined distaste for extravagance.
It still blows my mind how much people can spend, though. I can't imagine spending 25,000 dollars on one day, but I guess it's not uncommon...
(if you can't see the fnords they won't eat you)
everyone is trying to outdo everyone else, to have the very most picture perfect wedding ever. yet somewhere around 50% of these same marriages will end in divorce [even more money spent on lawyers and all that crap...]
While saving money would be the smarter thing to do, it's hard not to. And not because it's necessarily a goal to make it the most extravagant wedding (unless you're a celebrity or royalty or something), but because everything is so damn expensive and it adds up really quickly.
Just helping my brother's fiancé look up stuff showed me that. Trying to keep a budget is hard. People I know just try to outweigh that by waiting longer and saving up for it.
Weddings are OVER commercialized. I don't believe you need to spend any money (except maybe the cost of the marriage license) to tie the knot, unless..... one is trying to live up to certain ideals that are standardized thinking ... because society has created a monster. It really is not any different then valentine's day, anniversaries, et cetera. Don't get me wrong I like nice things now and then, but maybe one should consider ... Have we over done it, could, what Greg brought up, really be part of the reason divorce rates are so extremely high? Maybe if people were less concerned with the extravaganza that is a common "wedding" and more concerned about reality (finacial sense, love, a home, ect.), marriages would last longer or less people would get married. Either way is a win/win situation. I mean, really people, is that ONE DAY going to define the rest of your life with the person you Love? The answer should be NO. That's just my 2 cents (ok, maybe 3 cents).
Ceila
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ceila30
I totally agree.
I will probably be getting engaged in the next year and a half, and married in the next 3-5 years.
I care more about the engagement than the ring. I care more about the marriage than the wedding. Of course I want a nice wedding, but more than that I want my family there on the day I declare that I'm going to be with this particular man for the rest of my life. (Unfortunately, my family is huge...so a small wedding is out of the picture.)
All joking aside, I think part of the reason the divorce rate is so high because lots of people think too much about the wedding, and not enough about the marriage.