Wedding Cost Regrets

[ziva16]

If it had been entirely up to me, I would have gone to the courthouse to marry my now-husband and banked the large sum of cash my father so generously offered to me for my wedding.  My husband, however, wanted some type of ceremony, so we compromised.  We went out of town with both sets of parents, our brothers, and their girlfriends.  It was great fun, but we still spent entirely too much money (in my opinion).  If we had a lot of money to begin with, it wouldn't matter to me.  However, I hate wasting money on one day when we could have used that money for a down payment on a house.  

I have a friend who is getting married for the second time, and she is saving up to pay for her wedding.  She has two children who she cannot afford to send to college, and I can't help judging her for putting that one day a priority over her children?

 

Any thoughts?  Did you spend a lot of money on your wedding?  Did your parents help or pay for it all?  Do you regret it?  Or did you elope and regret not having a wedding?

[Vinnie]

It is good to get married and worth it to spend money on it but not as though it was the end of spending. Actually on a wedding day is the beginning of own spending. Your parents will be a distance away from you now and you will need a home, car and servants for your own. Nevertheless, plan for your wedding well so that you spend on it and miss reasons to complain about doing the same.

[Kayla]

Hi, ziva16... This is *such* a good question... and it's *so* easy for the occasion of a wedding to slip out of control so fast it makes your head spin.

When I was just a little girl, my mother said something to me that came to mind when I was faced with getting married, myself. She said it often happens that a wedding becomes such an enormous production that, when it's over and the honeymoon begins, the bride and groom are too exhausted to enjoy it... and wind up starting their new life together by bickering over trifles.

I decided I wanted a better start than that for my husband and myself, so I made that goal my priority. I confess, though, that it turned out to be a whole lot harder to do than to say. The path to a quiet, intimate garden wedding is as full of sand traps as a golf course!

These days, couples can--if they wish--set up a "wedsite" for collecting all the information that won't fit in wedding invitations, such as registry details, hotels, directions, and tidbits about you and your spouse-to-be. You can even broadcast a live video recording of your ceremony, so all your family and friends can share in your happiness, no matter where in the world they live, and so you and your spouse can start your new life in a relaxed and loving way... with all the money you saved on your wedding converted into a down payment on your first family home!  

:-)