Have a Wedding Coming Up Soon

[Houston]

I don't mean to throw a wrench into the gears, but in my opinion lots of money spent on a wedding would be better spent on actually getting started in the future home of the bride and groom. Although I thought it was BS when I was young, I now realize that older folks really did know more about life than I did when I was young.

[06pvibe]

Quote, originally posted by Houston »I don't mean to throw a wrench into the gears, but in my opinion lots of money spent on a wedding would be better spent on actually getting started in the future home of the bride and groom. Although I thought it was BS when I was young, I now realize that older folks really did know more about life than I did when I was young.I agree! But when I was younger I wouldn't have. When my ex and I contemplated marriage (before she split,) to us (me at least) it was a chance to throw a big party and for everyone to get to know everyone else a little better. We were saving for that day.

[ou.grizzly]

I wanted a small personal wedding and focus the finances on a residence. Yet, her family decided to intervene.

[06pvibe]

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »I wanted a small personal wedding and focus the finances on a residence. Yet, her family decided to intervene. Are they at least paying the difference?

[Houston]

Quote, originally posted by 06pvibe »Are they at least paying the difference?The father of the bride traditionally pays for his daughter's wedding. If he isn't, Grizz, well... it's time for me to shut up.

[06pvibe]

Well of course I know that's the traditional way... but not always financially possible these days.

[Sputnik]

Quote, originally posted by Houston »The father of the bride traditionally pays for his daughter's wedding. If he isn't, Grizz, well... it's time for me to shut up.I don't know of any of my girlfriends where their father paid for the wedding. I don't think that happens these days. Usually the parents might pay for the dress or the reception... something, but not everything.

[06pvibe]

Yeah. Weddings can be outrageously expensive these days.

[ponta2147]

We split the payment between us, my mom, my dad, and his parents. My dad paid for most of the reception, but since more than half of the guests were on their side (more than our friends and my family combined) they paid for the cost of alcohol and the party favors. My mom did the dress, decoration/flowers, and bridal shower. We did the music, photography, printing/mailing, and other assorted stuff

[ou.grizzly]

Quote, originally posted by Houston »The father of the bride traditionally pays for his daughter's wedding. If he isn't, Grizz, well... it's time for me to shut up.Father of the Bride is paying for the following:Reception (hall, food, alcohol), flowers, dress, video-grapher, and other miscellaneousBride and I are paying for the following:Photographer, limo, wedding bands, and some miscellaneous stuff Parents of the Groom are paying for the following:Favors, tuxes, flowers, decorations, and other miscellaneous Believe it or not, the bulk of the price for everything is the reception, wedding bands, photographer, flowers/decorations. That alone totals about $20,000 +/-The wedding shower that was back in late July consisted of over 100 women and about 6 men. Her parents think they paid for all of it, but they didn't. I ended up paying about for about 35-40% of it after adding other options, photographer, favors, and etc.

[06pvibe]

yikes!

[AKLGT]

yikes! I spent well over $10K for my first, about $3K for the second and .... would like to avoid a third.

[ou.grizzly]

After the wedding, before the honeymoon I want to get myself a Nikon SLR D3 Camera, nothing techy. Just a base model and take photos for the trip. Best Buy has some packages for less than $700 which should exceed all my needs. Any thoughts on that model?

[tpollauf]

OK ... time for me to jump in on this thread First off CONGRATS and hope all goes well. My wedding 21+ years ago was an AWESOME party to say the least. The reason it went well for us was mainly because I PAID FOR EVERYTHING! This eliminated all the so called "suggestions" on how to do this & that, etc. It also eliminated any doubts on WHO or HOW MANY guests to invite. I encouraged wedding crashers to attend (and they did!). We had a live band and they were LOUD. Guests were between 350 & 400. The older guests didn't like it, but they eventually left. This set me back $7300 back in 1989 and was worth every penny of it. I arranged everything and had fun doing it. The only "stress" or crap I took from family was in regards to how I designed our wedding invitations. They read "Tim & Sue request the honor of your presence ..." instead of the traditional "the parents of the bride request ..... etc" . No offense to any of the family at the time BUT we paid for this and not them. Oh , getting to the original topic of this thread ....... I think a die cast Vibe (1/18th scale model) would look much better on top of that cake and would certainly be remembered by everybody FOREVER in their minds. After all that is what you want all of your guests to do. To remember your special day.Good luck with everything. You have my blessings

[ou.grizzly]

I have a 1st gen die cast Vibe, but is in blue, and still in the package.

[kostby]

Congrats on the big day! May God bless you both and your new life together!When the stress of it all seems about to crush you and your bride, remember that your wedding is only a moment at the beginning of the rest of your lives together.What is far more important is how you nurture each other in all the moments that follow.

[06pvibe]

^ ^ ^ Good point(s.)

[AKLGT]

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »After the wedding, before the honeymoon I want to get myself a Nikon SLR D3 Camera, nothing techy. Just a base model and take photos for the trip. Best Buy has some packages for less than $700 which should exceed all my needs. Any thoughts on that model? I have the D90, so I can't say. But I'm extremely happy with my camera and the lenses.. and that I can pretty much use my Nikon lenses with any other Nikon DSLR.

[star_deceiver]

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »Believe it or not, the bulk of the price for everything is the reception, wedding bands, photographer, flowers/decorations. That alone totals about $20,000 +/- OUCH!!!!!!! That's a down payment on a good sized house!!!On the other hand... it should be one heck of a shindig!!!

[ponta2147]

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »Believe it or not, the bulk of the price for everything is the reception, wedding bands, photographer, flowers/decorations. That alone totals about $20,000 +/-Ours was around $30,000, but that was including the dresses (bridal and bridesmaid gowns), rings, bridal shower, save-the-dates, invitations, and EVERYTHING wedding related. Probably the same $20,000 for the wedding events themselves. We had around 200 guests total including bridal party. And THAT was trying to do a "traditional" wedding but cheap! Couldn't save money by eliminating dinner/drinks for an afternoon tea or anything 'cause of the in-laws Italian traditions. But my dress was only $300, the DJ was only $900 (and really amazing), the cake was inexpensive (professional cake maker friend of the family) and I designed all my own invitations, and we didn't do any of the extras like ice sculptures, dessert tables, chocolate fountains, excessive flowers, centerpieces...... Sad that $20,000 is a cheap "traditional" wedding and the only way we could have saved more money is have way less people.

[ClunkClunk]

Oh boy, wedding stuff. I feel your pain. My wife and I got married this past June and for more than a year we were planning, organizing, etc. She did much more work than I did for it since my job demands a lot more time, but we still put in a ton of hours working on it.I think no matter what route you go -- money, style, size, location, etc -- just make sure you speak up to get what you want. I'm glad my wife and I really stuck to our guns with family on what was important for us to spend extra money on, and areas that we decided were just "tradition" so they didn't hold special meaning to us. We also made sure to speak up and try to listen to each other so it didn't turn in to one of the weddings where the bride chose everything. A good friend of mine ended up being the best man in a wedding with watermelon-pink and white colored suits because the groom didn't speak up during the wedding planning -- no thanks! I tried to continuously remind myself and my wife that the wedding was for us, not for our family, so meeting everyone else's expectations were a distant second to our desires.We had exactly the wedding we wanted. If I were to do it all over again, I don't think I would change a single thing, except prolong the experience because it went by so fast.Good luck to you!

[futureviber]

Quote, originally posted by Sputnik »I don't know of any of my girlfriends where their father paid for the wedding. I don't think that happens these days. Usually the parents might pay for the dress or the reception... something, but not everything.My parents paid for everything. We did that very traditionally. His parents paid for the rehearsal dinner. He bought the rings. My parents paid for everything else. We had a really awesome wedding but it was only about 8-10k... i know thats still a lot. we had the reception at the church so that got rid of the cost of a reception hall and alcohol. The DJ was a friend of ours so that was his wedding gift to us. The food and rental of the tables/chairs/plactes/glasses/silverware/etc were the most expensive. Did minimal flowers boquets and corsages/boutenirs only... the centerpieces were a fishbowl with sand, shells and a candle (sand and shells nearly nothing - bought thousands of shells at an auction for $1) our invitations were seal-n-send you fold it up and send it... so that saved time and postage not to mention the invitations themselves were MUCH cheaper than traditional...There are ways, i'm sure, we could have done it even cheaper. My cousins wedding was like 19k and her parents paid for all of it. But, IMO it was no nicer than ours... It was at a country club - that was the main difference but when we replied we had to choose one of two meals and they served us. At ours we had buffet style so people could get whatever they wanted.Anyway, it just depends on what area of the country you live in, what type of wedding you want and what you are willing to spend. I probably could have spent 30k but was not willing. Honestly even if I had had my wedding at a country club and had the food served i don't think i could have gotten to 19k. She lives around Cincinnati, OH and I live in a small town in Indiana. So location can have everything to do with it.Hope the planning is going great!!Also, nice to meet you Richard, my name is Amanda!