Friday OT - Here Comes Your Man

[BCClone]

My first wedding happened to be the same way. Neither of us wanted a big deal (or a church wedding for that matter), so we just had a ceremony at my parent's house.

It’s hard for me to say too much about second plus weddings. I know that if I ever became single, I wouldn’t ever remarry. I have three kids and there is no purpose to marry again, IMO. That’s just me though and I think some of it is if you’ve been married for a while. We have been for 26 years and I don’t wish for any more kids.

Those who get divorced young I fully understand. I’m more talking about older folks like me.

 

[Cyclonepride]

It’s hard for me to say too much about second plus weddings. I know that if I ever became single, I wouldn’t ever remarry. I have three kids and there is no purpose to marry again, IMO. That’s just me though and I think some of it is if you’ve been married for a while. We have been for 26 years and I don’t wish for any more kids.

Those who get divorced young I fully understand. I’m more talking about older folks like me.

Yeah, I don't think I'd do it again either. 1st marriage lasted 5 years, then my son was born early in the relationship to another gal and we never married. When that ended after 5 years, I think I was 33. Got married again at 37 to my wife (16 years ago) and I've been happy ever since. If this one ended, I'd spend the rest of my days on the golf course.

 

[Clonefan32]

Wife and I got married right out of college and wound up with a big wedding. At that point in life, we invited alot of friends that probably wouldn't have gotten an invite a year or two later. We went through 9 kegs, which was my one and only concern. Besides that, I can't remember anything real extravagant. Nice big venue, lots of beer, pretty low frill.

I honestly think I should be a wedding consultant. I can tell you within 30 seconds of showing up at the church what kind of night everyone is about to have. There's nothing more over-engineered than a wedding reception.

 

[drlove]

Thanks so much to @JP4CY for this topic!

Could you imagine spending this much? I heard a blurb on the radio:

https://www.hindustantimes.com/ente...-ambani-radhika-merchant-101709534466438.html

Would be what did people splurge/go cheap on with their wedding?

Thank you for the topic. I'm glad we got a "Photo Booth" for the reception. the pictures of the guests having fun are some of my favorites of the day. I included one of the photographers testing the "timer".

 

[3TrueFans]

This ties in nicely with the thread on memory we just had, I was 20 when I got married, I don't remember how much it cost, and I don't remember many specifics from that day outside of actually saying I do, but I bet it was pretty cool.

 

[Entropy]

Spouse and I ended up having the big traditional Catholic style wedding due to family pressure from both sides. 200+ guests, fancy hotel dinner, multiple kegs of beer (that her family stayed up until 2AM finishing), etc.
I don't think we really "splurged" per se, but we didn't cheapen out on anything either. I think the whole thing was probably around $10K all told. Her parents picked up a chunk of it.
I was still in grad school and she was in between undergrad and grad.

 

[fsanford]

We had wedding on a bluff over looking Pacific ocean, mariachi band at reception, a variety of Latin foods served.
Free beer but liquor guests had to pay for
The added expense was because of venue and the nice reception we got extra RSVPs. Invite was for 2 RSVP came back for 4 . My wife's side looking for a free nice day out. Ha ha ha.

It got costly and my wife and I took out a loan to help pay for it. Loan got paid off and really glad we did the way we did.

Years later family members still talk about what a fun day it was.

 

[JP4CY]

We had wedding on a bluff over looking Pacific ocean, mariachi band at reception, a variety of Latin foods served.
Free beer but liquor guests had to pay for
The added expense was because of venue and the nice reception we got extra RSVPs. Invite was for 2 RSVP came back for 4 . My wife's side looking for a free nice day out. Ha ha ha.

It got costly and my wife and I took out a loan to help pay for it. Loan got paid off and really glad we did the way we did.

Years later family members still talk about what a fun day it was.

Sounds like the Catalina Wine Mixer.

 

[fsanford]

Sounds like the Catalina Wine Mixer.

Well the band stuck around so slightly different. Ha ha ha

 

[BCClone]

Sounds like the Catalina Wine Mixer.

It’s not JUST the Catalina wine mixer.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

We only splurged on food and drink for the reception for the guests. We had a morning wedding with a reception right afterwards that was essentially a large lunch. Since it was early, we didn't have a dance. We opted for a string quartet that we heard on the Plaza during one of our dates.

It worked well for us. The quartet played while people ate and conversed afterwards. We had an older guest list since I'm the youngest of 8 and my relatives are quite a bit older. They are also scattered around the country and liked the ability to talk and reminisce with people they don't see often.

The other guests our age were able to drink and go out afterwards.

 

[cowgirl836]

Man, it's been a minute. I know we had a really fun reception. The venue was the biggest splurge and that was worth it. It was such a good setup.

I homemade/pared down a bunch of stuff like very simple table decor with borrowed vases. I made all the invites (forced DH to help). Made the little candy favor things.

My regret is not going with my gut more. I didn't love the photographer pick and that's something I didn't want to be cheap on. But I didn't trust myself that the vibes were off and the style was just not what I wanted. Live and learn. We still get comments about how fun the reception was and that's what I remember the most.

 

[JP4CY]

Man, it's been a minute. I know we had a really fun reception. The venue was the biggest splurge and that was worth it. It was such a good setup.

I homemade/pared down a bunch of stuff like very simple table decor with borrowed vases. I made all the invites (forced DH to help). Made the little candy favor things.

My regret is not going with my gut more. I didn't love the photographer pick and that's something I didn't want to be cheap on. But I didn't trust myself that the vibes were off and the style was just not what I wanted. Live and learn. We still get comments about how fun the reception was and that's what I remember the most.

Yeah I previously mentioned photographer too because ours IIRC was like $2800 (2 for the day, bound book, digital rights to all of it).
Sounded insane at the time to me but my wife put her foot down and it was probably a wise decision.
I'm not too sentimental and don't really keep too many momentos in life but it's good that she pushed for this.

 

[Buster28]

We had our ceremony and reception at the same place since neither of us is religious and didn't really want anything to do with a church for the event. So THAT saved some money. Plus the place had a deal where if you spend X amount on food, the building rental was included. So we did a pretty good job of figuring out how many people that would feed, then making the guest list accordingly. It meant we stopped with adding to the list sooner than we would have liked, but there were about 170 people as it was. We rented Cy for an hour at the reception and he was a big hit - danced with both our moms, which was fun (he also got fed since he showed up a bit early and the food hadn't been taken down yet). Like Cowgirl, we still get comments about the reception, how much fun it was, and how it was very "us", which is what we wanted people to experience. And it didn't break our bank, either.

Oh, and we paid for two kegs, with free soda at the bar. Everything else was pay-as-you-go, which we thought was reasonable. Got the second keg just in case we ran out of the first one. The host said there was probably a dozen cups left in the second one by the end of the night. Planning ahead paid off, once again!

 

[PineClone]

I know some people who told their daughter that they would contribute $30k to a big wedding or $50k for a down payment on a house. She chose the wedding.

 

[JP4CY]

You know what weddings are the best?
The ones with snacks a couple hours after the meal. Like chex mix type snacks. Goes down with that beer really well.