Elaborate weddings are they worth it?

                                                 

After reading the article in my mail about one of the stories they are doing tonight on ABC News Nightline about people spending so much money on weddings, I thought I would do a short article here about my thoughts on the matter.

Do people think that if you spend a fortune on a wedding that it will insure that their marriage is going to last? After seeing the multitude of lavish weddings all they way from royalty in foreign countries to super stars in Hollywood who spend a fortune I would have to say my answer to that is no.

I wonder how many people years later, whether they stay together or divorce lament over the fact that they wasted all that money on a lavish wedding. That money could have been put to a much better use on something that would have lasted over the years. Spending money on a fancy wedding all you have are the memories and the wedding album filled with pictures of that fairytale day.

It is possible to spend under $5,000 even spend under $3,000 for a very nice wedding that will be filled with wonderful memories and not have regrets about wishing you hadn’t spent money so foolishly by spending more money.

Both of my daughters had beautiful weddings, each of them costing under $3,000 and I can tell you this, both of them have been married now for a long time and neither of them wishes that they had spent any more than they did.  As the mother of the brides and being a single parent, I appreciated their conservativeness. Granted they also helped financially with their own wedding, which is another thing common today, the bride and groom helping to pick up the cost themselves. Back in “the old days” it was the responsibility of the bride’s parents to foot the bill for the wedding and the groom’s family paid for the rehearsal dinner.

One way a bride can save money is to look for a used wedding dress in a thrift store where she is able to actually try it on and see the condition of the garment, or she can make a purchase off the Internet from many bridal websites, e-bay or Craig’s list. Often you can find what you want and if you so desire, can actually do some alterations to make it custom-made just for you.

One way many brides are reducing the cost of their weddings is by going to a more casual style of wedding. Instead of bridesmaids all wearing identical dresses, they now are going to ones that are more individualized but similar in style and within the same color palette but not necessarily all the exact same hue. The girls are purchasing them off the rack at a department store, rather than at a bridal salon or having them custom made. The men are choosing to wear suits of the same color and forgoing the formal tuxedos.

Instead of formal bouquets, brides and her bridesmaids are opting for just a gathering of flowers tied with a pretty satin bow, or the stems totally wrapped with satin ribbon and no bow.

Wedding cakes are extremely high priced nowadays but with some ingenuity you can actually make your own tiered cake. If you are uncomfortable doing that, use tiered glass plates and fill it to the brim with cupcakes decorated with lush creamy frosting, like butter cream , whipped cream, or smooth fondant. Another alternative is to have a small wedding cake and then use sheet cakes for serving to your guests. Many weddings still include a groom’s cake and it is usually a sheet cake which will also help determine the size wedding cake that you need.

When it comes to the reception, depending on where you have it, perhaps some of your family can help by supplying different types of finger foods for the buffet table. If you have it catered, a large portion of your wedding budget can be spent on food alone. Setting up a buffet table will be less expensive than a sit down dinner reception where you must also pay for serving staff.

When it comes to a honeymoon, many couples will now just take a weekend to get away after their wedding since both parties usually work.  If they were lucky, they might have been able to plan ahead and get vacation time from their employers and take a week long honeymoon. There are numerous places right here in the United States where you can go and have a wonderful time without spending a fortune.

Your guests will have a wonderful time at your wedding and have no idea how much you actually spent on it. They came to share this exciting moment in your life, not sitting there with a calculator trying to figure out how much it cost you. You will have a beautiful wedding, reception and honeymoon with money leftover in the bank for which you will be very thankful to have for future purchases like a home of your own, a car or to splurge on that new addition to your family.

Just so you know, the picture above is of  my daughter and that wedding did cost us under $3000!