Average couple spends $26,989 on wedding; many break budget


jsupop33

jsupop33

Loyalty & Respect
This summer wedding season, a new song could rival Laura Nyro's bride-yearning classic Wedding Bell Blues.

Call it Wedding Bill Blues.

Even with a slight drop in "I Do" spending during recent tough economic years, many couples are beguiled beyond their budgets.

MORE: Advice from pros on cutting costs
PHOTOS: Emotion makes dresses, food tempting

The average couple has a $26,989 wedding, according to Brides magazine. Even though that's down from a peak of $28,082 in pre-recession 2008, nearly one-third of all brides still bust their budgets, Brides says.

Couples are victimized by their own fantasies, cajoled by media visions of celebrity nuptials, and pressured by friends, family, even strangers posting idyllic photos on Pinterest.

"It's emotional. Practicality goes out the window," says David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.

Jones sees many ways debt entraps people. As a grandfather, however, Jones still found himself a shocked participant in runaway wedding spending for his granddaughter's wedding.

While Jones and his wife contributed cash, their son, father of the bride, "had to work overtime for months after the March wedding to pay off the credit card bills," Jones says.

The "lovely but not outlandish" spring wedding "went 15% over budget," Jones says, starting with the first purchase — a $6,000 gown, when $3,000 was planned.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/story/2012-08-09/wedding-costs/56921020/1




When I see people going into debts for weddings, I just think to myself "bad investments". Your's truly can proudly say that when I walk down the aisle, the wedding will be fully paid for out of OUR pockets and our pockets only (mainly mine). I just need to figure out to how to pay for this honey moon. I refuse to go into anymore debt after my student loans.

The guest list kills a lot of people. A close homeboy of mine got married last year and he let his mama force him into adding like 30 more people to their list. Dude lacks backbone in my opinion. I have not even discussed my wedding with parents except to tell them the date and location. That is not their job to plan or create the guest list.
 
jsupop33 said:
This summer wedding season, a new song could rival Laura Nyro's bride-yearning classic Wedding Bell Blues.

Call it Wedding Bill Blues.

Even with a slight drop in "I Do" spending during recent tough economic years, many couples are beguiled beyond their budgets.

MORE: Advice from pros on cutting costs
PHOTOS: Emotion makes dresses, food tempting

The average couple has a $26,989 wedding, according to Brides magazine. Even though that's down from a peak of $28,082 in pre-recession 2008, nearly one-third of all brides still bust their budgets, Brides says.

Couples are victimized by their own fantasies, cajoled by media visions of celebrity nuptials, and pressured by friends, family, even strangers posting idyllic photos on Pinterest.

"It's emotional. Practicality goes out the window," says David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.

Jones sees many ways debt entraps people. As a grandfather, however, Jones still found himself a shocked participant in runaway wedding spending for his granddaughter's wedding.

While Jones and his wife contributed cash, their son, father of the bride, "had to work overtime for months after the March wedding to pay off the credit card bills," Jones says.

The "lovely but not outlandish" spring wedding "went 15% over budget," Jones says, starting with the first purchase — a $6,000 gown, when $3,000 was planned.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/story/2012-08-09/wedding-costs/56921020/1




When I see people going into debts for weddings, I just think to myself "bad investments". Your's truly can proudly say that when I walk down the aisle, the wedding will be fully paid for out of OUR pockets and our pockets only (mainly mine). I just need to figure out to how to pay for this honey moon. I refuse to go into anymore debt after my student loans.

The guest list kills a lot of people. A close homeboy of mine got married last year and he let his mama force him into adding like 30 more people to their list. Dude lacks backbone in my opinion. I have not even discussed my wedding with parents except to tell them the date and location. That is not their job to plan or create the guest list.
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With the high divorce rate, some people need to cut back on that. My wedding didn't cost nearly that much BUT I didn't get married in a big city. We got married in the country.. free church, small fee for the preacher, buffet by a local caterer, and the facility for our reception costs ONLY about $1500 (compared to the $10,000 the hotel wanted for fewer people). We had 500 guests and everyone had a seat. I would be surprised if we spent $4000 to get married. Looking back, for the prices, my only regret is that we didn't have two caterers.. one on each side since we had some many people.
 



Don't get caught up. Paying for the honeymoon is more important than the wedding ceremony anyway. Shoulda did the JOP and cookout at the crib. LOL Then splurge on the vacation.
 
Tigerpride said:
With the high divorce rate, some people need to cut back on that. My wedding didn't cost nearly that much BUT I didn't get married in a big city. We got married in the country.. free church, small fee for the preacher, buffet by a local caterer, and the facility for our reception costs ONLY about $1500 (compared to the $10,000 the hotel wanted for fewer people). We had 500 guests and everyone had a seat. I would be surprised if we spent $4000 to get married. Looking back, for the prices, my only regret is that we didn't have two caterers.. one on each side since we had some many people.
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500 people?? Oh no, no way in hell :lol:. We are going to the reservoir. I purposely decided against a church because I wanted a more controlled environment
 
Way too much money to spend on a wedding when the couple will probably divorce after 2 plus years of marriage. Me and my wife may have spent $7000 total. That included rings, airline tickets to florida for the wedding, caterring, honeymoon, weddng pictures, etc. The church was free, the preacher didn't charge anything.
 
Maybe I am a bad person but I got married at the courthouse :lol:

We both took a week off for the honeymoon though
 
I spent $1000 on mine... he paid...was married 17 years. My sister in law spent $10000...was married 3 years. Her folks were hot about that. If I do it again, I think another small wedding or something small and destination...like the ocean in Hawaii.
 
I have/had a friend who got married in 2008, she and her "soon to be ex" husband are not seperated. Her dad paid for the wedding, and it cound not have been cheap. The church was free becasue she was a member, but the wedding reception was at the Von Braun Civic Center here in Huntsville and it was a very nice sit down dinner, not heavy hors d'oeuvre, and I know they had a limo for about 5 hours. And their honeymoon was a week in Hawaii.
So I'm not saying the entire wedding cost 26K, but who knows. For the money they spent and it only lasted 4 years??
 
like someone said, if I ever get married... have a small reception in the backyard with friends (don't have a lot of friends anyway... probably a lot of frats and sorors who would come if invited) and go all out with the honeymoon.

Almost EVERYONE I know who had the BIG wedding at the BIG church and did it big is divorced... people act like that 50% divorce rate is a fake number :lol:
 



Shat! I just got married on the Aug 18th and we had about 400 people big church, reception at the Omni, and we went on a honeymoon. Not to mention we closed on a house last month. You just have to know how much you can afford and budget. I didn't want a huge wedding but I can't front. 300+ gifts from registry not to mention about $5,000 in cash from gifts. I'm not complaining.
 
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PsychoJag said:
Shat! I just got married on the 18th and we had about 400 people big church, reception at the Omni, and we went on a honeymoon. Not to mention we closed on a house last month. You just have to know how much you can afford and budget. I didn't want a huge wedding but I can't front. 300+ gifts from registry not to mention about $5,000 in cash from gifts. I'm not complaining.
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400 people?? Thats too much work.
 
jsupop33 said:
400 people?? Thats too much work.
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My head is still spinning but if there is any advice I can give start budgeting ASAP and make sure you over budget because last minute shat pops up. Also just because a place has A+ rating with the BBB don't mean nothing. Folks were screwing up all through this process and we had to stay on them.
 
PsychoJag said:
Shat! I just got married on the Aug 18th and we had about 400 people big church, reception at the Omni, and we went on a honeymoon. Not to mention we closed on a house last month. You just have to know how much you can afford and budget. I didn't want a huge wedding but I can't front. 300+ gifts from registry not to mention about $5,000 in cash from gifts. I'm not complaining.
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Congrats!
 
<-------Not getting married post...craps over-rated...

kudos to the ones that are still hanging on
 
I know I went into it wrong. I try not to think about how and why I gave in but it was obvious that I told self that these are the type sacrifices a man makes to see his woman happy or you're very stupid. I was stupid. I fronted plane tickets, hotel rooms, meals, and transportation for everyone-including her friend-girls non-relatives. That savings I had went south really fast when I gave her my coin purse pre-marriage. I was the only person not happy during that time while witnessing a bunch of strangers and members of my fam vacationing off my dime for 4days-3nights :smh:. A waste of $$$$ and I was the only one wasting. Bldg rentals, ol' singer dude from "Riff," passa, caterers for reception and rehearsal dinner, dresses, tuxs, ... It took a minute to save and essentially one day to blow it all. smh
 
Panther88 said:
I know I went into it wrong. I try not to think about how and why I gave in but it was obvious that I told self that these are the type sacrifices a man makes to see his woman happy or you're very stupid. I was stupid. I fronted plane tickets, hotel rooms, meals, and transportation for everyone-including her friend-girls non-relatives. That savings I had went south really fast when I gave her my coin purse pre-marriage. I was the only person not happy during that time while witnessing a bunch of strangers and members of my fam vacationing off my dime for 4days-3nights :smh:. A waste of $$$$ and I was the only one wasting. Bldg rentals, ol' singer dude from "Riff," passa, caterers for reception and rehearsal dinner, dresses, tuxs, ... It took a minute to save and essentially one day to blow it all. smh
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wow.
 
Panther88 said:
I know I went into it wrong. I try not to think about how and why I gave in but it was obvious that I told self that these are the type sacrifices a man makes to see his woman happy or you're very stupid. I was stupid. I fronted plane tickets, hotel rooms, meals, and transportation for everyone-including her friend-girls non-relatives. That savings I had went south really fast when I gave her my coin purse pre-marriage. I was the only person not happy during that time while witnessing a bunch of strangers and members of my fam vacationing off my dime for 4days-3nights :smh:. A waste of $$$$ and I was the only one wasting. Bldg rentals, ol' singer dude from "Riff," passa, caterers for reception and rehearsal dinner, dresses, tuxs, ... It took a minute to save and essentially one day to blow it all. smh
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:smh:

Reminds me of that quote: "There, but for the grace of God, go I".

I was lucky and didn't spend that much on the first.

However, for the second, I'll admit that I was prepared to spend 30K+. Had an account with the cash sitting there with the money in it for that purpose. Some folks mentioned their whole weddings costing 4K ... 7K .... :( Heck, her engagement ring cost that much. :shame:

But, God was good to ol' JagFan and I avoided that trap. I've flipped that pot of cash several times since then and every time I see that account, I'm like: :happydance::happydance::happydance::happydance::happydance::happydance:
 
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