Bride Tries to Charge 1500 a Head to Attend Her Wedding

[shadow_operative2.0 15944]

12 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

It still cost probably $80k all in and my wife and I paid. 

---- 

My sister got married at our ranch also but our parents paid that.  Hers cost triple what mine did. 

$240K at your own family's place?! 

[Frank Drebin 5654]

31 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

$240K at your own family's place?! 

Yep.  And this was 20 years ago. My mom went overboard.  She has plenty of cash, though.  Looking back, she knows she did it more for her than my sister.  She is a lot wiser these days.

[shadow_operative2.0 15944]

Jesus shit. 

[Brisketexan 105057]

For $240k, a wedding damned well better feature insane shit like skydiving exploding midgets riding ostriches or some shit.  That's just obscene.

But the skydiving exploding midgets on ostriches would at least be entertaining as hell.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21872]

6 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Yep.  And this was 20 years ago. My mom went overboard.  She has plenty of cash, though.  Looking back, she knows she did it more for her than my sister.  She is a lot wiser these days.

I hope for that she got Willie to play at the reception and provide the weed

[Frank Drebin 5654]

Just now, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Jesus shit. 

I have been to far more extravagant weddings.  Plenty of people spend half a million to millions on weddings.  I went to an Indian wedding with days of events that had to cost a million last summer.  It is a waste of money.

If I could do it all over, I would cut my guest list in half and spend a month in St Barth instead of two weeks.

[Frank Drebin 5654]

41 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

$240K at your own family's place?! 

I am telling you from experience, doing it at your own place does not save you money if you have a lot of guests and if you want to feed them and get them boozed up.  (As for the booze, we had busses for all my drunk friends as we went back to Houston that night and after-partied at the St Regis).

[Bevo 13560]

1 minute ago, Frank Drebin said:

I am telling you from experience, doing it at your own place does not save you money if you have a lot of guests and if you want to feed them and get them boozed up.  (As for the booze, we had busses for all my drunk friends as we went back to Houston that night and after-partied at the St Regis).

no Black Swan?

[Texzilla588 769]

My wife and I got married after work one night. I paid the preacher $50. Mom had a reception for us that weekend. She made some snacks and dad supplied a keg of Schlitz. That’s it.

Other than extravagant funerals, big weddings are a ridiculously stupid waste of money. They are a holdover from royal weddings which merged bloodlines and political agreements. They aren’t for common folk. Women should be raised to marry a man for love and that big weddings are stupid. Get married at church after the service and pick up some barbecue.

[Francisco 2.0 32386]

Daughter of close friends of mine was married recently.  She and her husband had a private destination wedding with maybe 20 people tops (parents, grandparents, siblings) in attendance.  

They had a wedding reception a month or so later that my wife and I attended.  Rented on a Sat night a giant club.  There might have been 5-600 guests.  3 open bars, 2 bands, endless shrimp, prime rib, king crab legs.  Lots and lots of booze.  I counted at least 3 crews of photographers taking pictures.  Caterers everywhere.  Fresh flowers on each table, an ice sculpture that was 6 foot tall, that sort of thing.  It was posh.

Now, I've know the parents of the bride for decades now.  I know their background.  There's no way they could have footed the bill, or even half of it.  The groom's family is loaded, from what I was told.  The father of the bride and I were talking, and I mentioned something like this was quite the party.  He took a drink of beer, said they didn't pay for it---it was somewhere around 200K---just for the reception.   

 

Edited June 19 by Francisco 2.0

[Frank Drebin 5654]

My Jewish buddies with daughters get popped twice.  Once for the Bat Mitzvah and once for the wedding.  They cost about the same, from what I hear.

[T-shirt Sip 2097]

Wife and I were in the same squad at Ft Hood as E4’s so very broke. Squad leader knew we wanted to get married so he let us off work early on a random Thursday. We bought $30 wedding bands at the pawn shop on the way to the court house. Paid $19.95 for the license and tipped the judge $20. We’ve been married for 28 years and going strong. 

[DalTxHornFan 3097]

My wife always warned my son about about marrying a rich/privileged girl, as he'd never be able to do enough to keep her happy.  He took that to heart.  They eloped and got married in front of a judge.  We had a party for them at a brewery a couple of months later and had Matt's El Rancho cater it.  Maybe $2,500-$3,000 out of pocket.  8 years and 2 grandkids later, they are still married.  A great investment!

[shadow_operative2.0 15944]

Had jury duty here in FW awhile back, wound up in the family courthouse. Couple got married, came out to the hallway for pics, one of the granddads collapsed, 911 had to be called.

The opposite of this thread. 

 

[Sandman 3403]

We got married at my mother in law's church, where she was a board member for many years. Cost was $0. Everyone involved was old friends of my wife's family, they were eager to help for next to nothing. The cake was either free or less than $100, I can't remember. Catered BBQ for the reception, nothing fancy. Nazarene wedding, so no booze or band or anything. The biggest expense was her dress, which was $600. I think we did the whole thing-wedding and reception-for under $5k. Just celebrated our 15th anniversary, so I guess we did ok.

[CHIEF 5075]

23 minutes ago, Sandman said:

We got married at my mother in law's church, where she was a board member for many years. Cost was $0. Everyone involved was old friends of my wife's family, they were eager to help for next to nothing. The cake was either free or less than $100, I can't remember. Catered BBQ for the reception, nothing fancy. Nazarene wedding, so no booze or band or anything. The biggest expense was her dress, which was $600. I think we did the whole thing-wedding and reception-for under $5k. Just celebrated our 15th anniversary, so I guess we did ok.

That's kinda the way ours went. I have an aunt that made wedding and groom cakes, her gift? Wedding and Groom's cake. Her cakes are amazing, she normally gets from $1200-2000 for both. We have a family friend that is a wedding photographer, his gift was free wedding photos. Church and reception hall were free, tipped the pastor $50. A nice wedding can still be done inexpensively if you know the right people.

If CHIEF Jr. ever gets married, and his bride wants to spend $100k on a wedding, or requires a $30k engagement ring, I'm gonna suggest he needs to get rid of her and find someone else. If times get tough, she is gonna jump ship and take half his shit.

CHIEF

[Dbeasy 15040]

I want to thank all of you tax payers for paying for my wedding. I got married in Bergstrom AFB in the church, and had the rehearsal dinner and reception in the officers club. Total rental cost to me? $0. Total wedding cost? $2,400 including dress, and we pocketed $600 from the inlaws because we stayed under $3,000. Best deal I’ve ever done. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

I don’t care if i had $20m in the bank, there’s no way i would drop 200k on a wedding especially my own. You could cut 75% of that budget and still have the exact same good time with friends and family.

spending that is only about showing off. I guarantee every wedding guest is quietly asking each other to estimate the cost.

[RDCanecutter 26379]

18 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I don’t care if i had $20m in the bank, there’s no way i would drop 200k on a wedding especially my own. You could cut 75% of that budget and still have the exact same good time with friends and family.

spending that is only about showing off. I guarantee every wedding guest is quietly asking each other to estimate the cost.

As @Brisketexan pointed out, skydiving exploding midgets riding ostriches have to pay bills too.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

49 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

As @Brisketexan pointed out, skydiving exploding midgets riding ostriches have to pay bills too.

I would drop 10k extra for that at my reception.

[Guadaloopy 10957]

16 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I would drop 10k extra for that at my reception.

I’m sorry.  The judges were looking for “I’d go over 12% for that.”

[Longhornstampede 3180]

This reminds me of a former coworker who threw HERSELF a 30th birthday party and charged all her guests $45 per person to attend. The week before the party she talked about how much money she spent on liquor and catering. On the Friday before the party she showed up with a new weave, makeup and nails that could have been used to eviscerate a grizzly bear.  The next Monday she showed up at work angry about how many people cancelled showing up. Later that same week her car got repoed from the parking lot at work. 

I guess she needed the money.

[Superhero 8827]

12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

For $240k, a wedding damned well better feature insane shit like skydiving exploding midgets riding ostriches or some shit.  That's just obscene.

But the skydiving exploding midgets on ostriches would at least be entertaining as hell.

So you're saying something like this

 

[troph 24781]

$3500 the first time around. Church and Hancock golf clubhouse. Not much in the way of food, some snacks. “Catered” by a grocery store. Cake from central market maybe? Rehearsal dinner at tres amigos in westlake. We paid for it ourselves, my folks apologized for not being able to pay for any of it. They didn’t even give us $100.

second time around, $35 filing fee (Colorado let’s you marry yourself they even have a joke about it), bottle of sparking rose and some tapas at a restaurant with a friend, and a joint formulated for sexy times. tennis work out in the morning, showered, dressed casually and married by 2pm, tipsy by 5pm, consummated by 8pm, and dead to the world asleep by 9pm. Total cost under $500. Woke up the next day and went trout fishing. 

Edited June 20 by troph

[Deej 76752]

16 hours ago, Frank Drebin said:

I went to an Indian wedding

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

On 6/18/2024 at 12:56 PM, Samson's Wig said:

I was heavily involved in the wedding planning, as the maid of honor and mother in law were in another country.   End result?  We got married on a Thursday.  Every venue you could possibly want is available on a Thursday, and will do it for peanuts.  Same goes for photographers, bands, etc. etc. etc.  This was twenty years ago, but I'll bet it still holds up at least to a degree.  It's not as convenient for people who have to travel to attend, for sure, but if you want to have a blow out bash and pay pennies for it, get married on a weekday.

My wife and I got married at the Caswell House in Austin on a weekday. It was practically free compared to weekends. The Riff Raff looking caretaker dude (think Rocky Horror Picture Show) who lived in the attic didn’t emerge from his lair, so the entertainment factor took a hit. My mother was a very talented seamstress, and she made my wife’s wedding dress. I think we spent about $1,200 total. Our 40th is this year.

My daughter was married last year (200+ guests), and we spent about $18,000, but you would guess it was twice that (people commented that it was the best wedding food they could remember having). I’m sure it was well over $20,000 because her meddling future MIL went behind her back and paid for an open bar (as opposed to 3 drink tickets) that my daughter didn’t want. 

Edited June 20 by ImissWallyPryor

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

19 hours ago, Frank Drebin said:

Yep.  And this was 20 years ago. My mom went overboard.  She has plenty of cash, though.  Looking back, she knows she did it more for her than my sister.  She is a lot wiser these days.

Yeah George Strait would never play a wedding for that in 2024. 

[Dennis Taylor 18808]

19 hours ago, Texzilla588 said:

My wife and I got married after work one night. I paid the preacher $50. Mom had a reception for us that weekend. She made some snacks and dad supplied a keg of Schlitz. That’s it.

Other than extravagant funerals, big weddings are a ridiculously stupid waste of money. They are a holdover from royal weddings which merged bloodlines and political agreements. They aren’t for common folk. Women should be raised to marry a man for love and that big weddings are stupid. Get married at church after the service and pick up some barbecue.

Nobody, and I mean fucking Nobody gets on this guy's lawn without getting yelled at 

[Dennis Taylor 18808]

17 hours ago, T-shirt Sip said:

Wife and I were in the same squad at Ft Hood as E4’s so very broke. Squad leader knew we wanted to get married so he let us off work early on a random Thursday. We bought $30 wedding bands at the pawn shop on the way to the court house. Paid $19.95 for the license and tipped the judge $20. We’ve been married for 28 years and going strong. 

I think that's called a bribe

[Francisco 2.0 32386]

This thread reminded me; went to a wedding in '94 that Garth Brooks was hired to play at the reception.  Now, this was just as he was going supernova...but, the groom went to OSU and knew Garth well from his time there, and Garth did it as a favor for he and the bride.   This was a surprise to everyone in attendance, for they kept it a secret that he was coming as a guest and to perform.   The wedding and reception itself were very low-key.

[Deej 76752]

Free, or did Garth declare prima nocta?

[T-shirt Sip 2097]

2 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

I think that's called a bribe

It was in Killeen/Bell County so its okay. 

[Brisketexan 105057]

2 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

This thread reminded me; went to a wedding in '94 that Garth Brooks was hired to play at the reception.  Now, this was just as he was going supernova...but, the groom went to OSU and knew Garth well from his time there, and Garth did it as a favor for he and the bride.   This was a surprise to everyone in attendance, for they kept it a secret that he was coming as a guest and to perform.   The wedding and reception itself were very low-key.

Music folks will do that, and it doesn't get publicized because it's a friend thing.  Years ago, my wife officiated a wedding with maybe 40 guests.  One of the guests was Bono, and yes, he played a couple of songs at the reception.  And not a word about it was in the press -- Bono made a promise to the groom years before, and he kept it.  And yes, his presence was 100% a secret and surprise -- they told my wife a "well known guest" will be coming beforehand, but she didn't care, she's officiated weddings in town for a long time, lots of celebrities around.  But they're actually holding up the wedding waiting for him to get there, because his plane just landed.  She finally bugs them to find out who they're waiting for, they tell her, she says "oh.  Yeah, we'll wait for him."  She's up front waiting to get started, Bono walks in, looks at her, and she points at a chair, telling him to sit down, which he did.  

[ballrific 215]

waiting for one of you assholes to tell us you hired Pitbull to play at your daughter’s quinceanera… since one of you also had a hand in him playing our SEC party later this month…asshole.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21872]

4 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

I think that's called a bribe

Maybe it was Clarence's first gig

[Deej 76752]

40 minutes ago, ballrific said:

waiting for one of you assholes to tell us you hired Pitbull to play at your daughter’s quinceanera… since one of you also had a hand in him playing our SEC party later this month…asshole.

 

[BurntEyes 5957]

So the first thing that comes to my mind, typically, when I read about expenses on a wedding are trip costs and real estate. What could have been. 

Bocus Del Toro Panama, $250k

https://www.bocasdeltoropanamaproperties.com/properties/bo/beachfront-home-salt-creek-bastimentos-bocas-del-toro/1103274/

https://www.bocasdeltoropanamaproperties.com/properties/bo/tilted-home-in-bocas-town-for-sale-panama/1104529/

[troph 24781]

18 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

This thread reminded me; went to a wedding in '94 that Garth Brooks was hired to play at the reception.  Now, this was just as he was going supernova...but, the groom went to OSU and knew Garth well from his time there, and Garth did it as a favor for he and the bride.   This was a surprise to everyone in attendance, for they kept it a secret that he was coming as a guest and to perform.   The wedding and reception itself were very low-key.

For my second wedding I started going down the rabbit hole and was talking a smallish wedding in our home over looking the lake (couldn’t find the cut off for 50-75 guests though), catered, and wanted Bob Schneider to play. Don’t know his cost and it ain’t Garth Brooks but I was easily rounding $30,000 for catered, music, flowers, at home, etc. that’s when I said uh, this is insane. Backed tracked to a $500 “wedding” in CO. 

Edited June 21 by troph

[smuggs 9351]

16 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Music folks will do that, and it doesn't get publicized because it's a friend thing.  Years ago, my wife officiated a wedding with maybe 40 guests.  One of the guests was Bono, and yes, he played a couple of songs at the reception.  And not a word about it was in the press -- Bono made a promise to the groom years before, and he kept it.  And yes, his presence was 100% a secret and surprise -- they told my wife a "well known guest" will be coming beforehand, but she didn't care, she's officiated weddings in town for a long time, lots of celebrities around.  But they're actually holding up the wedding waiting for him to get there, because his plane just landed.  She finally bugs them to find out who they're waiting for, they tell her, she says "oh.  Yeah, we'll wait for him."  She's up front waiting to get started, Bono walks in, looks at her, and she points at a chair, telling him to sit down, which he did.  

Pro bono Bono.

[CooterBrown 18002]

22 years ago, we had the decision to either pay for a wedding or buy a house. So, we opted for the house.  Instead, we took our best friends and their significant others down to Cozumel.  We partied with them for 3 nights and on the last night got married on the beach.  They left and we stayed the rest of the week.  I think we were all in for around $3,000.  

[Hmbre97 6305]

My ex and I were supposed to get married on the beach in Destin, just the two of us, until hurricane Ivan hit about 8 days prior. 

I obviously did not recognize the sign from God. Whoops. We wound up doing the same plan but in Corpus. The lady who married us, her husband and their pet schnauzer were the witnesses. If I were to ever get married again, that'd be the way I'd do it again. It was so stress free. Unlike the reception we had a few weeks later.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

We went to a wedding in c. ‘94 in Houston where they rented out the entire River Oaks CC on a Saturday. I’m sure the pro shop and course were still open. The bride and groom were both UT grads. There were multiple serving lines for various types of food, attendants everywhere, open bars, hundreds of guests. One of the open bars was even in the men’s locker room. I can’t begin to imagine what that cost. 

[CooterBrown 18002]

When I was a teen, my grandmother dropped a bit of knowledge on me.  She said "you know, the only people that enjoy weddings are the mothers of the bride and groom."  I think that always stuck with me and was one reason we did the last minute destination elopement.

 

[Frank Drebin 5654]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

22 years ago, we had the decision to either pay for a wedding or buy a house. So, we opted for the house.  Instead, we took our best friends and their significant others down to Cozumel.  We partied with them for 3 nights and on the last night got married on the beach.  They left and we stayed the rest of the week.  I think we were all in for around $3,000.  

This is the way.

[CHIEF 5075]

23 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

We went to a wedding in c. ‘94 in Houston where they rented out the entire River Oaks CC on a Saturday. I’m sure the pro shop and course were still open. The bride and groom were both UT grads. There were multiple serving lines for various types of food, attendants everywhere, open bars, hundreds of guests. One of the open bars was even in the men’s locker room. I can’t begin to imagine what that cost. 

I have a buddy from my home town of 219 people that lives in Circle C. He went to Texas State, where he met his first wife. She happened to be the daughter of the guy who had just sold his telecommunication/internet providing company for $200 million, it would become Grande Communication a few months later. That was easily the most insane wedding I have ever been to. The reception was in the basement of the Omni, or one of the other big hotels downtown. They had an open bar with high end liquor, a surf and turf dinner for about 500 people, small wedding gifts for each of the guests. Father of the groom said the bride's family had spent easily a million on the wedding. I bet the centerpieces for each of the 50 or so tables cost $150k. All that expense, and they were divorced in about five years.

CHIEF

[Nivek 16916]

Meh, got married at the Mansion in Austin, rented out Aquarelle (now closed) for the reception, flew out to the Caribbean a few days later. It wasn’t cheap, put a little into the rings, and the photographer was really A+. We have great memories and pictures.

This was important to my wife so it was important to me. I did suggest that we get ripped/dirty tux and wedding dress and take pictures in an alley/dumpster or burned out building, and that was near the end of my input. I was given toddler decision tree from then on.

[Armybrat 40821]

19 hours ago, Deej said:

 

Beat me to it.

[Armybrat 40821]

4 hours ago, troph said:

For my second wedding I started going down the rabbit hole and was talking a smallish wedding in our home over looking the lake (couldn’t find the cut off for 50-75 guests though), catered, and wanted Bob Schneider to play. Don’t know his cost and it ain’t Garth Brooks but I was easily rounding $30,000 for catered, music, flowers, at home, etc. that’s when I said uh, this is insane. Backed tracked to a $500 “wedding” in CO. 

Schneider came to my son’s backyard in South Austin to play for my dying daughter-in-law eleven years ago. 
He does it for quite a few folks who are undergoing similar travails. A wonderful man.
She passed away a month later on the morning of her 39th birthday.

 

 

[DigDug 1667]

4 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

22 years ago, we had the decision to either pay for a wedding or buy a house. So, we opted for the house.  Instead, we took our best friends and their significant others down to Cozumel.  We partied with them for 3 nights and on the last night got married on the beach.  They left and we stayed the rest of the week.  I think we were all in for around $3,000.  

Marriages on a Mexican beach are not legally binding in the US, you can still get out of this.

[Dennis Taylor 18808]

23 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Schneider came to my son’s backyard in South Austin to play for my dying daughter-in-law eleven years ago. 
He does it for quite a few folks who are undergoing similar travails. A wonderful man.
She passed away a month later on the morning of her 39th birthday.

 

 

That's cool as hell. RIP to your DIL