Introducing Ka-blog’s first guest blogger
Posted on June 14th, 2007 – 6:08 PMBy Kara McGuire
I figured by the time I hit 30 the weddings would end, or at least ebb. But this year, we’ve been invited to three out-of-state weddings and are headed to Annapolis tomorrow. We always try to accept wedding invitations, although it can be rough on the budget.
Add a flight and wedding travel is especially pricey. But even the hotel, the gifts and the outfit add up.
As I learned when I went to a college friend’s recent nuptials, it can be an all-expenses-paid entertainment extravaganza upon arrival, depending on the event.
With wedding expenses skyrocketing (did anyone else’s parents offer them cash to elope?), not everyone is in the financial position to offer an open bar and in-room goody bags. Not everyone who can afford to pay for such perks wants to. They might place a priority on retirement savings or buying a house.
Getting hitched certainly doesn’t have to be a five figure affair.
Just ask my biz team colleague Aimee Blanchette, who is planning her wedding with a budget of $5,000.
She’s next week’s Ka-blog guest blogger, and will share what she’s learned in the first six months of planning the big day. My guess is many of you out there have your own tips to share as well.
See you on the 22nd with a few more freckles on my nose and fewer dollars in my vacation account.
33 Responses to "Introducing Ka-blog’s first guest blogger"
Good for you. Too many people spend too much money on weddings.
I love spending money on our wedding! 
Even if we are nuts!!!
Again, it all comes down to values: Discipline or Waste.
Why is it a waste if you have plenty of assets? Short of giving it all away, which is worthy, you need to do something with what you have accumulated. We grew up in families where being a gracious host was demonstrated on a consistent basis. People with “values” and a boatload of cash can afford to spend some of it on their friends and family.
So appropriate that you mention the cost of out-of-town weddings! My husband and I decided that next summer we’ll go to Hawaii since nothing else was on the calendar. Then what happens? 2 out-of-state weddings next spring/summer. Ah well. We’ll go anywhere for a party. It’s kind of nice when relatives make vacation plans/hotel arrangements for us. Takes some of the stress out of the planning. Plus the weddings are from 2 different sides of the family, so I can wear the same outfit twice!
spending too much on a wedding is like depleting our enviroment from natural resources.
I know I would have a much more memorable and stress free time eloping to an exotic locale with the person I love or even with a small close family trip. My sister and her husband had a wonderful wedding in the mountains of Lake Tahoe with just myself and my parents. All the stress coupled with all the money dedicated to traditional weddings makes me shake my head in wonder.
Kara writes
“[A] guest blogger… will share what she
I planned my wedding for 18 months and myself and husband, and my parents, have the debt to show for it. But, 3 years later, none of us would change it for anything and it is still remembered as everyone’s favorite. Its the biggest day of your life and we figured we didn’t want to look back later and wish we had done this or that. I resent those who pass judgment on this subject because it is a VERY personal decision. So, to each his own, I say!
SC, you got debt from your wedding from 3 years ago?!!! You wouldn’t trade it for anything?!!! You are in DENIAL!!!
I hate agreeing with Jon. Seriously. But “Its the biggest day of your life”? I hope not. If so, the rest of your life is downhill, which is so sad, I don’t know how you manage to get out of bed every day. I have had two weddings. The first was a six (yes SIX) figure affair with band, individualized favors, the works, the second we pulled off for a couple of thousand dollars (and no debt) with beer, brats, and family. Guess which one lasted. If you focus on your wedding as “the biggest day of your life”, you are either in for a big disappointment, or the remainder of your life is pathetic and not worth wanting.
My weddings this year criss-cross the country from Minnesota to New Jersey to California to Texas. I had to decline two weddings because they were a week and two weeks, respectively, away from another wedding in another state. I couldn’t afford that much vacation, and airline tickets!
I am excited to read (more) about Aimee’s wedding planning.
My weddings this year criss-cross the country from Minnesota to New Jersey to California to Texas. I had to decline two weddings because they were a week and two weeks, respectively, away from another wedding in another state. I couldn’t afford that much vacation, and airline tickets!
I am excited to read (more) about Aimee’s wedding planning.
I think too much emphasis is put on the wedding and not the marriage. It’s amazing how much time is spent planning a wedding, and for some couples, how little time is spent preparing for married life (discussing finances, children, long-term goals). However, I don’t think its a bad thing to splurge on your wedding, assuming you are reasonable about. Paying off your wedding for years isn’t the best way to start off a marriage.
If you want to spend a bundle on your wedding, I hope you have a good time. It’s no skin off my nose.
My wife and I had a relatively modest wedding by today’s standards, but it still involved a dinner, DJ, photos, tuxedo rentals, etc. We maybe spent 5000 - 7000 (of other people’s money). We had a great time, but — now that I’m older and wiser — I think we’d have had just as much fun with a potluck dinner in our backyard.
The other consideration is how much you’re going to make your friends spend. We registered for china — which we’ve never used — and I regret asking our friends and family to buy that sort of thing for us. We got caught up in the wedding-industrial-complex and weren’t thinking clearly.
SC - I’m glad that you don’t mind having your debt from your wedding day… three years is a long time though! : ) It’s your day and if that’s how you wanted it - yay for you!
Once it’s done and over with I will have been planning for 20 months.. but I don’t mind at all! I LIKE having all that time… I have shopped around TONS and everything that we have already booked and bought as gifts, every single thing I have found for a MUCH better price! We are not going into debt planning… and we also do not have parents paying for it. They will help out if we ask them.. but we aren’t planning on any money from them. To each his own is right.. we love the thought of spending enough money on our day that it’s a day that we (AND our friends and family) can’t wait for!
I personally can’t wait to hear what the guest blogger has to say about wedding planning! : )
Rather than paying off a wedding for years, I’d personally rather spend that money on a car, house, vacations, activities, entertainment, (pretty much anything)…
While not as quickly planned or inexpensive as bsimon’s wedding, my wife and I planned our overseas wedding for three months and spent about $3500 on our wedding/honeymoon. For that money we were married in Europe and traveled for an entire month. We were in our mid-20s and paid for it all ourselves and incurred no debt. Like bsimon’s wedding: no family, no stress, no fuss, minimal expense (given the month-long trip).
I’ll echo the people that say that too many people put the emphasis on the wedding day and not on the marriage. In my opinion, that’s the wrong focus. Wedding guests don’t care how big your wedding is (but if it’s extravagent they may talk about how expensive it must be).
Today’s expensive weddings are usually for two people: the bride and the bride’s mother.
What amazed me was how even relatively simple events can add up quickly. My now husband and I are from opposite sides of the country but have consciously made Minneapolis our home. The result was the logistics of having about 25 out of town guests in town for a long weekend (parents, siblings/their spouses, a handful of aunts and cousins, etc). That’s complicated no matter how you look at it.
We were organized, but (as always) just a hair short on time. The result is one of my best memories: a post party 1AM run to Rainbow with my husband so we’d have supplies for fixing brunch for our company the next morning.
Whoa, whoa! First of all, I should say HAD the debt to show for it - as in paid off now, not that that should matter one bit. And second of all, the insinuation that because a wedding is not a backyard bbq means that more emphasis was put on the wedding then the marriage is ridiculous. I’m not from the midwest though, so maybe things are different here than on the East Coast but please come off your high horses people! The judgment here about this topic is insane. I wonder is some of you act like this at weddings you go to that are more extravegant then you would have yourself…
I’m very curious as to how she will pull off a wedding for 150, complete with booze, for $5K! She’s got some advantages on us, because 1) my parents’ house wan’t big enough to hold that many people, and 2) we are Catholic, so getting married in the backyard was not an option. Good for her, but I hope she doesn’t regret going the shoestring route. Marriage is huge, so a party with chili and beer doesn’t seem like a wedding to me. To each his own though!
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