NY Times article “Would You Pay to Attend a Wedding? As wedding costs continue to increase, some couples are charging guests to attend their special day.” Do you get your money back if they get divorced?
@Lutheran "Wedding costs continue to escalate"? I reject the passive voice.
Couples and their parents are choosing to have destination weddings and other expensive spectacles. I would only consider paying for a very modest wedding of a dirt-poor couple. Fancy weddings do not strong marriages make (now there's a provocation pulled from my nether regions but worthy of a sociology paper).
@ReaderJohn Hear, hear. At the margin, I am sure the study would show that marriages through elopement are more sound than those that started at a destination wedding (full disclosure: my wife and I eloped).
@miljko @ReaderJohn Yes. My wife and I married in a church ("meetinghouse" actually) and had a potluck reception in the hall nextdoor. Friends volunteered to decorate with flowers and to bake a wedding cake. Everyone thought it was nice. I'd say that the whole thing cost us about $1000 in today's dollars.
I've noticed that the meaning of "elopement" has changed in recent times. It used to mean running off and marrying without your family's blessing. Now it seems that any wedding without a big ceremony counts as elopement. For example, getting married at city hall, which used to be quite common (you can still do that!), would now be called eloping by many.
@JohnBrady @miljko We did have a Church wedding and a reception. I don't remember whether we had any caterer. Knowing my father in law, and his distrust of me at the time, I'll bet it was pretty frugal. We certainly applied no pressure for anything lavish.
52 years and counting.
@ReaderJohn we eloped 52 years ago. It took us 3 weeks to get the courage to tell my mother and father in law. My mother in law never got over it. It was a great wedding with just the two of us.