How Much Is Too Much To Spend On A Wedding?

[OmahaBlueDog]

Since the Clintons are getting crucified, I ask everyone... how much is too much?

[SunnySong]

1. I would keep it under a million... when you spend seven figures on a one day event

it strikes me as someone is out of control.

I understand you can have a nice wedding for 800,000 nowadays.

[mediaman007]

2. Its the Clinton Stimulus Package!

What ever they spend, people are going to get back to work.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. +1, basic economics

You GET IT!!!!

[some guy]

3. 7 & 8 n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. If they have it, whatever

people are crucifying them out of envy, quite honest, and not understanding basic economics. However much they spend, that is an infusion to the economy...

IT IS a NORMAL MONEY FOR SERVICE exchange.

[LSparkle]

19. Come on, people -- this is their ONLY DAUGHTER ...

If they had several (like in MY family!), then maybe
they couldn't spend as much (with any amount of
family wealth) but you only get to give away your
ONLY DAUGHTER once. Let Bill (and Hillary) have
their day (oh yeah, and Chelsea too).

MAZEL TOV, CLINTONS!

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Of course, we agree

but also the money is going into the local economy, which a lot of folks here cannot understand, or don't want to.

In their case, enjoy the party.

[Renew Deal]

5. I remember a discussion I had when I was getting married.

Someone told me that the only thing you need is a marriage license. Everything else is extra.

People should spend what they feel they can reasonably afford. Then double it. :D

[Cant trust em]

7. I'm getting married next year. The wedding industrial complex is in full effect.

While I really don't think we're doing anything extravagant, this event is going to cost us around $20,000. $20K seems like a lot of money to me. The wedding is going to be on my fiance's family farm with around 175 people. It's not like we're having ice sculptures or anything like that.

[Toucano]

8. What the couple would spend on a week long vacation X 10.

It's a special occasion and the party should be special.

But there is a limit to what can be considered reasonable.

[Arctic Dave]

9. Everone knows it's not what you spend on the wedding ,

it's what you spend on the divorce lawyer that really matters. :D


Be proactive people. Let them pick out the china while you choose the lawyer.

[madmax]

14. bwaaaaaa hahahaha nt

[blondeatlast]

10. We spent a total of $1000--that's it, the whole shebang, but I have no problem with

people spending lavishly if they have the means.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

11. If you are going to spend more on the wedding than a down payment on a house

your priorities are screwed up or you are so out of touch with the rest of us that you couldn't possibly get it and I want you making decisions for the working people. NOT!

[OmahaBlueDog]

15. The downpayment? I've seen parents spend more on the reception than the cost of a house

OTOH, is a downpayment is 20%, and it's Chelsea Clinton, it's not unreasonable to assume that she'd live in a $10M home, so $2M would be reasonable.

[housewolf]

12. It's up to the family, what they want and what resources they have

and it's really no one else's business

[unkachuck]

13. was this....

....paid for in part with out-sourced NAFTA jobs or with the loss of survival benefits from entitlement reform victims?

....if so, then much too much to spend on a wedding....

[OmahaBlueDog]

16. I'm supposing it was paid out of Bill's speaking fees and book royalties

...so I'm not sure where that falls on your spectrum of bad things.

[Lil Missy]

17. How ever much they decide and can afford, and it's nobody else's fucking business.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

18. I sent about $3,000 on my wedding.

It was on a beach. Some folks from out of town were totally freaked out that we had no shoes on (we were dressed formally but, hey, we were on the beach). And I ask you, what is the point of wearing Wingtips on the beach?

Almost 25 years later, I would be willing to bet that my $3,000 wedding is as good or better than Chelsea's two million dollar royal extravaganza and I am also willing to bet that my marriage will last longer.

And we sill wonder why the ruling class does not understand what we are going through?

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. DKDC

Don't know don't care.

[Journeyman]

21. My wife and I spent a couple hundred dollars and have been married 32 years now. . .

Had the ceremony in a public park (threw bird seed to celebrate the nuptials), she sewed her own dress (I took to heart Thoreau's admonition to avoid any enterprise that required new clothes), and held the reception in our apartment (for which our families provided potluck dishes for the celebration).

I can't see how we could have improved on our marriage by upping the ante for openers.

I've known people whose elaborate, expensive nuptials have degenerated quickly into divorce, while others enjoyed a lavish event and lived together in love and harmony the rest of their days. And there are others like us, who didn't feel the need of a fancy affair and have had no regrets in the decades since.

It's all in what the matrimonial couple desire, how much their families wish to contribute, and what everyone feels they'll gain by a simple or lavish affair.

Who am I to question how another finds happiness?

[Ozymanithrax]

22. It is their money. Let them spend it anyway they please. n/t

[MiniMe]

23. It depends on how much you have

They can spend whatever they can afford.

[Warpy]

25. I'm just delighted I can plead ill health and miss the damned things

The only one I can say I ever enjoyed was a quiet ceremony with family only followed a week later by a pot luck reception at the local Grange Hall. The bride and groom rented the hall and brought several cases of cheap champagne and we did the rest and a great time was had by all.

[OmahaBlueDog]

26. I have vowed that I will only attend two more weddings

...and those would be for my daughters.

I hate receptions. Same bad food (generally). I don't like the "traditional" congas, train, chicken dance, electric slide or macarena. There was a time when they got through the damn things in three-four hours. Now, they are five, six, or longer.

[Iggo]

27. Depends on how much you have vs how much you think a wedding's worth.

For me, the answer is "greater than zero".

But it's relative.

[noamnety]

28. "No one should marry until everyone can marry"

More than anything else I've read on this, that drives home the point about two Americas, where we are as a country, and where we are as a party.

A bunch of democrats are defending a multimillion dollar wedding by the guy who signed his name to DOMA.

"It's his ONLY DAUGHTER."

Yes. And some of the people who can't get married at all are somebody's only daughter.