At least most of the expense was on tangibles which can be resold. I have been to $50k weddings where the entire cost was for labor, food/bev, and venue.
Oh, interesting! I have the opposite reaction. If you're going to blow $50k, the least you could do is be hospitable to your friends and family.
Right? When we planned our wedding (back when ferns), that was pretty much where we started. We wanted good, plentiful food and drink for the people we loved the most. That meant I drove to the venue on my Toyota Echo instead of a limo. I was fine with that.
I recall being at a family member's wedding. I was in the wedding party and paid $$ for an expensive dress. (I paid for my 'maids dresses, which were moderately priced, because it didn't seem fair to ask them. In retrospect, I'd have just given them the color and told them to choose.) It was at a country club. The food was pretty clearly the cheapest option available. But her dress costs thousands and they had limos, while the guests were asked to pay for their drinks (even sodas and bottle water!). It all very clearly screamed that they indulged themselves and didn't much care about the comfort of their guests. To them, this was an opportunity to spoil themselves. To me, our wedding was an opportunity to give something back to the small-ish (~80ppl) community of people we loved and cared about most, and to celebrate all of us and our relationships.
Also, I'd argue that saying money spent on a wedding dress is something tangible that can be resold, while technically true, doesn't quite capture reality. Those rings may hold some of their value but a used custom suit and wedding dress? Pennies on the dollar. Very few pennies on very many dollars.