Author Topic: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement  (Read 7087 times)

Decibel

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2021, 04:54:46 PM »
Scary to think hat their budget would have been for a "small" wedding if they dropped $56K on an elopement LOOK AT ME publicity stunt.

Villanelle

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #51 on: March 16, 2021, 12:03:16 PM »
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. 

TheFrenchCat

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #52 on: March 18, 2021, 01:59:21 PM »
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.
Agreed!  We didn't do anything fancy for our wedding, but we had good food and a full open bar (the venue was pretty cheap, especially for our area, so the bar was only about $3k for 125 people.)  The vast majority of our budget was food and drink and I would've felt terrible if my guests had to pay for anything. 

And you're definitely right that you're going to get practically nothing back reselling a tailored wedding dress.   

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #53 on: March 22, 2021, 09:59:19 AM »
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.
Agreed!  We didn't do anything fancy for our wedding, but we had good food and a full open bar (the venue was pretty cheap, especially for our area, so the bar was only about $3k for 125 people.)  The vast majority of our budget was food and drink and I would've felt terrible if my guests had to pay for anything. 

And you're definitely right that you're going to get practically nothing back reselling a tailored wedding dress.

The best weddings I've ever attended have been the ones where the hosts paid attention to the comfort of the guests. One example was a lovely cake and punch reception immediately after the afternoon ceremony. No booze, no band, no dancing, no drama: just a chance to socialize and get caught up. There were enough cups, chairs, plates and table spaces for everyone with room to spare, the restroom facilities were sufficient, and  despite the budget-friendly concept not one single guest was uncomfortable and no expenses were passed on to the guests or wedding party members. It can be done.

I think that a lot of people get sucked into the notion of monogrammed napkins, professional beauty treatments, and upscale locations simply because they see so many examples of it. They end up thinking that they "must" have all the expensive extras, even if it means sacrificing guest comfort. Overall, I find that the people who have long-lasting marriages are more likely to be the ones who also have the maturity, consideration, and empathy that is often also on display in guest-friendly weddings.

Scio5

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #54 on: April 08, 2021, 07:34:29 AM »
I raise my eyebrows a bit at the price tag, but I'm not going to lie, I love their elopement idea. I was planning to do a fancy elopement with my husband (San Francisco courthouse! Professional photographer! Week-long honeymoon!) but COVID happened and we got a friend to be our officiant and we eloped on the sidewalk on a pretty bridge a block from our house right before lockdown.

I *also* didn't want to worry about accommodating family. Our families live across the country from us, so we'd either be pricing out our local friends (if we had the wedding in our home state/s) or our family (if we had it where we live) or vastly increased the budget if we wanted to help people pay for flights and lodgings. Also my family is huge and can be a bit...much, let's say. There are lots of reasons people aren't close to their families. Eventually we might still host a local happy hour or something for local friends and do something like a catered BBQ/picnic for family back home, but at this rate it might be for our second anniversary, lol!

AMandM

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #55 on: April 08, 2021, 05:08:04 PM »
The best weddings I've ever attended have been the ones where the hosts paid attention to the comfort of the guests.

I have an inadvertent example of this.

The day before my daughters' wedding, I dropped off the decor for the venue staff to set up. Part of it was a bag full of blown-up balloons, intended to be tied outdoors to guide guests from the parking lot to the entrance. But somewhere along the line the message got lost, and the balloons got left in a heap in a corner of the room. Naturally, the children in attendance discovered them. There was plenty of space for them to toss the balloons around, hit each other with them, etc. The kids stayed happily and safely occupied and the parents had time to chat with friends uninterrupted. There's one guest who still, eight years later, mentions what a great wedding it was.

partgypsy

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #56 on: April 11, 2021, 06:59:30 AM »
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.
Agreed!  We didn't do anything fancy for our wedding, but we had good food and a full open bar (the venue was pretty cheap, especially for our area, so the bar was only about $3k for 125 people.)  The vast majority of our budget was food and drink and I would've felt terrible if my guests had to pay for anything. 

And you're definitely right that you're going to get practically nothing back reselling a tailored wedding dress.

The best weddings I've ever attended have been the ones where the hosts paid attention to the comfort of the guests. One example was a lovely cake and punch reception immediately after the afternoon ceremony. No booze, no band, no dancing, no drama: just a chance to socialize and get caught up. There were enough cups, chairs, plates and table spaces for everyone with room to spare, the restroom facilities were sufficient, and  despite the budget-friendly concept not one single guest was uncomfortable and no expenses were passed on to the guests or wedding party members. It can be done.

I think that a lot of people get sucked into the notion of monogrammed napkins, professional beauty treatments, and upscale locations simply because they see so many examples of it. They end up thinking that they "must" have all the expensive extras, even if it means sacrificing guest comfort. Overall, I find that the people who have long-lasting marriages are more likely to be the ones who also have the maturity, consideration, and empathy that is often also on display in guest-friendly weddings.

One of the favorite weddings I went to, they had the church ceremony, and then told people to bring a change of clothes. the reception was in a big field, and there was a potluck (and of course wedding cake) and a keg. And people who wanted to played softball, which was actually pretty fun! I was excited I got a base hit.

frugallyfe

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #57 on: June 29, 2021, 03:37:20 PM »
OMG! Here are the biggest most egregious line items:

Her Dress:  $17,000
His Suit:       $7,500
Her Ring:    $24,000
His Ring:      $3,400

They had a single attendant! Basically they did this for themselves and her (presumed) bestie and of course, publicity. I guess if you're their family, you'll just have to look at the pictures, along with the rest of the internet. Yeah, that's what weddings are for. Geez. Even during a pandemic. Geez. Most especially during a pandemic. Sheesh.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bride-wore-17-000-wedding-195219686.html

Seems fitting for a relationship that started two years earlier on Tinder.

Dicey

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Re: $56K Price Tag for Mountaintop Elopement
« Reply #58 on: June 29, 2021, 04:30:23 PM »
OMG! Here are the biggest most egregious line items:

Her Dress:  $17,000
His Suit:       $7,500
Her Ring:    $24,000
His Ring:      $3,400

They had a single attendant! Basically they did this for themselves and her (presumed) bestie and of course, publicity. I guess if you're their family, you'll just have to look at the pictures, along with the rest of the internet. Yeah, that's what weddings are for. Geez. Even during a pandemic. Geez. Most especially during a pandemic. Sheesh.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bride-wore-17-000-wedding-195219686.html

Seems fitting for a relationship that started two years earlier on Tinder.
Seems fitting in so many ways...