Traditional vs Elope

Joined
Oct 6, 2014
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Western Montana
depends on how many people you(r parents) are going to invite
ours was a "big" wedding...150+ people and it was only tolerable bc other than inviting all their old friends our parents didn't have a say in anything
and we were able to do it for dirt cheap in 2005

now if we hadn't been able to rent out the old summer camp i used to go to and work at that had cabins and a stage and dining hall up in some mountains away from everything where all our drunk friends couldn't escape and get arrested, we would have been hard-pressed to rationalize a big event


BUT you can also just elope and then invite your friends over for a party. even if you buy all the booze it'd less expensive and probably more fun

my mom would have been hella disappointed if we eloped, and i'd still be hearing about it today. so choose wisely ha
 

Rich M

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Lady works for me got married to the tune of $50-$60K.

A girl who used to work for me is planning her wedding for next year- probably gonna spend $25-$30K for a handful of pictures and some well fed guests.

These same women are wanting a house and complaining about not having a down payment. Hmmm.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
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9,891
Lady works for me got married to the tune of $50-$60K.

A girl who used to work for me is planning her wedding for next year- probably gonna spend $25-$30K for a handful of pictures and some well fed guests.

These same women are wanting a house and complaining about not having a down payment. Hmmm.

Are they paying or are their parents?

I've seen a couple friends elope or go tiny on their wedding and instead use the $ their parents would have spent on a wedding as a house down payment. Much better alternative IMO.
 
Joined
Apr 26, 2022
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Those that have gotten married, if you could do it all over again would you do a traditional wedding or Elope?
I am getting married in 3 days. We did like an inverted elopement. We are doing parents, grandparents, siblings & their significant others. Got engaged in Jan/feb of 2024, planned nothing until November & are leaving out all friends and aunts, uncles, cousins.

Total cost about 10k, venue, meals, booze. Im sure we could have found cheaper but we are paying to reduce stress.

$80 for my ring. 2k for hers.

I think its nice, have way too many friends, way too much family that I love very much but have no interest in sacrificing financial freedom for a big wedding. An elopement would probably end up around 5 k, the cost of a vacation. So for an additional 5 i dont feel like we are missing tons.
 

Backyard

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Does anyone actually know what elope means? Because I haven’t seen the word used correctly in 90% of the posts here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Rich M

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Are they paying or are their parents?

I've seen a couple friends elope or go tiny on their wedding and instead use the $ their parents would have spent on a wedding as a house down payment. Much better alternative IMO.
That's where I was going with this.

Problem is that girly girls start planning their weddings at like 3 yrs old. Hard for them to shake the expectation of a big white gown and folks gushing over them for a few hours.
 

tony

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Nov 13, 2015
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WV
With the divorce rate at 55%....why bother.
56 years no wife/contract doing fine.
Just reading some of these prices gives me anxiety.

My brother has been married 5-6 times, really lost count. I do remember one brides gullible parents spent 10-15 thousand and these 2 were divorced in less than a year.

Not trying to shit on your all’s wedding/marriages, my mom and stepdad have been together close to 50 years

Just not something I want to take a risk on.
 

TaperPin

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Jul 12, 2023
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The big thing that surprised me between wife #2 and #3, is how good quality synthetic diamonds are so inexpensive it changed picking out the ring.

A diamond seller was interview on one of the business news shows and said it wasn’t long ago synthetics were in the minority of what they sell, but the quality is so good now the percentage is something like 80%. Debeers has even reduced the price of natural stones, which is significant.
 

Rich M

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Jun 14, 2017
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Orlando
The big thing that surprised me between wife #2 and #3, is how good quality synthetic diamonds are so inexpensive it changed picking out the ring.

A diamond seller was interview on one of the business news shows and said it wasn’t long ago synthetics were in the minority of what they sell, but the quality is so good now the percentage is something like 80%. Debeers has even reduced the price of natural stones, which is significant.
My wife is executor of an estate and there was a decent grade diamond, 1 -1.5 carats. She can't sell it - the synthetics are perfect and no-one wants the old blood diamonds anymore.
 

TaperPin

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Jul 12, 2023
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My wife is executor of an estate and there was a decent grade diamond, 1 -1.5 carats. She can't sell it - the synthetics are perfect and no-one wants the old blood diamonds anymore.
Isn’t that amazing. I hadn’t even thought about the politics of natural diamonds.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2020
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Salmon, ID
My wife and I got married on a cliff overlooking Lake Tahoe. We dressed up so we’d look good for photos. Our photographer was also the limo driver that picked us up from the hotel. It was super stress free. I highly recommend going the elope route. To hell with guests lol
 
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