When I got married I bought all the groomsmen their Tuxes as a wedding gift. It was only three or so years ago I found out that most bridesmaids have to pay for their own dresses and shoes. Are you kidding me? What a fucking load of bullshit.
Who cares about how epic it is? You sound like a girl. I've seen a few girls get caught up in the wedding and start to view the marriage as a secondary concern. Not attractive or particularly wise. You're dropping at least $30,000 on one night. This mentality of "doing it as lavishly as possible is the only right way" irritates me. You can't understand why someone would have a problem with spending so much money on a party? Especially if they're old enough and established enough to pay for it themselves? Call me crazy, but when I get married it's going to be small and intimate. I'd rather drop that kind of money on, oh I don't know, the $50,000-$75,000 I'm going to owe in student loans. Or maybe a down payment on a house. Or maybe a really fabulous honeymoon. Or maybe a new car.
I just have to pipe in and say that while receptions really are a blast, dry receptions at 4 in the afternoon after a 12 o'clock wedding are absolutely unbearable. When I was living in Dallas a few years back I was invited to my Step-Cousins wedding that was not far from my apartment and I decided to go only because my Dad was going to be there and I hadn't seen him in a while. The wedding was boring of course and there were a ton of fucking kids, but the reception was at a country club in one of their nice big event rooms so I figured it could only get better. Boy was I wrong. Even though this was at a country club and even though there was a bar there stocked full of liquor, the wedding party had specifically requested that the employees not serve alcohol to anyone. They had even hidden the liquor behind the bar. Worst reception ever. Of course when I was a groomsman for one of my best friends weddings I had a blast. Got to see a lot of my fraternity brothers that I hadn't seen in years and got blasted on Shiner Bock and ran some game on a girl with a gigantic Jew nose. Fun times.
Where the hell are you people attending dry weddings from, fucking Iran? I think if any of my friends or family members threatened to have a dry wedding they'd be tarred and feathered. The whole point of weddings is an open bar, otherwise everyone would spend the whole time sitting around on their hands bored and sober. Fuck, the last wedding I attended was an Orthodox Jewish wedding and STILL everyone was drunk from the open bar.
I've been to two of them. Both featured uber Baptist parrents. One of the weddings had a make your own sandwich line for the reception. With your choice of three meats, three cheeses, two breads, and unlimited pasta salad! I stayed long enough to go through the line once. I made a super sandwich with turkey, roast beef, swiss and cheddar! Some religions don't tollerate alcohol. When it comes to having a fun wedding, or having your family hate you for the rest of your life, most people will side with the family. By the way, both weddings were in the hills of southern Ohio. Every time I write a story here about something that happened there, I realize how much I hate the area I grew up in a little more.
One of my good friends had one of those. She wanted all her friends to show, not just chicks She provided the food and more importantly, a FUCKING keg. It started off slow, most of the guys not sure of how to act, but by the end of the night, we we were doing keg stands.
The only post-adolescence wedding I've attended was my brother's. Problem is, my brother is 34 (was 32 at the time). All of the women at this weeding were old enough that most of them were married or with a significant other, but not old enough to have daughters. So that part sort of blew. So I just got hammered and danced like a fool. Sounds like a reasonable success to me.
This I 100% understand and agree with!! However I am not saying you spend $30,000 dollars to have a really nice and complete wedding ( I am a bit out of my depth on this I have to say however never have planned a wedding or even anything to do with the wedding experience) My money issue is not with those who have it and choose to spend it on other things with such as student loans or a vacation, but rather those who have next to nothing then go though the motions and put on a shitty wedding, fuck it just go get it done alone in the courthouse if you are that intenet on getting married. I am just assuming that a wedding is something you plan on doing once, rather then 20 vacations/10 New Cars that your going to take/buy in your lifetime or Student loans carrying into your late 30's. At least make it nice and enjoyable is that too much to ask?
Never go fishing with a Baptist--he'll drink all your beer. Go with two, because they won't drink in front of each other.
I actually have been to some awesome co-ed bridal showers and BABY showers. I think that the general thought behind it is that if the girls have to suffer through this bullshit, so should the guys. The reality of it, generally girls have enough consideration for "protocol" that they will suffer through the crap games with a fake smile plastered on their face sipping punch out of a little cup and eating tea sandwiches. Generally, guys will not. They'll turn that shit into a party. Even moreso if they feel uncomfortable, nothing like a few shots to loosen things up.
When my first son was born some friends of ours insisted we have a co-ed baby shower. Mrs. Noland thought it was a great idea and so, with a fake smile on my face, I went. The first thing that happened was one of the hosts tried to put a pacifier on a ribbon around my neck to show to all of the people there that I had known for 10 years or more that I was the expectant father. Stupid. I told her husband that if that thing went around my neck the next place it would be was his ass. Eventually, all of the women stayed inside and the men went outside, drank whiskey and shot the host's new AR-15 he had just bought. So the day was at least partially salvaged by drunken gunfire.