Good. The only good weddings I've ever been to (including my own, which everyone who attended agreed was lots of fun) have been pretty laid-back affairs that were just big parties with a small ceremony at the start.

Here's how ours went back in 2000: We're atheists, so there was no religious ceremony, we got married by a lawyer named pro-tem judge in the same place where the reception was, a ballroom on the square downtown in the college town we were from. My wife's dress was pretty but not expensive. She wore a veil that was her mother's (her engagement ring was my grandmother's). My tux was rented. The catering was done by my wife's aunt. We got a nice but inexpensive cake from a cake maker who worked out of her house. The alcohol was a case of Asti and a keg of Killian's Irish Red. The "DJ" was a 50-cd CD player on random. This was before smartphones, so we gave all the tables disposable cameras. We got a professional photographer to take just the wedding portraits and no other pictures.

I don't know if they still say that now, but back then, after it happened, my friends kept telling me that it was the best wedding they had ever been to.

Honestly, the only thing that didn't go well (other than my dad being his normal overbearing self during the rehearsal) was that my feet were killing me in those tuxedo shoes and I didn't think to bring a change of shoes.

My wife changed into her Doc Martens, which look awesome with a wedding dress by the way.

Always bring a change of shoes to your wedding.

We just said “fuck it,” booked a vacation home in the hill, got a catering guy to make tacos, invited 30 friends and eloped. Family was pissed, but the guests and us had waaay more fun than a normal wedding.

People could actually talk to each other, no one had to deal with guests that were only there so parents wouldn’t get guilted by their cousins, etc.

That said, we did spend a little money on a stupid cake that made us laugh.

Eliminate weddings all together. Why spend money YOU DON'T HAVE on something YOU DON'T NEED.

Once we buy our house and have spare income. "Wife" and I will have a "wedding" for the friends and family that cared over the decades.

Anyone else? Can get bent. I don't need to host a party and provide you with food to somehow validate our relationship. Thankfully UK honours "living as married" as a valid relationship. So there's no real need to have even civil marriage anymore.

I honestly don't understand why it hasn't died out faster, it's such a huge waste all around and so much stress for like... some pictures commentating the time you herded cats into the same room and maybe managed to keep them from fighting?

Millennials killed multi-tiered cake dancing!!!!! 😡😡😡😡😤

30k was the new average? Good lord. Thankfully pandemic-era Covid restrictions meant my spouse and I were limited to 12 people in the room and no dancing — cutting a guest list of extended family and friends and vendors with an excuse like that saved a ton of headache and expense without the guilt of “we invited so-and-so, therefore this other person will be butthurt if they’re not invited.”

Agree with @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world — Good!

I remember looking for venues and caterers and such and it was crazy how expensive everything was — and usually included a lock-in on food/alcohol suppliers — and this was many years ago. Seeing the prices that people are spending for a huge extravagant affair for one day is mind-blowing. If you can afford it, great; but I don’t think that’s the case for most. Starting a marriage with a huge debt is a horrible idea.

The article touched on this, and I agree. The best weddings are the ones that focus on the couple and making it their special day in every way and not how much they paid for the venue or destination or who the DJ is. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to have a special wedding. I’ve been to all kinds of weddings, and I’d always take a courthouse wedding and potluck reception in the backyard with friends over a lavish but impersonal destination wedding at a resort or the huge church wedding with hundreds of people.

Got the courthouse-style wedding and used the savings to buy a house. No regrets. I’m an atheist and could give a shit about religious tradition.

We went one step further than courthouse and that was Las Vegas. About $1,500 USD for everything. Still together and no regrets.

My wedding was just before the COVID lockdowns.

We had it in our house, invited only close family, and the officiant was the host of a gaming group I see regularly. He got one of those mail-in Universal pastorships (forgot the right terminology) so he could officiate his daughter's wedding a couple years before.

The only really expensive part besides the ring when I proposed (Moissanite), was the fancy dinner after the wedding. It was perfect. My wife and I were both all for every part of it.

We just went to a Justice of the Peace with a random witness. Got to piggy-back our own honeymoon on a trip to Costa Rica. We don't need to spend thousands to have a nice time with family, didn't need the stress, and sure as shit didn't need to prove our love to anyone else but us.

Hey! I'm part of a trend!

Keeping it under 10-12k total. Biggest splurges so far are 1.5k custom tailored three piece suit and 1.6k for photographer to cover the entire day without hour limits. Food will be about half the total cost.

But grocery store flowers, digital invites, thrifted dress, basic rings, picnic area ceremony and restaurant rehearsal. No DJ. No alcohol. No florist.

My parents didn't even have a party, just paperwork. Just like their parents before them.

My wife and I spent something like 9k total 14 years ago. Most of that was the venue, photography, and catering. Floral arrangements she and her bridesmaids did, DJ was a local guy we knew, and we gave him one of his first jobs. We had people coming up weeks afterward saying it was the most fun we had in a while.

Married my wife over a decade ago. It was very scaled back compared to all the other weddings either of us have attended.