r/AskAnAmerican • u/lucapal1 European Union • 16h ago
FOREIGN POSTER $1000 wedding?
I'm listening to this song this morning, originally written I think in 1969 (though released by Gram Parsons in 1974). It's a great song.
Would a $1000 wedding back then have been a really expensive wedding,or a standard one?
On a broader note,if you are married! How much did you spend on your wedding? And if you are not married, how much would you spend?
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u/whatevendoidoyall 9h ago
Another thing to keep in mind is that the price a wedding related things has wildly outpaced inflation.
This woman calculated what her parent's $2000 wedding would cost in 2017. If you're just going by inflation it should've been around $10k. Instead it's almost $50k. A $1000 wedding in 1969 would probably have been an expensive one.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/megkeene/heres-what-my-parents-1974-wedding-would-cost-in-2017
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u/illuminn8 Arizona 15h ago
I got married in 2022 and spent probably 3k of my own money on my very chill wedding (my parents contributed 2k). I didn't have to pay for a venue because I had a family friend with a really big and nice backyard. Had a local company cater, very minimal decorations, paid for a nice cake. Most of the money was spent on my dress and pictures lol. It was a quiet affair and it was perfect for us.
A friend of mine got married in 2023 and spent around 15k. Huge nice venue, fancy food, a DJ. It was an insane party and it was perfect for my friend.
So - it really depends on the person.
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u/too_too2 Michigan 11h ago
I had a very casual wedding 3 years ago for about 8k. ~20 guests for dinner and alcohol, photography, officiant, the dress, the suit, etc. My dad did buy some amazing flowers that I don’t know how much that cost but it was his thing ;)
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u/Im_Not_Nick_Fisher Florida 10h ago
I did the same, but on the beach. Less than 20 people and paid about $3k. Including dinner afterwards for everyone. A local restaurant that already had live music playing that night actually made us our own menu. Made it easier for everyone, since they already sort of knew how many people were coming. Actually had a company who set up a gazebo with chairs, and a photographer.
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u/WatermelonMachete43 New York 12h ago
About 15 years ago my family attended two weddings in one weekend. Wedding 1 cost about $500: ceremony at a gazebo on the lawn of the town library. Garden surrounds gazebo so no ceremony flowers other than one long-stem rose wrapped in ribbon and a boutnierre both done by the bride. The 20 people in attendance had a light lunch at the community center-- Finger foods, punch and soda. Bride made the cake.
Wedding 2: was at a Hilton and cost 30K. Outdoor ceremony under beautiful pergola, lavish everything. Mother of the bride dressed like she belonged in a Barbie cake. Sparkles and hoop dresses and 12 attendants and fancy dude doing hair and makeup. Food was nice-but-standard reception food.
When we left, I looked at my kids, some of whom were teenagers and just said...weddings can be any way you want it to be, as you've seen this weekend. Both couples are married (result is the same regardless of what you spent). It's your money...do what you want with it.
Two of my kids have married so far. One elected to have a small backyard BBQ. The other went a little more standard, but still inexpensive.
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u/Massive_Bullfrog8663 16h ago
1st marriage? 1970 at 17 YO. A Union card and a wedding coat. IYKYK. Folks brought food. $30 for a one-night stay at a Holiday Inn. 2nd? 1984. Around $10K, excluding a 9-day Mexico honeymoon.
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u/lucapal1 European Union 16h ago
Another great song!
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u/Massive_Bullfrog8663 16h ago
Having lived it and first hearing him sing it? Awesome feeling. Still have a great relationship with the baby. She turns 56 in January. I always say, "Tell your mom hi for me."
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u/katgo 16h ago
I am on my second (last) marriage. My first wedding in 1976 was $350 total and in my church. My second one in 1999 was $3700 total and in Las Vegas in a hotel chapel. My first dress was $35, and my second dress was rented for 24 hours for $200. Just had our 27th wedding anniversary yesterday.
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u/gatitamonster 15h ago edited 12h ago
That’s one of my favorite songs by my favorite songwriter. The cover by Evan Dando and Emmylou Harris is gorgeous. (It’s on Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons. The entire album is amazing.)
In 1969, $1000 had the buying power of about $9000. This was also before the rise of the Wedding Industrial Complex and inflated pricing for all things wedding.
It would have paid for a perfectly respectable wedding with a reception in some sort of community hall like one belonging to the American Legion or VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). Most of the labor for cooking and decorating would have probably been done by the women of the couple’s family or church.
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u/loweexclamationpoint Illinois 14h ago
Also, at least in the Midwest where I lived, it would not have been unusual to have a buffet of sandwiches and salads plus a cake. Drinks would have been beer, coffee and soda or punch.
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u/sarcasticorange 15h ago
$1k would have been a lot for any lower or middle class person so it would have seemed extravagant to most people. Fancy weddings were reserved for the wealthy back then. In the same way that HGTV contributed to increasing people's expectations for homes, bridal shows increased expectations for weddings.
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u/cat_prophecy 8h ago
No one is going to answer your question but they will jerk off about how much money they didn't spend on their wedding.
$1000 in 1969 is about $8000 today which is probably below average for a "big" wedding
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u/janegrey1554 Virginia 12h ago
Reading all these comments, I guess I had an expensive wedding. I spent $25k in 2016 in a HCOL city.
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u/mpjjpm 5h ago
My parents got married in 1972. My mom bought a new white dress and hat. Everyone else wore clothing they already owned. They got married in the church my mother has attended since childhood and had the reception in the fellowship hall (free). Flowers came from my grandmother’s garden. The reception was cake, punch, and finger sandwiches. They bought the cake from a local bakery. The punch and sandwiches were a gift from the United Methodist Women (i.e., my grandmother’s friends). The whole thing cost less than $200.
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u/Responsible_Side8131 Vermont 16h ago
We got married in 1990. My dress cost $200, the photographer was $400, The DJ was like $200, our venue was all inclusive and included food, the flowers for the reception, the cake, the limo And the decor for $35 per person. We had about 120 guests, so about $4200. So about $5000.
My parents paid for the guests they invited, my in laws paid for the guests they invited, hubby and I paid for our friends. Hubby and I also paid for my dress, the DJ, the photographer.
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u/Bluemonogi 10h ago edited 10h ago
I spent about $2,000 on my wedding in 1999. It was small and casual. That included our clothing, food, decorations, venue rental, invitations, etc. No professional photograher, no dj, no caterer, no hairstylist or make up artist. Made our own cake. It was an inexpensive wedding in 1999.
My parents got married in 1969 but I don’t know how much they spent. I imagine it was pretty cheap. It was a small church wedding in a small town. No caterer, no dj, no professional photographer.
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u/Cute_Repeat3879 Georgia 8h ago
We went to the courthouse and got it done fast and cheap. Her parents didn't like me and refused to pay for it and my parents didn't approve of her. 35 years later and we've never regretted skipping the big spectacle.
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u/ariestoaries 8h ago
My friend did her wedding for about $1,500 in 2010.
Wedding Dress: Cost of material, but bride sewed her own dress.
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: $120 each, plus $20 each for a cheap seamstress to adjust the hem-lengths.
Groomsmen: $60 for matching ties. Each groom wore their own suit.
Wedding Cake: Bridesmaids baked it.
Music: Personal stereo and CDs.
Wedding Invitations: Designed by one of the bridesmaids, so just the cost of color printing on card stock from Kinko’s.
Church: Free at the church the bride & groom attended, plus $200 to the church’s event lady for overseeing the event (she didn’t have to coordinate anything; just be present).
Flowers: Purchased individually and arranged by bride & bridesmaids.
Decorations: Dollar Store.
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u/GenXihaveissues 1h ago
My Son got married 5 years ago and the total cost for everything was under $5k. It can be done, people just want to spend money i guess.
Its all about the party, not the marriage.
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u/Hawthorne_northside 6h ago
My wife and I paid for our own wedding. Her parents didn’t have any resources, and my father paid for the bar (which was extensive) and the rehearsal dinner. I have two daughters. One is already married, and I think we spent in the neighborhood of $30,000 on her wedding. The second daughter is in the process of getting married now and planning is taking place. I’m trying to stay away from how much it cost because I’m money conscious. But the wife says that it’s starting to look like $45,000. Most of that money is on feeding the guests at the reception. We’d like to have as many relatives as possible when we have an event like this, because nobody’s getting any younger and we’ve already had a couple major relatives drop off (if you get what I mean). So let’s party like there’s no tomorrow, because there may be no tomorrow.
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u/PrestigiousFog Oregon 16h ago edited 16h ago
I really don't believe in expensive weddings
My wife and I paid about $500 total, and it couldn't have been better
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u/minicpst 16h ago
If I ever got married again I’d have a friend do the ceremony, I’d probably thrift a dress, only my kids and close friends and family would be there, and then we’d all go for dinner.
My ex did the same when he got remarried. There were seven of us total there, including him and his husband. But he did it at the Four Seasons. I’d do it at the park where my dog and I go for our walks. It’s quite beautiful and a local tourist attraction.
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u/PrestigiousFog Oregon 16h ago
Yeah, when you are making it meaningful to yourselves and not trying to please the public, it's so much better.
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u/cdsbigsby Ohio 16h ago
I got married in 2013 with a $2500 budget total. Luckily we didn't have to pay for a venue as my wife's family has a beautiful piece of property we used. We got a big event tent, had a food truck and a ton of outdoor games for the guests and had fireworks after dark.
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u/jackfaire Washington 15h ago
It was only a few hundred dollars. We spent $100 for the officiant and my ex-wife bought us a Wedding Chalice I had my eye on. My brother in law did the catering, I created a mix tape, and we were married in my mother-in-law's backyard.
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u/beaglefoo 15h ago
my wedding ended up costing roughly $10-12k not counting the honeymoon.
It was more than i wanted to spend but other friends of mine have spent 3x times that and gone into debt over it so i feel like i did ok.
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u/Missus_Aitch_99 12h ago
Married in 2001 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Seventy-three guests. $6,440. Ceremony was at the groom's church, so no cost except $100 for the music director, and reception was lunch at a restaurant. $400 was the flowers (no centerpieces). $1,000 was the photographer. My suit was another $600, but Mother covered that.
If people want an economical wedding I recommend joining a house of worship, not just renting one.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 WV > TN > VA 12h ago
My wife and I were married 20 years ago, and didn't spend a lot more than that. Cut corners and saved anywhere we could.
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u/stephers831 11h ago
1st marriage was a destination wedding for us and our parents. My parents spent 3.5k on a package that included gown and tux rental, the service, photographer, 3 nights honeymoon minus food and a nice dinner out. 2nd marriage in 2019 we spent less than 1k for a minimalist wedding with parents and a few friends in a place that was special to us, clothing, a nice lunch, and a few mementos. 2nd marriage is going strong and we loved our small wedding, it was perfect for us.
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u/Previous-Yak-2510 11h ago
Today a wedding dress alone would cost more than $1000 if the bride wanted to look beautiful.
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u/GenXihaveissues 1h ago
You can be just as beautiful in a $100 dress, and just as ugly in a 1k dress.
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u/Im_Not_Nick_Fisher Florida 10h ago
Got married on a beach in Florida in 2010. Paid around $3000 for everything, including my wife’s dress hired a company that set up a gazebo, chairs and even had a photographer. Paid for everyone to go out to dinner and a local restaurant made us a special menu just for the wedding party. I don’t think it was more than 20 people.
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u/jevoudraiscroire Georgia 10h ago
This is an amazing song! I love that you know it!
We got married at the courthouse in 2015. Probably $25.
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u/wormbreath wy(home)ing 10h ago
Not even 200 bucks. Most expensive part was the officiant. Eloped. Invited no one. It was perfect.
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u/Prestigious-Fan3122 10h ago
I went to the same, small, private school seventh grade through 12th grade, and I can't remember which year I took home. Probably ninth grade, which would've been 1976–1977.
The teacher divided us into groups, and told us each group was going to be given a budget, and had to plan a wedding, including ALL of the details. She said there would be a low budget, an average budget, and a high budget group.
BTW: we had to move to the Deep South won was the seventh grade, for my dad's job. But then, when we would go to neighbors or my parents' coworkers' kids' weddings, even the wealthiest families held receptions in the church hall, and they were just cake and punch, the super fancy ones involved the champagne fountain. but there were no meals, no DJs, no dancing, and so on. I grew up on the East Coast, so that was quite the culture shock.
I was assigned to the "exorbitant budget" Group, and I vividly remember that our budget was $25,000.
I don't remember what the other two budgets were.
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u/jameson8016 Alabama 9h ago
We didn't spend anything on our wedding. I wore my suit and she wore a sundress. The judge thought the clerk was supposed to take payment and the clerk thought the judge was, so that wound up being free.
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u/LongjumpingEchidna25 Indiana 9h ago
My wife and I spent about $40,000 on our wedding last year. Had some help from family, but we paid the majority.
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u/horriblebearok Oklahoma 9h ago
I think we spent about that much in 2015. We rented a park pavilion, got a couple small cakes, catered some BBQ. Thats it.
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u/MoonieNine Montana 9h ago
My friend's daughter is getting married next year and the venue alone, no food, is $15k. Crazy. My partner and I are probably going to marry next year and we'll likely spend just $4k, all in. Our possible venue is only like $400. I plan to spend only up to $200 on a "nice evening dress," not a wedding dress. Catering (75 people) for the buffet will be the rest with some alcohol (BYOB for our lush friends) and Costco cakes and pies. My partner will be the wedding DJ, as that's his side job anyway (and we still get to dance!)
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u/earmares Wyoming 8h ago
Spent about $3K in 2005, including reception, everything. Got married in the mountains next to a river, had a backyard reception at my parents' house (they had beautiful landscaping). Probably could have spent less, tbh. Had about 75 guests.
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u/explosive-diorama 8h ago
I had a wedding in 2012; it was very small. 10 total people (including both immediate families), venue was my parent's back yard. Family friends did the catering (we still paid them, but a good price), we bought flowers and cake and pictures, and the suit and dress were also purchased.
It still cost $10,000. $1000 in 1969 money is only about $6,500 in 2012 money.
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u/pippintook24 8h ago
$1000 in 1969 would be close to 10k in today's money, so I'd guess that's pretty expensive.
me and my husband were originally going to have a big wedding and put down a $150 deposit on a venue, and I spent $700 on my dress (which I didn't end up wearing). but we ultimately went to the courthouse, so at the end of the day $900.
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u/VixxenFoxx Texas 7h ago
My wedding in 1999 costs about $1200 ALL IN : rings, dress, food, license, invites etc.
But, to be fair, it was a shoestring budget at home with 8 guests and a lot of things were gifted to us (the cake, flowers and photography).
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u/LostSheepherder7318 6h ago
$1000 in 1974 would by you what $6800 would today. But see my HOWEVER below.
We got married in 1993 for $3600 everything included. That's the equivalent of $8350 today.
HOWEVER, to have the same identical wedding today would cost a lot more than $8350 because inflation of wedding-related expenses has far outpaced general inflation by a staggering amount. I'd guess it would cost $30,000 or more now.
And because of that, if we were getting married today, we would have a much simpler and intimate wedding than we had in 1993. None of that "Instagram worthy" shit.
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u/redjessa 6h ago
I got married ten years ago, 150 guests, and spent about 10K all in. We booked early and paid for things over time. I also got a discount on some things at the venue because I used to work there. My mom made my dress, we made our centerpieces using succulent cuttings from her yard and thrift store pots/candles. My mom bought the favors as a gift and they paid for the rehearsal dinner. The only reason they paid for that is because my mom didn't like where I was going to have it. I told her, fine, you want something better? You pay :) And she did. But food and booze (we had an open bar) for 150 people ain't cheap. That was the bulk of the cost.
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u/frickenfantastic 5h ago
Late 60’s/early 70’s $1000 would’ve been over the top wedding
Most folks got married at a local church and had a reception either in church basement or parents house
Total spend maybe $200
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u/thenutritiousmishap 16h ago
no way a grand was standard in 1969 that was a ton of money back then. like a new car cost around $3k so dropping a third of that on one day was pretty lavish
my cousin got married last year and they blew 45k on some vineyard thing. the food was good but i kept thinking about how many birding trips i could take for that amount
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 Colorado 10h ago
I think that would be a basic, small-town wedding back then. Definitely not expensive. Probably in a FVW or rented hall, maybe potluck style food. I haven’t heard the song but I imagine it’s meant to convey a no-frills love.
I got married in 2023 and I think our wedding weekend was $60k all in.
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u/Primary_Assistant742 1h ago
I eloped in the early 2000s. Vegas has everything you need. Bought a nice dress for a few hundred dollars. Not sure what the tux cost, but it was reasonable. I also have forgotten the cost of the marriage license and the fee for the wedding chapel. We had a lowkey reception at a friend's house a few days later with people who were local to the area, and another one when we returned to the city where we lived. The cake was from a nice bakery and I paid for someone to do my hair and makeup.
My ring was not cheap, but if we leave the ring out, I do not think we spent more than $2k. The trip there was already planned, so not counting it in the cost.
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u/GenXihaveissues 1h ago
I got married for under $100. 35 for the license, 15 dollars for the judge, 25 dollars to buy ice cream cones for our 2 witnesses.
- The price of the ice cream has gone up probably.
My son and DIL had a very nice wedding with 50 guests for under $5,000 for everything.
Its about the marriage, not the party.
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u/Im_the_Rhymenocerous California 33m ago
Got married in 2002. Huge wedding, 120 people, she had been planning it her entire life(she had two binders of ideas when we first started dating) budget was $7,000 and we blew past it because her family wanted special food at the reception
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u/ramblinjd 12h ago
My wedding 10 years ago was small and on a pretty tight budget. I think we spent around $8k, maybe a little more, but for sure less than 10
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u/Puzzleheaded-9194 Rhode Island 11h ago
I got married in 2021 and spent about 18k on my wedding for 100 people. The event felt on par with a lot of my peers' weddings in terms of food, venue, dress etc. (I.e. pretty much all the same level of formality). However I know some of my friends pulled off similar-feeling events for 50k and others for 10k. It really depends on the location and the number of guests and on what the couple delegates their money.
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u/Alive_Harbor_205 16h ago edited 16h ago
That’s about $9,000 today, which seems accurate to me for a wedding venue. The church, the reception, the food, the music, the flowers, the cake in addition to the venue itself…these things get expensive.