Internet Marketing Tidbits

I just came from my friend Gary Simpson’s blog and he had pictures of his daughter’s wedding on it and it got me to thinking about my wedding long ago and how times have sure changed. This started out as a comment on his blog but the more I typed I said I should post this on my blog. So here we are.

Weddings are out of control these days. I don’t know how people can afford it.

You want to hear one of those “when I was a kid” stories. NO! Too Bad, I’m going to tell you anyway.

My wedding cost $50. Yep, that’s not a misprint. We had our dream wedding all planned way before we got married. We lived together for three and a half years before we got married so we had plenty of time to think about what we wanted our wedding to be like.

We said we wanted to buy a house first and get married in it right in front of the fireplace. Well, that’s exactly what we did 31 years ago. I asked the Minister from my church to come to my house and marry us and that’s where the $50 bucks went, to pay the Minister.

We just had family and a few close friends over then they all took us out to a local restaurant. That’s it.

Our honeymoon was a laugher.

We went about 70 miles to the ocean for two days and the one night we spent there we slept in the back of my pickup truck. At least I had a cap on the truck bed so we were protected from the elements. We didn’t mind because at the time we were avid campers as we both love the outdoors. I did have a mattress in the back of the truck and that’s what we used to sleep on when we went camping. It was quite comfy as a matter of fact. It was better than sleeping on the cold damp ground in sleeping bags.

I know, it sounds like one of Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck jokes. But I couldn’t get any time off from work(not even to get married)so we did this on the weekend.

That’s it. That was the extent of our wedding. Nothing fancy or expensive. Just lots of Love. That’s all we needed. Both my wife and I were raised to appreciate the little things in life and that you didn’t have to spend a ton of money to enjoy yourself.

That’s where things have changed in this world. Now a days these young kids seem to think their parents have thousands of dollars to spend on their weddings. I just pulled these numbers off the Internet so it’s not like I’m making this up. The average wedding in 2007 cost $27,490. In 2008 the price plummeted to $21,814 and it’s anticipated it will drop another 10 percent in 2009 during these tough economic times. Still, $21,814 for a wedding. Are you kidding me.

I think this is ludicrous. This doesn’t even include the cost for the honeymoon or engagement ring. I didn’t check on the cost of these two items but I’m guessing it’s between eight and ten thousand dollars. Add this to the wedding costs and you have a whopping $30,000.

That’s more than I paid for my first house. And that brings me to the point I’m trying to make. Especially with today’s economy don’t you think the brides could be less selfish and give up a few things to bring the cost down a little. Yes I said the brides, because let’s be honest here. Guys really don’t care. They just want to get married and really don’t care where.

If you want my opinion, and I don’t care if you do because I’m going to give it to you anyway, young couples could have a nice little back yard wedding or something similar for $5,000. That leaves $25,000 that could be used as a down payment on a new house. This is something that could last them the rest of their lives instead of having nothing to show for it accept an album full of wedding pictures.

I know so many people that have their kids live with them because they can’t even afford an apartment. I think that’s terrible. Where are our kids priorities and why should the parents be stuck paying the bill. There are more grandparents raising there grandchildren and they all say they love it and maybe they do but I still don’t agree with it.

Parents should be bringing up there own kids and not dumping them off on the grandparents. I don’t have any grandchildren but if I did I would love to have them visit but at least I could send them home when I wanted. I already raised a son and I don’t want to raise anymore.

I think I got off my point somewhere along the line here. As you can see this is a touchy subject for me.

Times have changed and people better start waking up. Parents can’t afford to pay for college AND a huge wedding for their kids. I know we all want the best for our kids but if you don’t have the money to afford these extravagant weddings then the kids need to show some restraint and scale down a little.

No, a lot.

OK, I’m done venting. I need to stop now as I could go one forever on this topic.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this subject.


til next time…

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