On Weddings
I'm already developing a nagging feeling of distaste I'm ready to direct at anyone who tells me "you have to" about a wedding. I suspect that, thirteen months from now, this will have escalated to the strong desire to choke the living shit out of any such offender.
I got a quote back from what I'd thought was a serious potential wedding venue in Boulder, CO. For site, tables, and chairs, they want $2700. When I kind of went yikes and asked if they did a discounted rate on weekdays, it was mentioned to me that weddings in that area generally run between $10,000 and $15,000.
Now, I'd been looking at some sites in Tucson and Sedona that ran around $2500 and included low-end catering. So I started looking up average wedding costs by region. I found estimates that the national average for weddings is between $19,000 and $31,000. I no more know what accounts for $12,000 worth of difference in estimates than I know why you'd want to spend half your annual salary on a wedding in the first place. And I no more know that than why, by the nine billion names of God(s), you need an aisle runner.
Based on this highly scientific research, I have come to two conclusions.
1) It is likely to be far more cost-effective to hold the wedding in Arizona than in the Denver/Boulder area.
2) We do not "have to" do this any particular way but our own.
If it's traditional to have a bride-and-groom cake topper, I'm just ornery enough to want one where the bride is wearing hooker shoes and the groom is wearing flip-flops. And that kind of goes for the whole wedding process.
I got a quote back from what I'd thought was a serious potential wedding venue in Boulder, CO. For site, tables, and chairs, they want $2700. When I kind of went yikes and asked if they did a discounted rate on weekdays, it was mentioned to me that weddings in that area generally run between $10,000 and $15,000.
Now, I'd been looking at some sites in Tucson and Sedona that ran around $2500 and included low-end catering. So I started looking up average wedding costs by region. I found estimates that the national average for weddings is between $19,000 and $31,000. I no more know what accounts for $12,000 worth of difference in estimates than I know why you'd want to spend half your annual salary on a wedding in the first place. And I no more know that than why, by the nine billion names of God(s), you need an aisle runner.
Based on this highly scientific research, I have come to two conclusions.
1) It is likely to be far more cost-effective to hold the wedding in Arizona than in the Denver/Boulder area.
2) We do not "have to" do this any particular way but our own.
If it's traditional to have a bride-and-groom cake topper, I'm just ornery enough to want one where the bride is wearing hooker shoes and the groom is wearing flip-flops. And that kind of goes for the whole wedding process.
posted by Journey | 9:24 PM
2 Comments:
Clayton here-I just went to a friends wedding as a groomsman here in Flagstaff. It was on a Deck at his bosses house. Under $500 total. We all had a great time. If you decide to have it in northern Arizona I will be glad to help however I can (venues or just a spot in the woods).
Yeah, that's turning out to be the problem: I don't know anybody with a backyard anymore. Spots in the woods are nice, but I'm finding out that when you're planning for a group of 50-75 people, you mostly need a permit. And the permits will mostly restrict you to spots that aren't actually in the woods.
I'd be delighted if you've got any suggestions for venues. In Flagstaff, I've got people I can abuse for a little pre-wedding prep and recommendations for things like hairdressers and photographers. *wrygrin* It's the venues that have defeated me. Unlike Sedona, where the opposite is true.
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