Extravagant Weddings

I was reading a book recently, and at the end, they gave you sort of an epilogue with the young girl now grown and about to marry. Her wedding gown was described as having a ten-foot train.

Now, some people read about a ten-foot train and think, "Oh, that's so cool." I read it and think, "Why? It drags over the ground, gets dirty, can be tripped on or get caught on stuff, and it's really unnecessary."

Society seems to have the mindset that when you get married, you have to go all out and buy extravagant, overdone, overpriced stuff. A wedding ceremony is all about going broke and spending the first twenty years of your marriage paying off the debt. I bet half the reason wedding stuff is so expensive is the evils of companies. They hype it up (aka hike up the prices) to be this super-awesome thing you MAJORLY splurge on. It's like how designer labels are more pricey because you're paying for a name brand.

Bride's dress

On the TV show 'Say Yes to the Dress', women say things like, "My budget for a wedding gown is $3,000." Well, my budget is within the realm of sanity. I'm not buying a house, I'm buying a dress. Sure, you can pass on the dress, make a family heirloom of it. But for three thousand bucks, that dress better have a longer lifespan than Methuselah, and be worn by more people than the population of China.

Betrothal ring

Wedding rings are generally supposed to be diamonds, and diamonds are one of the most expensive gemstones. This is affected by commercialism as well. An advertising campaign by De Beers in the early to mid-20th century made diamonds the iconic part of betrothal they are today. Gem-quality diamonds are more common than a lot of other rare gemstones. Ultimately, the price of a diamond ring is about hype and consumer demand.

Wedding cake

Another expense is wedding cakes. Let's look at an image I found online of wedding cake prices.

After some calculations for each of the listed cakes, here are the results. Each serving costs between $5.35 and $7.77. Talk about an expensive slice of cake. The expense is often related to the ornate design and having multiple tiers, but even so, that's a hefty price tag. Uh, do you have anything... simpler and less pricey than platinum?

'Zits' comic strip.

But my point is, weddings don't need to break the bank. You don't have to buy a $5000 diamond ring, or a super-duper expensive dress. In fact, maybe steer clear of the broke stores bridal stores altogether. There's got to be a better (more affordable) way.
As a fun fact, when my friend's mother got married, she had a small ceremony, and my brother made a couple of cakes in Pyrex dishes. I bet that wedding cake didn't cost over five hundred dollars.
To conclude this post, here's an extra precaution to avoid debt and loans.