Always a Bridesmaid? Now I Know Why You’re Angry.

If you just heard that your good friend got engaged, RUN! I have to be honest, if someone doesn't ask me to be in their wedding, I'm thrilled. For me it's just so much more fun to just be a guest at a wedding, I'm not big on the formalities and the picture taking etc. After seeing this statistic from the Weddingchannel.com, I have a whole new reason to want to be excluded.

It would seem that the average cost for you if you are asked to be in a wedding party is, $1,695. Wow, that's a lot. You don't notice it as much because the costs are usually spread out over a year or more. But man, if you have 2 or 3 friends getting married the same year you could be out over $5000.00.

Here is where I get a little hypocritical. This is just one more reason I think wedding are way out of hand. I say I'm being a hypocrite because I just had an amazing wedding but in my defense, I didn't pay for it, and it probably cost less than it looked like it did. ( The people at Mallozzi's were amazing.) But for most of these young couples I just think the tens of thousands of dollars they spend on a wedding can be used for so many more beneficial things.

Let's not even think about how many poor kids in England could have eaten a little better if the Royal family spent half as much on their weddings and donated the other to British food banks. Sometimes I just don't understand how some people justify their lives in the face of such poverty worldwide. ( A blog for another time perhaps.)

Somehow we have to as a society make it "cool" to have a laid back wedding reception. That way the money that would have went to a photographer, dj or band, caterer, florist, reception hall, dress shop, etc., could go to buying their first home. Maybe they would like to have some savings as they start out in the world, or a college fund for their future children. It just seems to me, especially for young people, it is hard enough to get started in the world, why start at zero?  And shouldn't a young couple spend more time in that year planning and contemplating their "marriage" and less so the color of the chair covers? I'm just throwin it out there.

God Bless.