I think ours cost $80 in total, including rings. We didn’t have a pot to pee in but my mother was insisting on my getting married. The rings were plain silver bands, we married in the courthouse, my mom made the cake, and we had a reception in my mom-in-law’s garden. It’s lasted seven years so far.
Oh, forgot one part.
Judge: Will this be a single- or double-ring ceremony?
Me: It’s an invisible double-ring ceremony.
We couldn’t afford them, so we pretended to put them on each other’s fingers.
I tried looking up how much a marriage license costs in Wichita County, Texas. No dice. I vaguely remember it being around $30.00. We went out for Mexican afterwards, another $30.00. Do we win?
Mrs. Uvula and I exchanged vows under a Miller Lite billiard table lamp in a local VFW hall in front of about a hundred friends and family. We catered the event ourselves from the hall’s kitchen, and they gave us access to the bar next door (cash bar but at members’ prices.) It cost us about $400 all told - the biggest chunk of that was for the DJ - the party started at 1:15 in the afternoon right after the vows and was still going on at 1 that morning when we made our escape.
Next October will be our 20th anniversary.
These are all wonderful. Somebody nominate this for Threadspotting.
Singular1, awww.
We had already lived together for 4.5 years when we got married. (I could no longer remember why I didn’t want to get married, so I proposed.) Due to the living-in-sin issue, we opted for a small wedding. Family, a few friends, in the small chapel of her church. Singing (on tape) were Linda Ronstadt and Pete Townsend. My sister-in-law moonlighted as a wedding cake chef, so she did the cake. I naively underpaid the minister, and I’m still embarassed about that.
That was in March of 1979, and we are still married.
We got married by signing our names at the Japaanese city hall place and being presented with a document that looks pretty, but we can’t read it. We had to get it translated to make it legal in the eyes of the US government. We then had lunch at a bowling alley.
Counting everything, including our lunch, the cost of the babysitter, and even the steaks and wine dinner we had at home that night, I’d say the total cost of our wedding was under $50. But then, it wasn’t really a “wedding”, just a marriage.
This past July we had our cheap wedding. The marriage license was $36. My dress cost $98 plus tax, he wore a suit he already had. My parents bought the flowers, which cost less than $200. My best friend from college performed the ceremony (surprisingly, nobody made a peep that a woman was doing the honors). We had the ceremony in his parents’ backyard, the reception in their house. His female relatives made sandwiches and other finger food all morning and laid out a beautiful table to feed 30 or so guests. My mother-in-law is the prom coordinator for the smalltown high school she teaches at, so she went to her usual places to get good deals on engraved napkins, the cake, the whole deal. They even got us an ice sculpture! I think they were just excited that some girl was willing to marry their son.
We had a great time. I don’t know exactly what my inlaws spent on the wedding, but I’d be suprised if the entire wedding cost more than $2000. It would have been much smaller, but they insisted on doing it all. Our original plan was to marry at our apartment, but we wound up being glad we had our little shindig.
My parents’ wedding was also small and inexpensive, thrown together starting at Thanksgiving for a Christmas Eve ceremony (though they’d been engaged for 2 years already). They’ve been married for nearly 28 years.
On the other hand, a couple I knew spent several thousand dollars of her parents’ money on their wedding. The ceremony was lovely, but they were divorced four years later.
cheapest wedding ever. preacher did it for free, the church was free, my father in law paid for the license. we paid about 11 bucks on cheapie wedding rings which were sterling…no flowers, no dresses…no honeymoon.
it’s just been three years. still no honeymoon or wedding set. I’m very low maintainence
El Gordo’s or Pioneer #2?
We didn’t get rings till months later. I work my khaki uniform, he was in jeans. It cost $25 for the license, $10 for the notary, and maybe $8 for the McD’s we grabbed before I ran back to my squadron for a court-martial (not mine - one of my underlings).
It’ll be 20 years on Dec 9.
Married at the Rockville, Maryland county court house. Total cost, maybe $20, tops.
We did stop on the way there and buy rings at a pawn shop. That was something of a splurg, considering what I was making then, $80.
It’s been 35 1/2 years, looks like its going to take.
The first doper that makes the request can be married by me, in Ohio (Cleveland area), for free.
I also had a really cheap wedding. We went to the JOP after work one day (it was a Friday, so we could have our honeymoon the next two days without missing work). We were wearing whatever we had on for work that day. It seems like I stopped at a grocery store and bought a bunch of flowers for a couple of dollars. Our rings were Sears and Rowbuck bands (maybe $100 for both). No best man, no maids of honor, no friends, no candles, no music, no frills. We went to our apartment for the honeymoon and spent the entire weekend just laying around (well, and other stuff). Total cost; maybe $200.
However, we celebrated our 20th just this week. I guess she figured she would have to stay with me until she got her money’s worth.
I’m impressed at the number of cheap wedding that seem to create long-lasting results. However, to provide some balance, I’ll also mention that my first wedding (only a bit more expensive) ended in a really messy divorce within four years. Go figure.
$20 – the cost of the licence. We were at the courthouse to get a dog licence, and figured whilst we were there, get the marriage thing out of the way. No rings, no honeymoon, no reception, zip. (And not cos of him – I’m the one who had no interest!)
(I confess, I spent much of the proceedings arguing with the JP that I wanted NO religious connotations at all, and she had said, no problem, and then kept trying to have us refer to a Bible, or make A Pledge Unto God, etc…you know the Dr Evil/Scott Evil/Sh! routines? Every time she tried to say, ‘God,’ it sounded a lot like that:
JP ‘So help you Ga–’
Me: ‘Sh!’
Etc…)
Oh boy, I love cheap wdding stories!
Mine was not as “cheap” as I originally thought, reading the previous posts, but certainly not the ‘Queen of the Prom’ weddings my co-workers seem obsessed with.
We married in our hometown at the park, the hall was $200, the catering was about $550, the hammered dulcimer player was $400, I owned my own tux and my wife bought her dress at Kaufman’s for about $120, her 2 teenaged sons got new matching suits for about $75 apiece, (they marched her down the aisle). Flowers and decoration were home-made. No alcohol served, no dancing, just a lovely ceremony and luncheon reception.
Flew my pastor in from Burbank to perform the ceremony, at a reduced rate. Got comp hotel rooms for him and my best man.
My old high-school pal brought his cinderella-carriage and horse to drive us around the park as a wedding present.
My years of corporate travel stood me in good stead as I got 4 nights at the Westin Essex House in NYC overlooking Cental Park for free! Also had a gift from my boss of $250 of Marriot-money to dine with, (which in New York translates as a couple of good lunches and a dinner.)
Free rental car to/from NYC.
Total cost: priceless.
3 years and still happy!
Jeez, I wondered what you would’ve had to pay for a sober one?
I don’t know what mine cost. Now that I think about it, probaby alot, what with Tux and dresses, rings, hotel room and dinner and a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about. Oh well. It was worth it.
Even though I lived with her for 3 year before, on the day of the wedding, “The Wife” looked different. It was pretty cool.
Never kiss an animal that can lick its own butt.
Jeez, I suddenly feel so traditional! And like we spent a fortune.
We decided on Monday that it was time to actually get around to getting married. (We’d been engaged for more than two years at that point - a couple for seven, living together for five.) That same day, we arranged for the following Monday and Tuesday off with our respective workplaces, and made plane and hotel reservations for Las Vegas.
Both workplaces managed to put together wedding showers for us that week, which impressed the heck out of me.
Flew out early Saturday morning, and was checked into the hotel (the Luxor) by 1:00. Made reservations at a wedding chapel. Got my hair done at about 6. Got picked up by the chapel’s limo at 8:00, and the whole thing was done by 10. Spent the next few days honeymooning, and flew back late Tuesday night.
Incidentally, it was all wonderful. It could have been really cheesy, but everyone we met seemed so happy for us, despite having done dozens of ceremonies that night! I highly recommend it.
Rough cost guesstimates -
Rings - $200 (had been ordered a couple of months before)
Dress for me - $500 from David’s Bridal (on sale, picked in about an hour, looked incredibly good on me, no alterations needed and I’m a tough size)
Hair and makeup - $80
His outfit - clothes he already owned for client meetings
Plane tickets, rental car, and hotel - honestly not sure, though I remember getting a good last minute price. About $800 - $1000? We would have taken a vacation around about that time even if we hadn’t gotten married so I barely even count that cost anyway.
Ceremony - about $250 with flowers, video taping, extra pictures, etc.
Honeymoon in general - maybe another $1500?
Our wedding cost $25.
She wore a pink frock she’d owned for years. I wore my dress blue uniform. She had the ring already – I bought the set when we were engaged the year before. No ring for me. Judge Patrick did the deed in the courthouse for $25.
Friends baked a cake for the reception, and other friends brought wine & liqour. No honeymoon.
We eloped, and we did it right – we didn’t even tell our parents we were married until our first anniversary.
That was 24 years ago. It’s not how much money you spend on the wedding, it’s how much effort you put into loving and respecting each other.
I have good friends that had a fairly cheep wedding. Done in the local Park.
The topper.
One of their friends showed up in a 6x6 duce and a half. Big old army truck. This one was built during the Korean war. HE BOUGHT the thing on the way to the wedding. He had to have it. He flew in from California, saw the truck for sale, left his rental car there and drove the truck the rest of the way to the wedding.
The wedding party and many guests piled into the back of the thing, and we drove around (our small) but well know, resort town honking at folks. Bride, bridesmaids and everyone.
Totally spur of the moment. Instant parade. Great fun.
Not cheap I know (the truck anyway), and a bit of a hijack, but something memerable. So my suggestion is, do something a bit different.
Maybe a TANK, the trucks been done :D.