Depends on the rules of the pool. Does the happy couple get the money if they pass the last guess still together? If so, I would have invited every sucker I knew.
I would be surprised that people would
(1) be gambling at a wedding
(2) be gambling over something like this, twi (really, more) people’s happiness
That it was my wedding wouldn’t bother me as such, but it would make me question the value of my relationship with the people involved.
I tend to avoid gambling related activities anyway.
I’m quite familiar with the concept. At my first wedding, the general consensus was that we wouldn’t make it to two years. We made it to three. At my second wedding, the betting was we wouldn’t last a year. We’ll be married 40 years this month. OTOH, my nephew’s first marriage crumbled even faster than the betting pool predicted. Overall, I’m more amused than offended, although if someone bet $10K that the bride and groom wouldn’t make it a year, I’d be offended by that.
But that’s the thing - we wouldn’t put in just one bet. “Holy shit, he’s got 6 years, 3 months, 10 years, and tomorrow! WTF?!?”
It’s a bit tacky but, no, I wouldn’t see the point in getting offended, and honestly wouldn’t care. Have at it, boys and girls.
Oh I like that! may just take to sending a nice card and nominal present, and tell them to invite me to the 10 anniversary.
Ummm . . . Dumb guy question. Am I supposed to invite people to my 10 year anniversary? We just did 8 and I just assumed we’d get a hotel room and go enjoy ourselves like we’ve done for all the others. I didn’t realize you had guests before you lost the ability to have sex.
Why not join the pool? It’s an win win.
It might even be enough to fund the divorce.
Not really. Some people like to throw a party for any occasion, some people don’t. That’s really a decision for you and your wife.
But can I get in on the “how many times will you have sex that night” pool?
Sure, but I’ve already got the bet down on once but you can pick any of the other numbers at $20 a pop. PM me for an address to send the money.
as opposed to an official one?
We were actually just on our 10 year anniversary this past weekend – just took my wife and kids out to the romantic town of Sheboygan, Wisconsin! But, yes, before we did that, my wife asked whether we should have a dinner party with my family and friends, so it is a thing some people do. I’ve seen it done more for 25th and 50th anniversaries and things like that, but, as a photographer, I’ve photographed a one-year anniversary, so, apparently, it is a thing some people do.
I admit, I answered “no, and I’d get in on it” though the true answer is yeah, I’d be offended.
When we got married, 4 weeks after my older brother, there was a very different dynamic between the two weddings.
Bro had the big church wedding. Both families heartily approved of the match. Very similar religious and socioeconomic backgrounds (Catholic, slightly-upper-middle-class). Both he and his bride were well on their way with their careers. All in all, it looked like a very good thing.
We had a tiny, immediate-family-only, thing where we took our vows at the police station. Both of my parents tried to urge me to reconsider up until the very last minute. Even my brother wrote me a letter urging me not to rush into anything. My husband came from a Jewish family; he was still in grad school. All in all, the odds didn’t look good.
I’m quite certain my parents did not expect things to last. though I don’t think there was any betting pool involved.
My brother announced his divorce a couple of months after my mother passed away - I think he was intentionally holding off until then - to avoid distressing her, or to avoid the feedback, or whatever.
Anyway, had there been a pool, I think I’d have won it 
If I had found out someone was doing this at my wedding, I would’ve simply joined in the pool.
To me weddings are no big deal. The marriage is, the vows are, the commitment is. The wedding itself is just a gaudy party where everyone has role to play with expected dress and behavior. Bor-ing. If people start betting on the final health of the marriage, then more power to them. Liven it up a bit. I wouldn’t find it offensive at all. Tacky, perhaps, but a lot of wedding traditions are really tacky when you think about it. The father giving away the bride (that one is mildly offensive, actually), the bridal veil (also kind of offensive), the bride and groom feeding each other a piece of cake, the whole garter ceremony thing… it’s all rooted in misogyny and patriarchal social control. Something like betting on the outcome of the marriage is actually pretty tame.
FTR I met my wife when I was 19 and she 21. We were engaged 6 months later, married two and a half years after that, and now, 19 years later, we’re still together and we still like each other a whole lot.
Now, if someone was betting on whether or not I would ever finish school, or be a good father… those I would find offensive.
Your position doesn’t make sense to me. I agree that people get too worked up about the wedding when the marriage is what matters. But the bet here is about the marriage, not the wedding. I can imagine being amused by a snarky game of wedding bingo, with guests smirking as they mark squares for “someone does that dumb Corinthians reading” or “maid of honor talks about her own wedding (again).” My feelings might be a little hurt if I was the target of the mockery, but it’s still on a whole other level from taking bets on the sincerity of the commitment that the wedding represents.
Maybe it’s because very few of us, with a couple of notable exceptions like the guy noted upthread who was getting married just for the tax benefits, go into a marriage thinking that it’ll end soon, or that we aren’t 10000000% committed to making it work, or that we’re otherwise doomed to failure. Our friends, who aren’t looking at the whole thing through rose-colored glasses, may have a more accurate assessment of our relationship – recognizing poison when they see it, perhaps.
IOW I’m about as far from being an objective observer of my own relationship as one can get, and if all my buddies are making bets that my marriage won’t last then maybe they see something that I just can’t see. As a result I’m not going to be too butthurt over it if I find out a significant portion think that my relationship won’t last. It would probably cause me to try to look for weak spots in the relationship, see it from their perspective, and try to fix the problems that have been identified. It might actually be a healthy thing to learn that your friends have done such a thing.
The flip side of this argument is that a marriage takes the commitment of two people. I can be 100% committed to my marriage but still that’s only 50% of the equation. If my spouse doesn’t have the same commitment I do then the sincerity of my commitment is kind of a moot point: there isn’t a 100% commitment to the relationship, if that makes sense. If a bunch of other people can see that when I’m standing at the altar… I’m going to be hard-pressed to judge what appears obvious to everyone else.
I’m also saying this as someone who’s north of 40 and has been married two decades and knows what a roller coaster it can be and just how much work it takes to make it work – a huge part of which is simply shutting up and listening to what my spouse has to say and trying to look at whatever issue is at hand from her perspective. If you had asked me this question when I was 22, perhaps my answer would’ve been different. I was 22 when I got married and I knew several people didn’t think it would last. That was 19 years ago and we’re still together, mostly happy. If anyone took bets on us divorcing then I’m sure they’ve lost by now.
On the other hand I know at least two couples that I’m sure won’t last: they like the idea of being married, they just don’t really like who they’re married to. I’ve not put money on their marriage failing only because I’m not the gambling type.
I don’t see how that addresses the point I made, which was that the distinction you drew between weddings and marriage doesn’t make sense as a basis to not be offended by this bet. You are now proffering a completely different explanation.
Tacky is being overly polite. Fu*king offensive is more like it, IMHO.
Nah, I’m with octopus. Tacky. Gauche. Silly. Ungainly. Big load of who gives a fuck from me as you can tell. Why waste energy being offended?