Friday, March 07, 2008

Extreme Wedding

I met a friend today, whom I found out, had recently gotten married. So, obviously, I asked him about his wedding and how things went. That was when he told me his little tale and I almost died listening to it. I tried to keep a straight face, but I was going "OMG!!" the whole time.

First, we talked about the ceremony and wedding dinner. The ceremony was not that big a deal. I was curious as to how much it cost and it actually costs about the same amount back home. So we quickly talked about the dinner instead. He then told me that they had two dinners because both their home cities were quite far apart. Well, that's nothing new to me as it's often done back home as well.

What surprised me was the total number of tables that they had at both dinners: a whopping 116 tables. OMG! That's more than a thousand guests. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of effort that went into organising such a dinner. He must've spent all his time just shaking hands and saying thank you. At 5 seconds per person, it would take about 90 minutes to finish it all. And I thought 50 tables was huge enough.

Then, I noticed his wedding ring. I thought that it was a rather nice design. I was curious as to how he figured out her ring size for the engagement ring. He told me that the shop people told him to just get a ring and propose first. If she didn't like it or if it didn't fit, they could take it back and have it changed. Since this is the UK, I guess that he could've returned it too, if she rejected him.

So, he bought a diamond ring worth about £3k. She accepted his proposal but she did not like the ring. So, they went back to the shop to choose another one. They finally settled upon one worth about £10k. I just checked some prices online and it is certainly possible for diamond rings to cost that much. He told me that he almost died. I would've.

But according to him, neither of these things were that bad. When she came over to his home city for the wedding, she brought along a small entourage with her and his family had to pay for the travel and accommodations for them. And according to him, that was the thing that very nearly killed him. I was totally in shock. I cannot even begin to imagine how much that must have cost. OMG!!!

I know that a marriage is an important event for the young couple. But taking it to this kind of level is rather extreme. Personally, I think that it is dumb to spend money like that. The money could be better spent by buying a house for the young couple and helping them start off in life. But I guess that when you are from a rich family, largess takes on a whole new order of magnitude.

2 comments:

~ xYz ~ said...

i know i'm a girl, but i would definitely have died on the spot too if i make my (going-to-be) husband to spend that amount of money... =.=''' it's definitely smarter to keep the money for future use. seriously, OMG.

ok shawn i hope ur friend doesnt read your blog. if he does pls delete this comment, thank you.

yungchin said...

ROFL, a GBP10k ring?? I'd drive her around in an armoured truck whenever she'd wear it.