‘We Are Worth It’! ‘No You’re Not’! Average Wedding Expense Today 26K

And before that there’s the “wedding shower.” Friends had a couple of wedding showers for my wife, so we are guilty of this as well. But the wedding was very frugal and the reception was totally a work of charity from extremely generous friends who did everything. On account of that, I invited everybody and provided champagne for every table and a cheap camera too. The children loved that. I did not, as I paid for all the film development.  Lots of captured memories, if feet and cross-eyed monkey faces are “memorable.”  Best part was that not a chair in the huge hall was vacant.

This is a serious problem that Msgr. Pope addresses. $26,000 is an average. That is extravagance gone amok. And hardly Catholic, in my opinion. Is there something narcissistic about this lavish indulgence? Or, is it the fault of the parents, particularly the bride’s parents who, traditionally, get to pay the bill. Methinkest dowries would be a better idea.

Washington DC Diocesan Paper: Msgr. Charles Pope writes “Back in the 1980s when I was ordained, there was a priest in the area who was famous (infamous) for the fact that he requested couples who were going to spend more than $5,000 on a wedding (more in those days than now) to pay a tithe, (one tenth) of what they spent on the wedding, to the poor” Read full column here.