Our Big Fat Cheap Wedding, part 2

Last month, I wrote a post about being interviewed by American Public Media for an article/blog entry on wedding costs. For those who enjoyed that post, I thought I'd mention that you can now hear the audio component of my interview (or at least, the most interesting couple of minutes of it) here. My segment is number five out of six, but the others are quite interesting too. The speakers include:

• A bride who eloped without telling anyone, because she still wants to have a "real" wedding later
• A former wedding photographer who observes that weddings often grow because the mother of the bride wants to give her daughter the wedding she never had
• A woman who was married in Vegas by an Elvis impersonator while wearing a dress made of balloons
• A wedding officiant who talks about how peer pressure influences the style and cost of weddings—and how little the wedding cost has to do with the quality of the marriage
• A bride who explains how planning her wedding at the last minute actually helped her get discounts

In addition to the interviews, the site has about a dozen wedding photos covering a wide range of events. Styles run the gamut from an "elegant Goth wedding" to an outdoor wedding on a working farm, and event costs range from $175 for a "small family wedding with a picnic dinner" to $20,000 for a 150-guest shindig at a boat club. The Vegas bride also makes an appearance in her balloon dress, which is truly a sight to behold.

I was also pleased to see that at least one other couple (the one with the farm wedding) shares my ecofrugal perspective, as the groom describes “Delicious, organic and local food and drink. Reduced, reused and recycled everything. Emphasis on the ‘reduced’ — which saves money!” Yeah, ecofrugal brother—testify!