If you should ask your mom or your grandma how wedding expenses were shared in their day, you shall probably be surprised to find out that their families paid for nearly all the proceedings. Did this have anything to do with being a female and member of the weaker sex? Whatever the reason for that, happily for you, if you happen to a bride-to-be, that arrangement is no longer observed today.
First let us take a look at the traditional sharing method and they say something about how wedding expenses are allotted nowadays.
Formerly, the bride’s family took care of wedding expenses at the engagement party, if such a party was celebrated.
All the wedding expenses incurred during the wedding day itself were charged to the bride’s family. This included renting vehicles, spending for gasoline, decorating the location where the rites were to be performed and paying for the services of the people who were to officiate in the ceremonies.
The bride’s family also took care of expenses for the wedding reception.
Of course, the wedding gown was bought by the side of the bride, as well as the wedding gifts for both of the couples, the flowers, including the bouquets of the bridesmaids, the photography sessions and refreshments.
In traditional wedding expenses it fell on the family of the groom to answer for its own accommodations, naturally. As well, they paid for expenses incurred during rehearsals and the mock wedding. A pair of wedding gifts was also expected from the groom’s side. By far the biggest expenses dished out by the groom were the honeymoon travel and accommodations costs.
In today’s scenario, financing a wedding is defined in more practical and fair terms. In other words, the common wedding expenses like the reception dinner, the rehearsals, and the paraphernalia of the bridesmaids, the flowers, the music and the entertainment are all divided equally between the bride’s family and the groom’s family.
However, each family pays for its own guests.
For families who belong to the same income bracket, the above manner of dividing wedding expenses is prevalent. But the idea behind the sharing of marriage costs is not really dividing everything evenly between the two couple’s families, but in contributing to the occasion in proportion to the family’s financial status.
To describe it in terms of percentage, if the family of the groom’s financial standing is more or less twice that of the bride’s, the groom’s relative’s pay for 2/3 of everything. In actual life, some families, whether the bride’s or the groom’s will offer to pay for everything if they are extremely well-off.
Although there is definitely a financial advantage for the less wealthy side of the union in that, that situation may not be conducive from a personal standpoint. The situation should never be allowed to come to the point that the more well-off family gets to decide everything about the marriage just because they offered to pay for it all.
Differences in financial standing should not be underscored in a wedding. The best way to get a loving couple started out in life is shoulder to shoulder. They will be, after the ceremony is concluded, two parts of a whole.
Giving each part equal importance will work very well towards making sure their relationship lasts and continues lovingly. The same will also hold for the in-laws