Good Morning Dinks. Let’s all take a moment and think back to the time before we were Dinks. Think about dating, think about being single, and think about how much money you spent while you were courting (aka trying to impress) your future spouse and trying to make them fall in love with you.
Do you know how much money it costs to fall in love? According to MSN Money it costs over $300,000 to meet someone, date, get engaged, get married, and have kids. This includes the cost of dining in restaurants throughout the year, gifts for special occasions, the cost of a wedding, and a romantic honeymoon.
Did you ever wonder how much your spouse costs? Let’s take a closer look.
Where did you go on your first date?
My boyfriend Nick and I went to a coffee shop for our first official date. He ordered an orange juice and I ordered a white hot chocolate (even though it was August). Our first date didn’t cost a lot of money and I honestly really enjoyed myself…we are still together 13 years later. It was a cheap first date, it was in a public setting so I knew that I was safe, and we got the chance to sit down, talk, and really get to know each other.
For our second date Nick and I went to a TLC concert. Before you laugh remember that Nick and I met in 1998 when I was 18 and he was 19. The TLC No Scrubs song and concert tour was very popular at the time. Music is one thing that Nick and I have always had in common. We don’t always like the same types of music, because his taste in music is more eclectic than mine, but we both always love to be listening to music.
What is the price of your engagement ring?
I can’t speak about the cost of an engagement ring from personal experience because Nick and I are not married, but I can say that my engagement ring doesn’t have to be extravagant. It has to be something that I know he picked out specifically for me and to my taste in jewellery. I haven’t shopped around for an engagement ring lately but I would like to think that a good quality white gold ring with a square diamond in the middle should cost approximately $3000.
Now for the question that is on everyone’s mind, it’s a question that we have previously discussed on Dinks Finance, should you give back the engagement ring if you break up before the wedding?
How much did your wedding cost?
There are two girls in my office right now who are planning their weddings for next summer. If you have ever been in the same room as a bride-to-be you know that her wedding is usually the only thing that she is capable of talking about. I was very surprised to learn that one of the girls in my office is going to spend over $25,000 on her wedding next summer. I was even more surprised to learn that in her opinion $25,000 is the bare minimum amount of money to be spent if you want a semi-fabulous wedding.
We know from a previous post that the range of a wedding can differ greatly among couples. If I ever do get married I would like to have a white dress, I would like DJ Ty Boogie to be the DJ at my wedding, and I would love to have a 3 tier chocolate cake. However, I would much rather spend $25,000 on something that my boyfriend Nick and I can enjoy for the rest of our life together, rather than on a party that is only going to last for one night.
Photo by Denise Mayumi
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
Weddings are incredibly expensive! I don’t remember what the final tally was for us, but the dollars start adding up quickly even if you take steps to save money (which we definitely did).
We spent around $30k on our wedding and I absolutely do not regret it. It was a great day and is a very symbolic event in our life—we united our families (and friends, really) together. Then we threw a kick butt party that people still talk about nearly 2 years later. We have the photos, the video, and the memories to enjoy for the rest of our lives. Sure we could have done it cheaper, but we make decent money and our families were very generous in picking up many of the costs, so we used what was available to us (we didn’t go into debt over our wedding). To each their own, but for us those memories, the experience, and being able to share it with our family and friends was well worth the money.
@DC – I heard that the dollars start to add up quickly when planning your wedding and before you know it, you are spending 10’s of 1000’s of dollars.
@Laura – That’s a great story. The memories can definitely be worth the cost. Congrats!
Thanks for reading Dinks.
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