Charge?

August 31st, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

A wedding isn’t cheap (and that’s not a snarky remark from a lifelong single guy). Asserted the wedding website, The Knot, after a survey of 10,000 couples who had hitched the knot in 2023:

The national average cost of a wedding in 2023 was $35,000, which is a $5,000 increase from 2022’s average wedding cost of $30,000.”

But “average” has become unsustainable for Mr. Hassan Ahmed, 23, according to The New York Times. So he’s taken the unusual stop of charging his guests $450 for a ticket to his wedding next year in Houston, where he lives. Perhaps it is because he has already spent $100,000 on this event, including deposits for the venue, the D.J., and the photographer. Mr. Ahmed put his charge on the invitation.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this enterprising groom hasn’t heard back from many of his 125 wedding guests. Hassan claims he is confused by the response (or lack thereof), noting that many of his guests had spent more money on Beyoncé or Chris Brown tickets …

… like $1,000. But when it comes to your friends and family, you can’t, like, pay the ticket? These weddings ain’t cheap. I don’t get it!”

I wondered if this guy was expecting gifts from his invitees on top of that $450, or is that the gift?

Matthew Shaw, the founder of Saveur, a wedding planning company in London, said:

Selling tickets introduces a strange relationship between you and your guests, turning your guests into customers. You’re no longer hosting—you’re offering them a paid experience, which introduces a very different narrative in terms of what guests are expecting.”

Though the cost of having a wedding is increasing, Mr. Shaw added:

I think there’s this assumption that we must have these big weddings. You can have really magical scaled-back and simpler celebrations, or more intimate and fewer guests. When we all went through the pandemic, we found other ways to celebrate.”

I know nothin’ about no wedding, never! But I know a song in the Bible that has a wedding with guests and gifts and all. The best wedding: between God and his people. In Psalm 45.

Here’s the Groom:

Your throne, God, [is] forever and always;
a scepter of uprightness [is] the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
with the oil of joy above Your companions.
All Your garments are myrrh and aloes [and] cassia;
out of palaces of ivory, stringed instruments have made You joyful.
 Daughters of kings are among Your noblewomen;
the queen stands at Your right hand [adorned] in gold from Ophir.
Psalm 45:6–9

And here comes the bride, leaving her “peoples” (45:10b, 11b), to be positioned at the Groom’s “right hand” (45:9b).

Listen, daughter, see and incline your ear:
and forget your people and your father’s house.
Then the King will desire your beauty;
because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.
The daughter of Tyre [will come] with a gift;
your favor they will court—the richest of the people.
All glorious within is the daughter of the king;
trimmed with gold thread is her clothing.
In embroidered robes she is led to the King;
the virgins, her attendants following her,
are brought to you.
They are led forth with joy and jubilation;
they go into the palace of the King.
Psalm 45:10–16

What a day that will be, when we, God’s people are united to him forever! And you can come … free!

SOURCE: The Knot; The New York Times