My wife and I were married a little later than average. If I remember...the cost was under $2,000 with most of the food made by family. The wedding was at the local botanical gardens (a popular location with a lovely rose garden). So...like you said...parents were not going to shell out loads of money. Nor should they have.
What I don't understand is why some people start their lives out in great debt for their weddings. To each their own; but we have been to weddings that cost $50,000. If you can afford it, go for it, but to me it's not rational to start out life together in that much debt.
My wife first saw her wedding ring in an antique shop. Being a guy I didn't catch the clues that I should have just bought it right then and there. Anyway to make a long story shorter about a year later I was in law enforcement class that produced a LOT of brass. I kept the brass and sold it to a buddy of mine for....right about the same amount of money the ring was selling for.
Since the shop with the ring was right next door...i figured I'd see if it was there. It was...and so I bought it...and proposed to her. That was almost 16 years ago.
A few times we've had someone look at it they have always said it's from the 1930s.
