T O P

  • By -

Evening_Persimmon504

So it was a wedding with 46 guest consuming 33 packages of cigarettes and 50 cigars.... thats so 1961 And they already seemed to have their Karen. One position of a Strammer Max (warm bread with ham and fried egg) despited having a fixed cold dinner for everyone.


tee-ree

$6200 in today's money


brandeis1

And still a steal by today’s insane wedding package pricing! Most sites say you’re going full budget if you’re anything less than 10k, and that was when I was doing the research for mine in 2019. :|


Sumo148

We’re wedding planning now. We live in one of the most expensive states to get married in, the average wedding is $50-60k. It’s ridiculous.


thegreatgazoo

Yeah, that's when you get married at the courthouse and have the reception at a bar or someone's back yard.


aligot

A Friend is marrying this summer, pretty sure it won't be that much by a long shot. Keep in mind OPs image doesn't seem to be from the US


4look4rd

I managed mine with honey moon included for $25k. Ceremony, cocktail hour (open bar til 10pm), and reception all included. It’s expensive but doesn’t have to that outrageous.


kniki217

I did mine for like $5k. The most expensive thing was having food catered and that was with 100 guests in 2014. Granted I am lucky that my city parks have beautiful facilities you can rent out and back then the rentals weren't online. You just had to camp out the night before so you could sign up at the office in the morning exactly one year prior. My barn that I rented only cost $450. Now it's online and you have to be lucky enough to sign up at exactly midnight.


Jlpanda

Yep. You can definitely still throw a wedding on this budget, and most people’s weddings were a lot simpler in 1961.


jonnyl3

Why didn't they bring their own smokes?


Vinnipinni

I guess smoking was so normal during that time that it was expected the hosts have enough cigarettes for everyone.


dbx99

Only light cigarettes for the children


CronoTS

They did have candy or chocolate cigarettes for the non (active) smokers probably.


nicesunniesmate

The children should be lighting the damn cigarettes!!


BSB8728

Here in the U.S., hosts sometimes gave out small packs of two or three cigarettes as party favors. My mom quit smoking after she married my dad (who never smoked), and they went to a party one evening where everybody got the small gift packs. A guy at the party bet my mom a box of chocolate-covered cherries that if she smoked all three cigarettes, she'd get hooked again. She smoked them but did not continue smoking after that -- but she never got the candy.


nephelokokkygia

That's maybe the worst bet I've ever heard


AdvancedSkincare

Did she even exisht?


smallbrownfrog

> Did she even exisht? Pretty sure BSB8878 had a mother.


meowfttftt

Lol Sopranos?


Enough_Egg9293

They ware social people. But its was normal also by birthday party's If frends where coming beer @ cigarettes on the table. Pall mal luyky strike caballero


Agroman1963

And 80 cups of coffee? Holy moley.


poronpaska

under 2 cups a person? how is this so shocking? might just be the finnish in me but id expect it to be almost double


Agroman1963

At a wedding in 1961? I would’ve thought 80 glasses of schnapps!


shnippo

I counted 14 bottles of hard liquor on the list, they were probably ok.


006ruler

Nicotine is a stimulant already, right? So they were doubling up.


Taman_Should

They was WIRED.


RuudVanBommel

The DM/Dollar exchange rate in the early 60s was 4.00 So 1059.60 DM were around 264.90 Dollars in 1961, which are around 2733 Dollars today.


Ganbazuroi

Or as the germans say, lötsöffwëddingenmönneyënn


matskopf

- Hochzeitskostenendbetrag - final Wedding expenses Here you go. Btw there is no _ë_ in German, we only use _ä_, _ü_ and _ö_. ~~Ë is a scandinavien letter.~~


CheapSultan

Not to be that guy but **ë** is not used in a single Scandinavian language. It is however used in Dutch, which is similar to German, in English, French and a bunch of others: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8B)


matskopf

Thanks for correcting me. 👌


vluggejapie93

I love how you made it more swedish


Aversnusen

Not even remotely close to swedish


razialx

In 2010 I paid over $1000 just for Slovenian sausage for my wedding. And I still have no regrets! Edit: to the young and in love, if your mother tells you to invite all the distant relatives because, and I quote, “they won’t come but they will send a gift” don’t believe her! I funded an unsanctioned family reunion. Largest check I had written in my life up to that point.


ZoraHookshot

In 2013 I paid $2000 for the entire wedding


Jedimaster996

In 2021 I paid $60 Thanks, COVID


DirectGoose

My marriage license cost more than that.


Bean-Soup7

It was a covid wedding, so they only had to pay for the zoom licenses.


brandeis1

Suckers! I streamed mine on Twitch! Had still spent the money on my dress, cake, and a photographer who refused to refund though. 😑


ZoraHookshot

Nice


TenaciousLilMonkey

But how much Slovenian sausage?


Willing_Confection97

Slovenia!!!!!


razialx

Former Yu-go-slav-ia!


[deleted]

[удалено]


razialx

It’s hard to say. I wasn’t crunching the numbers back then. I was just so excited that suddenly the love I had for my wife wasn’t a sin! Never expected god to be so focused on paperwork. Unconditional love. With conditions.


dan5280

Ha, my mom got me with the same thing!


vignoniana

How much that is adjusted to the inflation?


justanothernomad1

According to the inflation calculator I found it's $5,982.67 in 2024 dollars.


Evening_Persimmon504

Despite calculation from DM to USD is off and was 4,02:1 It will only translate to about $2,700 today. For about 50 people with cold buffet ok.


GoodTodd1970

About $6000. Still inexpensive for a wedding today, but a lot more than I'd pay!


Clikx

Just had my best friend get married in December, his total wedding was 9k for everything and it was beautiful.


k20350

You don't have to have a $250,000 wedding. Wife and I saved and had a 100 person wedding for about $3000. Got married in a park which was a free reserve, rented chairs from a church was like $100, friend got ordained and was the preacher, wife got a secondhand dress (who gives a shit), rented cheap hall on an off day, simple food for the reception and we provided beer. People loved our wedding.


Taman_Should

Can we as millennials and Gen Z “kill” expensive prestige weddings next? I think there have been studies showing that as the wedding gets more over-the-top expensive, it becomes less likely that the marriage will last. This obviously may not apply in places like India, where there’s enormous societal pressure to stay together no matter what.


gwaydms

Our daughter and son-in-law had about 100 guests (they have a lot of family and friends, so had to leave a lot off the list) and had a great party for low five figures. We helped but they paid for quite a lot (they were almost in their 30s and had good jobs). No need to break the bank, even with dinner and adult beverages (thank you, Woodbridge wine). It was also family friendly; we had lots of very well-behaved little ones dancing in a circle. Live entertainment!


Taman_Should

Sounds nice and low-key. My cousin is having a reception in a few months, and she’s marrying into a large family of Indian Muslims (she’s white and from the Midwest, but they’re apparently supportive). I’m almost dreading it because I just know it’s going to be a massive deal, and the actual wedding itself will be as well. 


WasteCommunication52

My wife & I had only 1 attendant to our wedding: Jesus Christ. No guests, no dance floor, no water pan Buffett food, no dress or tuxedo. Us. Priest. Great outdoors. Submitted the license to the courts, married now almost 4 years


Old_RedditIsBetter

Kill? Maybe genz can but millenials are making it worse lol.


Own-Offer3881

Millennials just aren’t getting married lol, we’re broke af


bokodasu

All you can do is try. I spent $2k on my wedding and it was super nice, we just kept it small and didn't buy anything marketed as "wedding". I tell my kids all the time they should have the wedding they want, not the one marketing tells them they have to have, but that's only 2 of Gen Z, everyone else needs to get on the other 100k of them.


TheSimpler

That's $6000 today and this looks like just the catering/food bill?


PanningForSalt

Unless the handwritten thing at the end is "entire wedding" (whatever it was cost 1000 marks) then yes.


DasFischli

It says “1000 DM received, 59,80 DM to pay” and on the very bottom they confirmed to have received the 59,80 DM. The bill was for food and drinks (coffee and cake, and sandwiches for dinner) plus tobacco for some reason. Likely, this was held at a room at a restaurant, at no additional charge for the room. They did have to pay for a waiter though (“Kellner” billed for 40DM).


AirEnvironmental2714

They also probably only earned 2k per year... I don’t get why people keep posting this pretending they had the same salaries as people do now.


DR_PEACETIME

My grandpa said he made about 7k as a postal worker in 64... so prolly not 2k lol. Combined with his wife's income, less than 600 for a wedding is insanely cheap compared to today.


Cohibaluxe

~10% of a salary still is a fair amount tbh. That’s 7500 USD, using the same ratio for an average us salary today.


WGPersonal

The Median US wage is $46,000. Average salary is incredibly misleading due to incredibly inflated 1% earners.


jonnyl3

Also redditors keep confusing individual and household income


c3p-bro

Resditors are very often confused when economics are involved.


whyreadthis2035

Thank you for the reminder that everyone needs!


DR_PEACETIME

Yea I guess you're right. Time/money is a trip


YaMamaApples

I mean 7k for the year? Wedding is $600? Imagine something taking a noticeable amount out of *everything* you earned for the *year* !! That's crazy!


WGPersonal

The Median household income was $5,600 in 1960


Tryknj99

Also, This is in Deutschmarks, not dollars.


Cattaque

87 liters of beer for 46 guests. Less than 2 liters a person!


whyreadthis2035

Edit. In the 60s and 70s the exchange rate was 4DM/Dollar. So your grandparents paid $250. There’s a more complicated conversion for German inflation as they nicknamed the Euro the Teuero. Teuer means expensive and rhymes in German. But yeah…. On the same note. My German family literally has weddings all the time (it’s a big family). They never spend like Americans. OK I’m locked into this. I found a historic DM to Euro calculator and I’d says that’s only 651 Euros today… So, thank you for the most interesting r/mildlyinteresting post I’ve seen in a while awhile.


MadFxMedia

That is roughly $6080 today. Which is still quite a steal for a wedding.


bubbaglk

That's nothin . I paid 300 for mine .. including the ring.


Tower21

mine was closer to $800, I did buy $600 in booze for an open bar though.


Suitable-Ratio

Very smart.


katieleehaw

You do know that was over 60 years ago right?


Auditorincharge

It sounds so cheap, but $580 in 1961 is about the same as $6000 today based on an inflation calculator.


krystlships

My grandparents paid $5000 cash for their whole house on 6 acres in 1963. We're selling it now for a lot more than that....and it didn't get younger or newer.


Routine-Ad-2840

that's what it cost me to eat in a month now lol


Shoshannainthedark

$580 was equivalent to almost $6000 in 1961


ratchetcoutoure

Inflation calculator said that's about $5K in 2024 money.


SomalianRoadBuilder

That’s $6,000 adjusted for inflation.


DoctorLinguarum

I paid about $400 for mine in 2017.


DasFischli

They had cake and coffee and sandwiches for dinner. I think that would be possible on the cheap side today as well. And it’s only food and drinks and most likely the location.


WTFwhatthehell

In 1960 you could more or less buy a house for 5 to 10k 


MeltsYourMinds

The titanic was built for 7 million USD (1909-1912). Modern AIDA cruisers are around one billion each. Inflation is wild if you switch from your human perspective on time to a larger scale.


Ch4m3l30n

I paid $100 for a retired judge to marry me & my wife in our Studio apartment with my mom & sister and 3 of our friends as witnesses on February 13th, 1999. I paid $100 for 25 dark chocolate covered strawberries (her favorite) as an anniversary gift 3 days ago.


Gangidborb

​ |Quantity|Item|Price \[DM\]| |:-|:-|:-| |80|cups of coffee|40,--| |1|cheese cake|18,--| |1|truffle cream cake|18,--| |1|black forest gateau|18,--| |1/2|butter cake|6,--| ||sand cake (literal translation)|21,--| ||cream|12,--| |3|fruit cake|27,--| |1|plume cake|15,--| ||hot chocolate|6,--| |1|Strammer Max (warm bread with fried eggs, ham and onions)|2,80| |33|packs of cigarettes|33,--| |50|cigars|20,--| |5|bottles Hallerbaum (juniper spirit)|75,--| |1|bottle Kisker (spirit, 1 L)|15,--| |2|bottles liqour|36,--| |1|bottle brandy|18,--| |1|bottle Steinhäger (juniper spirit, 1 L)|20,--| |4|bottles Doornkaat (grain spirit)|68,--| |61|bottles cola and bluna (orange flavoured soft drink)|24,40| |11|bottles apple juice|27,50| |27|bottles malt beer (non-alcoholic beverage)|21,60| ||ice and telephone|3,20| |35+52|litres of beer, with 1,40 DM per L|121,80| |46|dinners, with 5,50 DM per dinner|253,--| ||bread rolls with salmon, cheese, cervelat sausage, ham, meat loaf slices|97,50| |4|shots Hallerbaum (juniper spirit)|2,--| ||fee for one server|40,--| |||1059,80| Handwritten: 1000,- DM recieved \[stamp\] payment recieved 59,80 Signature


DerHoggenCatten

In 1989, I paid $500 ($1,243 in 2024 money) for my entire wedding including my dress, the minister's fee, licensing, food, etc. It's about what you do and how you do it, not about the event itself. Weddings are more expensive now because they're much more ostentatious and expectations have really changed. People had much simpler weddings and celebrations in the past.


ChewyNarwhal

Mine was $97 in 2021


idontlikeseaweed

I paid zero for mine in 2021 by not having one.


oblarneymcdoodle

I paid $500 for mine in 1988.


SpookyBravo

My wife and I paid just over $900 in 2023


kuru_snacc

That's awesome.


undeniablydull

Which is c.$5500 once adjusted for inflation...


ballen1001

We paid between 25k and 30k, should have just eloped.


kuru_snacc

I feel like that's a lot for 1961. That's probably the most I'd spend in 2024. The concept of spending in excess of $1000 on a wedding is frighteningly normalized in the West.


RicksterA2

About what we paid for our wedding in 1973 (people brought food, etc.). Still married 50+ years later while so many of our friends who paid lots of $$$s for their weddings are divorced.


jonnyl3

They liked it so much they wanted to do it again with someone else!


scootty83

Why do people out the dollar sign at the end‽ That’s not where it goes!


Nullstab

Because OP is German and that's where we put the €.


gwaydms

Canadians tend to put the dollar sign at the end.


Deslah

According to my sources, the average exchange rate in 1961 was close to 4DM / 1 USD, making your dollar figure too high. 1,059 DMs in 1961 would have been closer to 264.75 US dollars!


Guitar_Tab_Trader

which was like ten grand back then


fragile_exoskeleton

Just under $7k


Dancelifeaway

Paid $3500 for 50 people.


CaptMonkeyPants78

I paid $250 for my wedding in 2019. We were married by a brewery tour guide, on Valentine's Day, at the brewery, under a pergola covered with fake hops, with a bunch of beer fermenters in the background. We received the ceremony, a corsage and bouquet, a pair of T-shirts, a cake, two beers, and an order of cheese curds for our 250 buckaroos. Best value ever! We had about a dozen friends and family there in attendance. We wouldn't change a single thing. We had our "reception" in Italy a few months later, and had about 30 friends attend. We rented a 26 bedroom palace/villa for the week and covered everyone's lodging, wine tours, truffle hunting, etc. What we spent for the week wouldn't even come close to covering the catering bill for the average American wedding. I think the whole shebang was just over $10k. Our friends still tell us it was one of the best experiences of their lives.


zigzagg321

No wonder the boomers think that we're all lazy. None of it scales together like it did back when boomers were buying big things.


DarthDregan

And they liked it so much they decided to entirely fuck up any future generation's chance at it!


jonnyl3

Yes because it's the little people fucking everything up for the rest of us


Historical-Day9780

You can pay the same adjusted for inflation if you don’t buy into the wedding industry expectations and social pressure.


ladykatey

My parents had a $1000 wedding in 1980. Buffet dinner. No limo, my mom’s brother drove her to the church (and was late). My mom’s dress was $79 in sale.


wabashcanonball

That’s about $6,000 in today’s dollars.


HisPalmsAreSpaghetti

Just stop eating avocado toast and you can afford it too


Hushwater

I did an inflation calculation online and $580 US in 1961 is $5982.67 US today


Mephobius12

I paid $600 in 1997. Parents were not too impressed but it was our wedding not theirs.


artgarfunkadelic

That's a lot of booze and cake


Shortshriveledpeepee

This is still only like 5k in todays money


Hagaroo48

DH and I paid $1500 in 1996… although it was catered by volunteers (my friends) - it was pretty large and fancy


TikkiTakiTomtom

You know that would come out to $5,982.67 in today’s time…


X0AN

That's not cheap.


ArmenApricot

After my grandma passed and we were going through her home, we found the receipt from her hospital stay in 1951 when my aunt was born… 94 dollars


fried_eggs_and_ham

So roughly $5,982.67 in today's dollars. Still a hell of lot more than my wife and I spent getting married at the County Clerk's office on our lunch break.


mastil12345668

My wedding was 6 or 7k in 2016


Hekios888

Minimum wage was about $1/he


duxpdx

So just under $6k in today’s dollars, adjusting for inflation.


-d4v3-

It’s still 5,800$ in today’s money. It’s not bad, but not surprising.


[deleted]

And that is why you don’t hold dollars for a long period of time.


Mitthrawnuruo

I paid less than that in 2008.


0MGWTFL0LBBQ

I spent more than that on booze for 30 people at my wedding in 2018


ConfidentScale6832

Still too much.


bafras

That’s what we paid to elope in 2010.


VirginiaLuthier

Back when gas was $0.08 / gal.


BoatFork

We paid $50 for ours in 2015 🤷 happily married with four kids since then. Just family and a few close friends. no debt. Very happy with our decision.


GMarsack

That’s about the right price for a wedding: Adjusted for inflation, $580 in 1961 would be approximately $5,066.06 today. The average hourly wage was about $2.25 an hour and about $5,315 average annual income in 1961.


Kindly-Might-1879

Roughly equivalent to $6,000 today.


katmndoo

Looks like it was about 4 DEM to the USD in 1961. So that makes it more like $265. That's just the food/drinks/cake though. Doesn't include the venue, officiant, wedding dress, etc.


AdamFaite

With inflation, that's almost $6,000 today.


Phaeron

I was married on top of a mountain overlooking two mountain ranges and the entire city I live in. Family was there too. Shit was free. I win.


spookie_ghostie

I went to a German wedding recently and the food/drinks/etc was very similar to this!


Golden-Phrasant

Median annual income for men in 1961 was $4,200.


FuckTheFuckOffFucker

Wow that Abendessen is spendy!


Mountain_Sorbet_4063

That's expensive considering the weekly wage was 10 bucks


Zombata

that's a lot of cakes


SukiDobe

Lay off the guac toast and work harder and you can do the same


Emu1981

(Assuming that this is from Germany) Your inflation and conversion is off. 1059 Deutschmarks from 1961 is the equivalent of $USD 2,730.88 today. Back in 1961 the exchange rate between Deutschmarks and the USD was just over 4 marks per USD which makes it roughly $USD 264.75 and adjusting for inflation makes it $USD 2,730.88 today.


Moscato359

My whole wedding was under 200$, and was in the last decade but I only had 8 people


PortugalDoesntExist

Did OP really post this photo and then delete their account?


kuzmovych_y

That's about $6k now accounting for inflation


nestcto

Affordable houses, affordable education, affordable vehicles, affordable weddings. They really had things easy back then didn't they? 


BarnDoorHills

Back then, usually the bride's parents paid for the wedding.


jabberwockgee

First you'd need to use the exchange rate from 1961, which was 1USD to 4.033 Marks. The wedding actually cost $262. Covered to 2023 $ is $2697. Can't find historical data on purchasing power parity from that long ago though, so I don't know how much cheaper it was to buy things during that time period in Germany. Also, can't read German so I don't know if this includes everything for the wedding. Looking at each line item and multiplying it by 2.5 (divide by 4, multiply by 10) would give you an accurate price to compare to today though.


P0wershot

I’m from Brazil and I’m paying about 60kish (brl)for a 150 guests marriage. It will be on october. And I’m doing a “cheap” marriage. For conversion: about 12k USD; the minimum wage in Brazil is 1412 BRL or ~260USD so it is over 40x minimum wage.


Cesemenara

Steinhäger, Kisker, nur das ganz üble Gesöff, so mögen wir es!


gobbibomb

WIth inflaction is only 5000$ is good.


Old_RedditIsBetter

Weddings are cheap when you have them in a gymnasium with folding chairs and plastic table cloths. Weddings are a scam now a days. If you really want to spend money in 10 years getting a divorce just go down to th court house and get married for 50$


DeaddyRuxpin

In the 60s my father got a masters degree from Chicago University. The entire degree, all classes for the two years, cost $2k in total. Even accounting for inflation, that still works out to less than a single semester at Chicago University today.


Thin-Pie-3465

My wedding in 1987 cost only $500.00.


curlylizardmailbox

We paid less in 2020. Courthouse wedding and a pizza dinner 🤘


Independent-Nail-881

At that time that was around 6 house payments for the average home


xxhomesickxx

I paid less than that in 2015


LittleNarwal

Accounting for inflation they paid $6000


Ferrariman601

Welcome to living in a country that has been in a precipitous decline for a couple decades. But hey - bootstraps and hard work, and stop complaining. Amirite?


skinnyfamilyguy

Yeah thanks for ruining the economy gramps and Grammy