financial planners should really warn their clients that they should set aside at least two per cent of their income for weddings.

not their own. weddings of others.

not that i've ever been to a financial planner, but if i had, and i had not been adequately warned that i would see my savings depleted as a results of the planned nuptials of my friends and acquaintances, i would deem that planner very much in derelict of his or her duties.

so far, we've been invited to a wedding a year for the past four. i know it's only going to pick up. the first wedding we attended had us fly from ottawa to edmonton and back. i was glad to go (at first), but it ended up, in retrospect, being one of the lamest weddings i've ever been to. my sweetie and i knew nobody except for the bride and groom, and i was seriously the only non-white person there. my sweetie and i were the only people there who weren't christians -- which was, yes, very much emphasized -- and the bride and groom took off shortly after 10pm. um, weak?

the year after that saw me fly from vancouver to edmonton for SC & MN's wedding. i went alone, but it was a chance to catch up with some of my old friends.

last year was TD's 'wedding,' which got unceremoniously cancelled after we'd booked our non-refundable plane tickets with jetsgo. jetsgo! the discount carrier that doesn't actually fly anywhere useful! the cash we dropped on those tix would be transferred to a credit that had to be used within a year, but jetsgo doesn't fly vancouver to edmonton or vancouver to calgary. more on this later.

this past christmas, we were at JS & BM's wedding, which was a blast. it didn't really cost us anything 'cause we were heading home anyway, and they didn't want any gifts. it was a slumber party wedding, so the bride and groom actually stayed the whole night at the hall with their guests, and it was just a great party. except for the dog shit and stomach flu. but i won't get into that.

now, we have to fly to ontario for S&A's wedding. i love them and am glad to go, but shit, is travelling to weddings ever taking a financial toll. fortunately, jetsgo does fly vancouver to toronto, so it was an opportunity to use up the credits. the wedding itself isn't until november, well past the year we were allotted to make use of the jetsgo credits, but i could at least book it before the year was up. if S&A cancel their wedding (unlikely, yes) we'd be shafted out of over a thousand beans.

i'm also sort of worried that it'll be kind of like M&L's wedding in that we won't know anyone there and that it'll be overrun with sanctimony...

fortunately, we haven't yet been invited to a wedding by people we didn't really know or like. it pisses me off when people invite those who can only ostensibly be considered acquaintances to their lavish self-indulgent ceremonies just to milk gifts.

anyway, my ultimate point is: the two of us spent about $800 plus gifts ($75) to fly to M&L's wedding in 2001, i spent about $250 plus gifts ($75) for S&M's wedding, just $100 in a food bank donation for J&B's wedding (though my sweetie ended up paying a much higher price with two days of non-stop vomitting), the equivalent of $1025 for airline tix and likely about $100 in gifts for S&A's wedding...which means that so far, we have spent more money travelling to and from and getting gifts for weddings than we spent on our own wedding and honeymoon.

whether that's more a commentary on our friends or an indictment of us is for you to decide...