And How Much Did You Pay for Your Wedding?

I was going through some old documents today, and I came across a couple of the bills from our wedding.

Our reception was at the Shawnee Mountain Ski Lodge in the Poconos. We were actually the first couple to have a wedding reception at the lodge, and it was a perfect venue.

Here’s the first one, which shows the total food bill as well as the cost of one night of lodging. I’m struck by the formality of the receipt; it’s written on a little yellow piece of notepad paper:

The dinner seems like a bargain compared to what weddings cost today; 204 guests @ just $7.95 per guest! And my wife payed the entire bill herself – needless to say I was quite impressed. (My parents picked up the bar bill. I guess you could call me a freeloader…)

We also had hired a band, Adrian, Priest, and Grimes to play at the wedding, and I found their contract as well:

It was a three piece band, and their total bill was $380 (which my wife also paid), with each band member getting $126.66 (except for the head of the band, who got $126.68). This detail is all shown on the bottom half of the contract, along with their social security numbers! My how the times have changed.

I did check to see if the band is still around, but it looks like they broke up in the 1990s. They do have a Facebook page, and this is where I came across a picture of the band from the early 1980s:

Looking at those food, lodging, and band bills (total $2,500) brought back memories of a great day. I’m sure I wasn’t looking too far into the future on that day, but if I had, I never would have imagined a life as wonderful as the one we have had for the past 36 years.

By the way, today is not our anniversary; when I found those papers, I just had to write about them. And in case you didn’t realize it, that is not a picture of my wife and I at the top of the post, it’s the best picture I could find online of a wedding at Shawnee…