Kevin Milne: The excessive costs of weddings

Weddings aren’t cheap – well, most of the time.  

In New Zealand, the average wedding costs between $35,000 - $45,000, but depending on your tastes and needs, it can grow much higher.  

The recent wedding between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez cost somewhere between $20 million and $50 million USD – roughly 200 times more than what the average Kiwi spends. 

However, one columnist points out that compared to their wealth, Bezos and Sanchez actually spent quite little. 

So Kevin Milne is wondering, is it Bezos who’s being excessive, or is it the rest of us. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Adam has flipped me an email, as he often does
on Saturday mornings, to say, Jack really enjoyed your opening
comments this morning and totally agree when it comes to
fact for his drop. I've seen them live at least
three times and that album is one of my all
time favorite. Such sad news about DJ Moon only two
ninety two if you want to send us a message
this morning as well at sixteen past nine and Kevin

(00:33):
Milner is here with us this morning, Kilder Kevin Curider.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Jack nicefully said about MoU Blome me, I didn't listen
to their music much, but oddly one day the funny
things that happened on TV really I ended up having
to do a promo for Fairgo, which was going out
that night. But they were in the studio and we
ended up sort of doing a little thing together, and.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
My, hey, totally clear, are we talking about a musical
thing here? Were you were sort of one of the
one of the you know, is one of the guest
artists and got you to get dust off the old pipes.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah? No, I actually said to them that one of
my great aims in life was still record a pop
song or or some sort of song that might go
on the charts. Yeah. And and I said, would there
be any charts that I could record it with you guys?
And they were, they were writing into it.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, of course they were.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah. Yeah, because luckily it never got any further.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
But but honestly, that feels like that could be true
of any band, if you were going to feature and
a performance from any band, I think that that is
the band. It feels like you could just slip into
the lineup, you know, a third from the left, do
you go?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Hang on?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Is that Kevin Mill.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, you're making me wish you had father that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, anyway, Kevin, You've been thinking about weddings this week.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I've got to congratulate Listener columnists Jane Clifton for
this week flow throwing new light onto the much maligned
Jeff Bezos wedding in Venice. As we know, Bezos had
been criticized for that tens of millions he spent on
the wedding. Unacceptable showing off, we thought, But as Jane

(02:22):
points out, the amount he spent on his wedding as
a proportion of his wealth is minor by comparison to
the rest of us. Best estimates show that your average British,
European and American couples spend about half their annual income
on their wedding. That's an average New Zealand wouldn't be

(02:43):
far behind. Giving well, it seems to be a mushrooming
budget for our wedding's avare so who is the show
off Bezos who apparently earns eight million dollars an hour
spending fifty millions on his wedding or the average couple
who spent half their annual income on a showy wedding.

(03:04):
Bezos only spent what he earns in a morning. If
you want to spend the same proportion of his earnings
for honors wedding as we apparently do, he'd have spent
thirty five billion. As well as the Venice Canals, he'd
have bought the Sistine Chapel for the service, the leaning

(03:25):
towered pizza for the photos, and the Colosseum for the
after party. By comparison to the rest of us, Bezos
showed restraint. And I tell Jane Clifton's story because it
tells us that to some extent, we're the fools. Don't
get sacked into a wedding that's out of proportion to
your income. Don't worry about your friends. They'll be the

(03:47):
last to complain. They're as hard up as you are.
Most to be delighted. They don't have to stump up
for a gift, a new outfit, babysitters, a day off
work for travel, and an expensive bed in allowsy hotel.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, well said, given. It's funny like that. The you know,
the showiness of weddings is, you know, it's not important
to everyone, but it clearly is important to to some people.
I mean it's a I think it's always just a balance.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Ay.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
I mean, we spend a few summer money on on
our wedding, but I I sort of felt like I
was paying for the outsourcing of the organization. You know,
Like I was like, if this means that I'm going
to spend less time worrying about the absolute kind of
quality of the you know, food and that kind of thing.
And you know, we had a lot of sort of
family and stuff coming from overseas, and I sort of

(04:39):
thought it'd be nice to give them a good day.
But you can see how people over extend and just
and just kind of lose lose sight of relativity for
what is at the end of the day, six or
seven hours, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's it's if you've got the
If you've got the money, good on you, I say,
But please, if you don't have the money, don't do
anything like overspend that you're wedding just to keep up
with your friends. Yeah you have, That's all I'd say.
And we got married in the side chapel at the
church and had the we had the after event at

(05:16):
my mother's ownership flat.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, and it was great.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I might have mentioned this before. My parents. My parents
got married in my in my grandparents' backyard, but they
the night before my dad's best man had his wedding,
and so, I mean, it seems like very bad planning
if you ask me. But so basically they flipped a
coin to decide which wedding would go first, and and

(05:44):
mom and dad had the next day, which meant that
I think the photos, Dad's probably looking a little dustier
than he might otherwise. Yeah, I certainly think times have changed,
you know. It's it's amazing. Yeah, thanks so much. Kevin
have a great weekend and double catching him very soon.
Kevin Milone kicking us off for a Saturday Morning together Hamouses,
Jack like you, I played the trumpet at school and

(06:05):
stopped because there wasn't anything cool to play. Listening to
Fat Freddy's has often made me daydream. They've said their
music their school music teacher got them playing contemporary music.
They are lyle Bay's finest export. Certainly agree about lyle Bays. Yeah,
I sort of. I played heaps and music at school.
I played that, sort of played the drums, and I
played played lots of guitar as well, played heaps of trombone.

(06:27):
But I've only really kept up with the guitar. Sometimes
I wonder if it's just because it's easier to pick up,
you know, like you can just have it sitting there
in the lounge and you pick it up. I've still
got a trombone, though, so you never know, never too late. Maybe,
depending on how the next couple of hours go, we
could close out the show with an original composition.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
We'll see for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to News Talk z'd B from nine am Saturday,
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