High School graduations and parties are getting to be as elaborate

[Hardrada]

as weddings used to be. Weddings are turning into the Academy Awards! Has anyone else noticed this trend?

[Wapsie B]

1. I sure have. The wedding biz is quite a racket.

[Hardrada]

5. I have been at a few of each lately and they are overboard

on everything. The little display of photos is now something like a feature length film. I blame some of this on advanced technology. And then there are the bands and the masters of ceremony. One of them sounded like that Simon guy on American Idol.

[Initech]

2. It's fucking insane how much weddings are.

I mean shit, my mom's friends' daughter is getting married, and they were saying that even the MEALS at weddings are like $60 - $80 a person now! Holy shit!

[Hardrada]

7. Or more. I was at a pricey wedding in Pacific Palisades

and the dinner was obviously costly (the wine alone was not cheap).

[Initech]

10. OK most of the weddings I've been to have been relatively low key.

Including the one I went to two weeks ago. And all the people that I know that got married that way are still married. The only one I know about that wasn't was a friend of a friend of mine. It was an Indian wedding - and there were 1500 people present from all corners of the globe for this thing. During the ceremony one of the bridesmaids changes into a traditional Indian costume - and the bride goes fucking ballistic. That marriage lasted all of two months.

[Hardrada]

12. Wow! That's quite a story! I'm trying to visualize that.

[Initech]

13. When my friend was telling me this story my reaction was "Holy shit!"

[LibDemAlways]

39. There's a tv show called "Say Yes to the Dress" that takes place at

Kleinfeld's bridal salon in NYC and captures the dress buying experience of engaged women looking to get their 15 minutes of fame. Wedding dresses there start at $1500 and the sky is literally the limit. It is not uncommon for women to shell out five grand or more. A kid my daughter knows was on the show with his family when his sister was trying on dresses. They flew out from Southern Cal for the experience and plunked down $7500.00 for "the perfect dress." Imagine if the dress cost that much what the total tab for the wedding came to!

[Initech]

41. Sometimes I really wonder if people get married just for the ceremony.

Gay people cannot get married because of stupid dogmatic bullshit but women can go on reality shows like "Say Yes To The Dress", blow thousands, if not 100s of thousands on one ceremony for a wedding that doesn't even last a year. It's not right!

[LibDemAlways]

45. You nailed it. Some women are in love with the idea of

having a big splashy wedding. They are not nearly as interested in being married. Big, big difference.

[Initech]

46. Which explains why assholes like Limbaugh can get married multiple times.

[Hardrada]

48. Mind-boggling. It is kind of a non-military 400 dollar widget wedding cost creep!

[Arugula Latte]

3. Bar mitzvahs, too.

My son has gone to a couple recently ... Wow! Very elaborate affairs.

[Hardrada]

8. Yes, everything!

[LibDemAlways]

4. Senior Events at my daughter's high school this year included:

All day beach party
All day at Magic Mountain Amusement Park
All day picnic
Overnight senior "life skills" retreat
Prom in the banquet facility at Santa Anita Racetrack
All night grad night party immediately following graduation


My daughter was only a junior this year. I have all this to look forward to paying for next year. Lucky me.

[Hardrada]

6. Don't forget the European trips and other excursions!

[LibDemAlways]

24. Yes, the school sponsors a summer trip to Europe as well.

$3500.00. Thank God, it's optional. We're passing on that one.

[SoCalDem]

15. We were allowed to take a half-day off, and were permitted to wear jeans to school

My friend & I pushed it and wore shorts under our cap & gown get-up , and were almost prevented from attending:(

prom was in the gym with a crappy local band..no "food"..just koolaid punch

[LibDemAlways]

25. My class ('70) went to grad night at Disneyland. Unfortunately some

kid who attended my daughter's school years ago was caught at Disneyland grad night with a joint. The entire school has been banned from the event ever since. So instead parents have to cough up big bucks to sponsor a top secret "grad party" to which the kids are bussed immediately following graduation. They usually rent a warehouse someplace and try to come up with plenty of food and activities to prevent boredom and/or mayhem. Disneyland would be so much easier. Then maybe, too, they wouldn't feel the need to compensate with so many other "special" days.

[hobbit709]

16. WTF is a "life skills" retreat?

[LibDemAlways]

26. From what I can gather groups of about 75 seniors go to

a summer camp facility in the local mountains at different times during the school year to "bond" with each other, reflect on their future, and get a super secret letter from their parents proclaiming their pride in them. I think it's sort of an attempt to compensate for the fact that the school offers no purely social activities and so these kids really do not have much opportunity to interact outside of class. Strikes me as coming kind of late. I think it might be a better activity for incoming freshmen, but what do I know.

[keroro gunsou]

34. they do that at my old HS

they just started doing that for the freshmen about 5 years ago. by the time senior year rolled around for me it was too little, too late. a weekend in the woods with my class did nothing to help us bond, the order had been established and not even singing kumbaya would change it. i cought A LOT of crap from the teachers for recognizing this and calling them out on it.

i had my small circle of friends and was happy. i didn't want to be friends with people that considered me beneath their notice.

[LibDemAlways]

37. I agree totally. My daughter's school's website is full of

"happy talk" from kids who've been on the retreat proclaiming stuff like, "I talked to people I never would have talked to at school." WTF? It takes a getaway in the mountains and forced proximity to get "popular" kids to lower themselves to talk to their otherwise ostracized peers? No thanks.

You were brave for calling the teachers out on it.

It's been 40 years since I graduated from high school and those old cliques are still in evidence at reunions. Fortunately, enough of my old circle shows up that we have each other to talk to.

[blueamy66]

36. I did this at my Catholic school....

I still have the letters my parents wrote to me.

It was an awesome experience.

[WolverineDG]

18. Gone are the days of letting the seniors out a week early, I guess

We got "Senior Days" (the next to the last week of school) during which we had our exams, then it was an entire week off from school. Most of my class headed to the beach to PTYD. Then we showed up for graduation & once the last senior had received their diploma, it was "Buh bye. We have to get ready for next years' kids." No punch, no cookies, no overnight lock-in at the gym.

dg

[LibDemAlways]

28. That makes a lot more sense. Therefore, it would never happen.

[WolverineDG]

32. It also gave the teachers time to grade the exams

& figure out who was going to walk & who wasn't. If you were one of the unlucky ones, they would call you back & let you know so you could "make up" your grades by doing something around the school or if you were too far behind, tell you that you would be receiving a blank piece of paper & the summer school schedule (basically because by this point, invitations & announcements had already gone out, family had probably had to travel some distance to see the ceremony & why embarrass a kid by not letting them walk across the stage when all they needed was 1 lousy grade?).

dg

[Hardrada]

49. Yeah, they do that here too. It's a good idea.

[TheMightyFavog]

35. When I was a senior...

We had the traditional beer party in an old alcoholic farmer's field. He'd let us kids party and drink on his property so long as we let him drink with us for a spell.

Of course, the parents would put on a "dry party," but the only kids who went to that one were some of the kids who went to one of the stricter Baptist churches, and even then many of them would sneak off to our party when things got boring.

[Hardrada]

50. There might have been something going on like that

when I graduated but I was too naive to know (or be told) about it.

[keroro gunsou]

33. there is some logic

behind a school sponsoring graduation parties.... keeps the little buggers from getting drunk, driving, and killing someone. at least that's what they do in my neck of the woods. they aren't mandatory, but they are free at the public high schools, the catholic one i went, i don't know off hand. given the insane concentration of wealth at that school it could be free.... but given that most of the parents were and are repiglicans, i doubt any of them would shell out... unless it was for a kegger for their special grad.

the local businesses donate a lot for the two public high school graduations. when i was manager of the little caesars in town, we donated about 300 pizzas. stood to reason, most of the kids who worked for me went to those high schools.

[LibDemAlways]

38. Free? I'm impressed. The tab for the grad party at my

daughter's school is $100.00 including transportation, food, and "activities." The event is optional, but those not attending are strongly encouraged to go home with their parents. The school isn't about to accept any responsibility for anyone who doesn't go to the official school sanctioned event.

[UrbScotty]

9. I just graduated from HS a few years ago

My party was pretty small - we had a few dozen people and a modest variety of food.

[Hardrada]

11. Our town's parties vary from modest to fairly elaborate.

In my era, we had some family over and that was about it.

[SoCalDem]

14. Everything's a "show"..

It's sad too, because the reason for the gathering gets lost in the glitz:(

[WolverineDG]

17. Pfft. Ain't got nothing on what people now spend on birthday parties for 1 year olds

:wow: I just about keeled over when someone told me what they spent on their kid's first birthday party. All that crap for a party the kid won't remember anyway. Sheesh.

dg

[raccoon]

19. Consumerism on steroids. These events get more and more bigdoings and expensive.

Like kudzu, they just grow and grow...

One of my pet peeves is the limo for the high school prom. :wtf:


edited to make more sense.

[sammytko]

21. My grand-niece and her friends had a limo for 5th grade graduation

They had a little ceremony at school cuz they were going into jr. high. One of the other moms arranged a whole day excursion for her daughter and friends.

[LibDemAlways]

29. If parents drove to the prom there would be no need for limos. However,

most kids would rather die than show up at the prom in a parent's car. I'm going the limo route next year for my daughter solely out of concern for her safety. A bunch of parents get together and share the cost. I've known of several instances of kids being killed or seriously injured in prom night accidents. Happened to a kid from my high school and two from my nephew's. I'm willing to pay for the peace of mind.

[Initech]

43. At least with the limo most people take them in groups.

It's cheaper to rent them that way. But to use a quote from Scarface - "You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked!"

[Tailormyst]

44. The limo made sense for my sons prom

8 students split the cost. It drove them to the prom and then to get ice cream and then dropped the girls at one house and the boys at another. As a parent it was a relief to not have to worry. He paid for it all himself and was very proud of that.

Now his graduation party was just family, a family friend and his girlfriend and her parents. We had a cookout at my aunts.

[CBR]

20. LOL. It is nuts.

People spend more on their wedding dress than I spent on my whole wedding and I had a pretty nice wedding.

[SoxFan]

22. My wife had the best one

Simple get-together with her friends and the out-of-town relatives who had come up for the graduation.

Oh, and the commencement speaker stopped by. Some guy named Clinton, Bill I think.

[Brickbat]

23. They're pretty low-key in our small town. A tent, a keg, a cake, that's about it. You put an ad in

the paper telling people about it, put a few balloons at the end of your driveway, and call it good.

[Mopar151]

27. Bigger the reception

Shorter the marrige....

[LibDemAlways]

30. Isn't that the truth. 90% of the lavish weddings I've attended ended in

divorce soon after. One was annulled after two months! Friends who've gotten married at city hall are all still together. Go figure.

[Hardrada]

31. It could almost be something like Murphy's Law or some

theory of physics! :)

[rainbow4321]

40. Probably the same ones who rent limos on the first day of kindergarden

for their kids..seen it happen here in our school district,

[Initech]

42. WTF???? People actually do this????

:wtf: I mean seriously! That has to be one of the most absurd things I've ever heard of!

[rainbow4321]

51. Yep...unfortunately

I'm a not-high-income person living in a high income city/county--Collin County, TX--the people with money to blow, do so.
Most likely it's the same locals parents who rent a party bus to take the kids from pre-prom dinner to the prom. A few years ago the busload of kids showed up drunk, a male student had to go find help when they got to the prom cuz his girlfriend was passed out on the bus. Everyone on the bus got in trouble with the school, suspended, etc..except the school cheerleaders. While the kids who were on sports teams got suspended from their respective teams, the cheerleader(s) got to cheer on.

[Hardrada]

47. First I've heard of that! Absurd!