Friday, February 6, 2009

Strangest Feature of the Week

File this one in the folder tabbed Not News & Never Will Be. The Charlotte Sun plastered all its regional front pages Wednesday with this: Frugal nuptials. You be the judge:
...the bride and groom shopped locally, compared prices, and cut costs any way they could in order to cover their estimated $15,000 wedding budget [... and] used personal touches to decorate their reception, which was held at Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort.

The rookie reporter is parsimonious with facts: she doesn't report how many people, exactly, the frugal bride wined and dined at the Hilton for a mere $15,000. The reporter is naive enough to forget that the major demographic feature of her paper's circulation area is us old folks -- for whom the typical Social Security annual income hovers around $13,000 a year. Frugal: neither bride nor reporter knows the meaning of the word.

6 comments:

  1. I agree with you, OWW. This amount is hardly frugal for a wedding. A quick search reveals that the average wedding is $20K to $25K. They may have cut corners, but frugal is a friend of mine who did her entire wedding for less than $5K.

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  2. Well, the reporter, as OWW pointed out, was "parsimonious" with her facts -- and failed to even include the "average" wedding cost as a comparison. Personally, I found the whole piece disgusting -- right up there with Dunn-Rankin's Gone Sailing column a few weeks back. It's the Yacht Club Mind Set, pure and simple.

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  3. I'm certain the people in Charlotte County who are pawning their wedding rings to feed their children found this feature quite sad.

    I have a friend who keeps telling me that SCMG publications are not run by journalists so what do you expect

    She's right, of course.

    Front page main feature story. They are clueless at the Charlotte Sun.

    Next weeks lede feature, "Cavier prices falling in Punta Gorda"
    P.S. - Thanks OWW.

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  4. What ever happened to covering the news? They wouldn't know it if it smacked them in the face. They have "laid off" run off or simply tranferred their able staffers -- both writers and editors -- to the least important properies as punishment for doing their jobs well. In their place, men and women who have no talent or experience.

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  5. The TOTAL cost for our wedding was less than $1,500. And we had lots of compliments on how nicely everything turned out. We did most of the catering ourselves and held an outdoor wedding but "downsizing" did not mean we cut all the corners. We just used common sense and stayed within our means without borrowing and starting married life in debt for what amounted to a party from family and friends. This reporter obviously has no sense of monetary value...maybe she's dreaming of the big, elaborate wedding we had or wants to have.

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  6. Just a few words can change so much!! I meant to say "We just used common sense and stayed within our means without borrowing and starting married life in debt for what amounted to a party FOR family and friends. This reporter obviously has no sense of monetary value...maybe she's dreaming of the big, elaborate wedding SHE had or wants to have.

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