I went to Houston Texas for the first time in my life for my cousin’s wedding this weekend. I mentioned about this when I first found out about the wedding to budget for the trip with less than two month notice in Weddings are Expensive post.
The whole weekend was basically a family reunion and although I didn’t get to go sightseeing at all, spending time with my family was more than enough and made me so happy and whole inside. I always felt really lonely during the holidays since we only have our immediate family here, but being around them this weekend made me realize how much I really missed having relatives around to celebrate together.
Now let’s get to the business, shall we? Here’s the breakdown of what we spent for this wedding and the trip.
– $0.00 Flight (My aunt bought us tickets.)
– $0.00 Lodging (We stayed at one of my cousin’s house.)
– $0.00 Transportation (We were driven around in Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, and Hummer. Very nice~)
– $690.65 Wedding present (We bought them pots & pans set and a steamer set from their registry.)
– $20.00 Taxi to the airport in Virginia (We didn’t want to park our car at the airport, so left our car at my hubby’s work, which is pretty close to the airport and called taxi from there. We didn’t need taxi back since we came back with my brother who parked his car at the airport.)
– $25.00 Snacks at the airport (We used cash and no receipt, so not an exact amount, but close enough.)
– $7.50 Shot glass at the airport (I always buy a shot glass when I travel as a souvenir.)
– $20.00 One of my second cousin’s mission trip donation (We had a family Sunday service at my aunt’s house and one of our cousins suggested we collect money for her mission trip to Cambodia this Summer.)
– $0.00 Food (We were all driven around together to help set up the wedding venue and visit family. My cousin joked that there’s no such thing as free food. I didn’t mind helping at all, so free food for me~)
So the grand total came out to be $763.15. But if you subtract the wedding present, we (my hubby and I) only spent $72.50 the entire weekend. This is not because we were really good at keeping budget, but because my family was so generous. This was a great way for my hubby to meet my side of the family he hadn’t met and get to know them. It was so much fun and I really miss them. Before the wedding was over, we were already pressuring the next one, which is my brother in terms of age, so we can get together and celebrate again~^^
All in all, it was a very memorable trip and since my mom couldn’t go because of her health reason, I went to her house yesterday to show her pictures and tell her about the trip. Even though she doesn’t remember some people anymore, she enjoyed the pictures and the stories. Everyone talked about my mom and I had some of them talk to her on the phone while I was there. I can’t wait for our next get together. It won’t be anytime soon, but I’m still hoping and waiting~
Do you guys have good wedding or family reunion stories? Do you guys live in the same area or all dispersed like my family?
Michelle's Finance Journal 
Wow, that is an impressive total given that it was out of the area! That’s very nice and generous of you with the gift, I’m sure they appreciated it. My family is starting to disperse and if we move then it will definitely be more dispersed… I agree family reunions are awesome! Glad you had a great time 🙂
It was a great time and I already miss all of them. They were far more generous than we were, but given our financial situation, this was the best we could do.
Your family is generous. That’s awesome. We had a reunion/60th birthday party for my Uncle a few years back and it was so much fun. My family is spread all over the world so when I travel I usually have some place to stay but I don’t see them nearly often enough.
My family is concentrated in Texas, California, and Seoul, Korea. I sometimes wish I had relatives in different areas, such as different European countries, so I can visit and go to cool places. But it would be even harder to get together. I’m just waiting for another reunion so I can see everyone again, hopefully not another decade.