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The 7: For the price of a $20K wedding, other options abound

You could drop more than $20,000 on a wedding ceremony. Or, you could do a lot of other things. Here are 7 ideas. (Mary Altaffer / AP)
By Kimberly Lusk kimberlyl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5457

It’s June, which means matrimony season is well underway. And, if you’re going to the chapel, chances are it’s going to cost a lot of money.

According to theweddingreport.com, the average cost for a wedding in the Spokane metropolitan area was $24,262 in 2016. In Coeur d’Alene, it was about $500 cheaper, at $23,835.

That got us wondering, if you weren’t spending that money on a wedding, what else could you buy? Here are 7 things:

1. A Subaru Outback. OK, technically, the base model for the 2017 Outback has a sticker price of $25,645, but we’re sure you could make a deal.

2. A two-week trip to Paris. As long as you don’t mind flying economy, you could live the high life while in the City of Lights. A quick internet search puts two airline tickets for random dates in July at $4,000 to $5,000 (first class tickets would eat nearly all the budget). Another internet search finds hotels available for $100-$600 a night. Even if you go with the high end, that leaves you with more than $10,000 to spend on wining and dining, plus museum admissions, transportation around town and mementos. More frugal travelers could add more time and other European destinations.

3. Help feed 168 students for a year. Instead of fancy cheeses and that chocolate fountain, your wedding money could help Second Harvest. For $144 a child per year, Bite2Go sends kid-friendly foods home with needy students to help them get enough to eat over the weekend. For more information, visit http://www.2-harvest.org/bite-2-go/.

4. A down payment on a house. It’s a seller’s market right now in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, so having cash on hand might make buying easier. In March, the median sales price was $204,900 in Spokane, so your wedding money would give you more than 10 percent down. And, if you didn’t need it all for the down payment, all the better. Maybe you could upgrade an appliance or pay someone else to do painting and fix-it work.

5. A weekly date night for three years. At $150 a week, you should be able to do dinner and a movie (yes, with popcorn), or go to a show (theater, symphony, rock, who cares?) and drinks. The possibilities are endless – and you’ll have three years to explore them all.

6. Take 505 of your closest friends to Silverwood. Or more, if you get the online discount by buying a few days in advance. That means you could bring the entire town of Rockford (population 469), and maybe spring for some pizza or cotton candy.

7. Seahawks season tickets. You could buy four Club 1 tickets on the 50-yard line for $4,550 a pop. That leaves you $6,000 for transportation, food and hotels. Of course, all that’s provided you could get tickets. “We have a pretty extensive waitlist right now,” said Lindsay Walker, the Hawks ticket sales and service manager. In fact, there’s a waitlist for the waitlist.