Oh, Hell, What's $25K?

I have been writing a few articles an issue for KC Weddings for about six years now.  In that time, I've seen three great editors tackle the job in their own unique way.  I'm by far the happiest with the current editor, who kicks major ass and edited for Slate, as well as sharing my penchant for sarcasm and need to schedule things within an inch of their lives. 

Anyway, one editor ago (she ran off to California to get married, and I've never gotten a better wedding announcement in my life), I had the honor (ahem) of serving as the magazine's editorial assistant when I had the WILD MISPERCEPTION that I might be able to work part-time after the little angel's birth.  hee hee, ho ho ho  At least not part-time as an editorial assistant, that is for sure.

I've written about losing weight, favors, bridesmaids, cakes, dresses, flowers, rings, etc.  Sometimes more than once.  However, even though I will never grow wealthy from the money I make writing these articles, the interviews for them never fail to amuse me.

The wedding industry...it's insane.  You can slap some white ribbon on rubber dog shit and sell it for $25 if it says "bridal" or "wedding" somewhere on the packaging. I am so not kidding. When is the last time you voluntarily wore that horrible shrimp-colored sheath with puffy tulle sleeves you have in the back of your closet?  Yeah?  And it cost $300, didn't it?  The bride told you she was being nice because you could wear your own shoes? And she gave you rhinestones to go with?  Yeah?  I thought so.

Anyway, I'm working on a current article on the subject of rings. I don't want to be a spoiler for all of you potential brides who will run out and buy the magazine when it comes out this summer, but I will share that at the end of an interview, one contact told me her brother had recently purchased a ring for his fiancee.  She said he started out with a $5,000 budget, but that didn't work out for him.  The actual price of his fiance's two-carat rock?  Yes, folks, $30,000.  More than we spent on our wedding AND our 2005 Ford Explorer with the sports package.  I was slightly blown away by how a 35-year-old man could go from $5k to $30k without much additional stress. 

I saw a tagline on the side of my hotmail the other day about banishing your holiday debt.  Is this how one could blow a budget by $25k?  Am I ridiculously conservative in that spending that much money for anything, even a car, makes me kind of want to throw up my breakfast?  Maybe it's because I grew up in Iowa.  I just can't embrace it, the freewheeling spending.  Oh, hell, I'm not perfect - I covet and crave, I spend when I can, but then I spend three weeks in Lutheran Guilt/Buyer's Remorse Hell.  I even regretted buying the Explorer, even though we intend to drive that bad boy into the ground and then some and then give it to the little angel go terrace jumping when she's 18 (I just heard that you have to be 18 to get a driver's license in Missouri - this can't possibly be true).

Anyway, what do you think?  $30k?  Too much for a diamond? Or am I horribly bourgeois?