SEE YOU IN DIVORCE COURT?

I have a cynical side when it comes to lavish weddings.  "Often, the probability of a marriage failing varies directly with the extravagance of the wedding."  Call that cynicism backed up by scholarship.  "That noted, the book does confirm a conjecture of mine: the likelihood of a marriage failing varies in proportion to the lavishness of the ceremony."  There's other peer-reviewed scholarship to a similar point.

I found some Yahoo Finance advice recently.  "'Your father trusted you': A groom on Reddit just got blasted for selling 'five-figure' family heirloom to pay for lavish wedding — now relatives refuse to attend. How to budget for big buys."  The story preserves the anonymity of the principals.

The 39-year-old posted on Reddit alleging he plans to sell “a very old painting by a lesser-known artist” — apparently thought to be worth five-figures — that he inherited from his father, who passed away in January.

He says the idea would be for the profits to fund the “admittedly ambitious” plans he has for marrying his 38-year-old fiancée in an out-of-state wedding this summer.

“The two of us agree that it's the most important occasion in our lives, so we should make it as memorable as possible,” the poster wrote — adding that they both have stable jobs and decent savings but “not quite enough.”

However, the groom’s plan to pawn off a valuable family heirloom to fund his wedding has gone down like a lead balloon with his younger brother — and with other Reddit users, who slammed him as “selfish and short-sighted.”

The family feud is on.

The groom explained on Reddit that he’s “not much for big family traditions” and while he appreciates the sentiment behind the painting, he’s “not massively attached to it.”

“I have plenty of other good memories of my father and I don't need a fancy heirloom to remember him by,” he wrote. “After some discussion, my wife-to-be and I decided that we would like to sell the heirloom to pay for our wedding.”

However, the groom added that his younger brother, a “huge history nerd” who was “really attached” to the heirloom, was allegedly “furious when he found out” and accused the nearly-weds of “behaving like spoiled brats.”

The disgruntled sibling, who was due to be best man, said he wanted nothing more to do with the wedding. He also apparently convinced the groom’s uncle and cousins not to attend, leaving the groom “really upset.”

However, the poster’s tale of woe has not gone down well with other Reddit users, many of whom think he should keep the heirloom in the family.

“Your father trusted you with this item for whatever reason,” one user commented. “You knew your family cared a lot for it [so] don't act surprised they're not joining you on your special day. You messed up big time.”

From there, the article pivots to advice for being able to finance a major event without having to sell the family heirlooms.  I suppose it's charitable of the authors not to bring up setting aside a reserve for the crackup to come.