The time-honored tradition of tipping can often raise a lot of questions and debates. Although tipping service providers is typically regarded as a distinctively American practice, the act was actually an Old World tradition starting back in the 1700s (or even earlier) where tavern workers were given “drink money” by patrons so that they may also have a tankard of beer at night’s end. Tipping in America did not actually take hold until after the Civil War when opinions about gifting to “inferiors” were less controversial.

About this time last year, I read about a groom who thought he was hiring a music superstar to perform at his wedding and ended up falling prey to a scam. Apparently Brian Valentine, a hot shot executive at Amazon, thought he had booked Tom Petty, the artist behind songs like “Refugee” and “Free Fallin,” to rock out at his wedding reception. The performance was going to be a gift to his fiancée, a major fan of the band that rose to fame in the 1980s.

Have you ever thought about running away in the middle of the night, with only a small suitcase and your beautiful bride in tow? Not having an over-the-top wedding does sound like the perfect gift for the groom! Today’s culture has been drifting toward huge mega-weddings, with months and months (if not well over a year) of planning, hundreds of guests in attendance and thousands and thousands of dollars spent. It’s enough to make a guy guzzle an entire engraved flask! If you feel overwhelmed by the expectations of a modern big wedding, eloping is still a viable option. However, you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons of eloping as well as familiarize yourself with the destinations requirements for marriage before you hit the road to tie the knot.

There is something about human nature that makes us want to “one-up” each other. From SAT scores and the square-footage of homes to the numbers of push-ups and zeros on our paychecks, people – especially guys – like to compare and compete. For goodness sakes, this is how the Guinness Book of World Records came into existence; man needed a way to record random accomplishments and set the bar higher and higher for the next guy to bust his butt achieving. Well, you will be happy (or horrified) that the details of your wedding are not immune to this drive to climb to the top of the heap and get noticed for being bigger, better, more expensive or some other sensational superlative.

The average wedding budget in 2011, according to a recent survey conducted by The Knot, costs a whopping $27,021 – and this excludes the honeymoon. Do you know how many beers this would buy? According to our calculations, you could buy 18,000 cases of Budweiser (at $15 dollars a pop) which equates to 43,3oo cans of icy, cold goodness. If you consider 55 years to be the maximum beer-drinking lifespan of a man (from age 21 to age 76), that comes out to be 785 beers a year – or a little more than two beers a day! Would you rather have an “average” wedding or be guaranteed two beers a day until you kick the bucket? Gee, that’s not a hard decision for us guys, but trying selling that on the bride. Here are some other interesting wedding budget comparisons that may make you want to evaluate how you are spending your hard-earned money.

There is something about human nature that makes us want to “one-up” each other. From SAT scores and the square-footage of homes to the numbers of push-ups and zeros on our paychecks, people – especially guys – like to compare and compete. For goodness sakes, this is how the Guinness Book of World Records came into existence; man needed a way to record random accomplishments and set the bar higher and higher for the next guy to bust his butt achieving. Well, you will be happy (or horrified) that the details of your wedding are not immune to this drive to climb to the top of the heap and get noticed for being bigger, better, more expensive or some other sensational superlative.

The average wedding budget in 2011, according to a recent survey conducted by The Knot, costs a whopping $27,021 – and this excludes the honeymoon. Do you know how many beers this would buy? According to our calculations, you could buy 18,000 cases of Budweiser (at $15 dollars a pop) which equates to 43,3oo cans of icy, cold goodness. If you consider 55 years to be the maximum beer-drinking lifespan of a man (from age 21 to age 76), that comes out to be 785 beers a year – or a little more than two beers a day! Would you rather have an “average” wedding or be guaranteed two beers a day until you kick the bucket? Gee, that’s not a hard decision for us guys, but trying selling that on the bride. Here are some other interesting wedding budget comparisons that may make you want to evaluate how you are spending your hard-earned money.

With the outrageous price of gas and air travel recently, Groomstand.com is finding that budget-minded men are opting to sell the ‘staycation’ honeymoon to their brides-to-be. If you can’t afford to foot the bill for some amazing beach holiday or European tour, there is no reason to skip the honeymoon – every new couple needs to bonding time to get marriage off on the right foot!

Now this is a great gift from the groom to the bride - a winning lottery ticket. If you want to know how marriage changes your life and want a really unusual answer, just ask Missouri couple Robert Russell and Tracie Rogers. For an early wedding gift, Russell presented his betrothed with your standard scratch off card. However, the only thing that wasn't standard about this $10 lottery ticket was that it was a winner - a big $250,000 winner.

With the outrageous price of gas and air travel recently, Groomstand.com is finding that budget-minded men are opting to sell the ‘staycation’ honeymoon to their brides-to-be. If you can’t afford to foot the bill for some amazing beach holiday or European tour, there is no reason to skip the honeymoon – every new couple needs to bonding time to get marriage off on the right foot!

Now this is a great gift from the groom to the bride - a winning lottery ticket. If you want to know how marriage changes your life and want a really unusual answer, just ask Missouri couple Robert Russell and Tracie Rogers. For an early wedding gift, Russell presented his betrothed with your standard scratch off card. However, the only thing that wasn't standard about this $10 lottery ticket was that it was a winner - a big $250,000 winner.

Are you having enough trouble just remembering to get your groomsmen gifts? Well it turns out that before you make it to the altar, you have a much longer list...