I Do, Or Don’t
January 27, 2009 § 1 Comment
After spending some time watching the Women’s Entertainment channel [I hate how dumb it is but boy was I entertained] on Sunday, I started thinking about weddings. It was kind of impossible not to – they played one wedding show after another. After Rich Bride Poor Bride there was Platinum Weddings; then came My Fair Wedding. It was disgusting. People were spending over $500,000 for their weddings, requesting princess dresses and royal balls. The amount of effort and money spent on just one day really amazed me.
I’ll preface the rest of this post by admitting that although I do welcome romanticism from time to time, I’m usually more jaded toward cliches and tradition, and weddings are commonly rooted in both. Also, I have never actually been to a wedding [somebody get MARRIED already!], and I’m sure experiencing one would cause me to feel more favorably towards them.
What is the point of a wedding? In all practicality, they’re not particularly necessary. The wedding planner on My Fair Wedding described how he needed to please his client because it was the “biggest day of her life.” While I don’t condemn people who feel that way, I don’t really understand this affair of ultimate importance, which usually revolves around the bride a lot more than the groom. Men care about getting married too, right?
In my opinion, a wedding is like a baptism. You may have already accepted Jesus into your heart and life, but then you have to announce it publicly and go through that whole rite. In the same way, a couple may already be in love [or even already have kids together], but then they have to declare it before their friends and family along with a big party. It’s a social expectation. A fun and wonderful one, I’m sure, but an obligation nonetheless.
And then the cost. Oh, my gosh. The pragmatist in me wonders how in the world I could save over $20,000 to spend all on one day. Can I get that Mini Cooper I’ve been dreaming about instead? Or just go on a super-awesome honeymoon? Of course, traditionally the bride’s parents pay for the wedding, or at least the majority of it. When the custom first began it was in the form of a dowry; the bride’s parents were compensating the groom’s family for having to provide for ther for the rest of her life, since she was now completely absorbed into her husband’s family.
Is that still the way it’s done? I hope not, for me at least. My parents went me to college so I could get my own job, and I’m not planning on getting pregnant [and therefore having to be provided for] until a while after marriage. As a side not, I was thinking of using the popular phrase “knocked up” in the previous sentence, but where does that phrase even come from? The more I think about it, the more creeped out I become.
auradis 
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