With the spectacle that is the royal wedding fresh in our minds, I thought that I’d wax eloquent on the holy institution of marriage. Now, lets get one thing straight: there’s nothing wrong with marriage, nope, nothing at all. Weddings? There may be some issues with weddings. If you wonder why it seems like most men are running and screaming when the “w” word is spoken; blame it on society, the remarkably insane demands many women have on what type of wedding they want, and the billion (yes, 9 zeros) dollar industry.
Once upon a simple time, people got married and stayed together. Men worked hard to get a ring on their lady’s finger; the lady used her mother’s wedding dress, the families traded a few heads of cattle and couple of acres of land, the woman pumped out 9 kids and everyone lived happily ever after. Gender inequality aside, the married life was never been an easy one. However, back then, people made it work and the pomp and parade involved with the weddings that we see today were few and far between.
Currently, our society dictates that every woman is a princess who doesn’t need, but deserves an astronomically exorbitantly overpriced opulent wedding ceremony. It has to be planned by the person who planned a Hollywood celebrities’ wedding. It has to be at the largest church or the most expensive wedding chapel. The ring has to be visible from space and the dress has to be the most elaborate design Vera Wang ever dreamt up. The women who want a normal wedding are seen as “odd” and the women who fall over the cliff head over heels in wedded bliss amass debt and drag their spouses in with them.
“Bridezilla” is new millennium vernacular. Have you ever wondered why? I’ve yet to see a situation where a to be married man is actively planning colour swatches, suit styles, menus and what type of flowers and/or how they’ll be arranged. More importantly, that kind of elaborate preparation was never meant for a couple with a middle class income: it was reserved for the ultra rich which; back in those days; meant people with servants and a lot of horses on many acres of land: not a pie lot and a 1300 square foot house.
Both women and men deserve the happiness that comes with a great wedding and a happy marriage. It should be about both individuals and not a one sided affair wrought with overbearing behavior and bossiness. The statistics say that ½ of marriages end in divorce and one of the leading causes of a split can be traced to financial issues. Let’s all be mindful that the key to happiness isn’t thousands of dollars sunken into an extravagant ceremony. The key is to just be happy to spend the rest of your lives with one another and to maximize what you both have… not necessarily what you think you should have.
Shinobi
