Changing our Culture – Weddings

In this time of worldwide recession we are being forced to change our way of life in order to survive.  There are some areas which we find hard to change because they have become part of our culture and one of those areas is weddings.

It is not unusual these days to see a couple spending a small fortune on their wedding.  There are the invitations, the wedding and bridal dresses, the location, the flowers and of course the food for our 200 “closest friends”.  It is easy to run up significant amounts of debt in an effort to make that day special.  It is also true that many marriages are over before the debt incurred has been repaid.  Consider also that in many cases the couple has no home of their own and either moves in with parents or has to rent a house.

It is important that we maintain a balance in all that we do and that includes a wedding.

There are several suggestions that we can consider when planning our wedding.  The first is whether or not to have a formal wedding or to have instead a civil ceremony.  The money that is saved could be used as a down payment on a house and as a young married couple what could be more important than that.  Perhaps for some of us that suggestion is too drastic and we want to have a ceremony, consider having it at a church or at someone’s house which will be much cheaper than renting a location.  If the place has a nice garden then it will also reduce the number of flowers that one has to buy.

Another suggestion to consider is to have a ceremony but no reception.  Catering for a large group of persons can be very expensive especially for persons with large families.  The beauty of this idea is that all relatives and friends can be invited to the wedding without having to offend anyone who was not invited.  A variation on this theme is to have a simple reception at which guests receive a drink and a slice of cake.  You can still have your toasts and offer your congratulations without the added expense.

Other suggestions are to do your own invitations on the computer for which you can choose your own pictures and words and to do away with an elaborate wedding dress and wear instead an elegant regular dress.

The aim here is to encourage persons to work within a budget, to spend only what they can afford and to change their priorities.  At the end of the day my experience is that most persons enjoyed the wedding not because of the food or location but because they were there to share in the occasion.