Do it different.
Talking about weddings... Blink said his is going to cost around $15,000. FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS just to get married?!?!?! That's insane!!
When I mentioned this to a friend, she said it was pretty low already. What on earth?
Apparently the bulk of the costs are occasioned by the wedding dinner(s), but that is often offset to a certain extent by the ang pows (cash gifts) from invited guests. Flowers are another major cost, and then the photo-studio-wedding-pictures thing, including rental of the bridal gown and groom's tuxedo. Still, Blink and his fiancée are planning a pretty simple wedding, and I simply can't imagine... if their wedding is already so simple, how can it possibly cost so much?!
I can't see the point of spending thousands of dollars on a wedding. It's almost obscene to spend that amount of money all for one single day. Yes, of course it's a special day and all that, and you hope that it's going to be your one and only time doing this, which means you want everything to be just so, but really... what is the point?? When I was younger, I used to have romantic daydreams of the perfect wedding, but now I think it's the marriage that's important, not the wedding.
It's a special day, but it's only a single day, soon over, and you can't live on memories all your life. You gotta move forward and build a marriage, and marriage isn't particularly romantic, although it does have its moments of romance. Or maybe it just isn't romantic in the way we expect it to be.
I've been watching friends plan their weddings and getting stressed out on every little detail, and I just think it totally isn't worth it. It's not about having the most beautiful wedding or feeling like a princess on that day. It's not about the place you choose to get married in, the gown you wear, the flowers you select, the pattern of the rings, the church decorations, the food served at the reception, the number of tiers on the wedding cake, the lovely pictures of the bride and groom smiling into each other's eyes, the colour of the flower girl's dress, or the label of the champagne with which the guests will toast the happy couple. It's about celebrating with family and friends, and starting a life-long journey with another person. All the other things are window dressing. You may have to decide on them, but you don't need to treat those decisions like a life-and-death affair.
No wonder I have other friends who are still saving up for their wedding. It's kinda sad if money becomes a hindrance to getting married. I wonder if we've ever wondered why we must do it the same way everybody else is doing it. Just coz everyone else has elaborate weddings with all the same kind of trimmings, do we have to go ahead and follow? Is this to 'save face'? Or have we never actually allowed ourselves to consider possible alternatives?
I remember going for one wedding where they used lollipops wrapped with ribbons to decorate the pews, instead of having flowers. I thought that was marvellously innovative. The children grabbed all the lollies once the ceremony was done!
Lollipops as pew decorations
Even the pageboy and flower girl carried lollipops!