by Akua Hinds

Created on: December 15, 2010   Last Updated: December 19, 2010

Unlike human beings, not all weddings are created equally.  Some weddings are good and some weddings are bad.  The problem with most weddings is they don’t accurately reflect the values of many people in attendance.  Not every one feels that weddings should last an entire day and evening.  Not everyone thinks it is worth it to spend over $20,000 on a wedding and not everyone is keen on spending hundreds of dollars on a wedding gift for the bride and groom who are most likely a two income family that can afford to buy their own household items.  Some people spend more money on their weddings than they do on a vehicle!  There are so many reasons for disliking weddings that it is a wonder some types of weddings even take place anymore.  Here are some more reasons why weddings are less than ideal:

Length

Why is it that every bride seems to think that a longer wedding means that it is a better wedding?  The most important part about getting married is the exchanging of vows between the bride and groom and exchanging vows does not need to be lengthy.  Unfortunately, many weddings are longer than three movies put together and for no other reason than the people getting married feel their wedding is “supposed” to be long and filled with tedious speeches that make most of the guests secretly impatient and wonder why they bothered to attend the wedding in the first place. 

Expense

Many brides and grooms feel that their wedding needs to be a storybook romance wedding where the bride is treated like a princess all day long.  As a result, many brides and grooms spare no expense on the wedding, even if the prices are ridiculous.  Naturally, these brides and grooms want to make back the money they spent on their guests, so they pressure their guests with not so subtle hints to buy expensive gifts or pay for their reception dinner plate as a way of “making up” the cost of being a “guest” at the wedding.  A guest at a wedding should not have to feel like they should have to help out the bride and groom with the cost of financing their party.  Too many people getting married are desperate to have the “perfect wedding day” and try to force other people to jump on the bandwagon.  Many brides and grooms need a newsflash that they are not princes and princesses and if they can’t afford to pay for the wedding of their dreams, perhaps they should scale back and have a simple ceremony instead of pressuring their loved ones to pitch in financially. 

Skepticism

Not everyone believes in marriage, and for people who feel that way, weddings are events they would rather avoid.  Not every marriage is destined to break up, but with a divorce rate of at least 50% and many unhappy marriages, it is understandable why some wedding guests are reluctant to attend. 

Weddings are events where expectations run high but not every expectation is satisfied.  Even the simplest folks can allow materialism to rear its ugly head and influence their wedding day decisions because they feel their wedding must meet a certain standard, whether they agree with it or not.  So many people pin their hopes on that one wedding day that they forget that marriage is not about putting on a lengthy and gaudy show for everyone and feeling like royalty for a day; if more brides and grooms kept that in mind, perhaps fewer people would have reasons to hate weddings. 

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