Weddings are progressively becoming more about holding a grand social event that focuses primarily on the bride instead of a ceremony to join two loving people in matrimony. More times than few, there is very little emphasis on the groom or what he envisions for his special day. Instead, weddings have become all about the bride and catering to her every little want and need in order to make it the day she has always dreamed of. This leaves very little focus on the true meaning of a wedding—the sacred union for life of two people who are in love.
There are generally three different categories that women can be put in when planning their special day. These categories are the "bridezilla," the "free spirit." and the "delegator." What makes all these women similar is that they all want their wedding day to be a perfect day that they will remember for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether it will actually lead to a lasting marriage.
The real question is, why does our society put so much emphasis on the bride and the wedding itself instead of what a marriage truly means? More importantly, why do people spend so much money on weddings when the actual wedding has little or nothing to do with whether the marriage will actually last? The Knot’s annual Real Weddings Survey said that the average cost of a wedding in the United States was $31,213 in 2014. This is a quite large sum of money for one event. Furthermore, this money is only going towards the event, not the actual marriage. Paying a lot of money for a wedding does not signify that the marriage will actually last.
Take a look at someone like reality star Kim Kardashian, who is on her third marriage. Kardashian has spent an approximate minimum total of $50 million on all three of her weddings—the first of which only lasted three years, and the second only lasted 72 days.
A study from Emory University found that spending extravagant amounts of money on weddings is actually closely tied to a higher divorce rate. The study found “if the wedding cost $20,000 or more, women were 3.5 times more likely to get divorced." With this in mind, it could be said that people who are focused on material things might not have a solid relationship to begin with.
Therefore, when one is planning their big day, it might very well be a better idea to focus on the meaning of marriage instead of directing all focus to achieving that dream wedding. After all, in the long run, it is the quality of the marriage and relationship that will matter instead of the large sum of money that was spent on one day.
