Why I Love and Hate Weddings
I have a love and hate relationship with weddings. I love attending weddings as a guest, as they can make me feel all mushy and romantic. Aside from that, attending weddings is a great excuse to get all dolled up and pretty inside a church, where you are supposed to wear conservative clothing. Getting wed (in the future for me), is also a lovely idea. Indeed, it can make a woman feel like a princess for a day, with the lovely white gown and all. I don’t know about how male guests and grooms feel about wedding, but the grooms in the weddings I have attended so far looked genuinely happy.
Weddings may be dreamy and fairy tale-like, but they can also be nightmarish. Here is where the hate comes in. There is something quite not right in spending obscenely huge amounts of money for the bride to wear a white dress, for the groom to wear tux or barong, and for the bride’s maids and groom’s men to wear color coordinated outfits. Preparing the entourage’s costumes (yes, costumes, as a wedding is a traditional ceremony), will set you back thousands of hard-earned money. Of course, you also need to consider the expenses for the church, the reception, the food, the flowers, the works!
In this side of the world where poverty is common place, rice is nearing scarcity, and public utilities are a luxury, spending insane amounts of money for a one day affair seem strangely out-of-place. Taking into consideration all the practicalities of life, getting wed in a church is something you really have to think twice about. But then again, dreams are rarely made of practicalities.
In the future, I still want to get married in a solemn ceremony where I can wear a lovely white dress, carry a bouquet of flowers, and wear an attractive veil over my head. I still want to see my husband-to-be wearing a barong Tagalog, or a tuxedo if that’s what he wants. But then again, we might think about it twice. My future husband and I have an uncommon concept of weddings, so maybe we can consider the more practical ideas, rather than the dream-chasing ones. After all, what is important is how much we love each other, and how we plan on building our life together, in the comfort and security of our future family.
So maybe, just maybe, weddings are not really for me. But then again, nothing is ever final.
