A question was asked in the relationship seminar.
Why is it that mostly women, insist on wasting an enormous amount of money for a wedding ceremony and banquet feast?
This caused the couples to stop and think. Here is what came out of this seminar.
The first response to the Question floored me. It mentioned a couple, whose wedding start to finish the cost was ( $60,000.00 )
Sixty Thousand Dollars for most of us would be a marvellous downpayment on our dream home, yet this couple wasted it on a wedding. MY God!? talking about money to burn or having more money than brains, sixty grand on a wedding.
Truth be known though, there is absolutely no verse in any Bible that says that there has to be any lavish church packed ceremony nor is there any verse that tells us that we have to have some outlandishly extravigant wedding feast reception banquet either.
So why do we do it?
The Ceremony
As far as the ceremony itself is concerned, at least in North America as far as we know, both the bride and the groom should or must be at least over the age of 18, in the united states this age may vary, plus both must be single and elegible to be legally, lawfully married to each other, providing proof of birth and if applicable, a proper divorce decree, or decree of anulment.
Also required by law is a lawfully recognized Minister, Justice of the peace, Priest, Rabbi to officiate and to give witness as well as having 2 witnesses.
The Wedding Vows
According to tradition today, again in North America, the wedding vows are a promise between the bride and the groom, promising to love honour and cherish in good times and bad times for better or for worse sickness and health remaining faithful to each other until death. These vows, promises are made one to the other, and the officiate merely acts as a third witness of the vows given and received by both parties, in other words the bride and groom speak them to each other and the officiate, stands there silent as a witness, until the exchange of rings and the proclamation of Man and Wife.
As Christians, 26 years ago, my wife and I knelt and invited Almighty God to attend and be witness to our exchange of vows, as we stood with two human witnesses before a justice of the peace in Hong Kong. Infront of God, the officiate, and our witnesses we exchanged our vows and we were married. Case Closed. God was there, and we met the laws of “Ceasar” by having the cerimony witnessed and it cost us $20.00 for the whole thing.
Our witnesses joined up with us later in the day after we had gone back to our hotel to change into something more comfortable, as well as 4 other couples, friends of my new bride, my wife and we went to some restaurant in Kowloon and for about $30.00 Cdn. Funds, we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet including desert, some wine, coffee, anything our guests wanted.
The Reception Banquet
Before you start calling me cheap, the whole thing was my wife’s Idea her arrangements not mine. The whole thing start to finish cost us $150.00 Cdn. as I paid $100.00 for our wedding rings.
Big wedding ceremonies in a huge church with bride’s maids and ushers and a few hundred guests, etc. etc. and some lavish dinner party waisting thousands of dollars is beyond my comprehension but for some reason women seem to like them and want them. True it is not something a woman does every day or every week or once a month even but then again neither does the man.
Possible Wedding Expenses
Invitations, Possibly airfares and hotel accommodations, Bridal Gown, Bridal preparations, Maid of Honour, Bride’s maids, Groom’s Tux, Groomsman or Usher’s tuxes, Flowers, Photographer, Videographer, Floral bouqets, and arrangements, The Church, The Officiate, The Reception Hall, The liquor licencing, Food, Catering, Limo, and the list can go on and on. I mean really who needs all this. What a waste of money, money that the couple could probably put to good use for other things like housing.
Think about this really. The couple haven’t even gone on their honeymoon, and with all of these possible expenses just for the wedding, there’s a good possibility they won’t be having one. They still have to have a place to call their own, and some furniture, food in the fridge etc.