For Richer Or Poorer

Has anyone ever considered the time, energy and cash that goes into weddings these days?

Well as a parent of two young eligible children I am hoping I would not have to fork out the humongous amounts of money mothers and fathers around the world are actually spending on their broods.

There are people around the world that opt for simple weddings and those that celebrate with full blown opulence and I keep wondering how much is too much to spend on a day that’s supposed to come just once in a lifetime if you are lucky.

Liz Hurley’s recent £2 million wedding to Arun Nayar in a castle in England and then a fort in India caused quite a stir in the UK even though it was looked upon as not unusual back in India. There it is quite common for business tycoons to throw three-day wedding parties and dish out diamonds as a thank you gift for each guest.

Poor Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, however, will not be able to spend the millions of dollars slotted for spending on their much talked-about wedding as the ill-health of Abhishek’s grandmother, Teji Bachchan, is forcing the couple to have a low-key affair.

We’ve all heard of young people graduating from university with huge loans to pay back but on the little island of Malta young couples begin their wedded lives in hock to the bank because the dress, the limousine and the wedding parties cost them more that they ever dreamed they would afford.

In the UAE, too, many young men prefer to postpone getting hitched because the demands for a dowry, the jewellery and the cost of the celebrations is way too much for the young groom to bear.

My question here is: Should we be spending so much money on weddings when it is essentially a day when a man and a woman sign a consensual contract to try and live happily ever after, for richer or poorer, in health or sickness, till death do them part?

If you’ve got answers we would love to hear from you.