Expensive Weddings are an Obscene Waste of Money

-
     One of the biggest wastes of money is that spent on a lavish wedding that most people really cannot afford.  While it may seem like a good way to celebrate the marriage, it is in reality a display of pride and arrogance.  At a time when the emphasis should be on what the future husband and wife plan on doing for each other, it now becomes a ritualistic display of what they can do to impress others.  Since this gaudy display is put on for the benefit of the guests and not the couple, the audience becomes the focal point, and the bride and groom are relegated to the backseat.  When a couple spends an exorbitant amount of money on their wedding, they run the risk of starting their marriage out so far in debt that it is nearly impossible to dig themselves out.  This in turn leads to financial difficulties that can haunt them for many years.  Consequently, if the situation isn’t corrected early (which in most cases it isn’t) the end result is often divorce, which in itself leads to more financial problems.
     
     In a story detailed on the Reuters website, a young 24 year old Rafi Kazimi fell to pressure from friends and family when he married his fiancée Farima, 20, by spending $10,000 on their wedding.  After paying back only $4,000 of the loan to the bank, Rafi lost his job. Now he, his wife, and several other family members must rely on his older brother’s salary of $410 a month; $300 of which goes to pay the bank loan.

     “It was too much,” Kazimi said of the money spent on his marriage to his first cousin. “I was so worried about how to find this money. Her parents didn’t care if I had the money or not, they just said we must have a big wedding.” (Nichols, 2011)
     In her book “One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding”, Rebecca Mead explains how those in the wedding industry encourage couples to spend outrageous sums of money; convincing them that this is the norm in today’s society.  They encourage them to dole out large amounts of time and money on a day that passes just like all others, but never encourage them to nurture those things that will give them the gift of an enduring marriage. While many will say that expensive weddings are a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of a new life together, it is really more akin to a sports team celebrating a championship before the season begins. Perhaps instead of spending outlandish amounts of money on the wedding, the big lavish celebration should instead be held on a couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.

 © 2018 Stephen Moore.  All rights reserved.

More articles by this author can be read at his Words of Wisdom blog.

Stephen Moore is an English and history teacher at Shanxi Datong University in Datong, China. He is also a student at Ashworth College where he is pursuing a master's degree. He writes articles on varying subjects: English, history, the bible, college life, life in China, etc. 
  

References

Nichols, M. (2011, January).  Afghan government plans extravagant wedding ban. Retrieved       from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-weddings/afghan-government-            plans-extravagant-wedding-ban-idUSTRE7040Z520110105

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gaining Financial Freedom: Chapter 1: You are Unique

-
Image
            Often, a person's first instinct when reading articles dealing with finances, creating a budget, getting out of debt, and so on, is to immediately find ways that it will not work for them.  The reader often laments that there are too many negatives in their life to be able to effectively implement the strategies listed.  (i.e. I make minimum wage, I don't have a college degree, I live in a certain area that limits my ability to find a good job, etc.).  While many arguments used against having the ability to gain financial freedom  may sound like just a bunch of excuses given by people who simply do not want to make the effort required to get out of debt, these may in fact actually be real reasons that are holding them back even though they do want to succeed financially.  The persistent problem here is that we find something that does not work, and then we assume that means there is nothing that will work.  We fe...
Read more

Sociological Perspectives of Religion

-
Image
          In the study of sociology, we are presented three varying perspectives concerning our interactions with the world and those in it.  Although parts of all three contain some bits of truth, it is this author’s opinion that the structural-functionalism perspective is more in line with that held within the sphere of religion.  When discussing our roles in this life, the bible clearly states that there are “diversities of gifts…differences of administrations…and diversities of operations”. (I Corinthians 12:4-6, King James Version) It is unfortunate, however, that many people tend to focus on what others should be doing, and not on their own responsibility.  The problem with Karl Marx’s conflict theory is that it focuses solely on one aspect of a problematic situation.  In his view, all the rich are evil, and all the poor are good.  By his thinking, if you have nothing, it is because those w...
Read more

China: A Brief History of the Sui Dynasty

-
Image
Yang Guang (left in black) depicted as Emperor of Sui      The Sui Dynasty was a short lived dynasty that lasted only 37 years (581-618). It was ruled by two different emperors: Emperor Yang Jian who ruled from 581-604, and Emperor Yang Guang who ruled from 605 to the end of the dynasty. Despite good intentions, the Sui Dynasty would fall due to the Emperor's overambitious projects and reforms, which would lead to revolts from the overworked people. Yang Jian Unites North and South China      Following a chaotic period of roughly 3 centuries in which the Northern and the Southern Dynasties were constantly at war, Yang Jian, a nobleman who was the prime minister under the previous emperor, united the political and military powers and through his defeats of the other dynasties was able to finally unite both north and south China. Although he established the Sui Dynasty in 581 A. D., it wasn’t until the defeat of the Chen Dynasty in 589 that the ...
Read more