Musing on Weddings
Oct 28th, 2007 by katesaltfleet
HTB and I occasionally have a wedding talk, and then the conversation turns to something else. You see, there must be something wrong with me, because I’m not all a-flutter about our impending nuptials. According to various wedding propaganda machines, the cost of the average wedding appears to be between £13,000 and £17,000. This is a year’s salary for a lot of people, so why do they feel they have to put on a lavish do costing this much? I have friends who have been planning their weddings for over two years, (they estimate so far it has cost £11,000) and yet I have no desire to get stressed or into debt over mine. I don’t want to obsess about my weight in between bridal fittings for a dress I’ll wear once, I’d rather get something off the peg from Debenhams or second hand.
A while back, HTB and I drew up a guest list for a “traditional” kind of wedding, which came to over 100 people. HTB’s family, well most of them, live locally, but I have relations all over the country. So then there’s the hassle and expense for them, they have to stay over somewhere, which puts up the cost even more. The other thing about family is that if you invite some and not others, it can become an issue. Then I started thinking about the environmental impact of all those people travelling to one event.
So we said enough is enough. Let’s just stick to the close family. We don’t care about getting loads of presents, because we’ve already got everything for the house. Our guest list is now less than 20 including ourselves, and our parents are all fine about it. My dad even said that he would give us the money that he would have put towards the wedding as a wedding gift, which would be nice 
A small wedding will cost less, be more personal, and not take a stupid amount of organisation. It appeals to my anti-consumerist agenda (or just being a cheapskate), and will be less environmentally damaging. Now all I need to do is persuade HTB that we want to serve a meat-free menu - wish me luck with that one!
