Did you know that the wedding industry is a $120 BILLION industry? If it was a company it would be number six on the Fortune 500 list.
We've recently gone through two weddings in our family, and a third is coming up next year. I know that girls are being groomed to think of their wedding as their day of limelight, and I think that we do them a disservice.
Young couples are paying what amounts to the down payment for a house, or the cost of an upscale new car for two days of celebration. Despite the fact that they both may work, they saddle themselves with unreasonable debt that some never escape.
The dress industry, caterers, decorators, musicians or DJs, printers, and wedding planners all make their livings supplying necessities for weddings. Each young woman wants to out do the last wedding she went to, and the one-upmanship has become incredibly expensive.
Ask to have something printed. Then look to see what it would have cost to have something similar printed for a wedding, and you will find that the word "wedding" ups the cost incredibly. And that's true of all the services associated with a wedding.
It's time to explain the concept of simplicity, and the idea of focusing on the reason for the celebration, to our youngsters. I'm not suggesting eloping, or choosing not to marry. I'm simply suggesting that there's something wrong in teaching a young woman that her wedding day is the high point of her life.
Perhaps we need to do more to show them that there is a rich and varied tapestry of life coming their way. Motherhood, a career, and sharing their years with the man they love are all more important than the trappings around them when they say "I do."
Let's work on instilling higher values, and a broader view of the beauty in our lives.
Comments (2)
So true! And, oh, the brain washing! It's like Christmas- the retail and wedding industries saw the opportunity for gobs of money, so they commercialized what for most people were holy occasions into sheer oblivion. As a result, some women care more about the specifics of the wedding than those of the groom! And just as many people think Christmas is about the 'spirit of giving'! What a crock of secular crap!
Posted by Allison | December 3, 2003 2:07 PM
Posted on December 3, 2003 14:07
Weddings have indeed gotten out of hand. Hubby and I gave way to that foolishness, I will let my children know that as much as I want to be present at their wedding I too want it to be what is reasonable to them keeping in mind that they really would be better off putting the large sums of money into home ownership. Hubby and I were paying off our wedding for quite a while after, but I am proud to say we did pay for it and it was not either family that had to pay (the b.s. of the brides family paying fails to be understood by me, from a family of all daughters.)
As for Christmas, yes, it too has been blown out of proportion. For those of us that are not of the Christian/religious thinking and still do celebrate Christmas, I guess we do so as a cultural thing... the thinking of others... and I do like to do a little giving, but I do the giving to those that matter to me (ok, with the exception of the bloody teachers in my kids school... that is a socially pressured thing.) Any-who.... I do think it is up to each of us to use our heads and decide just how far we want to go with the giving and celebrating at Christmas and any other time of the year (Valentines day, Easter...etc.)
Posted by Desiree | December 4, 2003 6:35 PM
Posted on December 4, 2003 18:35