A friend and I were talking about this yesterday. There seems to be an upward trend of our friends (not even mutual friends) to announce their engagement and then not too soon after announce that they eloped/got married at the courthouse and are essentially continuing their daily lives like it didn’t happen. Like they’re just hanging out with friends the evening of and then going to work, the grocery store, appointments, etc, the next day. She questioned when marriage suddenly became such an apathetic institution that you take an hour out of your day to make it legal and then go on with life like it’s no different.
I guess I’m kind of traditional. I want a “special day”. I want to have the ceremony in front of our family and friends and have a big party after to celebrate this huge life change. I’ve had people ask me, “you and Devon have been together forever, are you really still bothering with an actual wedding?” I didn’t know there was a relationship time limit on having an “actual” wedding.
I know, I know, different strokes for different folks. For some people having a wedding isn’t a big deal. Maybe you can’t afford it, can’t deal with the details, or don’t want to plan it. I get that. For me, it’s the one day of my life that is specifically for Devon and I to just celebrate the fact that we made it that far and that we’re planning on making it the next 70 years.
I’m never going to say how people choose to get married or celebrate their new chapter is wrong. If it makes sense to go to a courthouse, go for it; if you wanna run away to Fiji for a week, have at it. I guess, to me, marriage/weddings are a big deal and no matter how you do it, you should have some special day involved in it. Just going on with life as it was an hour later just doesn’t seem right to me. You’re making a commitment to someone, that’s special and it should be honored as special.
A lot of people have become apathetic to the thought of marriage, so I guess the apathy toward a wedding isn’t that much of a stretch. But, like I said, I’m a bit traditional in some ways. A marriage is a big deal to me, so a wedding is also a big deal to me, too. My wedding won’t be huge or opulent, but it will be a special day surrounded by the people we love. If we’re going by current thoughts, we’ll have, maybe 75 people at our wedding. That’s more than enough because it’s a day about us that we want to celebrate with those closest to us.
Like I said, different strokes for different folks. My stroke is on the realm of, it’s your day, make it special. You only get so many times like this in a lifetime, take advantage of it and enjoy it, whatever your preference might be.
