Frivolous wedding customs

So I watched Bridesmaids the other day right..

I simply don't understand all these bridal showers and hen (and stag) parties!

Yes, a wedding is once in a lifetime. But is there a need to spend so much time, effort and money on it when the marriage after that is so much more important?

I love how Wikipedia says the Brits think of bridal showers as a "consumerist American idea" (and baby showers as a "materialistic American custom") :p

Ok, it may be unfair then to diss angmoh wedding customs as a whole. For example, I believe there are bridezillas in every culture. But I hear and see more of angmoh weddings so... (Thank goodness my close gfs are not bridezillas!)

And yesterday, Yan and I had a field day bitching to each other. I don't see why Sito must attend a friend's stag party in Seattle/Vancouver on the Friday-Saturday when he was to go to Boston for work training on Sunday. For a leisure trip, he is going to better Na's record on arriving in Japan on Friday night and leaving on Sunday evening, by getting to Seattle on Friday night and leaving Vancouver on Saturday night! Not to mention (a) they already had a mini stag night here in Evanston, and (b) the costs involved for something that isn't even the wedding!!

On the other side of the Atlantic, Yan attended the wedding of her husband's friends, a pair of Brits who decided to get married in Cyprus where they were to have their honeymoon anyway and expected their 20 guests to just show up like Cyprus were another High St in the UK. They didn't provide anything for the guests at all besides a BBQ reception. And Yan had to dig into her savings to pay for the hundreds of pounds for the flight, accommodation and gifts! Destination weddings sound cool - but only for the celebrities and the rich who fly their guests over!

Actually, I love weddings - I think they can be so touching and/or fun. But I don't like fuss and excess. (And for the record, I hate attending weddings of people I hardly know. I got that twice - new colleagues I knew for barely a month. And they quit shortly after that!)

In the end, I repeat - the marriage itself is so much more important than the wedding and popular customs. It's amazing to hear some people say they don't have money to get married. Sure, it can cost hundreds of thousands, if you want a stately affair(s). It can also cost as low as $26.50 to get married at the ROM in Singapore - that's the registration fee.