My son, an otherwise smart and discerning young man (not so young, he’s 35) recently got married. She HAAAAD to have the whole white dress, uncle giving her away routine, every single expensive item. Not only had he already moved in, but this was each’s second marriage. Come ON. They went into debt and promptly lost their jobs. sheesh.
Sadly, they will probably be divorced soon!!! I have kept track for 4 decades with couples that had LAVISH EXPENSIVE weddings.......ALL but one divorced so far, and couples that had decent weddings....ALL STILL MARRIED!!!
That is so sad about your son and his wife. We were in our thirties too when we married. My husband wanted a wedding, but it was his second, my first, we never attended church. I just couldn’t do go to a church or wear a white dress or pretend something I wasn’t.
So we planned to marry at lunchtime on a weekday. I was scheduled to work a whole day but asked my boss if I could leave early. When she asked why, I told her I was going to get married. My husband’s two best friends were our witnesses. We all met at the court house and after a brief ceremony, which was charming, we had drinks at a hotel with our two friends. Later we had dinner at a nice restaurant and spent the night in the hotel. We went to work the next day. It couldn’t have been a nicer wedding. But it wasn’t just wisdom or being a hypocrit that made me avoid the whole nine yards of tulle . . .
My husband and I are very argumentative and while I wanted to marry because I had spent 3 years with him, I knew it wasn’t a great idea. We weren’t well suited to be truthful. So I didn’t want my family to spend money on something that was sure to be a waste. I would only risk spending a little. Isn’t that awful? And we have had some very hard times mostly because of our lack of maturity and poor planning, but you know, once God entered my life, my whole outlook changed regarding my marriage and my husband. God has transformed a rocky relationship to a relationship that rests on rock. While life is still difficult, I would still choose to marry my hubby. God is amazing when a person stops denying Him and starts following Him.