Weddings/Marriages A Gimmick?

The more I think about, the more I find weddings a marketing gimmick.

If you don't understand it, think of flowers on a Valentines' Day. Think of rice dumplings on, er, Rice Dumpling Festival? Think of mooncakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. Think of presents on Christmas Day.

Weddings would be like on a Marriage Day. The day you start or commemorate a union of two persons. (Preferably to the society, a man and a woman.)

If love is purely emotional, a union of love should be emotional too. This is then signified by a procedure or occasion called the Wedding, where you, well, wed two persons together to prolong or unite two persons in a period called 'marriage' or 'wedlock'. Some chose to do it over a contract which is also known as a marriage certificate.

To modernise that, a registry ascertains all these certificates and translate that into laws. That your union is legally binding and nope, no one's allowed to cheat. Legally of course. If you cheat emotionally, you will not be held responsible by law, unless your spouse takes you to court which in that itself, is a legal action and then the registry bo bian have to pay attention to your case. If not, the registry doesn't really care what happens after your registration of marriage. It's not insurance - they do not conduct follow-up calls to ask you "How is it? Are you enjoying your marriage? If there is any problem, please contact our after-sales service hotline?"

Well, that's on the LAW side. Now let's talk about the ANCIENT LAWS which modern and elite societies (like US *beams at LKY*) regard them as unimportant as we regard traditional chinese medicine.

For Chinese Ancient Wedding Laws, we have the Chinese Wedding Customs. These customs, in one way or another, is like the modern registration as mentioned above. There are things and rituals that you have to perform if you believe in it. Let me cite you another perspective, believing Chinese customs and performing it is like living in Singapore - you wanna move on as a couple, you register your marriage and you will THEN be eligible to buy a flat. Don't wanna believe? Don't stay in Singapore then.

If you believe in it but for some reason would not like to follow through every single aspect, can. You cherry-pick the customs you like but what's the point? You register your marriage and you apply for the flat but you don't wanna obtain a HLE? Then no flat lor. In this Chinese Wedding Customs thing, the zheng-hu would be the deities and whoever's up there to bless your marriage. If you 'offend' those people up there by defying what you believe yet not do, you 'suffer' in a way (most immediate suffering I can think of is you don't have a husband or wife lor). The Chinese (including myself) are very good at instilling fear by threatening telling you that you would have retribution or karma if you don't do this, this or this. A simpler version would be 'you would not enjoy good luck'. Like WTF?! How would you know?! In modern terms, you get punished by the law. Yes, the very same reason and circumstances that you are married under.

And my point in this post is that - Yes, a wedding like a marketing gimmick because if two soulful persons love each other endearingly, what's an occasion, ritual or registration to define? You don't even HAVE to marry to show that you are committed to each other. That being said, a wedding is nice to look at when you are old. It's like watching a movie. It's killing time anyway, why not watch a nice one instead of a plotless one? A wedding provides you beautiful memories and photos to look at and to look back on. A wedding seems to assure the two persons involved in a way like 'Don't you ever forget that we did this.' A wedding is an amplifier for signifying "YES, WE LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT EACH OTHER (SCREAMING DOWN OUR THROATS)".

Till this point, do you get it? Well again, I have digressed. So for the third time, (yes yes) you and I have reached a common understand that I think that weddings are marketing gimmicks and that being said, I am not despising or disagreeing with the way weddings are conducted. In fact, I buy into it.

Yes, I buy into it. I buy into the idea what those bastards at the bridal salons are selling. It's like you buying into the idea that a facial can give your better skin. You don't need it, you want it. You like the idea that they are proposing and it's fun and you genuinely feel happy thinking about it.

But question is, how FAR should you believe in it? I don't have an answer here. I mean, it's nice, wahhhh gowns wahhh photos wahhhhhh wedding bands but really, I don't need them to represent how much I love my fiance. Or in fact, whom I already treat as a husband but not RECOGNISED by law or Chinese Wedding Customs but by Melvina's Registration of 'Can You Cook Me Breakfast? Overeasy, Please' & 'Make the bed!'.

So in short (well, not really :S), weddings are optional to me and I abhor the idea that I HAVE to do something because... well, just because I should because the law states this this this or the customs state that that that.

And now, I would do a wedding because I buy into the marketing gimmicks that they are selling. I love the white gown black suit idea. It's not needed, but it's nice. I love my husband, the wedding is not needed for me to prove how much I love him or to signify our union, but it's nice to have something to commemorate. A 'festival' that is meant for the two of us instead of the other seven billion creatures on Earth.

Doing it right is not the same as doing it because it's right. I hope I made my point.