*Bonus #2, Always the Bridesmaid Never The Bride by Kathleen Paxtor

I never really understood marriage or weddings as a whole but as I have gotten older I can see why some people choose to have a wedding and get married. I used to be closed minded on the idea of marriage and what a wedding represented because personally I think love sucks, but as I have seen most of my childhood friends get married I understand why they would want a wedding. Last year I was in three weddings as a bridesmaid to some of my closest friends, and this year I am in one and counting. I scroll down Facebook or Instagram and see some old friends from high school married or engaged. I have seen my friends enjoy themselves and get lost in their loved ones but I have also seen them undergo the stress that planning a wedding gives. I personally think that for a wedding to be special you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars. I think that the “average wedding cost of $35,329” is ridiculous. One of my jobs is working at a venue where our specialties are weddings. The rooms cost about $5,000 each; some people rent out the whole venue, which consists of 5 rooms, and this does not include food, decoration, music, and etc. I would never spend that much on a wedding but I think that it also depends of how people were brought up. Weddings are supposed to be the reenactment of every girl’s dream and fantasy. People watch Disney movies like Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, etc and they all have huge weddings and little girls want to be just like them. As they get older those ideas stick with them and they want a huge wedding too because it was everything they ever dreamt of. 

I think that weddings are still very prevalent today because you see videos and pictures of people throwing huge weddings and in some way it feels like they try to outdo each other. I think that people should marry if they both want to and not feel obligated to do so. I grew up in a religious household and for my family marriage means taking vow of commitment between your spouse and the Lord. Personally, I don’t think marriage is necessarily for me and my mom always says, “Just wait until you find the right one,” and I think that shows the differences between generations. For older generations I think marriage was absolutely necessary before even moving in with your significant other. Now I feel like civil partners are more common than not. I always joke with my mom and tell her “I don’t want to get married, I’m just going to live in sin”. I think that in a world full of restrictions and restraints marriage and weddings really are just a choice. Either you want to get married and throw a huge wedding, or elope, or just not get married people should be able to chose what they want. So for now I’ll just be walking down the aisle as a bridesmaid.