Oh! Colombo 

Having a grand wedding, be it a smaller function or one of those absolutely more ostentatious ones, increasingly seems to be the cause for getting married rather than the foundations of a lifelong marriage, which includes commitment, communication, patience and strong beliefs, to name a few. Dreams of a happy home and picket fences soon after the wedding are not realized any more as in most cases the couple have spent most of their savings and even got into debt to celebrate their marriage. At most times they end up living with one side of the family until they are back on their feet once again financially. 

Many mothers, who are desperate to have their daughters married, do not care at times who their daughters get married to as long as there is great wealth on the groom’s side. The grooms too are pressured to marry, whether by choice or not is a different issue. Many grooms of different sexual orientations also go along with the charade and suffer the marriage in order to keep up appearances and please their parents. Very few girls trapped in such marriages have the guts to walk out of them. These days it is common that some married couples share the same man, which is also convenient to some because the pretence of marriage goes on even though others cast aspersions on who the father of the couples’ offsprings are. The world is modern as they say and it seems that anything goes. 

There also are the Bridal Dressers. In the modern day the Dresser picks the bridal ensemble and decides on everything from the retinue to even the bride’s mother’s outfit. The wedding party has no say, and due to their desperation of wanting either Mr or Ms X to be their Bridal Dresser, they do not utter a word of displeasure to upset the Dresser. The Bridal Dresser, apart from producing a fat bill for the service, is happy to choose all the most expensive clothing as he collects a fat commission from the Supplier on a monthly basis. The Event Planner, which is a must, behaves similarly. Actually, chatting with some of these Dresser or Planner types is assured of hearing hilarious stories of weddings and all the antics that happen at them. Believe me most of them are not very flattering stories. 

The institution of marriage has certainly become a comedy, especially in this city where marriages hardly last a year. One wonders why go through this charade, which is primarily put on for public show, if they are not going to stick to their marriage vows and marriage.