Well, good point. Good causes like charities are certainly worth the money. But wait -- are weddings not good causes? I don’t know about you, but weddings are not something that happens often in my life. Neither are other holidays and rare occasions. Take Chinese New Year for instance–why don’t we donate our red packets to charities? How about our Christmas presents? And birthday presents too? At this point, you may say, “Wait. These happen only once a year.” There you go. We all think we deserve a present to ourselves once in a while.
The occasion aside, who am I to tell you what to do with your Chinese New Year money? I’m not your parents, and I am no teacher. What will you say if I tell you to give your Christmas money to a beggar? As the Chinese saying goes: it is bad being generous with other people’s money. So you are going to tell me to be generous with my own money instead. Right?
Okay, I admit: I do not know how much these stars are spending on their weddings; perhaps they did go a little overboard in their celebrations. But I do know that even ordinary folks spend a year’s salary just to get hitched. My elder sister, for one, spends nearly $100,000 on his wedding, and that includes eighteen tables of guests. I hear that in India, even poor families celebrate their weddings for days, and I am sure these parties cost months of wages by Indian standards. So like it or not, weddings are supposed to be lavish affairs.
But here comes the question: How much is too much? I do not know about you, but $50,000 seems a fortune to me. But then I am sure that Häagen-Dazs ice cream I have every afternoon (which, by the way, I do not need) is the daily living wage for some poor soul in mainland China or India. You may grumble all you want about Tara Lee’s carpet-length wedding gown. At the same time, somebody in another part of the world may be begrudging my Haagen-Dazs.
Do you want all couples to spend the same amount on their weddings? What would be the fun in that? Getting married would become a cookie-cutter affair—five thousand dollars on the dress, one on the ring, three for the honeymoon, and twenty for the party. Done. No, no, this will not do. Let the celebrities have their grand weddings– if nothing else, they will sustain the wedding industry, keep tabloid reporters in their jobs, make the gossipy fans happy, and give countless others something to murmur about.
Sincerely,
Chris Wong
