The price of love
Amy Wu says a tour of the world of wedding planning has convinced her that a celebration of the union of two people shouldn't carry a price tag
I used to be a sucker for romance - blame it on an overdose of Hollywood movies; Casablanca, Sleepless in Seattle and, more recently, Love Actually and Eat Pray Love, to name a few.
But I'm now fast discovering cupid's downside: the reality of 21st-century wedding commercialism. In the months following my Facebook-announced engagement, I foolishly followed my recently wedded friend and Real Simple magazine's must-do checklist, which totalled 80-plus entries. A nine-month timeline included "meet with your hairstylist and make-up artist", "consult with an invitation specialist" - and plan for both a bride's cake and a bridegroom's cake. Talk about the icing on the cake.
Today, the average American wedding costs over US$25,000 and anyone spending under about US$15,000 is considered a "budget bride", hardly a flattering title. And it's clear that the pressures of the modern-day wedding transcend time zones and cultures. Wedding packages in China are becoming increasingly extravagant, never mind the laundry list of requirements for the bridegroom, including, at the bare minimum, having a mortgage in place.
It does beg the question of whether it's actually more of a business transaction than an exchange of loving vows.
For about three weeks, being in the land of the engaged was fun; I was showered with exclusive invitations to bridal shows. Then came the onslaught of phone calls from retailers (how did they get my name?). Soon after came the mountain of e-mails and calls from potential DJs, photographers and wedding planners.
The low point during the deluge of wedding commercialism came when my fiancé and I found ourselves squabbling over the budget, whether to have a DJ, and what kind (read price) of wedding ring to go for.