Marriage
"Marriage is the recognition of a spiritual identity."
Hollywood weddings used to be about excess - mega venues, hundreds of guests, and dinner menus that featured a dozen kinds of dessert. Lately, though, a few wedding preferences in Hollywood seem to have begun trending toward the small and the intimate. Is this a trend that regular non-celebrity couples should follow, too? Many blogs for Christian women are beginning to get on board with this trend.
What is the attraction in a small wedding?
The most obvious reason for regular people to choose to go with a small event is that it can help them save money. Since every guest needs an invitation, food, beverages, and room at the venue, the costs add up. If you arrange a regular-sized wedding, you may find that you are able to only afford an average band, fewer flowers, and a less special menu. If you only have a few guests to take care of, though, you can put your money where it counts and arrange for the beautiful or glitzy wedding that you always dreamed of.
Budget considerations apart, here are a few important reasons why a small ceremony is an excellent idea:
1) When it's a small ceremony, you really are the center of attention
A weddings with 60 or more guests can turn out to be an exercise in crowd management, rather than a gathering where everyone is able to focus on the significance of the event taking place. If you want to be the center of everyone's attention, you need to make sure that there are fewer guests and fewer distractions.
2) You will be less stressed and more able to take in the joy of the event
Sitcom writers write many plots around weddings - stressed-out brides who are ready to scream are great comedy material. One reason brides are not able to enjoy their special day is that they just have too much on their plates, planning their huge ceremony. They also feel responsible for all the guests that they've invited - they have to play host.
Unless a wedding planner is involved, a very small wedding is the only way that a bride can find peace of mind in the middle of her ceremony and actually enjoy the event as it unfolds.
3) You have an excuse to only invite people who are really close to you
It can feel good when you have a ready-made excuse to give everyone that you are not inviting - you are having a small, intimate wedding. You will end up guilt-free and with a wedding that only has the most special people in it.
4) You get to afford a destination wedding
Destination weddings - where the entire wedding party flies off to some exotic location to get married - are all the rage now. Understandably, though, these weddings are expensive. When you have a tiny guest list, destination weddings suddenly become more doable.
5) Your wedding can have a spiritual focus
As Joseph Campbell once said: "Marriage is the recognition of a spiritual identity." Large weddings may have guests from many different faiths and creeds, making you reluctant to hold an overtly spiritual ceremony. If you invite only your closest friends and family, then you will feel much more comfortable holding it is a religious celebration. If your faith means a lot to you, then you will likely enjoy expressing it best at a small wedding.
6) Small weddings are fairer to the guests, too
Attending your wedding needs to be a special experience to your guests. When you make guests come all the way to your wedding and bring you a gift, many feel that it is not fair to simply make them feel lost in a crowd.
At some point, you need to begin to notice that if "Christian World Legends" could get married in a small setting, there could be something to the idea.