My friends are a lot like me, in that they don't enjoy being the center of attention. So the idea of a day that focuses primarily on the bride is a little discomforting and horrifying for all of us. The idea of a super small wedding is amazing, but we're all realistic enough to know that this isn't a possibility.
We've spent more than a little time lamenting the fact that grooms are decidedly less important, and that weddings in close proximity to home necessitate inviting family and friends you'd (secretly) not have at your wedding at all.
The latter of these things also inflates the number of people in attendance, thereby complicating that idea of a small wedding.
Those clever cats at the New York Times have a column in their Travel section called "Practical Travel." This is clearly of great interest to me, because it combines two of my favorite things: practicality and travel.
In a recent entry, columnist Michelle Higgins discusses an interesting subject: destination weddings.
In theory, destination weddings seem like a fantastic idea. You'd get the opportunity to travel to a really wonderful location, whether you're the guest or the to-be married couple. Of course, I am an extremely rational person, so theories have a very small place in my world. A destination wedding would be fantastic, but it's just not practical.
One, I don't have an endless supply of money at my disposal to spend on some extravagant island wedding.
Two (and more importantly), I'm not comfortable with asking people to shell out a bunch of money to fly out to x location just to watch me get married. For all those people who could be considered a polite invite, there are just as many, if not more, who I genuinely want there. I would hate for them not to be able to attend or go broke because they feel obligated to, just because I'm crazy enough to hold my wedding on the likes of Bora Bora (though seriously, how beautiful would that be?).
The article specifically discusses weddings held on cruise ships, which are described as a "less expensive alternative" to regular destination weddings.
But there are all sorts of additional things that can complicate a cruise ship wedding—as though planning a wedding isn't already stressful enough. The article mentions the likelihood of receiving marriage licenses from other countries (such as Malta), the legal requirements of applying at destinations, and the difficulty of getting married at sea if you're Catholic.
That's a lot of complications for a pretty location. I'll stick to my land-based, oversized (and at this point, hypothetical,) wedding.
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