or as criticism of you or anyone who truly won't get married unless they can have a big, expensive wedding. It wasn't intended as such. And of course I didn't mean to imply you knew nothing about cheap weddings.
Honestly, my favorite weddings have always been the ones done cheaply because they always seem to be the most joyous occasions. Nobody's stressing out about everything having to be perfect or worrying about how they're going to pay for everything. Also, the most memorable weddings I've been to or have been told about were often memorable for the wrong reasons. Such as the time my good high school friend's brother got married and his new bride actually slapped the caterer for cutting the slices of wedding cake too big. Or my bff's brother's second wedding, when the bride had a meltdown at the reception because her new groom's 4 year old son had an accident (he ran into the bleachers in the school gym where the reception was being held) and the groom took the child to the ER for stitches. The bride accused her new husband of caring for his son more than her and "ruining" their big day by leaving the reception early.
So again...get married or don't, I don't care. Have a big expensive wedding or a small cheap wedding...I don't care. But if you--not YOU personally but the general "you"--think the ONLY way to get married is to spend a lot of money on the ceremony, then I'm thinking maybe you're not focusing on what's the most important part of a marriage. Honestly, that's all I'm saying here.