Some reasons I just prefer to stay away from attending wedding ceremonies

Weddings used to be joyous events that we that were attending always looked up to. The reverse seems to be the case these days, as wedding occasions are taken as a big deal, which is now a turn-off for me. Enjoy this ride with me.

The most recent wedding reception I went to was scheduled to begin by 2 p.m., and rather than go to the hall and wait out my time in a noisy environment, I chose to keep tabs on when the reception program would commence. Call me a foodie, but hey, that's what my friend and I go for; we eat food at occasions the same way people eat or would eat at ours. My friend and I got to the venue by 4:30 p.m., and we met a full hall with nowhere to sit. People were fanning themselves with local hand fans or whatever thing they could lay their hands on. We stood for a moment to scout for any place to sit, but alas! All the seats were occupied. The crown of it was that people were not served yet, and the reception had not started as the couple were yet to be present at the reception hall. My friend and I stepped out of the hall, went into the car, and zoomed off. My consolation was that the bride saw us when we walked in and at least knew that we attended the wedding.

Sundays are for church services, and we may not mind having the service prolonged if need be. Who conducts a church wedding for three hours or more. Personally, I believe the occasions are for familiarity purposes, and the prayers in and out of the church before, during, and after are the vital ingredients of a marriage. Any church wedding that will be long should not exceed ninety minutes, and the highest it should go is two hours. I won't go into details of sections within the wedding service that should be minimized, but everything should be promptly done. My special appreciation goes to those churches that run their church services swiftly.

A friend of mine told me recently that he won't attend wedding receptions where he doesn't know key people. Even when you know people at wedding receptions, you may still not get served. In fact, even if your seat is reserved for a group of people, you may still not get served food. It does not speak well for anybody to leave the comfort of his house, get dressed in appealing attire, risk himself through transportation to the venue, and still not get served food. I prefer the wedding to have just a few people invited, and everyone gets served a reasonable meal to eat.

The same reservation goes for the sharing of souvenirs only to people that are known. Where is the equity and fairness in this? This is worse when we travel for weddings, and there is nothing to show other than the luck of having gotten food to eat at the wedding.

There is nothing wrong with taking or giving gifts during weddings, but gifts should be given voluntarily. People mark registers for gifts. Is that more important than the person's presence who has come to rejoice on the day? There are relationships and friendships that have gone sour because of the inability to bear gifts for the couple. This is quite inappropriate, in my view.

IMAGE CREDIT ISIS MINE

These are uniformed clothes often worn by groomsmen, bridal trains, or family and friends. I got a recent wedding invitation in a 10-hour travel by road where the aso-ebi clothes were ₦40, 000 excluding sewing. Sincerely, I would have loved to attend the wedding, both because the groom was my friend and neighbor and also because my brother was in the same city as the wedding. But traveling such a long distance would be detrimental to my health. I didn't disclose the details to him, but the groom kept insisting on my coming. Up until recently, I thought I was even removed from the WhatsApp group because everyone remained silent. They probably opened a different WhatsApp group for serious people. Well, I managed to send a fair token to the groom recently, and he appreciated it yet insisted that he would prefer I was at the wedding. It was at that junction that I had to disclose to him that I could not attend because of my health. Friends should remain friends after some 'unusual' disappointments and not tag some events as regards the wedding as a form of direct or indirect entitlement.

I won't say much on this, but we should not disgrace ourselves in the name of fun at weddings. You don't have to tax anyone who has surely sacrificed himself or herself to wear aso-ebi clothes in the name of games. Games can be fun without exerting inconveniencing financial strains.

Let me put a stop to this for now and enjoy your kind engagement in the comment section below. Thank you for reading.

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