Weddings - as we know them - are a fairly recent, Victorian, invention.
For most ordinary people, the act of living together would be considered marriage, possible seeking the blessing of the church after a while. (To an extent, we have returned to this practice - couples waiting until their children can be bridesmaids before having a wedding.)
For the gentry, marriage was about protecting property and forming alliances. To these people marriage had to be seen as a public declaration. Marriage would be elaborate and very public partly as a statement of self-importance, an opportunity to flaunt wealth, and partly to ensure that the intentions of the marriage were widely understood and accepted.
The Victorian "adjustment" was to encourage the lower orders to ape this behaviour. The focus shifted from the union of the couple to a display of extravagance driven by the social needs of the bride's mother. More recently, there has been a competitive element in weddings with (presumably) brides wanting to put on a more extravagant show than their best friends did. Consequently we have seen suggestions that a modern wedding can cost £20,000 ....
Well - it was almost half a century ago - my wife and I got married on £200. She made her own dress, we had no stag or hen party, our reception (self-catered) was held at her home. It took place in the local parish church (actually, just around the corner from the chapel being used for a certain wedding this weekend - so you may be able to guess which town ...) and we had a single hired wedding car. We had about 20 guests.
The marriage I admire most was that of a friend who came home one afternoon and told his mother "Me and Mavis popped into the Registry Office this afternoon and got married". Brilliant.
