During my time as a staff of Simple Loan company in Lagos, I had lots of clients who needed loans for different stuffs that they considered very important to them, it didn't matter what they needed money for as long as they were credit worthy and could afford the interest rates, we were happy to help.
But one incident got me marveled, I had just resumed work after a week-long leave from work and a lady walks into my office and asked if we gave loans to workers and I said with a warm smile "yes ma, we do and in less than 36 hours!" I offered her a seat, and started telling her of our products, during the KYC check with her, she opened up to me that she needed the money which about a million Naira for her wedding. Although I was happy to give her the loan since my check on her financial made her qualified for the loan, I was almost tempted to ask her why on earth anyone should take borrow to celebrate love.
In another instance, I was in a BRT bus; there were two guys in a seat in front of me, they were having a conversation from their loud tone, it was easy to catch their conversations, one of them was about to get married and ironically the other was consoling him as if he was going in for a kidney operation. Their emphasis was on the cost of the hall which had to be on the Island of Lagos because his (the guy getting married) fiancé’s family lived on the Island and he needed to get a grand hall to prove to the lady's family the he was capable of organising a grand wedding.
I understand that a wedding is supposed to be a once in a life time experience and that it needs to be memorable, but if the organisation of that wedding means so much pressure on two love birds then, it’s no longer a wedding as it becomes a campaign or a fund raising event. When couple's put more than they can afford to organising a wedding, rather than focus on being happy on their wedding day, they would be focused on the class of people that attended, how these would spray them, who was picking the money and how much they would realise from the wedding; creating so much tension and little space for happiness.
A survey showed that marriages built around big budget have been more difficult to sustain as the wrong moral message is sent to either partners or it is difficult to manage during financial downtimes; while marriages built around low budgets have been although less entertaining but has produced marriages that lasted over 25 years. One reason for this, is the kind of life style shown during a wedding event determines how the public see your marriage. If you use a hummer SUV during your wedding it would difficult to drive your golf car often in the public.
Let's be honest, one reason why the Government make policies they are unfair to the middle-class is because the Government thinks the middle class are wealthy, when we invite Government officials to weddings of our children the wedding doesn't reflect the realities of the economy, rather it sends a message of lavish life styles from the masses; so this masses wouldn't mind an increment in PMS, they won't mind if their Land-lords increased their rents, a high cost of housing won't affect them and they won't mind if we increased the tariff of electricity.
I am not against a high budget wedding if you can afford it without borrowing or breaking the bank to organise it, but weddings should be about two love birds becoming one and not about how big the event was. If your spouse prefers you take a loan to make him or her happy, then may want to reconsider who you spending the rest of your life with. Any man or woman who loves you would not want you to be in debt just to please them. A wedding should be as simple as taking you taking your spouse after courting, for blessings in your church or mosque and them coming back to celebrate with loved ones, your dont have to feed a thousand guest if all you can afford is just twenty guest. It's wedding day and your happiness should be all that matters at the end of the day and ten years later you can lavish the money in celebration of you wedding anniversary. - www.soulclaire.com

God bless you for this
You've said it all op.... That's my mind.
Still don't get the stupidity of people all in the name of pleasing others..funny enough, they won't matter afterward.

Weddings are becoming very expensive, most people want a celebrity/showoff wedding but they never plan for marriage. i know of a couple who have not been able to recover and pay back the money borrowed and spent on their wedding after 3 years. The money worked for within in a single year is for landlord, feeding and transportation. Taught it was females who desire this more often but it seems guys are involved too, they use it brag to friends. Its all about sacrifice and compromise. People should always spend what they can afford so as to live happily in marriage.