Does spending all that money in a fat Indian wedding guarantee happiness for life?

My marriage had been fixed. My prospective in-laws very categorically told my parents that whatever my parents will be giving, will be to me, their daughter. We were quite naive at the time. We thought that they didn’t want anything. But more of that later. Anyways, my parents started collecting their savings. After all, it was their daughter’s marriage.

My marriage wasn’t a very lavish one. But then, we are a middle-class family which doesn’t have that kind of money. The relatives and friends who were invited for the wedding came with their bag and baggage. Every thing went as per the plan. However, the marriage for which so many people came, so much was done, did not last long.

Today, as I look back, it makes me wonder why do some people spend so much on a daughter’s marriage especially on all calling and hosting relatives and friends for days or even weeks? They take out all their savings, some of them even mortgage their houses, all for a grand wedding. I know they do it for their daughter but why? What is the point?

If the parents have kept some money aside for their daughter’s marriage, why cannot they have a small wedding and then give that money to their daughter in the form of a fixed deposit or investment so that she has something for a rainy day? In today’s day and age, where people can be equated to chameleons and relationships are so fragile, why cause so much of pollution with all that band-baaja-baarat? Why have such a big carbon footprint?

Why not have a solemn affair which is more about the union of two souls and the blending of two families?

I know age old customs will not die. But then, it is just a thought.