Ugandan Weddings

With the spectacular show of pomp and flair, the whole farce is nothing short of circus. A typical Ugandan wedding would cost you a small fortune. It's no wonder then that cohabitation is the norm today. People can barely make ends meet with the current economic situation much less afford a wedding.

At least everyone who owns a mobile phone today has received a text message inviting them for a wedding meeting.In many cases you might not even know the couple getting married. The wedding meeting phenomenon is whereby a couple getting married invites friends, family and well-wishers for a series of meetings to help and contribute towards their wedding.

The wedding has become so superficial that the ceremony has lost it's sentimental value and has become a huge extravaganza as every couple tries to outdo the last. Even the former prime minister Professor Apollo Nsibambi has something to say about this. At launch of the Great wall of fame that was held on Friday evening at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala he said,“During wedding ceremonies people fundraise too much money, give out presents in form of cars, cows, television sets and bring hundreds of people to escort them because they simply want to show off,” He encouraged the youth to invest the money instead in order to create employment opportunities.

The worst part of these expensive extravaganzas is instead of concentrating on the marriage people are so wrapped up in the wedding preparations. As a result many couples start their married life broke or in debt.
Maybe this materialistic outlook on marriage is one of the contributing factors to the high rate of divorce and separation among married couples. In contrast weddings in earlier times were inexpensive yet tasteful and marriages also lasted longer than the ones of today

Long story short a wedding should be an intimate affair with close friends and loved ones. It should have sentimental value as it is a special day. However if you choose to have a huge wedding cut your coat according to your cloth. Don't spend for the sake of spending or to show off. Remember, it's your day and not a circus show.