Lavishness at weddings

The other day I logged my 'gracious presence' at the wedding of a friend's daughter. From valet parking and outdoor traffic management to the 'thamboolam' (a farewell cum thankyou gift) for the departing guests, it was evident that greatest pains, utmost care and least penny-pinching had gone into ensuring zero-hitch success of the occasion. Among the educated elite, it appears that the dowry has been replaced, (thankfully?), by an equal-terms, healthy approach to the nuptials. Though of course no one can deny the continued presence of that bargain-barter combo among the pretentious-literate and the hapless-illiterate: God - and a hopefully extant sense of not-looking-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth - help them.

The mind rolled back to reports and videos of celebrities' vow-exchanging - where media frenzy and hysteria serve to lengthen public memory to a little more than average - the currency-value, the rights-value, the guest-worth, all meant to pop out the eyes of the average reader / viewer. Only to be followed a few months or years later with more graphics of a break-up here, an estrangement there, a court-battle elsewhere; the products if any of the union going through their own identity-crisis.
What can be done? The funds can always be put away for the future, say to celebrate the 20th/ 30th /40th/ 50th anniversaries, or for future upkeep, whatever form that may take.