THE spate of year-end weddings ensures no escapes from marriage, both as a theme and as a template for life. 

While waiting for dinner to be served at a wedding earlier this month,china wholesale bridesmaid dresses I unexpectedly found myself facing a microphone; with a hungry audience expecting advice on marriage. In my attempt at tongue-in-cheek yet pithy wisdom, I addressed the young bride and groom, “You do know” – pregnant pause – “that the best thing about marriage is the wedding. After that it all goes downhill.” 

I added, for good measure, that “the best marriages are made of compromises and ... separate bathrooms!” The room remained silent and my joke fell flat. Perhaps tongue-in-cheek doesn't play at modern weddings. 

Yet, in an age where divorce and separation are rife, you'd think that humour would help newly-weds traverse a path riddled with surprises, both good and bad. Even as they continue to seal their nuptials with long religious ceremonies, drawn-out dinners for hundreds of people, and the same old meringue-style wedding gowns. 

It is only after the champagne corks pop and the honeymoon laundry is done that the real job begins. There is no doubt that marriage takes a lot of work and foresight. 

The morning before the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart married her publicist in 1931, she wrote him a resolute letter stating exactly what she did and didn't want in their marriage. Her reluctance to marry, even after he had proposed six times, derived from her perceived impact of the act of marriage. 

It was her work that meant the most to her. Her independent spirit and forthright nature were further spelled out via caveats on careers, fidelity and honesty. She also wrote that she would need to keep a place where she could go to be herself. Moreover, she extracted a promise from her husband-to-be that he would let her go within a year if they found no happiness together. As it turned out, they were together for six years before her tragic 1937 disappearance. 

At a recent school reunion, among company where most have been married for more than a decade (with a couple on to their second marriage), I decided to broach this subject. The variety of opinions at the dinner was certainly surprising, adding much figurative food for thought. 

MK,bridal gown wedding dress who wed a month after meeting his wife of 15 years, is not ashamed to admit that he enjoys his marriage. “Although marriage is an old-fashioned institution, it demands the respect it deserves.” He says the bond created by his union with his wife, children, in-laws and extended family make up a community in which he thrives. “This is what makes society,” he states, revelling in the incomparable companionship that his wife offers.wedding dresses made in china wholesale

Then there's the friend of a friend, who has been divorced for seven years after a 12-year marriage. He and his then wife,Floral gown he admits, had not only grown apart but were also growing in separate ways. 

“Marriage must be a symbiotic relationship,” he claims, citing the last line of Khalil Gibran's poem, On Marriage, as the ultimate rationale: “And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.” 

He fears he married too early and, like many others, including his mother and sister, stayed too long in the marriage. And not for the right reasons. 

“People should only stay in this archaic institution when both parties really want to. And only when your partner completes you and not because of a myriad other reasons like children,Lace dress home.”