If you’re in the military chances are you had a small wedding. So did I.
Modern day wedding culture has my generation spending 5k/year on travel, drinks, Ubers, and hotels. Not to mention the Bachelor Party, Engagement celebration, Bachelorette party, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, and of course the all too necessary post wedding brunch. We’re bred to believe this is an era of struggle, but it is definitively an era of affluence. That’s seven parties for every friend I have. Every CIVILIAN friend I have.
Military culture is fast-paced. We don’t know how long we’ll have at home and it seems we’re always planning another trip to get extra training in before a deployment. Our work culture is an accelerant for our homelives too. We get into relationships after one night out and get married after a few months of dating. It’s almost unusual to meet someone in the military who hasn’t gotten married once before their 25th birthday. That may sound bleak, but it really isn’t. We make mistakes fast, but we adjust our battle plan and carry-on… Or maybe we get into another L-ambush and get married a few more times to people we don’t know. Another stimulant for an early wedding is the boost in pay from adding a dependent… or a few. You not only get more pay but you may be able to get out of the barracks and into a house. So the pros may outweigh the cons, depends on how impulsive you are. In the heart of it all we do experience a lot and live recklessly. Born in the fire in flames of recklessness is the courthouse wedding. We don’t have a lot of time to square away a picture perfect wedding while we’re active and the odds your best military friends will be able to attend are slim to none. So, we tend to opt for small, micro or none at all. Getting married makes you and your spouse more money so… why wait?
The Micro wedding is the way of the future. When civilians see how enjoyable our mini wedding was, they always say, “that’s the way to do it.” Is it just one of those things that everyone understands in hindsight? Maybe, but I truly believe the micro wedding is going to come back to the limelight in a big way. Weddings have become so large and unstable that the second someone tries to stack an eighth party onto the already overloaded wedding party schedule, the whole tower will come crumbling down. If the current model fails people will switch to what they’ve heard works. The military may not be perfect, but it works, and so do our micro weddings.