Wedding fever...

Wedding anyone? Everyone seems to be doing it. I remember a few years ago genuinely believing that my friends would buck the trend and avoid all that messy wedding stuff when we got to our late 20s, into our 30s. Oh how wrong I was!

Don't get me wrong, I love a good union of two souls. And I get ridiculously excited when my friends announce engagements and actually manage to tie the knot because I know, for them, it's a wonderful, perfect display of their love and commitment.

But despite the happy tears and congratulations, I am still amazed that everyone still follows the rules. OK, so the wedding day might be different (some of the versions in my friendship group have been truely amazing: eloping to New York, getting married on a beach, getting married on a boat sailing around Sydney Harbour) but I'm surprised by the fact that in the end tradition reigns. Even in this day and age?

Isn't there another option other than the traditional one where the bride changes her name and wears a huge diamond on her left hand? I respect that decision but I'm astonished that the alternative of going de facto, no rings and hyphenated names is still so rare.

I thought by the time my friends got the that age, half of us would refuse marriage and settle for commitment without paper. Maybe it's a surprise to me because MY parents chose the alternative (hence the two surnames: Woodrow from mum, Hill from dad) and this has been the norm for me up until now.

Maybe it's the linguistics degree I did with a module on the power of names that stops me wanting to change mine. Perhaps it's the sociology module which discussed the negative impact of marriage on women's success and development in modern society that stops me following other people's traditions. Maybe this whole tradition malarky is just too political for me....

That said, I do love a good wedding!