Platinum Weddings

I think there is something obscene about people willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a wedding when so many are without enough food, clean water, decent shelter and clothing, healthcare, legal employment, etc.  My mind is boggled to see this program where the bride and groom are brought to the wedding venue on the back of an elephant, or in a coach like the one that Cinderella used to go to the prince's ball.  Thousands are spent on the flowers, and the centerpieces are even more.  Special lighting befitting Disney or a Broadway spectacular are added to the venue for a few hours.  The wedding dress costs $20,000 or more, jewelry for the bride and groom can cost a quarter of a million and up, fireworks launched (maybe this serves the groom's need for Viagra).  Linens for the tables must be new and will never be used again.  Orchestras and famous singers entertain.  The rehearsal dinner can cost in excess of $50,000.  On and on it goes, budgets reach half a million at least, I am thoroughly nauseated.  What a pity that obscene amounts of money don't seem to buy taste.  Couldn't they just save all this and donate instead to a worthwhile charity?  Why doesn't the happy couple just get a couple of paper bags from a supermarket and cover their faces?  It would be so much more appropriate.