A Filipino couple’s wedding preparations are never without the proverbial list of godparents or in reality – the wedding sponsors.
The typical Filipino wedding in Metro Manila would have anywhere between 8-12 pairs of sponsors while weddings outside of Metro Manila (also known as provinces) would have up to 20 pairs or a whopping 40 sponsors!
One of the motivations for such a practice, apart from name dropping the neighborhood general or city mayor, is monetary logic. A wedding self-financed thru the generous contributions of its sponsors will indeed make it easier on the pocket for the lucky couple.
A typical contribution for a single sponsor can range between 10K-100K Philippine pesos (i.e. USD 250-2.5K). Multiply that by forty individual sponsors and the couple will have the capability for a really grand wedding. Quite a blessing considering the usual wedding requires you to invite the entire city -- lest you risk the spite of the grandma of your aunt’s third cousin.
The irony of all this is that if you need to raise that sum of money for your wedding, then you can’t afford yet to get married. It just gets worse (i.e. more expensive) from thereon. The best way to prevent such illusion of richness is to spend for your own wedding and to keep the number of godparents down (i.e. between 2-4 pairs). This will definitely keep the wedding solemn and prevent it from turning into a circus.
Trust me. There is nothing like the feeling of spending for your own wedding and choosing your sponsors not according to the depth of their pockets or their status in society.
Let the wedding sponsors revert back to the more meaningful role of godparents whose responsibility is to impart wise guidance on the growth of your kids as well as to be back-up parents in the event the couple cannot be around.
Thanks for visiting! If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. 
No comments:
Post a Comment