Is it just ME?

Or are you hoping small weddings are here to stay?

I ALWAYS cry at weddings, though perhaps not for the appropriate reasons. What makes me shed a tear is the mad scale and the crazy cost — £32,000 on average for a 100-plus guest list, including a dress for around £1,300 — more than the deposit on a first home.

Couples have suffered huge disappointment having to cancel weddings because of Covid, and now Boris Johnson’s predicted Freedom Day pronouncements could scupper yet more, but the smattering of small, creative and heartwarming ceremonies that have taken place this past year have restored my faith in the whole business.

From small gatherings in back gardens, like Boris and Carrie’s reception in the Number 10 garden, to livestream Zoom celebrations as the bride walks down the aisle, weddings have resumed an intimacy that

I always cry at weddings, but what makes me shed a tear is the crazy cost!

enhances the lovers’ vows. Far from being a mere side show to the flashy party that follows, the marriage ceremony is now the main event.

I was 19 the first time I married. My parents arranged a reception for 250 of their closest friends. I hardly knew any of them. My three-tiered dress made me look like a crinolined Little Bo Peep and in today’s money would have cost several thousand pounds.

My second wedding I organised myself with our son, aged 11, as best man, and followed up the ceremony with a champagne tea party for about 30 friends and family at my sister’s house.

I wore a clingy, long skirt in silvery blue and a silky beaded cardigan. The entire thing was more memorable, moving and cheaper than wedding no 1. Call me a killjoy, but I sincerely hope that dramatically downsized weddings are here to stay.