Marriage? Really?

According to this news report, a 30-year-old Taiwanese woman named Chen Wei-yih has planned the perfect wedding. She's got a lovely dress (as you can see from her Facebook photo below). She's invited 30 or so friends to share in the celebration. The banquet hall has been rented. She has her honeymoon all planned - a trip to Australia. And the wedding itself isn't extravagant, at least by today's standards... It's only going to cost $5675.00. According to this site, "On average, US couples spend $19,581 for their wedding. However, the majority of couples spend between $14,686 and $24,476. This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring."

That's a bunch of money any way you slice it.

So Chen Wei-yih's wedding won't be extravagant, but it will be different from any I've attended before. I suppose we're getting used to the idea of non-traditional "marriages". But this one is even more "non-traditional" than most. You see, Chen Wei-yih's wedding lacks one of the key elements of a traditional marriage ceremony:

A groom.

You see, Chen has decided to marry herself.

It's not unreasonable to wonder why she made this decision. It turns out that Chen has been unimpressed with the men she's met, so... in the words of the bride-to-be, "Age thirty is a prime period for me. My work and experience are in good shape, but I haven't found a partner, so what can I do?" Chen goes on to say, "It's not that I'm anti-marriage. I just hope that I can express a different idea within the bounds of a tradition."

Which raises the question, what precisely IS marriage?


Does it make me intolerant to assert that marriage is a life-long union between one man and one woman? And am I hopelessly outdated because I find the idea of marrying oneself to be ludicrous at best? Am I utterly off-base to say that Chen's "marriage" falls far outside "the bounds of a tradition"?