All of us, at some point in our life, have pictured our wedding; we imagine the venue, the flowers, and even the guest list, but something is missing in our fairy tale imagination––a life partner. Weddings have become all about the grand event and less about the person we are going to be with for the rest of our lives.

Everything about a modern day wedding is over the top: 19 carat diamond rings, eight-foot-tall centerpieces made completely out of chocolate, and dresses that cost as much as the average person’s annual salary. What many couples fail to realize, though, is that when the day is over, these extravagant details will not hold their marriage together.

Wedding shows like “Bridezilla” and “Say Yes to the Dress” are highly entertaining and inspire the romantic in everyone, but they focus way too closely on the “stuff” in weddings and put marriage up on a perfect pedestal. Rarely do you see a bride throw a fit because she doesn’t like her partner’s sense of humor, but instead we see her break down because her makeup is all wrong. These shows make everyone believe that everything after marriage is going to be perfect.

Hollywood’s new favorite divorced couple, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, perfectly exemplifies how marriages have changed for the worse. Anyone who stomached the two-day wedding special knows that Kim has had her wedding planned out since she was a child; what she forgot to factor in was her husband. The supposedly devoted couple didn’t see eye to eye on the wedding details, and rather than step back from all the hype, they rushed into something for the purpose of having Kim’s big wedding ideas come true.

Weddings were created to bind a couple in love together, but the actual “party” aspect of the wedding developed out of our materialistic generation. Modern day couples rush into marriages thinking it will fix their problems and give them a happy ever after. The truth is that problems will follow no matter how big of a wedding one throws. While it is true that weddings are a joyous event, they should be about two people in love, rather than who was on the guest list or how much money was spent.