Missing the best part.

I've been invited to my cousins wedding in June. As you may, or may not know, I don't agree with marriage. I don't think it's any of the governments business, or the churches, whether Alex and I are in love or not. It's between us - a promise that we make to each other. And if that changes and we decide that we can't work it out, we should be able to part, without requiring the sanction of the state again. But that's beside the point. There are 3 things that appeal to me about weddings. One is the reception. A big party with all of your friends and family (NB you don't actually have to have the wedding for this). Then there's the dress. I have an absolute love of beautiful dresses - thank god for the banquet and cocktail parties, that's all I can say. And, finally, there's the wedding list. This is one thing that you can't really get without actually having the wedding, unfortunately. Basically, you get to wander round one of those lovely shops like John Lewis or Habitat or something and pick out loads of pretty things like bed linen and crockery which are surprisingly expensive to buy for yourself and get your guests to buy them for you. I just can't understand why if you were going to go through the whole wedding thing anyway, you wouldn't want to get people to get you nice things rather than vouchers.