Marriage and not just a wedding

<The below mentioned are my personal and thoroughly personal views.
If anybody is offended, please do not blame me.>

Some of my very good friends are getting married. To the people they love.
I am very happy for them. When two people in love make this committment,
my faith in worldy relations is restored. Life is too short to make a committment
like this for any other reason. (Entirely personal perception attached to this
comment.) Many parents (esp in the Indian middle class context) are inclined to getting
their girls married off as soon as they hit the 22-25 age range. It's like the glass ceiling
for women. I admit, my ego could be preventing me from seeing a reason through this,
but I fail to, seriously. Why does society have to decide what is good and bad for us,
almost always? It's alright if two people madly in love decide to get married at 22. But
why force someone to participate in "holy matrimony" just because their unmarried status
does not go down well with some people.After all marriage is not just about the wedding.
In fact its realms lie well beyond the scope of the social nupital ceremony. A marriage
has to go well. Else, it can spell disaster for everyone involved. It cannot be a compromise.
And more than anything else, the two people involved must understand the gravity of the
committment they are making.

Fate decides a lot of things for us. Marriages, they say, are made in heaven. But life
gives us the right to realise it, by ourselves. We should
excercise this. To its fullest potential.