Just why are so many Brits deciding to jet out to Cyprus with a few close friends and rellies to get married?
WHILE the perma-tanned inhabitants of planet Hollywood go for marital extremis — maximum expense, minimum duration — the rest of us must make do with a scenario in which marriage is, at least theoretically, for life, and not just for the benefit of the paparazzi and fancy frock designers. Marriage, and particularly the ‘big white frock’ job, is now firmly back in vogue, with those in the know claiming the rush of celebrities tying the knot has convinced young people that marriage is now ‘cool’. So cool, in fact, that this year 300,000 couples in the UK will go ahead and commit themselves until death do them part.
The down side to all this is that weddings have become horrendously expensive; and these days not just for the happy couple, we guests also have to shell out.
Everything from the hen party to the bash itself has become a lavish production. What used to be a gathering of a few gals over a few glasses down the pub has now become a week-end shopping trip to New York. So, when the stiffies (wedding invitations) start to roll in it’s now accepted practice that one’s credit card has to be as flexible as an Olympic gymnast.
The average cost of a wedding in the UK is now around £15,000 and is reckoned to rise at three times the rate of inflation. The reception alone is estimated to cost a minimum of £5,500, dress £700-£900, rings come in at £1,750, then there is the honeymoon, which at 23 per cent of the cost of the entire wedding is £4,500. Guests who attend an average of four to six weddings a year will expect to spend around £3,000, including cash spent on new outfits, travel and the wedding gifts.
So it is no wonder that brides and grooms are looking abroad for cheaper deals for their big day. With one in ten couples in the UK now planning their union abroad, the top marrying destinations are Barbados, St Lucia and coming in at third place: Cyprus.
Marvin Bamforth is the man these incoming brides turn to if they desire a proper church wedding in Paphos. As the resident Anglican vicar, this rather gentle, amusing, compassionate and highly resilient cleric will throughout the coming summer months be forever pressing his frock, ensuring his sandals are polished and that his signature white socks are pristine. For over the next few months he will be officiating at over 400 weddings, bringing by year end the total number of unions he has blessed to top the 1,000 mark.
“The Church earns a good deal of money from these weddings, sufficient to support some of the important pastoral work here in the community. One of the reasons brides come here is because it does cost so much less, probably only a third of the price it costs to get married in the UK, especially if they want a full church wedding with a reception in a decent hotel. There’s also the added bonus that the guest list can be pared down considerably. This will hopefully eliminate the presence of Auntie Mary and her clacking dentures, but is also about the fact that they can have a Christian service that mentions God as opposed to a civil marriage when he is not mentioned at all,” Bamforth said.
He may look the sweet, slightly dippy vicar part in his open toed sandals, but few are fooled by this one-time tax inspector for the Inland Revenue, who, at the age of 30, threw in his career as a civil servant to join the church. After working in several parishes in and around Yorkshire he arrived in Paphos and the start of his ministry with the Ayia Kyriaki Church.
Besides the weddings, the vicar is also involved in the Anglican community, which is mainly made up of ex-pats. I asked if these conservative worshippers have ever had their collective nose put out of joint by all these weddings. After only a moment’s hesitation, he gave this diplomatic response: “As one highly respected church leader instructed me when I was about to take over my first parish, Marvin, he said, your job from now on as a good parish priest is to make sure you comfort the afflicted and, afflict the comfortable.”
I reckon the only way you would ever really ‘afflict’ Bamforth would be if the entire Sunday congregation, come the end of summer, suddenly started whistling the wedding march.
n The Anglican Church Tel: 26 952 486. The resident Wedding co-ordinators are Kay and Stan Constantinides 26 653 739
