Indian weddings are an expensive business. They are the result of generations of patriarchal ideas all bundled up together, ossified into an institution that seeks to extract as much as it can from the bride and her family. The institution of marriage is patriarchal and exploitative, yet we seem to have not understood the bottomline after all these years. However, the one thing that we can do is to make sure that our own marriages are not exploitative in nature.
Can Fundraising lead to a democratization of the marriage process. After all, a marriage is a family affair and most conservative folks do not like sharing much of that with their extended circle of acquaintances. Yet, the same people talk about the integrity of the family. Logically, it is impossible to think that someone completely unknown would pay for your son’s grand wedding. Really, just get yourself lawfully married and cut the celebrations. But who will pay for the celebrations? The ones who partake in it.
Here is an idea to democratize your marriage. If you are one of those quirky folks who believes in marrying in unconventional manners, you need to ask your extended family for financial support. They are going to come and eat after all, right? Only makes sense for them to pay some money for it.
This is a way Fundraising in India can help you. Go to a crowdfunding platform like Impact Guru. Set up a fundraiser and wait for the campaign manager to get in touch with you. Discuss the target and the details of the campaign. Once you have done that, mail every single one of your family members to send you money for your wedding. This can be done. You can say that you do not believe in normative marriage, or that one family or one partner or parent should bear all the expenses in a marriage.
Explain to your relations that this brings them all together into a community. Remember to say all these things in your personal mails and messages sent to them. Offline, talk to as many people as you get. Take your partner as your back up team and make sure they do the same thing too. Once a certain amount has been raised, you will be able to collect your cash from the crowdfunding platform. These people will take a cut as their service charge and release the rest to you. Once you are done with this entire process, remember to send thank you notes to all these people.
NGO crowdfunding and medical crowdfunding have already been done. Marriage Fundraising is a fairly new idea. Crowdfunded marriages can only work in this country is you are ready to be the black sheep or the odd nut in your family. The hell do I care, I already am! Listen to a pro and remember that families can be easy to manipulate. Just start a competition among the male and the female side as to who can pay the most and see the results!
