In Uganda Lawmakers want to create laws to ban wedding receptions

Lawmakers in Uganda are in the process of making a law to ban expensive weddings in the country.

If the legislators pass the bill into law, young couples will be bound by law to exchange their vows in church, and thereafter, proceed to their homes to live happily ever after.

The law also looks to actually place a ban on wedding receptions. Instead of spending money on getting a venue, decorating it, and feeding guests, newly-weds will get a chance to “investing their would-have-been reception-cash on income generating projects to secure their offspring’s future,” writes Myles Mukisa, an Ugandan social commentator.

Weddings in Uganda are pretty much the same as we have them here in Nigeria – often large and worryingly expensive.

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Mukisa says to marry in Kenya, someone who earns the average annual income $720 [₦259K] will have to save all of it for two full years to be able to afford a small, modest wedding.

Men pay high bride prices to get the blessings of the bride’s family, they also get charged to have their white wedding in a church.

If the proposed Anti-Luxury Wedding Act becomes law, a uniform, affordable bride price will be decided and churches will be banned from charging a price to hold a wedding.

Mukisa believes that Ugandan men will  now be relieved of the unnecessary financial burden involved in weddings and will become quicker to commit, or at least, find less excuses for not doing so.