An American in Provence

"PARIS (Reuters) - A lavish wedding where newlyweds were sprinkled with shredded euro-note confetti has provoked outrage in a French town, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Liberation said angry locals in the southern town of Sete scrambled on the ground to scrape up the bits of 5, 10, 20 and 50 euro notes scattered at the July 8 nuptials.

"People chucking money away in the street for everyone to see, when there are so many struggling to get by!" said Frederic, a resident quoted by the newspaper.

Around 200 people attended the ceremony, which included a fireworks display estimated to have cost 40,000 euros ($51,000), the paper said. The bride was the daughter of a local businessmen who made his money in textiles.

Townspeople lodged a complaint with police since destroying bank notes is a crime in France. Police and a spokesman at the town hall where the couple were married declined to comment."

I mean really, is it necessary to shred up money and throw it? What a waste. Even though I think it is silly for it to be illegal to burn or destroy money (heck, it is your money, do with it what you want) I do think there are better things to do with it. Toss coins to local kids as many cultural traditions do. Throw candy. Throw rice, lavender, bird seed. It gets the job done for a lot less. Make a donation of the same amount of money to a local charity. Pay for the guest's lodgings for the night. People get so caught up in weddings and showing that they spent more money than someone else on a single day. It is like the 3$ per butterfly releases, that when released, they just flop onto the ground and die. How un-romantic.

Forget children, a happy marriage, or a long life together! We hope you are blessed with a lot of material goods!
Apparently, according to another report, the bills were defective and worthless. Still. It seems to be just shoving it into people's faces how much the wedding cost. They know that you are a Rockefeller. Wouldn't it be more suprising to have a simple, understated wedding rather than a huge blow-out affair with Christina Aguilera singing?

Besides, most of the people apparently did not know that the money was worthless and so concluded that they had spent tons and tons of money just for the exit from the church. Who needs 50,000$ fireworks on their big day? Talk about conspicuous consumption. How are you going to top that later in life, such as when your first baby is born?
Okay, rant over. Back to work.