Stag do: celebrate the defining moment of your life

This morning I read a blog post by Frank Barrett on Mail Online, in which he suggests a trend of minimalist weddings, the underlying theme being that these don't have a hen do or a stag party. His want for understated celebrations for what is a defining moment in anyone's life struck me as odd. Why wouldn't you want to celebrate the fact that your best friend has found someone they want to spend the rest of their life with? If you're Frank then it's probably because they get in your way at airports, but who or what doesn't get in your way at some point? The guy who jumps the queue for the bus or at the Post Office, someone dithering along the street, it happens all the time. Sure some parties can be worse than others, but they're enjoying one of the few times in the stag's life that all of his friends from all walks of his life converge in the same place for the same thing. Everyone wants to enjoy their life and the stag weekend has grown into this from a few pints down the local or a curry (sure, people still do this but different people like different things) to two or three days of celebrating a moment in someone's life. A moment that will never happen again. The pre nuptial celebrations and the wedding do cost a lot, we can't really argue with you there Frank, our own research and articles can attest to this, there are others who really do go over the top but these are the people with too much money. To call it 'egotism run riot' is a touch misplaced though, not everybody spends the money in a 'hey everyone look at me' way. Nobody can justify spending £30,000 on a big party, but I'm sure Frank has been to a few 'functions' in his time that have been past that price bracket and for less important reasons than the lifetime commitment and celebration of marriage. What most people don't often consider about stag and hen weekends is that they're good for business and the local economy. We'll never deny that not every party is well behaved but the drunken trouble doesn't go wherever stag dos go, it's their already. Quotes from those in the sectors that deal directly with weekend and Bank Holiday festivities note that there is never really a direct correlation between trouble, drunkenness and groups of people on their stag and hen dos. You could argue that there isn't really much to be happy about in the world today, so I'll quote our very own Cat here, quoted in the Argus article linked in the previous paragraph: “It’s sad people don’t always see the fun side of people just having a good weekend.” Come on Frank, maybe think about what it means to the groups instead of that fact that you'll be a few minutes later to your departure lounge.