D-day

There is an entire industry built around getting married. Multi-million dollar industry in fact, full of pageantry and tradition. The same does not exist for divorce unless of course you consider snaky attorneys to be on par with wedding planners. There are certain similarities with regard to time lines but no real tradition. Weddings require a fancy dress, hundreds of guests, flowers, a photographer and a buffet. I'm pretty sure if you showed up at the courthouse for your divorce with all these things you'd be asked to leave. I showed up for the wedding with 3 of my very best friends in tow, dressed in matching lavender dresses. Today, I go alone.
What if there were ceremony attached to undoing a marriage? Would it be considered disrespectful or crass? Would it make the transition easier? Surely someone would find a way to make money on it. Singing  "going to the courthouse and I'm gonna get divorced" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. But really...If getting married were half as difficult as getting divorced, more people might take the decision more seriously. As it stands, today I go before a judge to settle the details of my own divorce and to get back the right to use my maiden name again legally. In six months and one day I will be legally unmarried. All the work the wedding machine did 17 years ago, everything that took a year to plan, many of my parents dollars and 325 guests to put together will be undone. Maybe I'll start a tasteful "divorce planning" business. I could find some way to inject some humor into the bummer business. At any rate, maybe I can give the snaky attorneys a run for their money.