SPOCK would never have approved. It seems totally illogical to throw thousands upon thousands of pounds at celebrating one day.

But that is what happens in modern marriages. Years ago it was a case of church, reception, honeymoon. Job done.

Now launching you on your life as man and wife seems to cost as much putting a man into orbit. (This probably isn't far wrong now that Richard Branson is looking to get involved, I think you can do it for about £20,000)

We had worked out roughly how much we wanted to spend and where it was going to go. It was a hideous amount of money to splash on one day for a man who takes sandwiches to work.

But now I'm finding that no matter how well you budget, costs just seem to spiral upwards like a Greek tax bill.

It seems that no matter how high you put the bar for paying for something, it seems there is always something just beyond reach enticing you to splash that bit more cash.

Take flower girl dresses for example. I'd have thought £100 would have been enough to get three of them. That's about £33-ish each, more than enough to make the little angels look pretty.

Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that dresses for young girls are made out of some kind of lacey Kryptonite or another material not available on this planet.

It seems that you can't buy a dress for a flower girl for under £50 unless you want to use a Swansea Council recycling bag (I just realised that green is in our "colour scheme", but I may be the one put out for the bin man to collect if I make that suggestion).

So we are now having to fork out more than £150 for these dresses, 50 per cent more than budget, and I'm realising that giving my fiancee a fairytale wedding is proving to be right out of the pages of a Brothers Grimm book.

But there are knights in shining armour riding to the rescue. We had planned to pay for the whole day ourselves. Thankfully, we've been given help from our nearest and dearest.

I have to admit that I have been really touched by the offers. In the current climate everyone has a bundle of financial worries to contend with, but the generosity of others really does warm the heart.

With their help we'll hopefully live long and prosper.

I suppose it shows that the bonds of marriage and family really are worth their weight in gold.