For the Islamic marriage to be legal there are certain  conditions to be fulfilled.

Narrated Uqba bin Amir: Allah’s apostle said, “From among all the conditions which you have to fulfill, the conditions which make it legal i.e. the  marriage  contract has the greatest right to be fulfilled.” (Book #50, Hadith #882)Bukhari

1) The  Mahr to be agreed upon and paid.

A Muslim husband has to agree a financial deal with the prospective wife before marriage. This money present is known as the mahr, and is a payment made to the bride which is hers to keep and use as she wishes.

The reason is that even if the girl has nothing, she becomes a bride with property of her own. If the bride later seeks a divorce which the husband does not wish for, she is allowed to return him the money and seek what is known as a khula divorce.

At the time of the Prophet (pbuh), a man wanted to get married and he had no property to offer for mahr……. When Allah’s Apostle saw him going, he ordered that he be called back. When he came, the prophet said, “How much of the Qur’an do you know?” He said, “I know such sura and such sura,” counting them. The prophet said, “Do you know them by heart?” He replied, “Yes.” The prophet said, “Go, I marry her to you for that much of the Qur’an which you have.”  (Book #62, Hadith #24) Bukhari

2)  The nikah

The actual Muslim wedding is known as nikah. It is a simple ceremony.

According to sharee’ah, marriage is done through the contract between the two spouses, with the consent of the woman’s guardian and in the presence of two witnesses. Such a contract is complete even if there is no celebration or party.

There are certain things which are basic to all Muslim marriages. Marriages have to be declared publicly. They should never be undertaken in secret. The publicity is usually achieved by having a large feast, or walimah - a party specifically for the purpose of announcing publicly that the couple are married and entitled to each other.

They invite people to a feast on this occasion as an expression of joy and to publicize the marriage, all of these are things which are mustahabb (encouraged) on the occasion of marriage. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Announce marriage.” (Narrated by Ahmad, 4/5; classed as saheeh by al-Haakim, 2/200; classed as hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, 1072).

And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn ‘Awf when he got married, “Give a feast, even with one sheep.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1943; Muslim, 3475).

So this is all. If we look at the prophetic teachings  no extravaganzas were encouraged or performed at the weddings.

There are ahadith that prescribe   the  prophet’s(saw) own  walimahs.

Narrated Anas: A banquet of bread and meat was held on the occasion of the marriage of the prophet to Zainab bint Jahsh. I was sent to invite the people (to the banquet), and so the people started coming (in groups); they would eat and then leave. Another batch would come, eat and leave (Book #60, Hadith #316) Bukhari

But going back to the Islamic weddings of our times.

Instead of having a simple ceremony just praying and asking for Allah’s blessingsaccording to the prophetic teachings and examples, we often have blaring music, waste of food, money, free mixing between the sexes, relaxed hijab rules and immense financial burdens.

May Allah protect us all from abandoning the Qur’an and the sunnah of our beloved prophet (saw) and grant us the wisdom to obey Him.