Why do we have to follow the rituals blindly ?

I visited my friends marriage in Indore. He had 5 days of power packed poojas and rituals to be performed. I have my opinion on the rituals and poojas which I wanted to share here.

What is marriage ?

If marriage is the unification of two bodies and two minds then why do we have to go through so many rituals? Can't marriage be held as a quite ceremony wherein the bride and groom come together and decide in their own way to stay together through thick and thin.

Why do we have to make it into a big family drama, remember all the gods in the world, and say all the sanskrit shlokas which both would forget after just a second.

Do we really know why the rituals are performed in the first case?
If not then why do we have to just blindly follow doing things ?
Is it just for the sake of not being called "hippi" or "western" ?

My view ...

I am not against the celebration, dance and feast which go with the marriage. This things can be seen as a way of getting closed ones together and having a good time. But for rituals I feel that we can very much do away with them. Both bride and groom can decide how they want to start their new life.
For me it can be something as weird as kissing my bride on Konkan Kada or taking oath on the book "Its not about the Bike". That would have more depth and meaning than uttering 10,000 shlokas or doing 1000 poojas of all deities in this world.