Beyonce Knowles cherishes marriage

Beyonce Knowles arrives at Saks Fifth Avenue's "Unforgettable Evening" benefiting the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Women's Cancer Research Fund in Beverly Hills, California February 10, 2009. [Agencies]

Beyonce Knowles thinks weddings are overrated.

The 'Single Ladies' singer kept her nuptials to rapper Jay-Z secret because she wanted to "cherish" the commitment of marriage rather than the big day itself.

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She said: "I think that people can put way too much emphasis on the day. It's just so temporary and it goes away in a second.

And then you have this commitment you made, and I don't know if people cherish it as much as they should."

Beyonce - who married Jay-Z in a secret ceremony last April - admits she has always been a private person and never wanted an elaborate wedding. She explained to Britain's Cosmopolitan magazine: "I've never been the girl who went to a wedding and thought, 'Oooh, I want to get married.' So I didn't want something big and dramatic.

That doesn't mean it was anticlimactic or anything, but I think it's good to be somebody who thinks about the reality of things."