>something to tell the grandchildren
Perhaps... though perhaps they won't be doing it together.
A wedding is about commitment and while a bit of fun is a good thing, turning the entire concept/event into a joke may indicate the level of seriousness with which they regard it. The point of the gold rings and so on is permanence and untarnished endurance. Pasta is no viable substitute. It mocks, it tastes great, but it doesn't last.
Making the celebration of commitment to each other into a joke pretty much negates the the whole point of the ritual. Not that I'm terribly surprised - the anti-religious tends to also be anti (the traditional) family too, in effect, if not explicitly.
The bride has given up:
Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her,
and, forsaking all others,
be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Instead opting for a promise to salt the pasta water. That seems... sad. What value does the groom place on the bride if he can't even bring himself to publicly promise something more worthwhile than salt-water.
This isn't to say that a traditional ceremony makes everything rosy. I'm just sad to see people treat each other with so little respect. It's one thing to have a little fun at a wedding, but while the commitment may be merely a sad joke, the divorce is more likely to be a heart-wrenching tragedy with inter-generational damage. What will be be the reaction of his Noodliness to that?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
