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.

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. [File photo]

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."

(China Daily/Agencies February 12, 2009)