Why a lavish wedding?

by Ilona Peltz, Posted Mar 16th 2008 10:00AM

For those of you who enjoy digging beneath the surface a bit, there's an interesting book out there about weddings: Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding. The authors are an historian and a profession of business administration.

Weddings have always been important social events/rituals, and lavish weddings are nothing new. However, it's clear that weddings are getting bigger and fancier by the year, and not just in North America and Europe. Some Asian countries put us in the shade for sheer heaps of money and lavish displays. So what's the appeal? Why do we want such a big show?

The authors have nothing against the big wedding. They're just curious. Not all their conclusions are flattering to us and our society, but they're all interesting. When you have a moment -- maybe next year, after the wedding?? -- you might check it out.

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Tags: anthropology, Cele-C-Otnes, Cinderella-Dreams, Elizabeth-H-Pleck, lavish-weddings, wedding-rituals