My Big, Fat, (Expensive) American Wedding: Insights from wedding industry content

This comprehensive project critically examines the social significance of marriage, the role weddings play in the United States today, and how the wedding industry continues to boom. In the U.S., the role of marriage has evolved due to the introduction of emerging adulthood as a life stage and marriage itself has become a luxury good, meaning that the couples marrying today can afford to throw extravagant weddings. Through conducting a qualitative content analysis, I found that bridal sources frame weddings as parties and opportunities to flaunt social and economic status rather than the religious and/or legal binding of two people