Vėjas Tarabilda



The thesis of my pilot study is "Weddings prove to be a scam ingrained in our culture and society" and I am going to investigate how literature reflects the aspect of wedding traditions and costs

SUMMARY

Article 1: Average cost of weddings in America
(https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/story/2012-08-09/weddingcosts/56921020/1)

 The average cost of a wedding in the United States is about $27 000. And this is excluding the cost of the honeymoon. Couples are victimized by their own fantasies, they want everything that the famous people have in their weddings. More times than not the parents of the bride work extra shifts to pay for the wedding debts. Interviewed couples said that they‘ve spent $6 000 for only the dress, and sometimes ever for 2 or 3 with similiar price points. In America the average budget for a wedding is about $27 000 and more times than not they still go overbudget, because they are undecisive and the industry is charging them extra. According to the research 91% of couples set a budget, however, 40% cross the line. 72% have used all or most of their life savings for this one occasion. 54% do not fret on their wedding debts, they would rather buy a house or a car first and only then repay the debt.

Article 2: Average cost of a wedding venue
(https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-of-weddingvenue)

 A venue is the location, food, tables etc. By average a venue costs up to $14 000 which is about half of the whole wedding cost. For the best value a venue should cost up to 45% of the weddings budget, however, changing such minor things as the napkin colour for white to pearl white can add increased extra costs. Around half of all weddings are located in a banquet hall or a hotel. However, other couples want their day to be in a rather unusual place, such as a museum or a brewery. Special wedding packages can be bought, however most of them have a minimum of dollars spent on alchohol or food. On some it costs up to $104 per person, and these weddings usually have a hundred people or so.

Article 3: Wedding „Traditions“ were created by companies for profit. (http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14234.html)

Before the 1920s weddings used to be a small gathering of the couples and a pastor in their house or a barn. These so called „Traditions“ were created by sophisticated advertising campains, merchandising promotions, and entrepreneurial innovations. These businesses and entrepreneurs, many of them women, transformed wedding culture and set the stage for today's multibillion-dollar industry. Claiming ties with "ancient customs" and various historical periods, the wedding industry promoted new goods and services as timeless and unchanging. Something as traditional as „White wedding“ was created by Queen Victoria to boast how much wealth she had. Prior to that white fabric was too expensive to sow a gown for only one occasion. Only after her, other women wanted their weddings to be as extravagant as the Queens.

Article 4: Does the wedding word increase the cost of marriage items? (http:/www.bride.net/2010/dovendors-charge-more-for-weddings-than-other-events/)

An experiment was conducted in Melbourne and Sydney to see if the word wedding will cost the item for extra. 30 businesses were asked the prices of flowers, photographers and the cake for a 40th birthday party. Then on the other day the same 30 businesses were asked for the same things but this time for a wedding. Almost half of the businesses were reported to give a higher price for the wedding occasion. In example photographers wanted 150% more for the wedding than the birthday

Article 5: Higher wedding costs increase the chance of a divorce (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-divorce-proof-marriage/381401/)

Taking in cosideration that by average a person makes $49 000 a year, the cost of such wedding usually results in a long lasting debt problem. An article states that couples who spend less than 1% of the cost that a „Normal“ wedding would cost, actually live happier and their relationship lasts longer than otherwise. Newly-weds who spend such money for just a couple of hours of excitment take huge amount of risk due to it relying for the marriage to work out in the long run. You do not need a glamorous and over the top wedding for it to be the special day, it is quite easy to have a simple one instead, however, social media sites, magazines, TV and other media will often say that you MUST have the best, and unquestionably the most expensive stuff. There are even special bank promotions that offer loans to pay off the cost of the wedding, even though in return bank loans become bigger over time. And the debt becomes even bigger.

Article 6: Wedding photography scam
(http://www.impact-images.com.au/advice-youre-a-winner-save- 1000/)

Another scammy tendency which is quite big is that bad photographer companies give out huge discounts on their services. In reality the „Photographers“ are just some random amateurs with no experience in photography at all. It is obvious that the quality of the photos will not be as great as professionals would do. These services can easily reach $1 000.