Wedding season is about to enter full bloom.
To honor the season accordingly, the Guardian has put together a series unpacking what weddings look like in 2024.
They are inherently exciting – and also daunting. The rituals! The family dynamics! The MONEY! I know this because I’m currently planning my own wedding, and the best word to describe the entire experience is simply: overwhelming.
In the planning process, one can almost forget what the whole thing is really about. After all, who can think about the love of your life and the sanctity of marriage when you’re debating things like floral arrangements, invitations and – oh god, we can’t put Aunt Maria next to cousin Tony when they haven’t spoken since Doreen’s wedding in 2004!
Still, wedding planning is also a thrill: you get to plan a party solely dedicated to your love and kicking off your life together. That’s pretty damn great!
If this rollercoaster sounds familiar to you or you’re about to embark on the journey, we’re here to help make sense of modern wedding culture.
Come with me as I explore what goes into buying a wedding dress when you’re not what the fashion industry deems “straight-size”. Ivana Rihter spoke to six brides about the sustainable glory of purchasing a secondhand gown.
For environmentally friendly brides and grooms, Adrienne Matei breaks down how one can lessen their wedding’s carbon footprint.
And if you’ve ever been curious about the financials of wedding culture (who doesn’t love to hear about what other people are spending), Madeleine Aggeler spoke with several couples on the true costs of their nuptials and how it’s mostly just a “huge scam”. She also got down to brass tacks with four couples who chose to take on wedding debt – not all that hard to do given the average cost of a wedding in the US last year was a whopping $35,000, according to industry website the Knot.
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Convinced you’d rather save than spend on your wedding? Suki Lanh has some advice for how to not break your bank. Or you could elope – Katy Kelleher made a compelling argument for engaged couples to forgo the big white wedding, “a consumerist trap that burdens couples with debt and strains their love with unnecessary stress”, she writes.
The stories will keep coming all month, including stories about wedding guest etiquette, why we’re snobby about weddings and disastrous weddings.
With just more than 100 days to go to my own wedding, I can confidently say this series offers a precise snapshot of the labor, economics and social ramifications that all play a role in the process of getting married.
For those preparing to walk down the aisle soon, let this series act as your guide – in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse.
