White Weddings as Long as

White Weddings As long as there are countless Zales commercials with happy couples getting engaged, there will always be a demand for large diamonds and unaffordable weddings. Chris Ingraham illustrates how powerful the wedding industry is in tricking many young couples into spending almost half of their annual income on a single day (Ingraham 29). The wedding industry itself is a powerful predator, one that preys on young couples, but now also targets almost every consumer market product.

With its extreme breadth, in terms of offerings, it is clear how Ingraham made the assertion that the massive industry is basically recession proof. Yet, the most recent financial crisis was the worst in decades. How is the wedding industry holding up? Yes, it is still pumping out advertisements and trying desperately to convince young couples that they need to splurge on rhinestone centerpieces and $5,000 dresses. Still, recent research is showing that even this massive industry is feeling a crunch because of the latest recession.

According to one source, "the percent of married households in the United States fell to 48.4% in 2010, down from 55.2% in 1990 and 78% in 1960" (Joseph 1). Although this reflects rising divorce rates as well, it shows a clear social trend that may actually threaten the dominance of the massive wedding industry. Overall, less young people are marrying young, meaning that the average age of marriage is rising.

This means the wedding industry has less of a chance at preying on the naivety of young brides, with more people strapped for cash and making more sound financial decisions when it comes to marriage and overspending on lavish ceremonies. Example 2 One of the wedding industry's biggest allies is pop culture, and the many faces with bucket loads of cash to waste. Every day Americans long to be just like their favorite celebrities.

One of the most recent trends is these celebrities showcasing their luxurious, and expensive weddings on national T.V. For their adoring fans to admire and be jealous of. According to Ingraham, "using the power celebrities hold as the embodiment of fantasy to authorize particular social behaviors and beliefs, the visual media demonstrate where the margin of acceptability begins and ends" (Ingraham 113). The wedding industry taps into America's fascination with celebrities to help reshape their sales pitch to those average people who could never afford such lavish celebrations.

Watching these weddings on T.V. make many soon to be brides want to overspend and go far beyond their means in order to try to reenact their favorite star's wedding. One of the most lavish, and utterly ridiculous, nationally televised weddings was last years union of Kim Kardashian to basketball player Kris Humphries. Although the marriage itself only lasted 72 days, the wedding reportedly cost millions of dollars. The emphasis here was not the love between Kardashian and Humphries, as they later discovered they were completely on.