History Proves Wedding Were Always Meant to Steal Half Of Your Money
LatestGuess what? Eighty years ago, a groom’s tuxedo cost almost as much as a bride’s gown and couples were still shelling out nearly half of their combined income to show their love. America, fuck yeah.
Quartz compared contemporary wedding costs to those during the Depression-era of the 1930s and found some interesting parallels and departures. For example, engagement rings weren’t a thing in the 1930s because the DeBeers diamond company had yet to launch their “aggressive” marketing campaign, proclaiming “a diamond is forever” thereby forcing the hand of many men. This advertising and cultural shift came in the 1940s, when dudes cracked open their wallets for diamonds in droves. Before that, only about two-thirds of couples bought engagement rings at all and they usually cost around $1,824 in today’s dollars. Engagement rings in 2013 — data for this comparison was pulled from a 2013 bridal survey on The Knot and a 1939 study of 154 couple by University of Illinois sociology professor B.F. Timmons — run about about $5,600. Ch-ch-changes.