Brides Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition

Brides Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition Vicki Howard. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press. 2006.

Professor Howard focuses on the process by which American weddings were commodified over the course of the twentieth century. The commercial enterprise has been successful in creating the illusion that the modern wedding is the traditional one in the history of the United States. Weddings today have become a seventy billion dollar a year business and are an important part of the American economy. The cost of the average wedding is around $30,000 and is second only to home ownership as an expense item in family purchases.

The author focuses in chapter one on attitudes toward large and showy weddings prior to the twentieth century. She notes ". . . fiction writers, etiquette authors, reformers, and religious leaders attacked useless wedding presents, ostentatious gift displays, the excessive accumulation of bridal finery, trousseau fashions, and costly receptions." The...