[quote=Russell]Dowries aside, traditionally the brides family has paid more for the pair bonding ceremonies and rituals in our culture. The engagement ring, being seen as part of that may may not have been enough to tip the scales of economic equality in favor of the brides side. This is in response to the part of the OP’s question. “What does the groom get of equal value in return.” Now, everybody does what they want. That’s cool.
[/quote]
Hijack, sort of.
This is another area that is a huge waste of money… these $30-50k weddings. How many couples spend HUGE sums on a party that lasts a few hours. And the catering industry is taking advantage – they typically charge more per plate for a wedding than any other kind of event.
We did a small wedding in San Diego (where my family lived), then a bigger party at a catering hall in Philly (where we were living at the time.) Including travel, the honeymoon, the dress (made by my best friend!), flowers, everything… it was less than 6k. Like I said – that included travel and the honeymoon – as well as feeding 100 folks.
The catering hall in Philly tried to up the price when they realized it was semi-wedding related. By $20/plate. But we held them to the contract, pointing out that we’d been married for 5 weeks by the time we had the party.
The wedding industry is a total rip-off. But families spend huge sums.
