“a Diamond Is Forever” and Other Fairy Tales: the Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration

In 2014, wedding industry revenues were projected to exceed $50 billion in the United States (IBISWorld 2014). According to a national survey conducted annually by the top wedding website TheKnot.com, the average wedding cost was $29,858 in 2013 (TheKnot 2014). The wedding industry has grown substantially throughout the twentieth century in part due to the rise of consumerism and industry efforts to commodify love and romance. One example of this was the emergence of bridal magazines, especially Bride’s, which played an important role in developing a platform for many service providers to reach consumers and in promoting the necessity of a lavish wedding for a fairy tale marriage (Howard 2006; Otnes and Pleck 2003). In 1959, Bride’s recommended that couples set aside 2 months to prepare for their wedding and published a checklist with 22 tasks for them to complete. By the 1990s, the magazine recommended 12months of wedding preparation and published a checklist with 44 tasks to complete (Otnes and Pleck 2003). Another example of industry efforts to commodify love and romance is that of marketing campaigns for diamond engagement rings. Several of the most well-known campaigns were by De Beers, the global diamond company. In the late 1930s, De Beers created the slogan “a diamond is forever,” which was rated the number