Beth Montemurro took a look at how Christian weddings have changed over time:

• Queen Victoria of England got the modern wedding dress started when she wore a white satin gown for her wedding in 1840.
• The elite soon copied this fashion although it didn’t become widely popular among the masses until after WW2.
• Up until the mid-1950s Christian weddings were done at home, in the family’s “Sunday best” perhaps with a small dinner party.
• Then modern marketing got started. Stores, jewelers, and caterers began selling the image of a decadent wedding.
• Dolls in bridal gowns imprinted the standards of a modern weddings on children at young ages.

Read about how weddings have evolved, how they are a pledge of allegiance both to the conventional and to the new, and more over here.

You can read more of Centives’ previous coverage on the economics of weddings here.

Source: Aeon