Explain It to Me The cost of “I do”
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May 3, 2026 
Lauren Miller, founder of the Tiny Wedding Collective who plans intimate ceremonies. Karen Dunnick, history professor and author studying the rise of the white wedding. Shelby Wax, Vogue weddings editor who curates bridal aesthetics. They discuss how media and social platforms shaped fairy-tale expectations, why micro weddings appeal, rising coast-to-coast budgets, and what makes a wedding feel editorial-worthy.
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Newlyweds Realized Their Wedding Consumed Their Savings
- One couple reported spending almost $60,000 and estimating their wedding price tag at $100,000, later wondering where their money went.
- The speaker recounts sitting with a newborn and realizing the wedding consumed their savings and budget.
How Weddings Became Consumer Spectacles
- Weddings shifted from local, community events to consumer spectacles in the 1920s onward driven by advertising and mass media.
- Karen Dunnick traces the rise of brides magazines, Life ads, and films like Father of the Bride as forces that nationalized wedding aesthetics and expectations.
Media Taught Us What A Wedding Should Look Like
- Media created templates for 'correct' weddings and sold products by attaching them to bridal imagery across magazines, ads, and movies.
- Dunnick explains Brides magazine, Life ads using brides to market household goods, and Father of the Bride shaping ideals.