I thought it was just Utah, you know? I thought that all those billboards all over the city telling people to spend a boatload of money on their wedding was a Utah thing.

Apparently not.

According to One Perfect Day by Rebecca Mead, the wedding industry has grown to be a 161 Billion dollar industry.

That’s $161,000,000,000 for people like me who have a hard time imagining what one billion is, much less 161 of them.

I feel guilty for blaming the Mormons for all of this. I thought that it was a conspicuous religiousity that was like an announcement to the world, “Look at me! Not only am I getting married in the temple, I’m spending a lot of money to do it!”

Man, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

All of it just seems wasteful to me. Mike and I didn’t even want a wedding and our parents forced us to have a small ceremony in the backyard. It cost about $2000 and I still feel guilty for it. I remember how proud my mom was that we had a wedding for “only” $2000.

After spending all that time the last two months scanning every photo we found in my grandpa’s house, I’ve see a LOT of wedding photos from the twenties until present time. Most of them were very quiet ceremonies with parents for witnesses.

The most endearing was my great-aunt Dixie’s wedding. There were no photos in the collection, but my grandmother had saved a newspaper clipping from the announcement.

In a church ceremony, Sunday, August 23, at 7:00 pm in the Salmon Medthodist Church, Miss Dixielou Lipe, daughter of Laurence Lipe of Salmon, exchanged wedding vows with James C. Allen, son of Morgan Allen of Salmon and Florence Thurber of Montpelier.

The Rev. Don I. Smith performed the single ring ceremony against a background of baskets of gladioli.

Miss Lipe was beautiful in a gown of white taffeta with a white satin cummerbund. Her finger-tip veil was held by a white cap. She carried a corsage of white roses and carnations.

White taffeta and a satin cummerbund is a far cry from the gowns of extreme now.

More importantly, the wedding is just one day. After scanning all those photos, the wedding photos are just a very small percentage of the whole life that was my grandmother’s life. I have a hard time with the “Your Day, Your Way” idea. It’s just one day. Is it really worth $30K?