Couples should have counselling before marriage to weed out the ones that will fracture easily,My mom said it's just tradition that the woman's family finances most of it when I told her what my grandmother said about who provides what.
This is why I think this is a good tradition - the female wants to be the princess, the man just wants to get married.
And lo and behold, it's true - our family forked up 10K for my brother's wedding, the bride? 25K.
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I can understand some want the date to be special but... good lord. Live within your means.
Especially considering the thing the wedding represents might not even last forever!
That said, it'd be nice if we could curb the divorce rate immensely.
Over time that should reduce it.