---
title: The Wedding Industry Is A $300 Billion Scam
date: 2025-08-15T03:59:02.546976
author: Charlie M.
category: SIGNAL
---
So there's this thing about mornings that always gets me. The sunlight creeps into my room in this lazy, half-hearted way, and I’m just there, scrolling Instagram before I even stretch. I mean, there are days I swear it feels like everyone I know is getting married. And those rings? Don’t get me started. But it’s ironic, right? People posting all these happy, forever-after moments while I’m just here trying to figure out if it’s worth spending five bucks on oat milk. Maybe it’s just one of those things? Like, maybe we’ve all been conned but we’re just too deep to admit it.
And that’s where I fell into this weird rabbit hole about weddings being a $300 billion industry or something insane like that. I don’t even remember how I got there. I think it was after deleting the shopping app for the third time this month. Anyway, there’s this study—I can’t remember who did it, but it’s legit—that said wedding services have like a 200-400% markup. Like if you swap out "wedding" from anything, the cost drops like crazy. Same flowers, but call them “romantic dinner centerpiece” and suddenly they’re affordable. I mean, what?
So I’m doing burpees and thinking, what’s even real then? How is this a thing? But also, we’re all just… okay with it? But maybe I’m missing something. Because weddings are supposed to be memorable, right? Is the magic in the price tag or the love? I can’t tell. There’s another bit about consumer behavior—probably in some psychology journal—where they say we’re manipulated by flashy labels. And weddings? They’ve got labels dripping in glitter.
It's weird, because I always thought I'd be the kind of person who’d want something... I don’t know... epic? But now I’m not so sure if it’s worth the splurge or if it’s just pressure because everyone else is doing it. Social pressure economics or something like that—another study, but it was oldish, maybe from the 90s. We’re all sheep, nudged along by these subtle cues. Like, do I even want a three-tier cake or am I just supposed to want it because everyone else does?
Maybe it’s just how things are, you know? Like some big scam we’re all okay being part of because it’s too exhausting to fight it. Or maybe, I just need more caffeine and less Instagram. It’s hard to say. I don’t really have answers, just random thoughts while I try to convince myself to go for a morning run. No neat wrap-ups here. Just me, questioning why a piece of paper with "wedding" on it costs more, and still scrolling, still wondering.