Marriage costs $37 dollars in Mississippi, FYI. Celebrations around it, that's a different story.

I paid $50 to rent a gazebo at our town hall. No regrets having an inexpensive wedding.

I remember the honeymoon we splurged on, much better value, much less planning and coordination to worry about.

Room temperature take:

Weddings are expensive. Marriage costs almost nothing.

Depends: marriage can be expensive for a rich asshole marrying a piece of crap who's terrible at spending someone else's money.

For certain kinds of rich people to whom being able to waste money is a demonstration of their self-worth, having a spouse who spends money like some people breathe air is a feature, not a bug.

To be fair it’s not like they’re burning banknotes, that money goes somewhere.

Divorces have a reputation money wise as well. ;)

Can be expensive.

Ours was about £500, 25+ years ago. Still together now.

This is all delusional.

I am basically anti-marriage for myself but an expensive diamond ring is acting like a form of collateral. It is a form of insurance that one party is not completely fraudulent about their financial situation.

Imagine that, these long held traditions actually have practical purposes and are not just random nonsense that is so easily solved by technology.

People hopelessly addicted to social media and bullshit are just total suckers for these type of stories though.

“It is a form of insurance that one party is not completely fraudulent about their financial situation.”

The credit industry has entered the room.

I've read that a century ago, about a third of engagement stones were precious stones other than diamonds. So, a triumph of marketing.