The Lifetime Costs to Single People of Other People’s Weddings
How weddings unfairly widen the wealth gap between people who marry and people who don’t
A story just published in the New York Times tells us that we need to be “prepping for the year of many, many weddings.” So what’s that going to cost people who are single, not just for any one wedding, but over the course of a lifetime? I looked into the matter for a column I wrote for Unmarried Equality a few years ago. With the organization’s permission, I am sharing it here, adding a few updates along the way. It’s a long story, but be sure to catch the last paragraph (“But that’s only half the story”), even if you skip some of the parts in the middle.
Here’s a quick preview:
Over the course of a lifetime, single people, on the average, spend thousands of dollars on the weddings of other people — maybe even tens of thousands. Their married siblings receive about $20,000 toward their wedding expenses from their parents and parents-in-law. These financial transfers grow out of kindness and customs, but they contribute to wealth inequality between people who marry and people who don’t.
