ABSTRACT
One of the most beautiful moments in a woman’s life, as etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige contended, also serves as the one event commonly considered to be the culmination of a romantic relationship. Historically, however, the union of two people through marriage did not require evidence of “true love”; only in the 19th century did romance and marriage become associated with each other. Today, romance has become inextricably linked to, at least, the prospect of marriage, and it has achieved an almost mythic quality as an essential part of weddings, the first step toward the “happily ever after” of familiar fairy tales. “After all,” asserted Otnes and Pleck (2003), “marriage is still seen as the endpoint of romance, and a lavish wedding as the best portal to marriage” (p. 11). This expectation that a romantic relationship will lead to marriage-but first to a big wedding-has become naturalized and ingrained into our image of the wedding as the endpoint of romance.
