We went to the county courthouse (part of my beat at the newspaper where I worked) and the county court at law judge (whom I interviewed regularly) was in and married us in his office. We went to Wendy's for lunch after that. We'd been together for 8 years already and it was 12 years before we got divorced. The marriage was because we decided we wanted kids.

The wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar operation with more expensive "must haves" and "must do" rituals than ever before. I did a quick search and find an author, Rebecca Mead, who has written One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding and Billion Dollar Bride: How the American Wedding Industry Ran Off with the American Wedding. An industry site AA-WP (American Academy of Wedding Professionals) apparently office mail order or online classes in at-home certification as a wedding planner. It states that

2.3 million weddings a year take place in the U.S.

44,000 weddings occur every weekend.

The average cost of a wedding is over $22,000.

In the U.S., the wedding industry tops $50 BILLION annually.

SRS