The End of the Bridezilla Era: Diamonds and Weddings Both Shrink

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

When both AM New York and the Post run articles about the struggling wedding industry, you know it's going to be a bleak June. AMNY takes the more compassionate route, talking to worried business owners and profiling one couple's attempt to get around standard wedding charges like the $300 cake-cutting fee. (What, you thought it was possible to just slice a cake for free?) The Post, on the other hand, mostly just wants to gawk at the Manhattan ladies who aren't getting their diamonds. Sales of cubic zirconium are up, apparently, and, according to one luxury jeweler, "The women are little hostile about it." The same jeweler also said this: "The budget used to be $65,000. Now it's closer to $10,000." Given that the average wedding costs about $25,000, with those kinds of savings you could afford to get married twice.
· Economy gives couples the wedding bell blues [AMNY]
· 'Rock' Bottom [NYP]