Unromantic as it may sound, the celebration of the transformative power of consumption seems to be part of the magic of the wedding day for many women. On this day I am more beautiful, elegant, and radiant than any other. On this day everything is perfect and lavish and matching. A real-life royal wedding, televised and celebrated by millions, represents and encapsulates this magic. It might be tempting for some to argue that the wedding-as-princess-pageant represents a secularization of the marriage rite. But the truth is that the celebration of consumption, the acting-out of the princess ritual, is its own expression of what has become sacred.
Katy E. Shrout
Katy E. Shrout is a recent Ph.D. in American religion from Emory University. Her research is on religion, gender and consumer culture in the twentieth-century United States.
