{"id":35209,"date":"2024-01-19T16:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wedding-business-misses-point\/"},"modified":"2024-01-19T16:26:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T16:26:00","slug":"wedding-business-misses-point","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wedding-business-misses-point\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wedding Business Misses the Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A beautiful wedding does not a wonderful marriage make. We know that and yet many couples get drawn into the business of weddings and the price tag can create a burden and stress for years. According to <em>The Knot<\/em>, the average cost of a wedding in 2022 was $30,000, including the ceremony and reception.<\/p>\n\n<p>Just for reference, warehouse workers, nursing assistants and shuttle drivers make less than $36,000 a year on average. You also could buy a new car for $30,000 or pay for the cost of tuition, housing, and meal plan at a major university for the same price. There is also a massive cost burden for attendees. According to <em>The Balance<\/em> it costs individual members of a bridal party more than $700 to attend a wedding, including travel, accommodations, and clothing.<\/p>\n\n<p>But, hey, you can always read up on the dozens of articles highlighting how to save money when planning a wedding &hellip; such as &ldquo;open a new savings account earmarked just for the wedding.&rdquo; Is that what we have allowed the industry to push us toward? Opening a new savings account just to finance a wedding?<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Maybe it is time for us all to rethink our cultural obsession with elaborate weddings &ndash; and the staggering financial behemoth it has created.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3522,3531,3696,3741,3919,3925,3991,4197,4410,4425,4488,4662,4694,4925,5270],"tax_ctp_topics":[390,392,396],"class_list":["post-35209","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-brides","tax_ctp_tags-burdens","tax_ctp_tags-cost","tax_ctp_tags-debt","tax_ctp_tags-expenses","tax_ctp_tags-extravagance","tax_ctp_tags-finances","tax_ctp_tags-husbands-wives","tax_ctp_tags-luxury","tax_ctp_tags-marriage","tax_ctp_tags-money","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-premarital-counseling","tax_ctp_tags-self-indulgence","tax_ctp_tags-weddings"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Wedding Business Misses the Point - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wedding-business-misses-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wedding Business Misses the Point - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A beautiful wedding does not a wonderful marriage make. 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