Because weddings, like all major American purchases, are something that is completely emotionally driven and the consumers don’t know/care about the costs. You buy a F-150 because you’re a queer if you don’t, cost be damned. You buy a house because you love it and you can get the mortgage. You pick a college because the campus is neat and the football games are a blast to attend. And you have a wedding because it’s not enough to force blax into signing a contract to assume obligations for your next five decades of spending sprees, you want him to pay for a dress you’ll wear for 5 hours while he feeds all your friends, not-friends-but-need-to-invites, co-workers, and all their families (20% of who won’t show but it’s prepaid) because it’s easier to have him cut another check than to speak up and say the invite for you and your husband does not include your loser teenage son who doesn’t want to be there anyways and is gonna show up in a pair of Wranglers all open-carry.