The wedding industry is going strong. The marketing is over the top. I hesitate to use the phrase, "In my day, a couple got married in the church or pastor's office, or at a Justice of the Peace's. Sometimes there was a reception or other bridal party festivity afterwards. The honeymoon wasn't something paid for by 'guests'".
However, my husband and I both will make the point that couples focus more energy, time, effort, and money on the wedding than on the marriage. I'm watching one of these "focus more on the wedding than on the marriage" scenarios unfold now. And yes, the couple has been shacking up / "playing house" for more than a year. I see this and ask myself, "Do either of them have any respect for the other?" And I always thought I was rather "laissez-faire" about all this, but as I've become older (much older), observation, experience, and history have caused me to modify my perception of "modern" vs tradition. I am a bit saddened to consider that which is today's "modern" could be tomorrow's "tradition".