Wedding planning is consuming the minds of several of my friends. The dress. The caterer. The flowers. The location!
When asked about this last essential, one friend gets big eyes, puts on a mysterious voice and says: “We’re doing something really novel. We’re getting married in… A CHURCH!”
This response draws laughter, but it’s quite true. Judging from personal invites, pictures on Facebook, and accounts from other wedding attendees, ceremonies at barns, breweries, orchards, or other scenic venues are the new normal.
Data appears to support my personal experience. As Fleming Smith reports in a recent Wall Street Journal article, only a quarter of young couples tie the knot “in a religious institution.”
The article attributes this low percentage of church weddings to the rising number of religious “nones” in America.
“This trend will likely accelerate as generations age, says Tricia Bruce, a University of Notre Dame sociologist who studies religion.
Some of these adults were raised in religious traditions, which they use as a framework for what milestones like weddings should look like. Those raised without religious affiliation must find that cultural framework somewhere else. Nontraditional weddings have existed for years. But they’re likely to become more common under these circumstances, Dr. Bruce says.”
Young millennials have thrown tradition to the wind. “We’re doing it our way!” they proclaim. “We’re blazing new trails and making our weddings about us—our individuality.”
Yet even while they exult in their own uniqueness and ability to throw off the shackles of past tradition, they seem to be searching to find their footing, to rest it upon some type of structure. Why is this?
Robert Nisbet sheds some light in several introductory comments to “The Quest for Community“:
