​Fake Weddings: Coming To A Country Near You

           So you want to attend a wedding, but you don’t know anyone who’s engaged to be married? If you live in Argentina, you’re in luck! And it’s as simple as buying a Groupon for a fun event in your area. A company called Falsa Boda in Argentina has created "fake weddings" for young people to attend for a fee. You can buy a spot at the fake wedding for around 50 dollars from their website here. It all started when when five Argentine friends from La Plata planned a fake wedding in 2013. It was such a success, they decided to turn Falsa Boda into a business. The company hires actors and actresses to play the part of bride, groom, and priest. The guests attend the mock ceremony with a reception following that is open until 6am. 
           Step 1: Choose the event you wanna go to
           Step 2: Buy paying with credit card or cash inputs
           Step 3: Receive the QR (quick response) code and access directly to the event
           Weddings have always been an excuse to get together with friends and family, to dress up, sip some cocktails and celebrate. But for Millennials, the opportunity to attend a wedding is few and far between. Since the replacement of face-to-face communication with technology based interactions and the evolution of the hookup culture, less people have long term relationships in their early twenties and more people are getting married later in life. If I had a dollar for every time one of my friends has said “I’ll be lucky if I’m married by 30,” I could have paid for my college education in cash.
           According to the Elite Daily piece with 39k shares written by an undergraduate at Penn State University, “The Hook-Up Culture: How An Entire Generation Forgot How To Actually Date Someone,” dating has become a thing of the past and “talking” is the new dating, leaving behind all sense of clarity and commitment when it comes to relationships for the average millennial. “Back in our parents’ college days, young people would go out to eat and take each other out on weekend dates, maybe going to a party or bar together afterward. Then, they marry their college sweethearts and start families.” College or college-age used to be the time where you would find the person with whom you would spend the rest of your life, but things have changed. “This scenario is now considered to be old-fashioned and unrealistic. Nowadays, frat formals might be the fanciest of dates you could land,” says Miranda. As a result, “The associated fear of commitment that hook-up culture supports has coerced our generation not to understand how to date.”
           Enter the falsa boda: an idea born from this very trend. With the rejection of marriage by many Millennials, there is a lack of weddings for young people to attend, and Falsa Boda doesn't want to see them miss out. Millenials don't want to commit, by why should they be deprived of a lavish life celebration? It sounds like we quite literally want to have our (wedding) cake and eat it too. The U.S. marriage rate is declining, making the invention of weddings as an entertainment based platform feasible in America too. In fact, Falsa Boda hopes to take their business global. 
           This brings me to the question, will there be a new crop of event planners coordinating “fake weddings” that will call themselves wedding planners? As an aspiring wedding planner, the thought of planning a wedding where the sole purpose is for people to get dressed up, get drunk and dance, with no attachment or relation to a bride and groom who are merely actors, sounds like a nightmare. Sure, there are always a few guests at weddings that have one too many drinks and its usually harmless; there is always a certain level of respect between the guests, the bride, groom, and their planner and vendors. But a room filled with people who have paid to partake in a total sham just to experience the fun of a wedding reception with no real appreciation for the sanctity of marriage seems like a recipe for a sloppy and even ill-mannered crew. The mere fact that these receptions last until 6am makes it more characteristic of a Vegas night club party than a celebration of matrimony.
           Thanks to innocent comedies like Wedding Crashers, there is a perception that weddings are the perfect opportunity to meet other single people feeling vulnerable or desperate to meet someone romantically because of the atmosphere weddings evoke.  I am a huge fan of Vince Vaughan and Owen Wilson, don't get me wrong, but treating weddings as a free for all with no real meaning behind the celebration squanders the true meaning of a milestone meant to be shared with loved ones. If the very reason that Falsa Boda was created is because millennials have an aversion to the institution of marriage, isn’t the invention of a “fake wedding” for recreational purposes just adding fuel to the fire? Forget trying to meet someone in a dark bar with loud music and no substantial conversation, let’s meet someone at a fake wedding with guests who have paid money to see a performance that mocks true love and take advantage of an open bar.
           The most disturbing part of these false weddings is the “plot twists” that are often planned for shock value. Why pay to attend a fake wedding without a few theatrics? One Falsa Boda plot twist involved a man standing up and confessing his love for the groom, leaving the bride in tears, after which the groom and the man who opposed married instead. With the legalization of gay marriage in America, why would we turn such strides in equality into a form of mockery and entertainment for shock value?
           Don’t you think its time we all progress, not regress?

 
-Bobbi

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