Brittany Luce

Like, I don't know.

That's so tacky.

Sorry.

There's been a lot of reporting over the years about how costly weddings are for couples.

But recently, I've also seen a lot of chatter about just how expensive they are now for the guests.

Here's Annie Joy Williams, assistant editor at The Atlantic.

20?

She wrote an honestly harrowing piece about how much people are spending on other people's weddings.

Annie Joy herself says she spent almost $20,000 over the years.

And it seems like this experience, it's a little too common.

A survey by LendingTree found that 31% of people who'd been to a wedding in the past five years had accrued debt to attend.

But what's driving up the cost of weddings for guests?

How has the culture around weddings changed?

And what makes it so hard to say no to these expenses?

I'm getting into it with Annie Joy.

Thanks so much for having us.

And Allison Reese, Senior Analyst at trend forecasting firm WGSN.

Hello, hello.

I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

All right, let's jump right in.