(Photo of a real wedding in Argentina by Hamner_Fotos)
It can be fun to go to a wedding. But in Argentina, marriage is becoming increasingly unpopular among young people. They just aren't getting married, so they're not having weddings.
The solution for the threatened wedding industry and people who enjoy attending weddings is to conduct elaborate, dramatic weddings with actors. The Guardian reports:
“It all started two years ago with a group of friends: we realized we hadn’t been to a wedding in a long time because hardly anybody is getting married anymore,” says 26-year-old publicist Martín Acerbi. Together with four friends from the university town of La Plata, 32 miles (50km) south of the capital city of Buenos Aires, Acerbi decided to organize a fake wedding instead.
To their surprise the event was a roaring success, and the one-off wedding became a business: Acerbi and his friends founded the Falsa Boda company in November 2013 – and have had steady work ever since.
The company hires real wedding locations, caterers and DJs for the parties, Acerbi said. “These wedding professionals have become our strategic allies, we organize it like it’s the real thing, except the marriage itself is fake,” he said.
Hired actors play the bride, groom and a surprise third party: a spurned lover or secret boyfriend who arrives “unexpectedly” – and with dramatic results.
Because they're scripted plays conducted by actors, people who attend these wedding parties can expect high drama:
The groom fingers his collar as he waits nervously before the justice of the peace. The bride is radiant in virginal white. As she makes her way down the aisle, some guests – overcome with emotion – dab tears from their eyes.
But before the couple can exchange their vows, a voice cries out and a man steps forward, proclaiming his love for the groom.
The bride flees in tears and – rather than let the ceremony go to waste – the two men get married instead.
-via Marginal Revolution