Give the origin of this practice: Generally, why does a bride from the West (Europe and USA) have to pay for the wedding while in the East (China, Philippines, etc.), it is the groom who shoulders the cost?

Jac

It stems from the practice of dowries - women were financially a liability to their fathers when they didn't work, and since the husband was taking on that 'burden' the father would pay him to take the girl. (Sexist, huh?) In modern Western society we no longer have this practice, so the parents pay for the wedding to make up. Of course in practice this is no longer strictly true - I get married in less than six weeks and we are all contributing to the wedding - my parents the most, then us, then the groom's parents, but all are giving a substantial amount towards it. The average cost of a UK wedding is now somewhere around %A314,000, so you can see that the more people pay, the better! Very few parents will throw a big party and pay for it all themselves. PS I wrote a much larger explanation of dowries and the economic reasons but the site seems to have eaten my answer. :-( Jun 16 02, 1:28 PM

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