9.

“Weddings! When I was young, getting married and having a nice wedding was something that was pricey but affordable. Nowadays, having an average-length, decent wedding at a nice venue, then having a party after can cost an absolutely obscene amount of money, and that’s not even getting into the costs of rings, honeymoons, bachelor/bachelorette parties, or catering. When I was a young woman, I left my fiancé at the altar, and this was considered scandalous only for social reasons. I recently saw a young woman on Twitter who did the same thing, and her fiancé’s family was angry mainly because of how much money had been wasted on the wedding.”

“She said they were even planning on suing her! And this has impacted me personally as well. I’m engaged, but the official wedding hasn’t happened yet. That’s only because of the costs. My fiancé proposed with a nice $35 ring he found on Etsy; that would be considered disrespectful back in my day, but now that the cost of living is so outrageous, everyone sees it for what it is — a bargain. We’re having a small party at our apartment afterwards, not a big, fancy celebration at a club or something like that. After trying to cram it into our budgets, we’ve given up on the idea of a honeymoon. We’re not doing bachelor/ette parties. The main thing delaying us is trying to find a nice, affordable venue. I know, I know, champagne problems, but the first time I got married, my (now ex) husband and I were lower-middle class, but we got to have rings and honeymoons and parties. And now, I don’t know, it’s just kind of disappointing.”

—72, New York