Do you want all the fun of a wedding without the hassle of marriage?
Meet Falsa Boda (link in Spanish), an Argentine company leading the latest craze in the country—fake weddings. There’s a bride, groom, wedding cake, and the cheesy band. The only thing missing is true love.
Five Argentine friends from La Plata organized a fake wedding in 2013, and it was a success. They founded Falsa Boda and turned it into a business. Here’s how it works: customers pay around $50 to go to the event they’re interested in attending. Once they’ve paid, they’re given a QR code that allows access to the fake wedding, The Guardian reports.
False Boda hires actors to play the bride, groom, and priest. The guests are treated to a ceremony, which usually includes a dramatic twist. In one wedding, a man declares his love for the groom before the couple exchange their vows, leaving the bride to flee in tears. The ceremony didn’t go to waste, however, as the two men got married instead. Once the ceremony ends, the guests who’ve paid to be there can party until 6am the next morning.
Perhaps it’s not surprising. More people in Argentina are shunning weddings for civil unions, people are getting married older, half of marriages end in divorce, and the number of marriages is declining as well—down 61% since 1990, The Guardian said, with less than 60,000 couples getting married before a priest in 2011, down from 155,000 in 1990.
In fact, with US marriage rates are at an all time low and a recent report by the Pew Research Center finding that a quarter of millennials are likely to shun marriage all together, this might eventually become a growing trend elsewhere. Does rejecting marriage mean a new generation shouldn’t get to experience the fun of weddings?