Wedding Celebration, As an Emerging Industry (A Study in the City of Hamedan)

These days, unlike the past, the celebration of weddings in major cities has become less participatory, and various stages of it are mostly entrusted to commercial institutions from start to the end. These conditions indicate that in today's society, an industry called the wedding industry is emerging, and weddings are increasingly becoming commercialized. The aim of this article is to understand the characteristics of this emerging industry in the city of Hamedan and study its various aspects. Regarding the wedding industry, there are various theories, research, and perspectives that generally emphasize the women’s agency, consumerism, and the commodification of the capitalist system. These perspectives are reviewed in the article. This article utilizes a qualitative research method, and its data is collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 individuals working in the wedding industry in the city of Hamedan. The fundamental concepts of the interviews are then extracted using thematic analysis technique, and the analyses are finally structured based on nine core themes. The results of this research indicate that the expansion of the wedding industry, with its prominent feature of "commercialization," encompasses "feminine subjectivity" and reinforces the culture of "individualism" and "commodification," leading to the weakening of local wedding ceremonies.

The wedding industry is a complex combination of commercial and cultural activities, goods, and services, fundamentally reflecting the cultural attitude towards marriage ceremonies in a consumer society. Modern wedding celebrations, as a standardized and prevalent pattern, have been normalized in many societies and appear natural. Over time, this industry has diversified and evolved to the extent that it has now created a significant consumer market for wedding ceremonies. Wedding celebrations in the city of Hamedan have gradually come under the influence of this consumer market. The central objective of this article is to understand and analyze the elements of the wedding industry in this city. Accordingly, the research questions are:1) What characteristics and features do workers in the wedding industry in Hamedan attribute to this industry?
2) What social and cultural mechanisms does the commercialization trend of wedding celebrations in Hamedan encompass, and which social trends is it potentially susceptible to?

Commercial wedding celebrations have been examined by various researchers from various perspectives, and this article focuses on their concepts and approaches. In summarizing the theoretical literature, the review of these studies reveals that in Western studies on wedding celebrations, concepts of "consumerism" and "individual choice" are frequently emphasized, and this consumer culture is primarily directed towards women in the first place. Additionally, non-Western researchers in their studies have delved into the discussion of imitation and harmony with global wedding patterns and focused on the cultural and social mechanisms of this industry in non-Western societies.

This article employs a qualitative methodology, utilizing narrative interviews. Researchers conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 individuals in the wedding industry, focusing on their lived experiences to identify the characteristics and capabilities of the wedding industry in Hamedan. The choice of interviewing individuals in the wedding industry was driven by their deep connection to the industry and their profound understanding of the governing mechanisms in this field. The research field was Hamedan, and the sampling method was purposeful and chain-referral. Interviews continued until the data started to repeat. To ensure not to lose information and narratives and with the participants' consent, the interviews were recorded and transcribed after the interviews. Each interview lasted between 15 to 60 minutes. Furthermore, data analysis in this article follows the thematic analysis method, considering the individual as the unit of observation and analysis, with a focus on fine-grained levels of analysis.

In this article, the focus is on the study of Hamedan, one of the western cities of Iran. Similar to many geographical regions in Iran, this city has been influenced by the expanding wedding industry, leading to transformations in local wedding ceremonies. Hamedan is a relatively large city with a socio-cultural structure that combines both modern and traditional elements. Additionally, globalization and the culture of global capital consumption have spread in this city, transforming its market and business environment.
In this article, narratives from 16 individuals working in the wedding industry in Hamedan were explored to understand the characteristics of this industry. Participants identified 9 features based on their lived experiences in the business environment of Hamedan. These features include "Significant and Inevitable Celebration", "Transformation of Collective-Collaborative Rituals", "Commercial and Commodity Complex", "Feminine Consumerism", "Subjectivity, Selectivity, and Choice," "Specialization in Commercialized Weddings", "Risk Mitigation Management", "Aesthetic Recognition of Wedding Ceremonies and Representation of the Best Text", and "Globalization and Cultural Homogenization of Wedding Celebrations".

Commercializing wedding celebrations in Hamedan provides opportunities for creating unique social and cultural interactions and poses both opportunities and threats. The wedding industry in Hamedan allows couples, especially brides, to engage in subjectivity, shaping and managing their wedding celebrations according to their desires with the help of industry professionals. The wedding celebration emerges as a social construct, where Hamedani brides assert their agency and organize their identity as the "ideal bride." This industry empowers young Hamedani women, granting them more freedom of choice and agency.
Moreover, in the past decades, Hamedan's wedding celebrations were based on simplicity, fostering collaborative teamwork and strengthening collective spirit. However, today, the commercialization of these celebrations in Hamedan, in sync with the expansion of consumer culture, reflects more prominently the role of wedding service providers in the community, ultimately imposing exorbitant costs on couples and their families. Furthermore, the commercialization of wedding celebrations in the modern consumer culture of Hamedan has the potential to deepen social divides, increase social comparison, amplify relative deprivation, and ultimately intensify the sense of social inequality.

This article is derived from a doctoral thesis in cultural sociology at the University of Guilan. The authors express their gratitude to all individuals who participated in and supported this research.