And the Hello and welcome to the corporate casket, a bi-weekly series where bad businesses go to die.

We'll discuss anything and everything from bad charities, terrible CEOs, and businesses

that have a lot to hide.

I'm the Illuminati and today we're going to be talking about the wedding industry.

I think a lot of people know the dark history behind engagement rings and how it once symbolized husbands owning wives and the

fact that the wedding industry can be predatory towards brides. Personally I don't

want anyone to look at this video and think that I'm telling you absolutely should not wear an engagement ring or that

partaking in wedding traditions is scummy.

If you want an engagement ring or not, a traditional wedding or not or however you even define

a traditional wedding, that is totally up to you.

I just don't like when I see a particular industry trying to take advantage of someone because they're going

through a very special time in their lives. And the only thing I really want people to think

coming out of this is just how to be more of an informed consumer.

Getting married is an exciting time and going through the process of planning a

whole ceremony can be super stressful and there

are people in the industry that are more than willing to take advantage of your naivety and

your vulnerability. So I'm hoping that this episode can be an interesting look at the history of engagements and

maybe a little tool for brides to be on how to navigate this industry.

So let's get started. Now engagement rings have been around for quite a while, though anthropologists believe the

tradition comes from a Roman custom in which wives wore rings attached to small keys, indicating

their husband's ownership.

The GIA or Gemological Institute of America

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