Culture Corner | American Weddings

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack discuss American weddings. Transcript: 00:00:01 Jack Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social. And today we have a culture corner episode for you and social. This is from our students. This question comes from our students and this the question is I want to know how Americans plan a wedding. 00:00:22 Jack Do Americans have a dowry? Is there a dowry system in the United States? 00:00:29 Jack So should we start with like just? 00:00:31 Jack How Americans plan a wedding. 00:00:34 Xochitl Yeah. And Jack, I would be interested. 00:00:36 Xochitl To know about this because I bet you have like. 00:00:38 Xochitl A lot of cultural. 00:00:38 Xochitl But I don't there since I know through like other people, but I don't know. 00:00:47 Xochitl There's things I've heard about American weddings, but I like US weddings, but I'm not super like. 00:00:55 Jack Ohh yeah yeah I. 00:00:57 Jack I used to work. Uh. I used to work in the wedding industry. I was. 00:01:00 Jack A wedding DJ in college. 00:01:02 Xochitl Ohh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's really. 00:01:05 Xochitl Interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, I'm not too first because a lot of stuff I know is through my mom. Who that's like. 00:01:11 Xochitl More Mexican weddings. 00:01:15 Xochitl So yeah, anyway. 00:01:17 Jack So maybe we'll go backwards. We'll start with the dowry, because I think, Simply put, most American weddings, didn't you do not have a dowry in marriage. 00:01:27 Xochitl Right. 00:01:28 Xochitl I think what's interesting is in the US culture, usually the brides parents paid for the wedding, correct? 00:01:36 Jack Yeah, that's true that traditionally that's that's true. The the Brides parents pay for the wedding. 00:01:44 Jack What did the what? 00:01:45 Jack Do the uh. 00:01:47 Jack Groom's pants. Pay for. 00:01:51 Xochitl I don't. I don't know, Jack. I'm. 00:01:53 Xochitl Gonna Google this while our listeners? 00:01:55 발표자 Maybe it maybe. 00:01:56 Jack Traditionally it was like you, the bride's parents, pay and then the the husband is expected to work and take care of the wife like. 00:02:04 Jack That's the. 00:02:05 Jack The arrangement. 00:02:06 Xochitl Especially the groom's parents paid for honeymoon, marriage, license, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, efficient fees, rooms and gifts, flowers, boutonnieres engagement party entertainment, groom and bride gift, wedding night accommodations and wedding transportation. 00:02:27 Xochitl And groom and groom's been attired. 00:02:30 Jack OK, OK. So all those little little things that they pay for the probably add up to about the same as what the the bride is paying for. 00:02:43 Xochitl Maybe, and it might be like how I guess traditionally the man was expected to like, have a home. 00:02:51 Xochitl Ready for the to move into? 00:02:53 Xochitl So I guess that's kind of what his family is. 00:02:58 Xochitl Contributing towards, I guess the home and it's usually furnished and everything. So maybe that's why they. 00:03:06 Xochitl The bride's parents pay for the. 00:03:11 Jack Right, right. And but I think I would say like that, all that stuff we just talked about is pretty much out the window these days like there's so many different. 00:03:21 Jack Versions of this where like couples will pay for. 00:03:24 Jack Their own weddings. 00:03:26 Jack The parents will just, you know, split. 00:03:30 Jack The cost 5050. 00:03:32 Jack Whatever you know, just the the bride and groom will give the parents a bill essentially and then then the parents will pay for half and the other. 00:03:39 Jack Parents will pay for half. 00:03:41 Jack Like there's just so there's like a million different ways that people finance weddings these days. 00:03:47 Xochitl Yeah, there's many other iterations I would say of how it's done today. I think for me, I would just feel the most comfortable paying for my own wedding cause then I'm not on