Wedding ceremonies have never been just about making a commitment to your future spouse. They celebrate love, but also families and communities. It has been tradition for years for brides to wear their mother?s wedding dress, a set of jewelry from a grandmother or best friend, or to use a family member or close friend?s home as a venue??something borrowed, something blue,? right" However, at some point, certain stigmas developed around borrowing or sharing anything for a wedding that wasn?t purely for sentimental value. People weren?t proud to be saving; it was an admission of poverty. But, with the advent of the sharing economy in recent years, people are becoming more focused on getting the most out of their money and cutting excess out of both their lives and their weddings. What Is the Sharing Economy"

Simply put, this trend is a new way for consumers to buy?purchasing shared time or assets from each other instead of going to a large corporation for a brand new product. You use someone?s vacation home as a place to stay instead of booking at a hotel; you pay someone to take you home in their car instead of calling a taxi. This mindset comes from people wanting to not only save money, but put some of it back in the hands of others?rather than faceless big business?and it goes hand-in-hand with other developing trends like sustainable living as a means to cut back on waste.
But when it comes to weddings, saving money and scaling back doesn?t always mean a tigh...