What Grinds My Gears: "The Wedding Tax"

A wedding is an important day. It transcends time and space and, ultimately, affects the intrinsic value of things. I'm referring to, what I like to call, "The Wedding Tax." I have seen it from a safe distance during my many years in the "event and party" business, but only now am I experiencing it first hand.

Take a cake for instance. Go to any bakery and say that you want a cake for your brother's 26th birthday. Say that he likes strawberry filling and fondant icing. Oh, and his old fraternity brothers are coming as well, so a 2-tier would be ideal. "Haha, you know what would be awesome, if I played a joke and put a groom on top, damn would he get a kick out of that!" Get your price quote $100? $150? Reasonable, i'd say. "Oh, B.T.Dubbs, Throw a bride on top too...this is actually a wedding cake." WATCH that son of a bitch baker's eyes grow firm and angry as he aggresively doubles the price.

DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT A BRIDE FIGURINE ON TOP OF AN EFFING CAKE COSTS $150!?!?! Of course it doesn't! They do it because they can...because all of the "If-I-don't-get-married-now-I'll-never-have-kids" women will pay anything in their mad frenzy to marry their man before he looks at her mother and realizes she is a ticking time bomb of ugly. Multiply this by the whole midwest, and you get this Wedding Tax.

STORY TIME!!: My fiance was attempting to get her dress altered yesterday at a place which shall remain nameless...for two seconds: Sun Tailoring When quoted $200 for the alteration, my fiance asked (presumibly in a sweet and innocent way) "Isn't that a bit pricy?" "Hello! It's a wedding dress! If you don't like the price, take it somewhere else!" was the tax collector's reply. On a normal dress, the price would have been closer to $50.

Price fixing is an inherant part of our economy...but this 50-200% increase really grinds my gears!