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Adriane DAmato
Professor Fielding
WRTC 103 Section 40
21 February 2016
Decrease Debt, Shrink Stress!
Many young people today anticipate if it will be worth their investment of time and
money to get married and have a wedding. The divorce rate in America has climbed up to 40 or
50 percent of marriages ending in divorce. This rate has grown exponentially since our
generations parents were children, thus making it in the news for everyone to see. Weddings
today are known to be extremely lavish and to put married couples in debt for years after their
wedding; this debt often extends longer than their marriage even lasts. It is not worth it to spend
excessive amounts of money on getting married when this puts couples at higher stakes for
divorce.
The article The Cost of a Wedding is Pricing us out of Marriage by Lucy Tobin is about

the outrageous amount of money that people spend on weddings and what the result of it turns
out to be. Her target audience is those who are thinking about getting married or those who are
planning a wedding. More specifically, she is talking to people who are planning a wedding that
will be overly lavish and too costly for their budget. The style of her writing is persuasive and
scholarly by trying to convince her readers of a valid claim with facts to back it up. Tobin begins
by giving an example of what you could buy with the amount of money that some couples spend
on making their wedding a lavish event. A main point made is that the thousands of dollars that
couples are spending on getting bands, enormous cakes and designer dresses are enough to
purchase an apartment or a home. The couples who spend on lavish weddings have an

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exponential amount of debt and Tobin give many statistics coming from authorized studies to
show that it is more likely for couples to get divorced if they spend too much money on their
wedding. Tobin goes on to prove that couples who spend shocking amounts of money on their
wedding are more likely to end up getting divorced.
Tobin represents herself as a knowledgeable, well studied writer. The article always has
facts to back up its claims. For example, she references the Office for National Statistics, the
Centre for Social Justice and US academic research when she is giving statistics about marriage
and weddings. Not only does Tobin back up her claims with facts from acceptable sources but
she is a trusted journalist and author. Tobin has written five books, including books guiding
students going to University and guiding people to living life with high taste on a low budget.
Her other books include giving her own advice on entrepreneurial business, vocabulary for
students and a guide for couples planning weddings. She mentions in the article that the book
about weddings was, inspired by rude encounters with the big-headed wedding industry (Tobin
P. 4). Since she has written an entire book on the subject of weddings she has a lot of background
knowledge on expensive wedding costs as well as the way that leads couples to act. Tobin is an
author of books as well as a consistent writer for the London Evening Standard, the newspaper
that this article was written for.
The entire article The Cost of a Wedding is Pricing us out of Marriage is based in facts
and evidence. The majority of the evidence given is statistics from research studies as well as
quotations from authorities. Not only does she reference studies but she also discusses the
economic inflation specifically in the nuptials industry. When Tobin gives specific statistics such
as that since 2001, those in the top tax bracket have become twice as likely to be hitched,
(Tobin, P. 3) she backs it up by giving its source, the Office for National Statistics.

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Not only does Tobin take logical appeals but there are also many emotional appeals in the
article. Taking emotional appeals made the article more powerful because not only did the article
give factual, unarguable information, the emotion makes the reader want to agree with Tobin.
The general theme of the article is trying to persuade people to not spend extravagant amounts of
money on weddings, but she discusses the way that guests feel toward extravagant weddings as
well. When talking about absurd things that people spend money on for their weddings she
discusses people having destination weddings and, half their friends moaning to each other that
they could have spent the PS500 budget on a holiday of their own choice (Tobin, P. 5). This is
an important emotional appeal because even if the reader is not planning a wedding themselves
they can relate to dealing with friends or loved ones extravagant wedding plans. The theme of
weddings is emotionally charged simply due to its implications. Tobin uses descriptive language
to help people feel what weddings are like right off the bat by describing a typical element of a
wedding, rather than going directly into her point.
THE best man rises to give his wedding speech, and asks the guests to charge their
glasses. Then he thanks those to whom the contents of the glasses are being charged and
well he might, given the average knot-tying extravaganza now leaves brides and grooms
(or their generous relatives) with little change from PS30,000 (Tobin, P. 1).
This first paragraph is an authoritative start to the article because Tobin draws emotion while
telling her readers exactly what they are about to read about.

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Decrease Debt, Shrink Stress!

Public
Service Announcement influencing the public to not spend grandiosely on their wedding.
The main claim of this PSA is that spending extravagantly on a wedding ceremony leads
to unnecessary stress and debt, and in many cases, divorce. The PSA shows a crying bride and a
rolled up wad of 100 dollar bills with a diamond ring on top of it. These photos are meant to

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convey a story of unhappiness, stress and grief. Upon looking at this PSA people will be
unsettled by the woman in a wedding dress crying because that is not what the usual connotation
of a woman in a wedding dress is. Also, the photo of the money and the diamond ring will lead
peoples minds to the purpose of the PSA before they read any words. The PSA is directed
towards those who are planning an extravagant wedding, or couples who have recently gotten
engaged. The images in the PSA are dominant as well as the large red text above them.
The writer does not have the proper qualifications to be the end all decision on this topic.
She has only read about three articles on this topic and they all come from the same viewpoint.
The viewpoints in this PSA are backed up by text sources and are documented correctly. The
PSA gives credit to where the writer got the information from, and is linked to a legitimate
organization. The tone and word choice is appropriate because the writer wants to use strong
language to get her point across but does so without being rude or condescending. Although the
author doesnt have an immense amount of authority over the subject of the PSA, it is
professionally presented and written.
The claim being made is very clear mostly due to the large headings above the photos, the
second one reading, so do NOT spend absurd amounts of money on your wedding day!!
(DAmato). This clear claim is supported with evidence and facts underneath the photos. The
arguments presentation is arranged in a logical way because the headings above read from the
one on the left first, which is above the photo of the bride, to the next heading which is above the
photo of the money. The facts and figures are underneath the photos so that they support the
claims being made above.
The photos used in the PSA appeal to pathos the most, a crying bride evokes emotion in
people because it is automatically assumed that getting married is the happiest day of ones life.

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The photo confuses people immediately without them even realizing because it is somewhat of
an oxymoron. The general purpose of the PSA appeals to the values of the audience because if
they are people planning a wedding the last thing that they want to happen is to be a crying bride
or be the groom next to a crying bride.
The verbal argument and the PSA compliment each other very much. The points made in
the verbal argument are drawn into the PSA in a shorter, more direct format. Understanding of
the topic is deepened by the photos giving the argument more appeals to pathos. Although both
arguments are convincing, the verbal argument does a better job of convincing the audience
because the author has more factual claims. The author of the verbal argument, Lucy Tobin, has a
lot of background knowledge in martial issues and wrote a whole novel on the subject of
marriage. The verbal argument and the PSA together are a great mixture of the appeals of pathos,
ethos and logos.

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Works Cited
"The cost of a wedding is pricing us out of marriage." London Evening Standard [London,
England] 14 Nov. 2014: 15. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

Tobin, Lucy. "Lucy Tobin - Freelance Journalist." Welcome -. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

"Evening Standard." Evening Standard. Evening Standard, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

Wedding Traditions. Digital image. Orz. N.p., n.d. Web.

8 Ways to save Money on Your Wedding! Digital image. Celebrate Intima. N.p., n.d. Web.