I am to my Beloved... as long as we get in The NYT

Remember those games you used to play at your Fire Island, Jersey Shore, Catskills, North Beach, or other beach houses in the 1980s? The game where you gave points to the New York Times Wedding Announcements – points based on where they couples went to school, which rabbi performed their nuptials, how many degrees the bride and groom accumulated? Well, some enterprising person (the site is anonymously registered) has built a database called WeddingCredential.com which contains over 3,900 of The New York Times’ recent wedding announcements and allows users to query the database for the frequency of certain terms.

For example, 25% mention “rabbi,” 21% mention “priest,” 14% mention the term “catholic,” and 5% mention that the officiate became a Universal Life minister for the occasion. Only seven mention Imam. 16% mention Columbia, 12% went to Harvard, and only 2% mention Penn. About 13 went to Yeshiva University. 23% mention a law firm (either the couple’s or the parents’), 5% mention “doctor,” and 2% mention “dentist.” 16% mention that the bride is “keeping her name,” 26% graduated cum laude (13% magna cum laude), 2% have an affiliation to Goldman Sachs, 10% has at least one of the partners as previously divorced, and 1 said “Henry Winkler.”

Oh what weekend fun you can have with this.

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larry

4 Comments

  • Why do people over there put that kind of info into wedding announcements?

    Over here, it’s just names of the spouses (maiden name if it’s a religious wedding and either side changed the name at the civil weddind ceremony), date and site of the wedding; if applicable and the couple’s hosting an open-house reception with drinks pre-wedding, location and time of that event.

  • Das ist schade. How very sad. Wedding announcements are a SPORT! It is socioeconomic status; it is pleasure; it is akin to the joining of BoBo royal families.