Did weddings actually get longer, or did Instagram get longer

Anecdotal claim I keep hearing: modern weddings are these bloated all-day affairs, nothing like the quick church-and-reception model of the 1950s. But I'm not sure the data tracks this. The *documentation* of weddings—multiple photographers, detailed timelines on wedding websites, Pinterest boards breaking down every micro-event—that's definitely new. Whether the actual event got longer is harder to pin down. What I wonder is whether we're confusing elaboration with visibility. A 1960s wedding had a ceremony, a reception, people went home. A modern wedding might have a rehearsal dinner (new-ish, or at least newly mandatory), the ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, maybe a day-after brunch. But did that brunch replace something else, or is it genuinely added time? And here's the thing that nags at me: are we measuring "length" as total hours, or as cultural intensity? Because those might be different problems. I suspect what actually changed is not how long you stand at the altar but how much of your social life gets organized around the event—the pre-wedding parties, the guest accommodations, the logistics. That sprawl is real. But I'd be curious whether someone with access to actual wedding records from, say, 1970 versus 2020 would see a meaningful difference in ceremony + reception time, stripped of all the framing.