@article{castren_who_2009, title = {Who chooses the wedding guests, the couple or the family? {Individual} preferences and relational constraints in {France} and {Finland}}, volume = {11}, url = {http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a912565481}, abstract = {Marriage has become an individual choice in most European countries. In this article we study entry into marriage, i.e., weddings, which in the contemporary research literature are often presented with an emphasis on modernity: consumerism, celebration of romance, and the experience of a unique and individual occasion. The wedding guests are an important part in the making of 'the perfect day' but the topic has largely been neglected in the literature. In this study we analyse the selection of wedding guests in 12 weddings (six French and six Finnish) to investigate the dynamics of the interplay between individual preferences and the determinants that are more relational in origin. Three empirical questions are presented: first, who is responsible for choosing the guests? Second, what is the distribution of wedding guests between kin and non-kin? And third, who are the non-kin guests: are they friends first met by the couple alone, or also by the wider family? The results show that despite the predominantly individualistic discourse expressed by the couples, a wedding is still a familial affair: the configurations of family ties are influential in constraining as well as enabling the choices available to the couple. ER - End of Reference}, number = {3}, journal = {European Societies}, author = {Castren, Anna-Maija and Maillochon, Florence}, month = jun, year = {2009}, pages = {369--389}, }