Promising images of love: a qualitative-ethnographic study about the mediatised memories of weddings

Abstract

Background Digital media play a central role in contemporary weddings, be it during the preparation, the ritual itself or afterwards. Specific moments of the wedding day are made memorable through photographs and videos. But how do couples manage their wedding photos and videos and what role do these media play in awakening memories of religious and secular dimensions of the event? These questions are developed in the theoretical frame of mediatisation and memory processes. This paper argues that the mediatisation of weddings influences how a wedding is memorized and results in a partial standardization of memories of the event, in which neither cultural nor religious differences nor sexual orientation play a crucial role. Methods This interdisciplinary qualitative-ethnographic research is based on twenty-seven semi-structured video recorded interviews conducted in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland with homo- and heterosexual married couples from different cultural-religious backgrounds. The couples shared their wedding album or video and developed a wedding narrative by looking at the photographs and videos. Results Taking photos during the wedding becomes an important part of the ritual, independent of any cultural or religious background, gender, and sexual orientation. The ceremony itself is emphasized in the photos and the video. This homogenisation of the rite of passage equally occurs in the photographic representations of weddings and in turn influences how the wedding is remembered. The findings further reveal that heterosexual marriage representations reinforce gender stereotypes. The brides/wives of heterosexual couples are significantly more invested in the production and reception of wedding media, whereas homosexual couples participated in the conversation equally. Conclusions The homogenization of representation and memory becomes part of the rite of passage’s collective memory that connects the individual couples. The mediatisation of weddings strengthens the feeling of belonging to a community that transcends cultural-religious identities.