When an aspiring interior designer embattled with insecurity about her dirt poor upbringing becomes enamored with her fiancé's family estate–the wedding venue–she finds herself embroiled in the literal rot and decay festering within the dream location after visions of a ghost threaten her fairytale ending.

Desde a década de 1970, o número de casamentos no Brasil vem diminuindo significativamente. Novos arranjos familiares e formas de viver a conjugalidade ganharam espaço. A importância de ritualizações foi colocada em xeque por muitos casais que rejeitavam a ideia de formalizar suas uniões. O início do século XXI, no entanto, marca um renovado interesse dos casais em marcar a transição para o casamento com eventos cada vez mais elaborados, em uma tendência que já foi chamada de a "revanche do ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003). Em 2016, o investimento dos casais brasileiros em festas de casamentos rendeu cerca de 16 bilhões de reais (o equivalente a aproximadamente 5 bilhões de dólares) em ganhos para o setor de eventos, segundo o Instituto de pesquisas Data Popular. Acompanhando o crescimento desse mercado desde 2011, o Instituto vem registrando uma tendência de crescimento, mesmo em meio à crise econômica pela qual passa o país. O quadro é de um crescente interesse por complexos eventos de casamento, performados por homens e mulheres pertencentes a camadas medias urbanas. A partir de dados demográficos do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), sabe-se que, nas últimas décadas, as pessoas casam-se menos. Por outro lado, a etnografia aqui apresentada permite afirmar que, quando decidem casar-se, sujeitos de camadas medias da população brasileira optam por marcar essa passagem com eventos cuja preparação exige um grande investimento de tempo e recursos financeiros. Nesta tese, apresento análises sobre este fenômeno, com base na etnografia que realizei entre os anos de 2013 e 2016, junto a sujeitos que protagonizam a organização de tais eventos. Trata-se de mulheres pertencentes a camadas médias urbanas, com formação superior e financeiramente independentes. Em vários dos casos observados, tais mulheres assumem a totalidade ou a maior parte dos gastos com o evento. A etnografia aqui apresentada se desdobrou em entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com noivas, acompanhamento de organizadoras de casamentos, observação participante em feiras do setor nas cidades de Fortaleza, Porto Alegre e São Paulo, participação em grupos virtuais de noivas e entrevistas com agentes deste mercado. Como resultado, destaco a compreensão de que os ritos contemporâneos aqui descritos nada tem de tradicionais no modo como são performatizados, mas representam novas formas de demarcar uma passagem cujos significados estão em transformação. Com os grandes eventos, os sujeitos procuram produzir lastro simbólico para suas uniões, em um momento no qual as relações são percebidas como cada vez mais voláteis. Além disso, esta tese apresenta reflexões sobre a invisibilidade dos ofícios que envolvem o cuidado, aqui representados na figura das cerimonialistas. Essas e outras questões são discutidas ao longo dos capítulos que compõem esta pesquisa sobre os ritos contemporâneos de casamento no Brasil e o mercado a eles dedicados. / Since the 1970s, marriage rates in Brazil have been decreasing significantly. New family arrangements and ways of conjugality have gained space. The importance of marriage as an institution was put in check by many young couples who rejected the idea of formalizing their relationships through a traditional wedding ceremony. However, the beginning of the 21st century was marked by a renewed interest in marriage in a trend that has been called the "revenge of ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003) specially among the urban middle class. This scenario poses an important question. Based on demographic data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), it is possible to affirm that in the past 40 years people tend to marry less and later in life. Still, despite Brazil’s economic crisis, in 2016 the amount invested in wedding parties was circa 16 billion Brazilian Reais - the equivalent to 5 billion Dollars - according to the Data Popular Research Institute following the total growth of the country's wedding industry since 2011. The data gathered throughout my fieldwork add to the perception that when Brazilian middle-class subjects decide to engage in marriage, they tend to mark this passage with grand scale events that demand great emotional, financial and time investment. This thesis presents an ethnographic study carried out from 2013 to 2016 among people involved in the planning, production and consumption of such events. They are wedding planners and middle class, educated and financially independent women that, in several of the observed cases, choose to finance most or even the integrality of the event. I conducted in-depth interviews with brides and relatives, collected data from Whastapp and Facebook groups, worked along side with wedding planners and visited wedding Fairs, bridal shows and exhibitions in Fortaleza, São Paulo and Porto Alegre. This ethnographic experience leads me to stress that contemporary wedding ceremonies are not necessarily traditional in the ways they are performed by wedding planners and brides to be, but represent new meanings and practices attached to modern wedding rituals. With this kind of event, subjects strive to produce symbolic ballast to anchor their formal unions in a time in which personal relationships are perceived as being increasingly volatile and not made to last. This thesis also presents a reflection on feminized labour, notably emotional labor and care work conducted by wedding planners, ceremonialists and other female professionals involved in wedding ceremonies.

Desde a década de 1970, o número de casamentos no Brasil vem diminuindo significativamente. Novos arranjos familiares e formas de viver a conjugalidade ganharam espaço. A importância de ritualizações foi colocada em xeque por muitos casais que rejeitavam a ideia de formalizar suas uniões. O início do século XXI, no entanto, marca um renovado interesse dos casais em marcar a transição para o casamento com eventos cada vez mais elaborados, em uma tendência que já foi chamada de a "revanche do ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003). Em 2016, o investimento dos casais brasileiros em festas de casamentos rendeu cerca de 16 bilhões de reais (o equivalente a aproximadamente 5 bilhões de dólares) em ganhos para o setor de eventos, segundo o Instituto de pesquisas Data Popular. Acompanhando o crescimento desse mercado desde 2011, o Instituto vem registrando uma tendência de crescimento, mesmo em meio à crise econômica pela qual passa o país. O quadro é de um crescente interesse por complexos eventos de casamento, performados por homens e mulheres pertencentes a camadas medias urbanas. A partir de dados demográficos do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), sabe-se que, nas últimas décadas, as pessoas casam-se menos. Por outro lado, a etnografia aqui apresentada permite afirmar que, quando decidem casar-se, sujeitos de camadas medias da população brasileira optam por marcar essa passagem com eventos cuja preparação exige um grande investimento de tempo e recursos financeiros. Nesta tese, apresento análises sobre este fenômeno, com base na etnografia que realizei entre os anos de 2013 e 2016, junto a sujeitos que protagonizam a organização de tais eventos. Trata-se de mulheres pertencentes a camadas médias urbanas, com formação superior e financeiramente independentes. Em vários dos casos observados, tais mulheres assumem a totalidade ou a maior parte dos gastos com o evento. A etnografia aqui apresentada se desdobrou em entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com noivas, acompanhamento de organizadoras de casamentos, observação participante em feiras do setor nas cidades de Fortaleza, Porto Alegre e São Paulo, participação em grupos virtuais de noivas e entrevistas com agentes deste mercado. Como resultado, destaco a compreensão de que os ritos contemporâneos aqui descritos nada tem de tradicionais no modo como são performatizados, mas representam novas formas de demarcar uma passagem cujos significados estão em transformação. Com os grandes eventos, os sujeitos procuram produzir lastro simbólico para suas uniões, em um momento no qual as relações são percebidas como cada vez mais voláteis. Além disso, esta tese apresenta reflexões sobre a invisibilidade dos ofícios que envolvem o cuidado, aqui representados na figura das cerimonialistas. Essas e outras questões são discutidas ao longo dos capítulos que compõem esta pesquisa sobre os ritos contemporâneos de casamento no Brasil e o mercado a eles dedicados. / Since the 1970s, marriage rates in Brazil have been decreasing significantly. New family arrangements and ways of conjugality have gained space. The importance of marriage as an institution was put in check by many young couples who rejected the idea of formalizing their relationships through a traditional wedding ceremony. However, the beginning of the 21st century was marked by a renewed interest in marriage in a trend that has been called the "revenge of ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003) specially among the urban middle class. This scenario poses an important question. Based on demographic data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), it is possible to affirm that in the past 40 years people tend to marry less and later in life. Still, despite Brazil’s economic crisis, in 2016 the amount invested in wedding parties was circa 16 billion Brazilian Reais - the equivalent to 5 billion Dollars - according to the Data Popular Research Institute following the total growth of the country's wedding industry since 2011. The data gathered throughout my fieldwork add to the perception that when Brazilian middle-class subjects decide to engage in marriage, they tend to mark this passage with grand scale events that demand great emotional, financial and time investment. This thesis presents an ethnographic study carried out from 2013 to 2016 among people involved in the planning, production and consumption of such events. They are wedding planners and middle class, educated and financially independent women that, in several of the observed cases, choose to finance most or even the integrality of the event. I conducted in-depth interviews with brides and relatives, collected data from Whastapp and Facebook groups, worked along side with wedding planners and visited wedding Fairs, bridal shows and exhibitions in Fortaleza, São Paulo and Porto Alegre. This ethnographic experience leads me to stress that contemporary wedding ceremonies are not necessarily traditional in the ways they are performed by wedding planners and brides to be, but represent new meanings and practices attached to modern wedding rituals. With this kind of event, subjects strive to produce symbolic ballast to anchor their formal unions in a time in which personal relationships are perceived as being increasingly volatile and not made to last. This thesis also presents a reflection on feminized labour, notably emotional labor and care work conducted by wedding planners, ceremonialists and other female professionals involved in wedding ceremonies.

Desde a década de 1970, o número de casamentos no Brasil vem diminuindo significativamente. Novos arranjos familiares e formas de viver a conjugalidade ganharam espaço. A importância de ritualizações foi colocada em xeque por muitos casais que rejeitavam a ideia de formalizar suas uniões. O início do século XXI, no entanto, marca um renovado interesse dos casais em marcar a transição para o casamento com eventos cada vez mais elaborados, em uma tendência que já foi chamada de a "revanche do ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003). Em 2016, o investimento dos casais brasileiros em festas de casamentos rendeu cerca de 16 bilhões de reais (o equivalente a aproximadamente 5 bilhões de dólares) em ganhos para o setor de eventos, segundo o Instituto de pesquisas Data Popular. Acompanhando o crescimento desse mercado desde 2011, o Instituto vem registrando uma tendência de crescimento, mesmo em meio à crise econômica pela qual passa o país. O quadro é de um crescente interesse por complexos eventos de casamento, performados por homens e mulheres pertencentes a camadas medias urbanas. A partir de dados demográficos do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), sabe-se que, nas últimas décadas, as pessoas casam-se menos. Por outro lado, a etnografia aqui apresentada permite afirmar que, quando decidem casar-se, sujeitos de camadas medias da população brasileira optam por marcar essa passagem com eventos cuja preparação exige um grande investimento de tempo e recursos financeiros. Nesta tese, apresento análises sobre este fenômeno, com base na etnografia que realizei entre os anos de 2013 e 2016, junto a sujeitos que protagonizam a organização de tais eventos. Trata-se de mulheres pertencentes a camadas médias urbanas, com formação superior e financeiramente independentes. Em vários dos casos observados, tais mulheres assumem a totalidade ou a maior parte dos gastos com o evento. A etnografia aqui apresentada se desdobrou em entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com noivas, acompanhamento de organizadoras de casamentos, observação participante em feiras do setor nas cidades de Fortaleza, Porto Alegre e São Paulo, participação em grupos virtuais de noivas e entrevistas com agentes deste mercado. Como resultado, destaco a compreensão de que os ritos contemporâneos aqui descritos nada tem de tradicionais no modo como são performatizados, mas representam novas formas de demarcar uma passagem cujos significados estão em transformação. Com os grandes eventos, os sujeitos procuram produzir lastro simbólico para suas uniões, em um momento no qual as relações são percebidas como cada vez mais voláteis. Além disso, esta tese apresenta reflexões sobre a invisibilidade dos ofícios que envolvem o cuidado, aqui representados na figura das cerimonialistas. Essas e outras questões são discutidas ao longo dos capítulos que compõem esta pesquisa sobre os ritos contemporâneos de casamento no Brasil e o mercado a eles dedicados. / Since the 1970s, marriage rates in Brazil have been decreasing significantly. New family arrangements and ways of conjugality have gained space. The importance of marriage as an institution was put in check by many young couples who rejected the idea of formalizing their relationships through a traditional wedding ceremony. However, the beginning of the 21st century was marked by a renewed interest in marriage in a trend that has been called the "revenge of ritual" (SEGALEN, 2003) specially among the urban middle class. This scenario poses an important question. Based on demographic data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), it is possible to affirm that in the past 40 years people tend to marry less and later in life. Still, despite Brazil’s economic crisis, in 2016 the amount invested in wedding parties was circa 16 billion Brazilian Reais - the equivalent to 5 billion Dollars - according to the Data Popular Research Institute following the total growth of the country's wedding industry since 2011. The data gathered throughout my fieldwork add to the perception that when Brazilian middle-class subjects decide to engage in marriage, they tend to mark this passage with grand scale events that demand great emotional, financial and time investment. This thesis presents an ethnographic study carried out from 2013 to 2016 among people involved in the planning, production and consumption of such events. They are wedding planners and middle class, educated and financially independent women that, in several of the observed cases, choose to finance most or even the integrality of the event. I conducted in-depth interviews with brides and relatives, collected data from Whastapp and Facebook groups, worked along side with wedding planners and visited wedding Fairs, bridal shows and exhibitions in Fortaleza, São Paulo and Porto Alegre. This ethnographic experience leads me to stress that contemporary wedding ceremonies are not necessarily traditional in the ways they are performed by wedding planners and brides to be, but represent new meanings and practices attached to modern wedding rituals. With this kind of event, subjects strive to produce symbolic ballast to anchor their formal unions in a time in which personal relationships are perceived as being increasingly volatile and not made to last. This thesis also presents a reflection on feminized labour, notably emotional labor and care work conducted by wedding planners, ceremonialists and other female professionals involved in wedding ceremonies.

This thesis focuses on the weddings, which has been assisted by a wedding agency. The work focuses mainly on the wedding day, on capturing the distribution of tasks and competences in planning and acting of participants (fiancés, parents and organizers) and the factors leading to it. The aim of the research is to examine the practices of the couples and focus on the distribution of power, gender stereotypes and moments that are negotiated between generations in the context of traditions and financial capital. The thesis describes the social concept of a relationship and captures the factors associated with the form of contemporary relationships such as the change of love, intimacy and sexuality in the relationship. The key period is a transition to a modern, respectively a postmodern form of this relationship in our territory that will serve as the basis for my analysis. Wedding will be also described as a changing event with several components that can significantly affect the course of the wedding - especially the traditions, customs and roles and tasks of individual wedding actors associated with their wedding competences which have an economic character. Keywords: wedding, love, power, gender, tradition, wedding agency, financial capital

The intention of the Diploma thesis Rites of passage as a theme in the history textbooks is analyze the history textbooks of upper primary school in terms of rites of passage. This practical part is preceded by general introduction to the issue of rituals and rites of passage. The following is a discussion of selected rites of passage, which are weddings and funerals. Selected rites of passage determine the direction which is going analysis itself textbooks. In general I am interested in themes of weddings, funerals and all other facts that are associated with the issue in analyzing textbooks. Then I find out, how and what extent selected rites of passage are presented to pupils. So that pupils gain the most information from the particular way in view of the rites of passage, I deal also possibilities to enrich a certain representation of ritual. The conclusion summarizes the main reasons for the changes of rites of passage that appear in the history books for upper primary school. KEYWORDS ritual, rite of passage, textbook, funeral, grave, burial ground, wedding, wedding ceremony

The diploma thesis inquires into the consumer behavior in the market of wedding services and its aim is to identify and analyze the buyer decision process. The theoretical part inquires into the characteristics of consumer behavior. The practical part describes the wedding market. Next main part is based on the results of marketing research, which took the form of a questionnaire survey. The results are analyzed and presented in detail. The conclusion outlines the marketing recommendations for vendors operating in this market.

The subject of the thesis was ``Market research and the prospectus of a particular company providing personal services{\crqq} applied to the Wedding Agency MERCI with its main product - the ``turnkey wedding{\crqq}. The thesis principally aimed to analyze current market conditions as well as to propose a specific business plan. Proposing a founding budget, creating a form to learn the needs and desires of clients and finding out the background details necessary for drawing up an income tax return was one of the sub-objectives. An electronic questionnaire enquiry indicated that an interest in services of a wedding agency remains and that the potential of possible customers is sufficient for founding another small company in this sphere of business. The investment intensity is acceptable for the company{\crq}s founder, as all the costs concerning the founding of the wedding agency come from own resources. Four budgets of financially different weddings were drawn up as background information for the theoretical calculation of the trading income and the subsequent drawing up an individual income tax return. Furthermore, current market conditions were analyzed, particularly those of the general and trade surroundings, giving a base to the proposal of a specific business plan, including the proposal of the business budget as well as to a fictitious income tax return for the first year of business activities. The objectives of the thesis were met.

At present, we notice an increased interest in folklore traditions and effort to put them to various spheres of everyday life. These 'revitalizing' efforts can be seen, for example, in the wedding ceremonies. The goal of this thesis is to analyze this tendency in modern weddings in Slovakia, with an emphasis on the highlight of the wedding - putting off head wreath and bonnet wedding ceremony. Nowadays it's common to commission a folk ensemble for these events. Even though the phenomena of bonnet wedding ceremony is considered to be a modern tradition that is based on certain historical bonds this revitalization process causes some semantic shifts, change of its functions that results in its different form. The focus of this thesis is aimed towards these changes - for example, the change of the function of traditional folk clothing, decontextual shift from the ritual to theatralization, the influence of shifts for participants and others involved, the commodification and the commercialization of the ceremony. The thesis also analyzes the relations between the folklore and folklorism, 'authentical' and stylized folklore and the general idea of the tradition as well as its contemporary social and cultural function. Keywords Bonnet wedding ceremony, wedding, ritual, folk ensemble, scenic folklore,...

This thesis deals with establishment of a real business plan for services. Specially for services of wedding salon. Business plan contains all the important criteria for the establishment this kind of business. Business plan is based on results detected by market analysis and competition. The thesis also includes marketing and trade plan, specification of services and potential customers. An important part is financial plan providing information about possible development.