One of the first recorded examples of a marriage ceremony is dated more than four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. And it seems that through the ages, weddings have never lost their appeal. The global wedding industry is today worth billions of dollars, and it’s one that keeps on growing.

While aspects of weddings differ across many cultures, they celebrate the coming together of two people in a form of contract which establishes rights within the couple. Historically, marriages were often economic, legal and social tools; the love aspect that some marriage ceremonies came to represent was developed much later.

Iszi Lawrence investigates how weddings have changed over time with a panel of expert guests, including Dr Vicki Howard, Visiting Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Essex (UK) and the author of Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition; wedding planner Marie Haverly, Deputy Head of the Business School and senior lecturer in event management at the University of Winchester in the UK; and wedding photographer Shanaya Arora, one half of Nitin Arora Photography which she founded with her husband. Shanaya is also the host of WED FM India, a podcast all about weddings.

Produced by Fiona Clampin for BBC World Service.

(Photo: Comet and Phakalane Mmisi, dance just after they were married, Johannesburg, South Africa, 11 July 2008. Credit: Per-Anders Pettersson / Getty Images)