excellent subject! in my feminist theory class last semester we read "White Weddings- Romancing heterosexuality in popular culture" by Chrys Ingraham. It is FULL of information on things like the origin of these traditions and how the modern wedding industrial complex is committed to keeping these traditions as a way to make a profit. It also talks a lot about the effect of the diamond mining industry and a lot more. It is a very interesting read.

White Weddings on Amazon

Assuming you haven't done it already, searching for "wedding industrial complex" might yield better results than "wedding traditions."

wedding industrial complex. your idea is good, and the material for this is out there. keep looking.

i did a project in college last year about marriage benefits and why it's nonsensical to assign many of them only to married people; or, how we coerce people to marry based on benefits they would not otherwise receive. it was really fun.

also: i really liked "here comes the bride: women, weddings and the marriage mystique" by jaclyn gellar.

There are a couple websites I know of for couples who reject traditional weddings - offbeatbride.com and indiebride.com - so you might want to hit those up and see if the women on there know of any resources.

I know I've read a bunch of stuff about this somewhere but can't remember where it was. I know snopes has a collection of wedding traditions. Her stuff is usually pretty well research and may be a good jumping off place for you.

http://snopes.com/weddings/customs/customs.asp

"I chose researching where many wedding traditions originated from (such as the best man's original purpose, so on, so forth) and how the wedding industry is capitalizing on many a-woman's desires to fulfill all of these traditions through big, elaborate weddings."

You might focus a bit on this aspect of the topic. Most people who study advertising believe that this works the other way around - that persuasive advertising seeks to form your desires for you. By implicitly telling you that the item in question is a must-have for every bride or that people who fit into the most prestigious social group will have this item at their weddings, the wedding industrial complex shapes the desires of consumers and their view of what they should strive for in their weddings. So you might look at how the wedding industrial complex attempts to shape our views of weddings in order to maximize their profits.

It might be interesting to note which wedding traditions have fallen by the wayside - like maybe the ones that don't require the purchase of any material goods?

ugh, i am getting married next year and all the things i wanted to avoid including the father walking me down the aisle, the veil the expensive wedding dress everyone around me is pressuring me to do. it would be nice if this wedding was about us not their princess ideals. :( sigh

Slate.com had an interesting article about the origin of the engagement ring.

Basically it was assumed you would lose your virginity during your engagement and not on your wedding night, so if your engagement was broken you were 'worth' less than if you had not been engaged. The ring was meant to make up the monetary difference between you pre-engagement and you post-engagement.