Love has the ability to make us happy. Thus wrote Plato in his eternal Symposium, the sublime dialogue on Eros. Perhaps we are taking it too far, what is certain is that the pragmatic Generation Z has understood that the remedy for loneliness and the pain of living lies in the words of the Greek philosopher. In a world where feelings have become an exhausting performance, the only choice we still have is who to have by our side. In the summer of endless heat waves, never have so many weddings been celebrated, many of them in church.
Desire for a return to tradition, but not only that. Narcissistic, self-absorbed, thirty-year-olds get married again, because they have found the perfect display of the ego in the wedding rite. Celebrities started: from Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, who monopolized Palermo and Bagheria, to Gianluigi Donnarumma and Alessia Elefante, who after more than ten years together said yes to each other forever in Locorotondo, among opulent cascades of white flowers, parties on the beach, lights that would dwarf the feast of the Patron Saint (but why was Gigio wearing an ivory jacket with black maître d’s trousers amidst so much splendor?). And again: Aurora Ramazzotti and Goffredo Cerza, made us cry together with Eros and Michelle, Francesca Michielin and Davide Spigarolo, chose their childhood parish in Bassano del Grappa and then off on a Vespa among the sunflowers (our favorite spouses).
It’s not just a sensation due to the hundreds of blank social pages, it was also underlined by the First Look Report 2026, the most complete report drawn up by the American platform Zola, specialized in wedding services: Gen Z has surpassed Millennials and represents 51 percent of engaged couples. They are not the only ones who seek in marriage in the post-romantic era the stability that the world of work has long since taken away from them. Not even the gray panthers escape this warm enthusiasm. According to Censis, marriages among the over 65s have increased fivefold in the last twenty years (marriages where at least one of the two is senior have more than tripled). Desire for tenderness or rather desire for a survivor’s pension? It doesn’t matter then. Solitude is a gift only when you choose it, otherwise it is a condemnation. Life is infinite and even with a walker, why not, you get married for fun.
Former top model Paulina Porizkova, 61, hooked up with screenwriter Jeff Greenstein, whom she met on a dating app. Intimate ceremony in the poetic Villa Crespi on Lake Orta. Long loose gray hair and a deep neckline worthy of a standing ovation. Turin very well came together in July to celebrate Eva Herzigova and Gregorio Marsiaj, 25 years together, three children, a superb vintage Lanvin dress, which we all envied, (my lady, not just the dress) and a Savoyard lunch (the word dinner in that city is not contemplated) at the Del Cambio restaurant. “Now we are half of each,” declared the beautiful model, quoting (unknowingly) the great Greek philosopher. You would like to look like a Jane Austen character and even the most pop and eagerly awaited proposal (from your girlfriend after sixteen years together) of the summer, the one between Bernadette and Diamante (we know, a diamond is forever), protagonists of Temptation Island, was made strictly on your knees.
Even trash has a liturgy. The writer Luca Bianchini says: «When my novel Io che amo solo te was released in 2013, which revolved around a Southern wedding, then the ritual was well codified. There were times and methods that had to be respected: the preparation, the photos, the favors, the dress. Today, with the advent of social media, getting married has become a story of identity. Storytelling is an integral part of marriage. Indeed, the representation of the wedding is almost more important. It’s all diluted to suit a media audience.” When stories go beyond history.
TikTok becomes a cornerstone of the big day. The “event” and the immersive experience are created (horrible words, alas). In order for the ceremony to exist it must be instagrammable. Goodbye to the leather album, where you were immortalized among water features and relatives of distant rank and origin wrapped in standard double breasted bags. Now everything is up for grabs, the toughest comparison is the virtual exam to pass. In demand like manna is the wedding content creator, who can make the difference on the wedding day perhaps more than love (the truth hurts us, I know). Shots that must seem stolen, the private person is exposed, it is forbidden to pose (then you spend hours in front of the lens with a lace in your hand staring into space). «Everything has to be created for the photo, the bride and groom are possessed by the anxiety of posting ceremony. The bar is moving higher and higher”, observes Catalina De Simon, partner of A-Tipica, one of the most requested and refined wedding planning services for over twenty years. There are even those who ask (Americans and Brazilians, mostly) for invigorating vitamin injections for the skin of guests who wake up the next day with a hangover.
The location becomes the set where you can shoot the film of the most beautiful day. Palermo, according to the people of Palermo themselves, functions better as a reception hall than as a city. The (hot) Tuscany among cypresses, cicadas and haystacks is very Bernardo Bertolucci and I dance alone. Damiano David has already announced the big move with Dove Cameron there, in a secret location. Salento, among centuries-old olive trees and white farms, remains the great classic. Ravello, on the Amalfi coast, is sybaritic in luxury, once a refuge for the writer Gore Vidal, today it is the coveted Italian dream of every Texan tycoon (chosen by Ilary and Bastian in September).
We are not only a country of heroes, poets and navigators, but also of wedding planners, who surprisingly saw their turnover increase by thirty percent. Alice Guiotto, who has been in the sector in Verona for over 15 years, among vineyards and Palladian villas, says: «There is an evolution, rather than a revolution. The first group of Gen Z arrives here, the thirty-year-olds, almost all living together, some with children. Marriage is a personal goal and no longer a starting point, the beginning of a new life. Everyone asks for a personalized event that represents them.” They have to show, by exaggerating. Forced maximalism, one dreams of dressing like Empress Sissi di Luna Bonaccorsi Beccaria, married to Leonardo Bormioli (finally someone who wears a morning coat), on the family estate in Sicily. The parties last at least three days, not even a rave needed so much resistance. The wedding planner continues: «If once family traditions were obeyed, starting with the large guest lists, now they are not influenced by parents, but rather by social media. Also because the spouses pay the bill.”
To save time and money, massive use is made of artificial intelligence. Again according to Zola, 56 percent of couples who got married in 2026 used it to organize the budget and occasionally write tear-jerking promises.
Instead of the envelope, the IBAN is placed on the invitation. “Help us make a dream come true,” they fearlessly write. It’s usually a very expensive trip to Japan. Being the realists that they are, many think they can repay their expenses in this way. As Me contro Te will do on September 5th on the stage of the Milan Arena: show and official exchange of rings in front of the fans, sans dire, for a fee.
Dante Ghezzi, the couple’s psychotherapist and professor at the Mara Selvini Palazzoli School of Psychotherapy, reflects: «Rapidly there are changes in perspective which unfortunately often follow fashions. For a few years now many of the young couples who get together have been saying: “Let’s try it”. It’s a light term, an unsuitable word, because living together is a commitment and thinking about trying is like admitting from the start: it’s make or break. For some time now we have been seeing marriages, perhaps preceded by long cohabitations, which fail after a year.” They look for stability, but deep down they don’t believe in it enough.
The psychologist, author with his colleague Paola Covini of the volume Bonds of couples in crisis (Franco Angeli) continues: «You don’t feel the need to fix something you’ve only attempted. It is a contradictory, ambivalent and complex generation. In psychology there is a concept which is that of moving to action, therefore acting out. One does something so afterwards, once he has done it, he cannot go back. Acting is the unthought, a form of lightness. Maybe in this bitter time we have a thousand reasons to try to be light-hearted. If you think about it and get worried, it’s better to move on. On the other hand, the idea of temporariness is an input that comes from the world of work and I don’t feel like denying that it also has an influence on the emotional aspects.”
It is difficult to love yourself in a society of infinite variables, where “forever yes” is the title of a song. No one can predict what will happen when the cascades of flowers wither and the stories fade. And so, we bow to the courage of those who still swear eternal love.
