The event, though, does have historical antecedents. Reid told me that his parents and his now-wife’s both had one, but none of the various experts I consulted was able to say where or when the practice originated (or even how widespread it is now). Read: Why is everybody getting married in a barn? “I’ve heard of people making 15, 16, 20 thousand dollars,” Reid told me while planning his own event. There are of course variations on those elements, but the central aim of the stag and doe-beyond delivering a night of celebratory fun-is to help fund a couple’s upcoming nuptials: The events turn a profit off of revenues from ticket sales and pay-to-play games. Then hundreds of people are invited to buy tickets that cover food and entertainment for the night, and donations are collected from local businesses, sometimes in the form of raffle items or catering. While the names vary, the festivities usually operate within a somewhat standard set of parameters: A couple gets engaged and then settles on an event space-church halls and community centers are popular because they can fit large groups of people at non-exorbitant rates. “Pretty much the second question is, ‘When is the stag and doe?’” That’s one name for these parties, which are known elsewhere as “Jack and Jills” or-as was popular with some same-sex couples I spoke with-“stag and drags.” They seem to be particularly common in the Northeast and parts of Canada, especially in small towns. “ people ask when you get engaged, ‘Okay, when’s the wedding?’” Reid told me. Parties like this are not the norm in North American wedding culture, but in some communities they have become a tradition. dollars), and that night, Reid and Bailey estimate, they raised more than 10,000 Canadian dollars for their ceremony and reception. The ticket price was 10 Canadian dollars a person (about $7.60 in U.S. Reid and Bailey, who are in their 20s and live in Binbrook, a town in Ontario, Canada, were celebrating their upcoming wedding, though they did so in a way that might be foreign to most couples and wedding-goers: They threw a party for their families, friends, and co-workers-and charged everyone admission.

The last guests didn’t leave until 2 a.m.

Some 400 people attended, and there was a spread of homemade and catered food-pulled pork, lasagna, meatballs, salad-as well as a DJ, games, and a raffle. Kyle Reid and Tessa Bailey heard from friends and family members that their party this summer was a blast.

Offbeat Bride by Ariel Meadow Stallings