The average American wedding costs $24,000. The larky contraption you see here lets you say “I do” for $1.
AutoWed is precisely what it appears to be: a vending machine that performs instant marriages, infusing the Big Day with all the romance of a fire hydrant. Insert money, and it’ll mumble through your basic wedding rites (press one for “I do” or press two to “escape”). Then the 8-foot-tall gadget, which designers UK-based Concept Shed describe as “part parking meter, part Cadillac and part cathedral with a little steam punk thrown in,” spits out a pair of plastic eggs with rings inside and a personalized wedding receipt. It finishes up by offering a 10% discount on AutoDivorce.
AutoWed Wedding Vending Machine by Concept Shed from Conceptshed on Vimeo.
Cyn-i-cal! Even by the measure of our cold, black hearts. Obviously, this thing is a big, silly joke. (Concept Shed sold the machine in these photos to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Detroit.) But if it were for real, it could actually save a lot of couples from the astronomical pain, not to mention the cost, of a fussy, traditional wedding. $23,999 could buy you one hell of a honeymoon.
COMMENTARY: What a cool machine. In pink too. It doesn't perform real "legal" marriages, of course, but it's a whole lot of fun. I can easily see the AutoWed machine in every single's bar and disco, hotel lobby's (just in case you hit it off in Sin City), airport waiting areas, shopping malls. It's a fun way to express your love.
The AutoWed wedding machine instructions are relatively straight forward. I love it when the AutoWed says, "Please select your union. Press "1" for straight, press "2" for gay, press "3" for lesbian. AutoWed is destined to piss off the anti-gay/lesbian marriage lobby.
A buck doesn't go a long way any longer. You can't buy a candy bar or wash or dry your clothes for that amount of cash.
It's time to credit the young, professional product design and creative team of Concept Shed. They are experienced in design, education, electronics and engineering. They have designed some pretty unique and cool stuff.
They enjoy creating simple and effective solutions in the following areas:
- Creative Concept & Idea Generation
- Product Design & Development
- Museum, Educational & Novelty Interactives
- Bespoke Interactive Installations
- Experiential Marketing
- Product Prototyping
- Development of custom short run products
- Electronic Systems Development in
- Embedded Software Arduino / C++ / PIC / Assembler
The Designers:
- Sam Lanyon MEng Hons. MIET. Owner, Inventor & Creative Design Engineer.
- Laurence Symonds BEng. Creative engineer, Product designer & 3D CAD master. [ visit Laurence's blog ]
- Jowan Sebastian MA. Software, application & firmware developer. Arduino & Drupal guru.
- Esmé Maylam BA Hons. Qualified teacher & early years education specialist.
- Sarah Howe BSc. Project administrator, accounts & organiser.
- Paul. model maker & fabricator.
One slight improvement to the AutoWed: I would've added a built-in camera to take pictures of the "married" couple, that would then dispense the wedding certificate with a picture of the couple. Thanks guys!! You made my day.
Courtesy of an article dated July 3, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
Hi , Thanks for the insightful post, i believe this is a good inspiration for my on blog posts, in my franchising blog.
Posted by: Jorge Limpezas | 01/22/2013 at 03:13 PM
Some where, some one will think its real. And it will be funny as heck! Wonder if the wedding machine will ever catch on?
Thanks for sharing this, I enjoyed the giggle.
L.Tapley
Posted by: Laura Tapley | 12/09/2012 at 10:32 PM
I have read some of the articles on your net site now, & I am liking your style of walking a blog. I added it to my favorites weblog site list & will be checking back soon. Check out my site as well & let me know what you think.
Posted by: Tribulus Maximus | 02/03/2012 at 07:40 AM
Nice post =) i saw a link that has been in the news a lot lately over here, maybe interesting to check aswell http://www.teakhout-leeuw.nl nice stuff for wood lovers.
Posted by: De Leeuwn | 12/05/2011 at 07:16 AM
I thought i have seen every possible vending machine there was! i guess not!
I agree it would be best in vegas.
Posted by: Ashley | 11/30/2011 at 06:37 PM
I can't even believe that someone would think of this- market it and people actually do it- there is hope for all of us and our crazy ideas. Thanks for sharing this.
Posted by: joanelectricscooter | 09/18/2011 at 09:42 AM
A wedding machine! Well I guess a $1 wedding is better than a $24,000 one. Not sure how well this one would do but maybe in vegas!
Posted by: The Travel Insurance Over 65 Guy | 07/21/2011 at 07:24 PM