Some expenses had been paid by Brandon, some by Brittany, and some by their families.

“I’m not going to pretend a wedding can just be erased,” he said.

He had spoken with a lawyer who explained that the availability of an annulment depended on narrow legal grounds, not simply on regretting a ceremony.

For now he was pursuing a formal separation and learning what a divorce would involve if reconciliation proved impossible.

It was a sobering conversation.

The reception had made their breakup look like a dramatic line delivered beneath string lights.