Shechianu at Weddings and A New Custom?

• There are few things that really annoy me in a wedding such as those grooms who insist they need a new Talit in order to bless "Shechianu" (שחיינו) - a blessing which is said on a new object, and when an important event takes place. I know the halachic backround, but I just find that I can't take it seriously - a Talit is important enough to say a blessing over, but a wife isn't?

• At the wedding I just came from, I saw a new "custom" - the person leading the wedding asked that four unmarried friends of the groom "who need the segulah for a quick marriage" should come on the stage and hold the Talit above the Chupah. Needless to say, those poor unmarried young men, were not too eager to run onstage for the segulah.