A long while back, reader Beth sent me some photos of an unusual wedding. While she didn’t have any information on the bride or the groom, the wedding was purported to have taken place “on the bayou.”
I imagine that there were a number of jokes among guests about not being able to see the bridal party.
Here’s an excerpt from a little something by Yahoo! Finance’s Laura Rowley, entitled “The Wedding-Industrial Complex Exposed” (DUN DUN DUNNNNN!), compliments of Lazysun.
The marketing of the wedding as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be close to heaven — or at least close to celebrity — is explored in “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding,” by New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead.
“If a bride has been told, repeatedly, that it costs nearly $28,000 to have a wedding, then she starts to think that spending $28,000 on a wedding is just one of those things a person has to do, like writing a rent check every month,” Mead writes.
Mead looks behind the wedding-industrial complex, including the Chinese seamstress who earns 40 cents for sewing the skirt on a $1,000 gown; the Cinderella coach and other trappings of Disney’s “Fairy Tale Wedding Department”; and the videographer who encourages peers at an industry conference to double their prices, because “parents want the best for their children.”
“People talk about the trials of planning a wedding — it’s exhausting and emotionally consuming,” she says. “In the book I write about how it’s an invented trauma. The life of the newlywed used to be quite traumatic — leaving home, suddenly living in an intimate relationship with someone.
“These days, the day after isn’t so different from the day before. People hope that if they make a statement with their wedding, it will have a talismanic effect on the rest of their marriage.”
So tell us something we didn’t know. The wedding-industrial complex (which sounds like a group of buildings you’d find alongside highways where nothing but businesses can thrive) has been exposed many, many times, and that hasn’t stopped people from dropping phat wads of cash on their nuptials. If you want to drop dough, drop dough. If you’d prefer to be a budget ninja bride, do that. All the bickering that comes up when these two strategies collide does no one any good.
The best part of the whole article, IMO, is the comment section.
I also don’t think it is fair for you to say the wedding industry are brain washing brides & grooms into become “bridezillas” or which wedding expense is the biggest wast of money. Just by you writing books like this or The Perfect Day- The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead is just sour grapes on the wedding industry and brides and grooms themselves and makes you no better than the industry your are “exposing” since you are not selling your books for free and are making a monetary gain by your tell all revelations on how people are being “sucked in” by made up traditions.
From the always debonair Isidore Gallant comes this pic of crazy veil madness:
This is a Kleemeier lingerie creation that was shown at the Bodylook fashion show at the IGEDO fashion fair in Duesseldorf, Germany. My take? First off, in an unprecedented turnaround, the model is actually too small for the garment. Check out the gap at her hip! Her immense headgear cannot camouflage her tiny frame. Secondly, I think it’s perfectly yawn-worthy. The whole getup looks like every other set of wedding night unmentionables!
Me? I wore ultra-sturdy rebar foundation garments.
The Day’s Aside
Worried that your wedding budget isn’t going to stretch far enough? Mirassou Winery’s third annual “I Do with Mirassou” contest will reward one lucky couple with $5,000 toward the wedding of their dreams. Brides and grooms, as well as their family and friends, can enter. Contest entrants can also view hot tips from celebrity wedding planner Mindy Weiss, who successfully orchestrated the union of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker. The contest is open now, with entries due December 1, 2007. Couples over the age of 21 whose wedding will take place in 2008 are eligible to enter.