So the bride really did wear Botox!
By Never teh BrideMonths and months ago, I wrote about a Guardian article that referenced a Newsweek article that referenced a bridal body image survey for You & Your Wedding magazine. The problem with the story, the way I saw it, was that the various articles and surveys focused on brides who were purging or using laxatives to lose weight, getting pre-nuptial breast augmentation surgeries, and having their teeth straightened. Botox-laden brides and bridesmaids were not stepping forward to tell their stories.
Thank goodness for the New York Times, right? The Gray Lady has ensured that brides-to-be who want to be on the forefront of all emerging trends will feel comfortable asking their moms and attendants to get a chemical peel, some dermal filler injections, or a touch of Botox.
“Most women, when they come in here, they want it,” said Camille Meyer, the owner of TriBeCa MedSpa. “They know they’re aging*.”
For Karen Hohenstein, who held her [Botox] party at the Tiffani Kim Institute Medical Wellness Spa in Chicago, convincing her friends was as smooth as a Botoxed forehead. “It wasn’t me saying, ‘Hey, we all could use a little something,’” she said. “It was, ‘I want to do this,’ and a couple of people said, ‘I do, too.’”
A certain Stacey Berlin even said these words to her future mother-in-law: “I’m serious. [Botox is] exactly what you need to freshen up.” Way to foster good relations with your future family!
Not that I have anything against cosmetic procedures, mind you, but if I was a bridesmaid and the bride-to-be suggested I get microdermabrasion sanding session or plumped up with Restylane, I’d sock her one just before bowing out of the wedding party. I’ll decide when I’m looking old and haggard, thank you very much, and I’ll decide what I’m going to do about it, if anything. Manicures and margaritas? YES, PLEASE. Botox and Bahama Mamas? Screw that.
*omg omg omg not aaaaaging! kill me now before i can get any older!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hehe, my fiance e-mailed this article to my bridesmaids and told them to expect a call from my cut-rate plastic surgeon and the local tanning salon to discuss their upcoming appointments. Hopefully they all know us well enough to realize he was joking!
July 24th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
You know, considering the number of articles I saw about bridal botoxing before I saw a single one with quotes or statistics (this is the first with either I’ve ever read) I wonder how much of this came about organically and how much of it is women who became convinced it’s okay because they read about other people doing it.
I’m with you, NtB. If someone thinks I’m too old and ugly to stand at the altar with her, then she can damn well get someone else to do it. That goes for anyone who thinks I’m not tan enough or that my bra size is too small, too.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
It wasn’t the Botox that was so bad–it was the bride who asked her attendants to get breast implants that shocked me. And some of them actually did it! Insanity. I’m just glad that the wedding I’m in, and the one that I’m planning only involve the traditional (i.e. mani/pedis and massages) spa days and hair/makeup.
Yikes.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Yikes! I suddenly feel far less ridiculous for considering a manicure on top of hair and makeup for the ceremony…
July 26th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Aside from the insult, who pays? Does Bridezilla expect her attendants to buy an overly expensive fugly bridesmaid dress AND whatever body modifications she has specified? I’m fine with my boobs but if you are not, you better pony up biatch! (Then I’ll still tell you to bite my shiny white…)