Are Women Obsessed With Weddings?
Silly question? Nah. I know that we’re all kind of obsessed with weddings, but we’re not all women. Just, you know, awesome women… along with a handful of sharp dudes (Hi, Matt!).
I started thinking about the relationship between women and weddings after reading this – specifically the comments section, in which a goodly number of responders with and without SOs are gaga over weddings. I would tentatively suggest that there are a lot of women who are obsessed with wedding planning and wedding shows and wedding dresses, etc., but I think it’s kind of uncool to assume that just because someone has a vaj that she must looooooooove all things wedding.
Why? Because it’s that kind of assumption that leads rude people to tell anti-marriage ladies things like “Oh, you’ll change your mind when you meet the right man.” And it’s also the kind of assumption that made my very own dad tell The Beard to stand back and say “Whatever you want, honey,” instead of actively taking part in planning a wedding that was half his. Plus, when everyone assumes that just over half of the world’s population is wedding crazy, all the ladies who want something simple or never want to get married or cannot legally get married or just plain cannot stand weddings at all start to think, gosh, there must be something wrong with me!
With all this in mind, here’s a poll. I want to know if you’re here for the long haul, only reading because you need ideas, love us too much to give us up (but not weddings in particular if you see what I mean), or come to visit our corner of the Internet because you dislike weddings and want to see what horrid materialistic crap we’ve posted today! 
Married in April, still reading some wedding blogs! Not all, though; mostly just Manolo
Got married in march but still reading manolo because i enjoy it.
I’ve never been engaged or married but I really like wedding p0rn and seeing how people celebrate one of the biggest celebrations in a lifetime. There’s so much tradition and expectation and cultural baggage that plays into wedding celebrations, and I read Manolo for the Brides and Offbeat Bride because I like to see how people are choosing to follow or subvert traditions. Wedding blogs cover fashion, graphic design, decor and all kinds of other subjects in one blog!
I’ve been married for 2 years but still enjoy some wedding blogs. I like to see how creative people are.
I first found this blog in 2005 when my now-husband & I were planning our 2006 wedding. I loved the style & practicality & gorgeous pictures & advice then, and I still love it now. While I outgrew The Knot (no thank you, The Nest) & other wedding-themed sites, I still love this one for the same reasons I loved it originally. And who knows? Maybe my Mister and I will plan a vow renewal later on & have a second wedding?
I don’t believe in the institution of marriage personally and mostly come here to make sure that there are still sane wedding-loving people out there and the planet isn’t doomed, despite what the media tends to portray.
That, and you post lots of pretty pictures. I enjoy good photography, and it seems that weddings, regardless of my personal opinions on them, almost always produce some amazing photos.
Well, I guess I wouldn’t be writing for this blog if I weren’t fairly obsessed with weddings. In fact, I’m obsessed, and I’m utterly unrepentant.
OTOH, I’ve known more than a handful of women in my time who honestly didn’t care one way or the other, or who would rather set fire to their own hair than spend two minutes thinking about planning a wedding. Despite what common wisdom preaches, women are not a monolithic wedge of some bizarre thing or other with no variations. As with political and religious views, scientific knowledge, fondness for particular kinds of music, etc. we run the gamut on weddings.
And the number of times I wanted to bean Mr. Twistie with a brick for telling me to do what I wanted with the wedding because ‘girls care about weddings, guys don’t’ must have reached well into the several billions before I actually burst into a teary screaming fit at him. Others probably considered it my one Bridezilla moment, but it was in point of fact his refusal to take me seriously as an individual person rather than a gender combined with his complete inability (or unwillingness) to have an opinion BECAUSE of said gender.
At least it got him to express an opinion on SOMETHING… which had already been taken care of to his satisfaction months ago. I wouldn’t have minded at all if he had just said that the only things he cared about were X,Y, and Z and I could do whatever I wanted about all the rest. It was the falling back on the ‘girls care about this pointless bruhaha’ that made me want to strap on my Klingon winkle pickers and have at his tender bits with them.
It was especially galling because I honestly wanted our wedding to reflect us, not just me. I am not us.
Then it took another twelve years to convince him that I didn’t care if ‘girls don’t like to get kitchen stuff for gifts’ I honestly wanted cookbooks and kitchen gadgets and really good pots and pans because I, Twistie, love to cook. By last Christmas, the message had finally gotten all the way through. He gave me a Le Creuset stock pot and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s latest tome on baking cakes.
Okay, bit of a diatribe there. Back to the topic: I love weddings. I am obsessed with weddings. But I’m completely open to the non-obsessed lifestyles of others.
Been with my SO for 25 years, married for the last 18. I just love the writing here, the pretty pictures, and the ideas that can be used for other significant events (Bar/Bat Mitzvahs anyone?).
Yours is the only wedding blog I read and I have no SO.
I love event planning, overall. I am also anti-most wedding traditions. And I’m not opposed to getting married, though I could just as easily not. So while I don’t really like weddings, I’m not anti-wedding because occasionally you get a good one, and that’s fun. I like coming here because you do a lot of great planning and non-traditional stuff.
First of all, Matt has some company *brushes imaginary lint from imaginary lapel*
I’ve never been married but I’ve been with my gf for 10+ years. We’ve discussed marriage without screaming and running in the other direction, but it’s just not in the future for us.
This is the only wedding blog I read, and that’s because it’s written really, really well. Your writing is lively, fresh, and personal, and the topics chosen are not (as far as I can tell) rehashes of posts from two years ago. One would figure there are only so many things that can be said about a wedding, and yet you find new twists on certain subjects, and it keeps me coming back for more.
Rats. I forgot to mention the other reason I come back: The comments. Seriously, there have been some great discussions in the comments section here.
I’m married. Had a very small wedding two years ago (I wanted to elope, but there was Drama). I never wanted a big wedding for myself, but I like the writing here.
I’m a bit scared, ’cause I’m 13, have never had a boyfriend, and I’m planning my wedding already. I already have my dress picked out, where I want to get married, the date, the time, color scheme, cake, etc.
Something’s a bit strange here…
I’m not exactly engaged yet (we’d like to make a home for ourselves first; he’s said he doesn’t want to ask until we have a place to ourselves), but I love looking at wedding porn and thinking about what our wedding might be like. It’s something to look forward to. There’s just so much bs to deal with on a daily basis that knowing this day is coming is hugely important to me and it’s fun to think about. It’s a little escape sometimes.
My guy is interested in some of it too even.
Don’t be scared, Jess. Perhaps this is just an indication that your future is something in the wedding industry! Or it could be just a bit of harmless day dreaming.