If you’re a bride in your twenties, chances are your mother wore something very similar to this. Yes, it’s the quintessential eighties wedding gown. And somewhere out there, a loving mother is trying to make her daughter wear it when she walks down the aisle.
But Mom, while this was the top of the pops in 1983, it isn’t anymore. And remember how you didn’t want to wear your mother’s wedding gown that looked like this?
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(Photo via New England Fine Living)
Okay, so theme weddings are not for everyone. I know they’re controversial, too. And of course not all theme weddings are created alike. For every fabulous Midsummer Nights’ Dream inspiration, such as the picture shown above… there’s a really scary Hello Kitty wedding, like this one:
(Photo via GadgetHer)
And then there are the ones that start out just fine, except that the theme is never fully embraced, leaving the whole thing looking a little odd and sad, like this:
(Photo via About.com)
After all, if the bride and groom don’t get into the spirit of the theme… where’s the point? I can only tell this is a piratical wedding because there’s a really bad Johnny Depp impersonator squatting on the faux railing of the faux ship against a faux battlement. If you’re going to do pirates, do pirates, say I. You know, like this couple:
(Photo via Wedding Photography Directory)
My feeling on the subject? Theme weddings aren’t for everyone. But if there’s a subject dear to your heart (pirates, superheroes, Star Trek, fairy tales, or whatever) and you’re willing to take it to eleven… then go for it. The people who love you best will understand, and quite probably play along.
If, on the other hand, you aren’t willing to go for broke with the theme, don’t bother having one. And if you think you want a pirate wedding because pirates are hot right now? I’d give it a pass. If you didn’t love pirates before Johnny Depp made them extra cool, and you won’t love them once Captain Jack Sparrow hangs up his tricorn, then it’s not really a theme that means something to you. I would never, ever advise someone to use a theme that isn’t deeply important to both parties on a bone-deep level.
So that’s my thought on the subject. How about all of you? How do you feel about theme weddings? Love them? Hate them? You tell me.
Dear Wedding Reality Show Creators,
I’d like a word with you over here, if I may, just for a moment in between your busy schedule of exposing the ‘reality’ of weddings to us all.
Stop it. Just stop it.
What? You don’t know what I’m talking about?
I’m talking about the way brides (and the men you identify as the ‘woman’ in gay male couples) are portrayed in your shows.
It would be one thing if there were truly any variety in how you portray us. Then it would be about individuals. But as things stand, you have two ways of illustrating what it is to be a bride in modern America, and neither portrait is either flattering or accurate to the vast majority of women getting married.
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(Image via Scotimages)
Let’s talk for a moment about feet, shall we?
The simple fact is that on your wedding day, you’re likely to spend a lot of time on your tootsies. Standing around in your wedding finery trying not to let anything get wrinkled, walking up the aisle, the receiving line or table hopping to greet guests, dancing, and so on and so forth… chances are at some point your feet are going to get mighty tired.
And while I can hear plenty of brides to be chorusing ‘no problem, I’ll have flip flops!’ I happen to think there are a plethora of better ideas for foot happiness that would not make the Manolo weep into his favorite pair of peeptoes. Hey, it’s your wedding and I can’t stop you, but I can offer alternatives to consider.
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First off, I’d like to apologize for the dearth of articles the past couple days. I’ve been down for the count and that fever was making it impossible for me to focus my eyes. I feared the rambling gibberish I might inflict on you all if I attempted to write under the circumstances.
Better now.
But while I was sick, I used the opportunity to scroll through some back episodes of Bridezillas on my DVR. Yeah, I know, it probably didn’t help me get better any quicker, but it’s easier to watch through a fog, I find. Still, there are enough unspoken cultural assumptions in the show that I find it valuable to me as a bridal blogger to watch the painful dog and pony show.
All the same, while I expect a bunch of abusive behavior on the part of the subjects (after all, that’s the point of the show) every once in a while someone comes along on that show who I think isn’t necessarily putting on an act for the cameras. One of these was Johanne.
Every once in a while in the wild and wooly world of weddings, a story comes along to which I can only respond with a hearty “and what was this person smoking, I wonder?”.
One of these stories is that of Todd Remis and his attempt to sue the living daylights out of his wedding photographer.
It seems that when Mr. Remis married his blushing bride in 2003, the photographer on the scene from H&H photography studio failed to capture the final fifteen minutes of the reception, including the bouquet toss and the last dance. Mr. Remis was also disappointed to find that the videotape of the six-hour event was only two hours long.
Okay, missing the bouquet toss – while it probably wouldn’t make me lose eight years of sleep – was a mistake. But the last dance is hardly an iconic wedding moment in most peoples’ lives, and believe me, six hours of every sneeze and electric slide is more than the most hardy of home movie viewers usually wants to see of even their own wedding. I would have advised Mr. Remis to tell all his friends he didn’t think H&H did a good job and leave it alone after that.
But Mr. Remis seems ill-acquainted with the art of Letting Stuff Go. He’s demanding that H&H restage his entire wedding at a cost of some $48,000 and bring all the principals together again so that they can capture those precious fifteen minutes… never mind that the marriage ended in divorce in 2009. Incidentally, that’s also the year he got around to filing his lawsuit citing among other things ‘infliction of emotional distress.’ He also claims that the photographs were ‘unacceptable’ in terms of lighting, color, poses, and – I don’t know – flavor?
Among the many fine reasons this seems unlikely to be a practical plan is the fact that Mr. Remis’ ex-wife has apparently returned to her native Latvia leaving no forwarding address.
The judge in the case – Justice Doris Ling-Cohan of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan – is allowing the breach of contract part of the lawsuit to go forward, but has dismissed much of the rest of it, including the emotional distress claim. She even went so far as to quote the title song from the film The Way We Were in mentioning her suspicion that Mr. Remis’ motives may have more to do with his ‘misty water-colored memories’ of his erstwhile marriage than his satisfaction or lack thereof with the services of H&H photography studio.
Mr. Remis, please. Your marriage is over. Your wife left the country. For the sake of your own sanity, if no other reason, just drop it.
Everybody knows there are lots of things to think about when choosing a wedding gown. Price, how long it will take to get delivered, what accessories to choose, whether you prefer jewels or lace as accents, etc. But there are some other things to think about before you make that big decision that you may not have considered yet.
Let’s take a look at a couple of those things, shall we?
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