With these links, I thee (hopefully) amuse

You know how sometimes your inbox gets so full that you’re tempted to just delete it all and start afresh? That happens to me all the time, but I just can’t do it because half of the stuff I’m sitting on came to my attention because you were nice enough to e-mail me about it. The other half is stuff I stumbled upon on my own and bookmarked while researching things like unusual guestbooks, wicked cool tuxes, and barbecuing brides.

This explains, in a nuptial nutshell, why I’ll occasionally sit down and compose a post made up mainly of links like those outlined below.

  • Fairytale wedding? No thanks! Plenty of modern brides are marrying their Prince Charmings but staying true to their Cinderella roots, according to the Post and Courier. But don’t expect to stop hearing about the proverbial $30,000 just yet — the average cost of a wedding has only gone down by $28. That’s what, one less boutonnière?
  • If we’re going to have a serious discussion about scaling back, how about we start with the dress? Usually I hit up Nordstrom when I want to spend a lot (not a little) on a dress, but now I know, thanks to Dream Wedding on a Budget, that brides can do it the other way around. Introducing the $98 wedding gown!
  • “Makes The Perfect Wedding Present!” No, oh goodness, no. It most certainly does not.
  • Thank goodness we have MSN to remind all the single ladies not to become raging witches when their friends tie the knot, am I right? (PLEASE NOTE THAT WAS SOME SERIOUS SARCASM!) The article’s author experienced a mix of jealousy, loneliness, anxiety, depression, confusion, and even terror when her best gal pal got engaged. She claims that the majority of XX-carrying humans feel the same, but I have my doubts. Care to weigh in?
  • The Wedding Report says that California same-sex marriages could generate $1 billion the first year. I’m going to guess that the sound I’m hearing is the thunderous footsteps of a raging stampede of vendors desperately rushing to target an untapped demographic.
  • And finally, a drawing that I believe originally appeared in Indexed by Jessica Hagy:

3 Responses to “With these links, I thee (hopefully) amuse”

  1. Toni says:

    That age progression/regression website was seriously creepy. I hate to judge the grieving process, but I just have a hard time understanding that application. The only one that I found mildly touching was giving an adopted daughter “baby” photos. Of course, that doesn’t even touch giving this to someone as a “wedding present.” Seriously? I want to smack that person upside the head.

  2. Twistie says:

    Considering the higher cost of food and fuel over the past year or so, my guess is that the $28.00 lower price tag works out to one less exotic bloom per bouquet and one less passed appetizer…but your image of the poor, boutounnierre-less groomsman tickles my funny bone harder.

    That MSN article, just…wow. ‘You’re probably all pissed off at your friend for making it to the altar ahead of you, the skanky bitch but just remember she’ll probably regret it so you’re better off than her’ may not be a direct quote, but I think it sums up a lot of the attitude behind the author’s message.

    As for the pictures…just…no.

    Hmmm…if the wedding industry can lobby the government for same-sex marriage as hard as the religious right has been lobbying against it, it would be interesting to see which lobby turns out to have the greater clout with Washington.

  3. Anusha says:

    I found that MSN article to be unbelievably condescending and nasty; because that’s just all a single woman needs, isn’t it — yet another article implying that there’s something not quite right with being unmarried, a state that turns single women into emotional basket-cases as soon as they hear of someone else’s engagement.

    I mean, it’s natural to feel a twinge of jealousy/resentment/sadness when someone you know gets engaged, and I felt this way many a time when I was single, but it was never a friggin’ PMS-worthy crisis. And I’m a pretty sensitive person, to begin with.

    As for wedding costs, one of the reasons I liked the idea of having our wedding in Sri Lanka was the fact that it cost a *fraction* of what it would cost here, even with air travel costs. We were able to stay well within our budget by having our wedding there, instead of here in California.