“I’m marrying you, Carrie. Not 300 people,” said Carrie Bradshaw’s love, Mr. Big, as he tried to convince her to tone down their wedding in the Sex in the City movie.
When I heard Big say this, I felt validated. It was as if all my thoughts about weddings and marriages had been vocalized in a couple of short sentences in a blockbuster movie. I usually find myself in the minority of the female population, because I can’t understand the validity of a big wedding and the transformation of a bride into a "bridezilla."
My understanding of a wedding is that it is merely a symbolic ceremony of two people’s love for each other. It’s not an effort to prove this love. Instead, it’s a ceremony meant to be shared with those who, like your fiancé, also have a piece of your heart. No matter what the religion, or even if it’s not a religious ceremony at all, it’s still sentimental enough that it does not require fluff to pad the love of the person you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.
The idea that a wedding should more of a production than a sincere ceremony between two people has somehow spun out of control, with TV shows documenting the weddings of bridezillas, professionals in the wedding planning industry making millions per wedding, and the wedding party becoming an exclusive VIP group.
This essentially 21st century fantasy of a fairy tale wedding has hit a frivolous, over-dramatic peak that seems to have affected the whole country. This trend isn’t present in just one type of bride, or even one religion. It’s found in most all religions – Catholic, Jewish, Protestant – and even non-denominational weddings, proving that it’s not a question of morals or traditions but simply a function of a modern Western society that has planted unrealistic ideas in the minds of all brides.
From girls’ youngest and most impressionable ages, we've been taught that a wedding is our time to be a princess. We’re informed through movies, books, and culture in general that we’ll have our Prince Charming, a thousand-dollar venue, table linens, and a killer body for our killer dress.
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